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| Three Fingers Rock |
Dan Robbins, Tamara, Shadow and I decided Sunday was just too nice of a day for fall yard work. Dan had talked to our buddy, Steve, earlier about some neat rock formations in the Owyhee Mountains and since I didn't have any particular peak in mind, we decided to head over to Eastern Oregon. The goal was to grab a few obscure peaks in the Succor Creek area. After a couple hours drive we were greeted with the great view above of our first objective - Three Fingers Rock. There wasn't much beta on this formation, but what there was, said to hike up a two track for the first couple of miles. Since we were in the truck, I figured we ought to shorten the hike a bit. After a very bumpy ride up, we ended up a mere 1/4 mile and 300 vertical from our objective.
We quickly found the secret to the right (East?) finger and after a bit of scrambling gained the summit in 17 minutes! That has got to be a record.
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| Tamara working her way down from the first finger |
We then searched a bit looking for looking for a route up the middle finger. With nothing too obvious on the middle finger, we skirted around to the left finger. Here we spied a nice route up a series of small ledges. While Tamara graciously stayed back with a whiny Shadow, Dan and I shimmied our way up the route, popping out on a nice little ridge to finish the summit.
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| Dan making the final move up the West Finger |
On top of the west finger, we looked and looked for a route up the middle finger, but without a rope, nothing looked too promising. Oh well, I'll have to save this for when Dylan is home over Christmas break. The down climb had a couple of fun moves involving some stemming that got the heart racing a bit!
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| Looking back at the Middle Finger-giving us the finger! |
With all but the middle finger conquered, we hopped back in the truck and dropped down to our next objective - McIntyre Ridge.
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| Dan starting up McIntyre |
This was a great walk up with a grand total of 660 feet elevation gain. But, the sun was shining, there was little wind, I had my lovely wife (and Dan) with me and it was just great to be out. On this portion of the hike, Shadow was wondering why I didn't have my shotgun and she flushed a couple of coveys of chukar. I was wondering the same thing...
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| Tamara on McIntyre Ridge |
With McIntyre in the bag, we headed to our next objective - Round Mountain. This was going to be a bit more challenging - a couple of miles and 1000 feet of gain. Woo Hoo! But, by this point, Dan was liking the truck. Spying a "road" along a fence, he figured we could get much closer before we started to hike. Never one to turn down a challenge, I drove this "road" for a while until it turned into a couple of cow trails. Here we finally put our boots on the ground and started up the hill.
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| Tamara heading up Round Mountain with Three Finger Rock in the background |
After another 660 feet of elevation, we all stood at the summit of Round Mountain admiring the desert views.
We took one last look at Three Fingers Rock before we slowly made our way back to the truck and headed home. Great day!
