Sourdough Mountain — Monday, Sep. 28, 2020

Beautiful hike up to the lookout and then over to the high point of Sourdough Mountain. Lookout is locked up and it appears that it is closed for the season.

Trail gains a lot of elevation but does not seem too bad as there are a lot of switchbacks. There is a good supply of fresh water where the trail  crosses Sourdough Creek. I filled up here on the way up and on the way down also.

I started to take a faint trail straight up the creek to possibly get over to Stetattle Ridge , but after going up about 100 vertical feet and the trail disappearing in the creek, I decided to abort this mission as I was already getting tired.

Got up to the ridge and took a right to go to the lookout. Lookout was locked up and also had the shutters strapped. It looks like it is closed up for the season.

After this I headed back down to the saddle and took the faint trail up toward the ridge and the Sourdough Mountain proper peaks. Trail is not to bad. It is tarn central on the ridge walk. Lots of tarns with some sweet views.It is just beautiful up on the ridge from the lookout to the main peak. There is also a family of pretty tame deer. One of them wanted to be my hiking partner as it was following me around.

While on the ridge I talked to another group of hikers that had the same plan as me, possibly getting to Stetattle Ridge. They had tried to go up the creek as I had, gone up a little further, and ran into an aggressive bear. With this info I decided not to try and go down this way after hitting the high point of Sourdough Mountain. I hit both peaks and the NW one even has a summit register. I put my name in it and headed back the way I came. There are a few ups and downs on the ridge to and from the main trail.

Started at 8:15 am and finished at 3:30 pm  13 miles RT with 5900 ft elevation gain

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://caltopo.com/m/EKB8