Ngie and I got up to Tumtum Peak today via the Kautz Creek trail. Parking area and road are snow free.
Trail up to the Kautz Creek crossing is snow free and in good shape. However at the creek crossing the trail is washed out as it descends down to the log bridge. The log bridge is fine, but for us to get down to it, we had to do some scramble moves thru a short section of vegetation and downed logs. In fact this was the worst of the bushwack for the whole trip! haha!(pic2 is the washed out trail)
At around 3000ft we left the trail. There was no snow here and for most of the way up there was no snow either. Travel was fairly easy, as it was mostly open forest, with hardly any underbrush. It was mostly straight up, and some of the sections were quite steep.
The summit area may have had 2-4" of consolidated snow, that's it. The summit of Tumtum is mostly forested, so no views. We dropped down to the west about 85 ft for lunch and a better view, but the best we got was from pic 1.
We put micro spikes on for the descent, which helped a lot. Snowshoes got a free ride today, as there was minimal to no snow!!
Fun trip!! 7.1 miles with 2507 ft gain. About 100ft of the gain was trying to find a good view up on the summit area, as we walked up and down the ridge top, searching for a view through the trees!!
Comments
slo go on Tumtum Peak, Kautz Creek Snowshoe
Hiked Kautz Creek to Indian Henry's 8/14/25 and just as we were finishing our hike Georg commented that a certain peak to our right was Tumtum Peak. Just jokingly Georg said Kidz and his crew have probably been there. No way I said; its nothing but trees and probably almost impossible to get around all the deadfall.
This morning I get an e-mail from Georg-and to add a little more fun-done in winter with the attached trip report. Someday we will find a peak not hiked by you and your hiking compatriots.
Posted by:
slo go on Aug 14, 2025 09:55 AM
kidz won't hike on Tumtum Peak, Kautz Creek Snowshoe
Haha slo go! Too many mountains, too little time is our motto!!
Posted by:
kidz won't hike on Aug 21, 2025 05:39 PM