Bucket List(s) during COVID-19; Hike with Geo and Heather

My Bucket List during COVID-19

Lists help organize priorities. For some of you, having a list may give you a little extra boost in eagerness to do something just to get it checked off. If that’s you, you might have the same streak of competitiveness as I do!

Personally, during this whole COVID-19 era having a list of mountain peaks to work on has been quite nice. In 2020, there was one area in particular that I focused on called the Teanaway. This area is part of the Wenatchee Mountains and sits north of Cle Elum and south-west of Leavenworth. The Teanaway crest looks straight across to it’s more popular neighbor to the north, the Enchantments and Mt Stuart range.

Caught NEOWISE comet and the milkyway before the hike

There’s a “peakbaggers” list of 20 peaks in the Teanaway and on this trip I’m checking off my 11th on that list, Three Brothers 7307’. Also adding two other peaks on today, Navaho and Freedom, makes for a total of 17 peaks in the Teanaway in 4 months. Now, it’s not quite like I climbed 17 mountains up and down, these 17 peaks were done in just 7 different days. And that’s kind of the beauty of this area, being that it’s easy enough to stay on a ridgeline and get up on peak points without losing all your elevation gain in between.

Our first view of Three Brothers at dawn

And the list! I’m checking off the list... Feel like I’m accomplishing something great! Okay, not really, but that little boost in proactiveness the list gives is nice.

A pair of poorwill nightjar birds (one on top the other)

The Hike: Three Brothers, Navaho, and Freedom with Geo and Heather

Okay, let’s dig into the hike! But before we step a foot on the trail, I want to say that I’m not usually late! Really! I made the hike itinerary for the day and we were all set to meet at the trailhead at midnight. I was late… 45 minutes late! This was July 18th, 2020 which was prime time for NEOWISE comet spotting. I headed up to another view point nearby earlier in the evening and I guess time got a little away from me.

First light and view of Mt Rainier

When I did finally get there Geo and Heather were hanging out patiently waiting. They did know about my pre-hike comet catching plans, but since we didn’t have any mobile network to contact each other I was slightly anxious. But I think the anticipation worked to our favor as we were all more than ready to hit the trail like unleashed mustangs. You could hear the sound of our hoofs as we hit that trail. 

We had 7 miles to get to the first destination, Three Brothers, and we were going to do that by sunrise. To do that we had to first pass over the saddle between Navaho and Freedom, our two other peak targets.

Heather enjoying the view of the Stuart range at sunrise

It was really great to reunite with Geo after something like 10 years. And eventually, after hiking 4 hours in the dark, Heather and I got to properly meet at sunrise without our headlamps blinding each other.

Heather had some very nice words about the hike:

“Ross was so friendly and his knowledge and experience made hiking straight up the side of a mountain off trail in the dark seem like a normal thing to do.”

“His passion for the mountains is contagious and made our whole adventure just awesome.”

Ingalls peak center, Mt Stuart (the most prominent at 9400’), and Argonaut peak far right

We were able to settle on the summit just before sunrise, take some photos, and get cozy for breakfast.

Perfect time and place for breakfast

Some of the vegetation in the ravine

On the same route back we only had to add two miles in order to summit the two additional peaks. Easy enough! Except those two miles added 1150 feet of gain and drop, but no doubt it was completely worth it.

Looking back on Three Brothers as we ascend on Navaho

South side of the Stuart range and the Enchantments

Navaho peak is the popular of the three we bagged today. Hadn’t seen any other people until the top of Navaho, where we met a couple pairs of hikers. As we headed back to the saddle, I jumped ahead for a quick summit of Freedom and then met back up with my comrades to march out the rest of the 15.8 miles to the cars. We did see more peeps as we headed down, and then a fairly steady trickle of hiking parties coming in on the trail, most of whom were headed for Navaho peak or Navaho pass.

A hiker on Navaho peak admiring the late morning views

Heather’s full review of the hike

“I’ve been a moderate hiker for a long time but this one was my first hike on pretty much no sleep, meeting a stranger in the dark at midnight, and over 14 miles (I think??) of work. It was absolutely challenging for me but it also got me hooked and more confident that I can do those crazy sounding things. Catching the first glimpse of sunrise from the top of a mountain after hiking for hours in the dark is something that no pictures can capture and no one can adequately describe, you have to do it yourself. Ross was so friendly and his knowledge and experience made hiking straight up the side of a mountain off trail in the dark seem like a normal thing to do. His passion for the mountains is contagious and made our whole adventure just awesome. We definitely would have never attempted something like this without such a great guide!”

Some photos Geo took of me

I can’t close this out without talking about how I know Geo, or rather, Geoffrey Wong. Geoffrey was one of my best photo assistants back in 2010 when I was doing studio work in Seattle (such as this shoot with Seahawk’s Justin Forsett).

Thanks to facebook we’ve stayed in touch. He’s still into photography and took these shots of me.