Copper Point 7840'

Thanks to my brother Don's pictures of his trip up Copper Point, 7840', on September 19, I chose to follow on September 30. This fun, scenic peak doesn't get climbed much, I'd guess because it's far from population centers, is relatively unknown, and is not officially named. Northwest Peakbaggers Asylum calls it Copper Benchmark, 7840' (1160'P), on the McAlester Mountain quad. Cascade Alpine Guide, volume 3 calls it Copper Point. Fay Pullen placed the register on 8/16/01. Her route up the North Ridge is a good alternative for those wanting more challenge than the easy route up from Copper Pass. No one else signed in, in 2001, two parties in '02, two parties in '03, four parties in '04, seven parties in '05, two parties in '06, no one in '07, and now there's four solo guys that signed in this year. Many of the parties were large Outward Bound groups.
 
The tenth picture down at this post, http://www.nwhikers.net/[…]/viewtopic.php?t=7961332&start=0 has a great picture of Copper Point and Copper Pass.

If you drive farther east on the North Cascades Highway to milepost 60 (I think it was), there is a short-cut trail, unsigned, I used that's a lot better and quicker than the Bridge Creek trailhead. Just continue a bit farther uphill and east than Bridge Creek. Pass by the large turn out on a curve and continue to the milepost sign just past a guardrail. There's just enough room to park on the side of the road here. It avoids the initial descent into, and then back out of, the valley. The two trails meet up later on. Left Edmonds at 5 a.m. and arrived around 8 a.m. With the warm temperatures, it was hard to believe it was the last day of September. 2 hours, 40 minutes up, an hour on top, 2 hours, 10 minutes down.