Continued perfect weather today meant that I was able to get a second mountain hike in this weekend! After previously hiking Tumbledown Dick Mountain in Peru from both the east and the west, today we returned to do both on the same hike. We parked on Pulsifer Road where it splits, and started by hiking up the trail in the saddle between The Pinnacle and Tumbledown Dick Mountain. Upon reaching the logging road, we descended to the west to reach the end of Hammond Hill Road. From here, we headed up to the Hedgehog Hill Viewpoint, taking a detour on the way to visit the mine below the viewpoint. Although Hedgehog Hill is actually a peak slightly further west, the viewpoint is signed as such and provides a nice view to the south for relatively minimal effort.
 |
| Mine near the Hedgehog Hill Viewpoint |
 |
| View up the valley between Tumbledown Dick Mountain and Black Mountain form the Hedgehog Hill Viewpoint |
 |
| View south from the Hedgehog Hill Viewpoint |
From the Hedgehog Hill Viewpoint, we connected back to the logging road that we had previously descended. Following that road up the mountain, we turned onto the eroded trail leading to the summit of Tumbledown Dick Mountain. We made good time up to the summit, and it was an absolutely perfect sunny spring day, so we ended up spending over two hours relaxing on the summit. We even saw a Forest Service helicopter fly below us in the valley between Tumbledown Dick and Black Mountains twice.
 |
| Start of the trail to the summit |
 |
| Memorial plaque at the summit |
 |
| Sampson at the summit |
 |
| View southeast from the summit |
 |
| View southwest towards Black & Speckled Mountains |
After the extended break, it was a relatively quick and easy descent back to where we parked on Pulsifer Road. Tumbledown Dick Mountain is always a fun hike, and it was especially nice because we had the entire mountain to ourselves today! It was also the first hike of the season that we didn't see any snow.
 |
| Forest Service helicopter |
 |
| Speckled Mountain |
 |
| The Presidential Range |
No comments:
Post a Comment