Saddleback + Jay - June 18

[bushwacker]

took a little longer than usual. very wet. started the bushwack up Saddleback 3/4 mile down the road from the usual starting point.
The woods were fairly open, not as open as they are further south.
rocky sections toward top were wet and slick. the valley between saddleback and jay was open with many valleys and bumps to go around. easy to get pushed the wrong way, especially when you can't see too much. thick cloud cover all day. Top of Jay easy to find with huge cairn. very nice ridge walk back down, and easy path to follow down to road.
both mts. have great views, not on this day, so pick a nice sunny day so you enjoy the views.

[Mavs00]

Brian did a good job summing up this hike. I'll just add a couple thoughts.

This was another adkhighpeaks.com hike that featured 7 fourm members. Participants included myself, Everest NBD, Bushwhacker, Peakbagr, Dick, Rik & Lumberzac. Charlene (Rik's wife) & Eric (peak_bagr's son) rounded out the group.

As Bushwhacker stated we were forced (road closings) to start farther west than we intended. It worked out well, as we received (very belated :roll:) permission from the landowner to cross his private land. Please remember, until you reach the height of land on Jay Mountain Road, you're on Private Property.

Things were pretty uneventful from there. Nice open (mostly) whack all the way to the summit of Saddleback. In between, we were able to make our way, but there were a few spots the we got a little turned about. I took alot of grief from the group for my navigation, however, once I ploted it out graphically, we ended up going pretty directly between the two summits. Navigation, due to the low clouds, was done per IFR (Instrument Flight Rules, in airplane vernacular) as opposed to Visual Flight Rules (or dead reckoning). The GPS's were key and kept us "going true" the whole way.

We had some good cliff's to work around, but we easily managed them all. Great long, open ridge walk along Jay's summit. All around, a great day.

This was my first Hike with both Dick and Zach and they both kept my perfect streak of "meeting and hiking with REALLY GREAT folks I've met through these's BB" alive. Two new friends that I look forward to hiking with again. As always, it was an immense pleasure hiking with Rik, Alan Charlene, Brain & Eric again. Thanks again.

[lumberzac]

Great hiking and great company. The weather could have been better, but they all can’t be blue bird days. I’ll definitely have to do these two peaks again when the skies are clear and the views are open. I hope to get the chance to hike with everyone again in the future.

[Rik]

Great hike. Nice to meet Zac and Eric and nice to hike with Dick for the first time.
Mavs, the navigation was great. Please ignore the "peanut gallery". If it was clear and dry the comments would have been more like 'what a great route' rather than 'i'm wet, bleeding, and kinda cold'. Besides, the view of the inside of that cloud was amazing. :bang:

[Dick]

The company, route, woods and peaks were all good, in spite of the viz.
I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Great to finally get out with Zach and Dick and hope to repeat that again as well.
It was a terrific group of people.

And yes, we gave Tim some heat, but as folks can see from the jpeg, his route was pretty good.

See you all soon

Alan

A great hike! Thanks to all for making it so enjoyable. I enjoyed meeting all of you. Hang the summit views - those woods were beautiful!
I'm up for more!

Dick

[peak_bgr]

Did we get a couple more with the 100 highest bug?? :D

[Hikerdad]

Sorry I missed this one...darned family commits get in the way.......sounds like great hike....