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Buckskin Mtn. - 13,865
Trailhead- Sweet Home Mine (Buckskin Creek)
Mileage/Elev. - Approx. 6 mi. 3000 ft.
I've spent an awful lot of time at sea level lately (i.e. drinking beer on the beach) and some recent TRs plus the beautiful weather forecast had me psyched to get back into the high country. I have some freinds near Alma that I have been neglecting to visit so I decided to go hang out at their place Thursday night and attempt Buckskin in the morning with Adam and his dog Samson.
Friday morning we slept in to awake to beautiful skies, drove ten minutes to the trailhead, and started out at about 9:00 am. After checking out the old mine buildings we headed towards the creek and saw a sign that someone had apparently placed there to remind me to enjoy the day off of work.
The crossing of Buckskin creek is pretty high right now and we scouted the banks for a while before we found a nice log bridge that crosses just below the old cable station on the far bank. At this point the going got a little rough as we bushwhacked and scrambled to and then up a loose gulley leading to the ridge of Loveland mtn. (13,692)
Upon finally reaching the ridge the route got a lot easier as steep sliding dirt and scree transitioned to wide grassy meadows and gentle slopes leading the way to the top of Loveland mtn. We reached the summit a little before 12:00 and took our sweet time taking in the views and warm sun.
After a nice rest we headed towards Buckskin enjoying some very mild scrambling along the ridge and scouting out routes down to Kite lake. After a short time we arrived at the top, had lunch and split a summit beer. Adam accidently spilled some of the beer but I told him it was all right because it was like pouring a little on the curb for the fallen homies (rip TalusMonkey).
(looking back at Loveland mtn.)
After relaxing on the summit I pulled on my gaiters and rain pants and we began plunge stepping down towards the Buckskin/Democrat saddle and a nice looking glissade line below.
After a thrilling ride into the basin we pulled off our rain (sliding) gear and had barely started of towards Kite lake when we stumbled upon... Bonus! Glissade #2! We pulled our sliding gear back on and delightedly zoomed down the gulley.
(looking back at summit, both glissades are visible, barely)
Shortly thereafter we arrived at Kite lake and began the tedious 2 mi. slog down Kite lake road (Which has been improved to 2wd all the way) to Adam's truck below and the end of a beautiful day in the mountains.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Cool trip report and nice photos. It looks enticing, since my wife and I attempted Loveland/Buckskin a number of years back, but failed due to my undeveloped routefinding skills at the time. With the Decalibron still officially ”closed,” a redux of Buckskin is looking attractive, an beta like this helps a lot. (Also nifty to see that the Kite Lake road has been improved, although, now, we have a good AWD vehicle...)
Glad to see Kauai had enough mojo to negate all the beer on the beach (lucky dog).
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