The Newman-Sabate Expedition (to Electric Peak)

This weekend I climbed Electric Peak with my roommate Buddy Sabate.  Buddy is in the corps of cadets at Virginia Tech, one of the two senior milatary colleges within a public state university (Can you guess what the other one is?).  After eating Wednesday dinner in the Mammoth EDR (employee dining room), we hiked through a pretty valley (with an owl) to our campsite.  Along the way we dropped our packs and took a small side trip to Cache Lake, which offered a great view of the mountain.

When we got to the camping area, we came across something we did not expect:  The 15-or-20-foot-wide Gardner River.  With no bridge across the trail, we began to look for fallen logs.  A couple hundred yards upstream we found nothing across the river, but a promising-looking log fifty feet from the water.  We carried it over, stood it up like the flag at Iwo Jima, and let it fall across the river.  Unfortunately, the log that we could carry was a log that could not carry us; it was sagging enough that we would not be able to walk across it without the water coming over the tops of our boots.  Meanwhile, the group staying at the adjacent campsite was on the opposite shore just watching us like we were the evening’s entertainment.  We ended up just taking off our boots and fording the river at the trail.  The water was swift, knee-deep, and icy, making each of our first river fords an overall unpleasant experience (but at least an interesting one).  We later found a couple of satisfactory logs laid across the river near our downstream campsite; we added a few more and stayed dry during our other three crossings.

After a tasty sausage and rice dinner (I was unable to finish my half of the seven cups of rice) we retired, woke up the next morning, and climbed the mountain.  We ascended via the southern (left) ridge in two and a half hours – pretty good time.  The trail distance from base to summit was only about four miles, but we gained over 3000 feet, along with a wonderful view.  (Near the top, we saw a black shoe that someone had dropped.  I was going to pick it up if no one else did, but an off-duty ranger ended up getting it.)  After relaxing on the highest point in the Gallatin Mountain Range, we descended, broke camp, and went home.

When I got back and told my friend Jonathon that I climbed the mountain he asked, “Did you find a black shoe?”  I found him the phone number for her ranger station and am yet to hear where things have gone from there.