Stoney Face Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 3.4 miles
Elevation gain: 1,350'
Start to finish: 3 hours 25 minutes
Participants: Mark Silas, Brian Schultz

Mark and I met in Cotopaxi. We drove in my truck up CR 12 and parked at a road junction southwest of Stoney Face Mountain. The road to the left leads to Jack Hall Mountain. We started from this junction at 8:30 AM under a heavy threat of showers/thunderstorms. We followed Alyson Kirk's track up the slopes northeast to the summit but it wasn't a straightforward route. Deadfall and lots of rocky areas made for slow progress as we zigzagged our way to the summit.

We reached the relatively flat and spacious summit (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) at 10:00 and covered the highpoints. So far so good with the weather as we enjoyed a twenty minute stay on top before departing at 10:20. On the way down we decided to veer west instead of dealing with all the obstacles of our ascent route. Despite adding extra mileage this worked out well as we were able to keep to mostly grassy areas. One fence had to be crossed. Just before meeting up with the road, we came across a fellow parked off the road in an open area, sitting in a chair outside his truck and enjoying the day. We reached my truck at 11:55, thankful to have stayed dry.

Dead Benchmark:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.5 miles
Elevation gain: 225'
Start to finish: 50 minutes
Participants: Mark Silas, Brian Schultz

Mark and I drove back down CR 12 after finishing Stoney Face Mountain and turned left (north) on CR 16, then another left turn on Waugh Mountain road to a road junction with a corral on the right side. The corral is shown on the USGS topo map. Waugh Mountain road is to the left, which is the approach Mark and I took last year to climb Waugh Mountain, but we took the road to the right. This is a very good road but it's slow with one short steep section. We drove it approximately three miles to its end, not a problem when dry but could be when wet.

Skies were threatening as we prepared our packs and suddenly, dark clouds started dumping graupel and heavy rain. We got back in the truck until it passed over. The certainty of storms after 12:00 noon is why I wanted to climb Stoney Face Mountain first. It was nice to have the sun come out again as we began at 1:45 PM. Hoping to catch a break before the next round of storms hit, we made a dash for the summit. The terrain was easy with no issues to slow us down.

After reaching the summit (photo 1, photo 2) and taking a few photos, we hurried back to the truck and reached it at 2:35. We stayed dry, catching a thankful window as the monsoon weather pattern was beginning its run for my next four days of peak bagging.