So some friends and I have been planning on hiking the Tolkien mountain group out passed Pemby for a while, but we thought we should start doing some overnight trips to warm up for a 3-4day trip. After a couple drunken nights of talking about it, we decided to hike Needle peak. We left on Friday after work and got to the parking lot at around 1130. We cracked some beers and played some beerpong before going to bed.
We got up in the morning and left around 9. This was way too late because it was already too damn hot out. The first hour or two of the hike was steep switchbacks that had a few of us wondering what the hell we got ourselves into, but kept going. The first proper break allowed us to recharge and was at the end of the steepest part.
It continued getting hotter and hotter, and when we saw snow for the first time, it acted as a nice refresher to go lay on and cool down. We took our next break up on the ridge where we had some already stellar views.
We continued on taking in the beauty that we are lucky enough to have so close to home. We finally got to the lake to set up camp. At this point it was midday, with the temperatures in the 30's and not much wind. Not much at all.
Add a bike and you've got perfection right here, I kept thinking about how kickass it would be to rip a bike along parts of the trail up there.
All the tents were eventually moved to this one spot as winds picked up quite a bit. After a good rest, we decided to go to the peak.
Taking in the views at the edge without the packs is much more relaxing.
Quite a ways down.
Getting closer
Never got tired of the view
Things started to get steeper
and steeper… Im not the best with heights, not going to lie, I was a bit terrified at points, but that just makes it all the better.
The view from the peak
A stoked group shot
Getting a better look over the edge
Climbing down was a bit worse than going up
Awoke to see the a few friends at the top of the bowl
Didn't see much wildlife other than these ptarmigans, but I managed to snap a few of a family on some rocks. We saw a harrier I believe, but it didn't hang around for long.
This water was freezing, but was damn refreshing. When we first arrived, we were caught off guard by 5 guys who stripped down completely naked and went swimming and then decided to sit to around for quite a while as we were setting up. After seeing a quite attractive woman while hiking up, we were let down by the lack of boobs and the excess of naked men.
Selfy at the top of the bowl, I'm thinking i need to learn something cool like handstands for when I do these so I dont just stand there awkwardly.
All in all was an excellent weekend. Probably the best one of summer as lately I've haven't had many days off with working 2 jobs. I'm trying to put together 2 or 3 big panoramas that I will throw up later on. I move back to the island in around 2 weeks, but I will hopefully return by the end of September so that we can climb Blacktusk. You guys can expect another large photo dump if you liked this. I've also got a 2 month Eastern European trip I need to get around to sharing on here as well.
Cheers:beer:
Hope you guys enjoyed.
Brandon
