June 3, 2012, - White Chuck
6/3/12
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Beer can chucking white trash: certainly that must be how White Chuck got its name we figured driving up it's beer can littered back roads. Just to be sure I double checked Beckeys when I got home. Nope, wrong: White Chuck is a combination of Chinook and English meaning "glacial (white) water". Most certainly not the prime ingredient of Coors Light (no glaciers in the Rockies), the apparent beer of choice if my cursory ditch browsing anthropology holds any water... saw no Hamms, though we certainly could have used some sky blue waters. Or just some blue sky. please!
(nobody was listening.)
We didn't see anybody all day. And only one other car. Maybe they all go to church. Lay off the beer, pickups, and snowmobiles for a day (plenty of tracks). Not so for the logging operation. They ran their helicopters all Sunday long. At first it was a bit disconcerting, reminiscent as it is of SAR, but that chop chop chop just kept going going going all day long. Never did see it. Heli down there somewhere lost in the fog.
How did we get here?
Well it wasn't plan A which proved to be inaccessible -
Not ones to toss a 3am departure to the winds we quickly determined and moved on to plan B, which likewise dead-ended. So then, plan C. Perusing the Gazetteer we came across White Chuck, conjuring up this image from last year on Pugh:
(poking up through clouds not included)
Neither of us had been there, we didn't have a map (or blue skies), but it sounded good: plan C(huck). We found the road right outside of Darrington, drove up until we hit snow, hauled out the compass, and began a long SE traversing skin from Decline Creek. Eventually we got to the fun(ner) part and the occasional view -
Made it 200' shy of the summit with thick fog and swirling snow finally convincing me of its futility... Rob needed less convincing.
Getting ready to descend, White Chucks NW Peak to the right. We started the descent at the highest point of continuous snow, about 600' down from the summit.
Rob ripping
despite fog and all, fun day! And it was car to car... less favorable was the skinning to skiing ratio (maybe bring a six of Coors when the snowmobiles are out??)
obstacles/bizarre landscapes on the drive out -
road suddenly ended in a barricade/fireplace/beaver pond combo
target
oh yeah and wouldn't you know it the skies suddenly cleared up on the drive out... shot of WC from the road -
(nobody was listening.)
We didn't see anybody all day. And only one other car. Maybe they all go to church. Lay off the beer, pickups, and snowmobiles for a day (plenty of tracks). Not so for the logging operation. They ran their helicopters all Sunday long. At first it was a bit disconcerting, reminiscent as it is of SAR, but that chop chop chop just kept going going going all day long. Never did see it. Heli down there somewhere lost in the fog.
How did we get here?
Well it wasn't plan A which proved to be inaccessible -
Not ones to toss a 3am departure to the winds we quickly determined and moved on to plan B, which likewise dead-ended. So then, plan C. Perusing the Gazetteer we came across White Chuck, conjuring up this image from last year on Pugh:
(poking up through clouds not included)
Neither of us had been there, we didn't have a map (or blue skies), but it sounded good: plan C(huck). We found the road right outside of Darrington, drove up until we hit snow, hauled out the compass, and began a long SE traversing skin from Decline Creek. Eventually we got to the fun(ner) part and the occasional view -
Made it 200' shy of the summit with thick fog and swirling snow finally convincing me of its futility... Rob needed less convincing.
Getting ready to descend, White Chucks NW Peak to the right. We started the descent at the highest point of continuous snow, about 600' down from the summit.
Rob ripping
despite fog and all, fun day! And it was car to car... less favorable was the skinning to skiing ratio (maybe bring a six of Coors when the snowmobiles are out??)
obstacles/bizarre landscapes on the drive out -
road suddenly ended in a barricade/fireplace/beaver pond combo
target
oh yeah and wouldn't you know it the skies suddenly cleared up on the drive out... shot of WC from the road -
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