Lizard Head Pass to Gladstone Peak

July 28, 2020
I started up the Cross Mountain Trail at 5:30 this morning, anticipating a 12.5-mile day to get to the summit of Gladstone Peak and back. It would turn out to be 16.75 miles, according to my GPS.
The scenery was fantastic the whole way. As I climbed out of the trees of the lower woods, fog filled the valleys around me and the sun glinted off the surrounding peaks and puff clouds, making for a real show of color.Lizard Head Peak stands out from the beginning. The trail ends at 3.5 miles at the Lizard Head Pass Trail, which I followed another half mile to the pass, admiring the views of the Lizard Head the whole way. I came onto a herd of five deer, four of them big bucks, just before I reached the pass.
The black volcanic soil felt buoyant and easy to walk on; the whole trail was great to the pass and into the next basin.

Near the pass, Mount Wilson, then Gladstone Peak and Wilson Peak came into view.Cool Clouds:However, as I continued my descent, I had to take off my shoes to cross a creek, and beyond this the trail turned into a mess of willows, soaking wet from the previous night’s rain. At one point, the whole “trail” became a steady flow of water through the willows, so I bushwhacked my way uphill into upper Bilk Basin, popping out above timberline in a whole new world.

I crossed a neat elongated waterfall careening down between reddish-colored cliffs, and continued uphill on the other side on a climber’s trail, all the way up to the unnamed lake around 12,000 feet.Meanwhile, the low clouds and fog surrounding Lizard Head made me pause in awe.Eventually I had to stop staring at the eye-popping scenery, remind myself of today’s objective, and get on with it. I like scrambling and climbing in general, but I’m not a huge fan of loose rock, especially “large poised blocks” like the North Ridge of Gladstone Peak is known for.The ridge did turn out to be pretty scary. I was glad I was soloing it, because I wouldn’t want anyone else along to knock rocks down upon. It was absolutely a loose jumble of poised boulders, and very steep!I made it to the summit of Gladstone Peak at 12:30, enjoyed the scenery some more, and cautiously headed back down. I was much relieved to be back on the trail of upper Bilk Basin, retracing my steps around Lizard Head.

Dad and Greg meanwhile had started out later, hiked to Lizard Head Pass, and waited several hours for me there. Because of how tedious the ridge became, I could not hike any faster, but we were able to communicate at one point and I told them to go ahead. They got back to the truck 15 minutes before I did this evening. So, we never actually ended up hiking together, but we all saw some great stuff.