UN 13460, UN 13300, & UN 12601 by Brian Schultz Tuesday August 25, 2015

Roundtrip mileage: 9.15 miles from South Fork Lake Creek road

Elevation gain: 3,725'

Start to finish: 7 hours 40 minutes

It was nice to get back into this area after climbing Sayres Benchmark six years ago. I parked off the road 0.70 miles from the trailhead for Sayres Benchmark and at 6:50 AM began walking the road to the trailhead. This would be a loop route and I could've just started from the trailhead but wasn't sure where or how far down the road my descent from UN 12601 would put me. Bushwhacking down UN 12601, instead of reversing the peaks, would save significant elevation regain and was the primary reason for doing the loop. But the not so great weather forecast was a factor too and the bushwhack would allow me to get down lower faster if a storm rolled in.

I began at 7:15 from the trailhead and followed the old road that switchbacks toward the 13460/Sayres saddle. I noticed new growth sprouting up on the road since I was last on it in 2009. The road is still easy to follow but years from now it may be harder.

The road fades out on the ridge to 13460's false summit. This false summit looks intimidating at first glance but it goes well and after some talus scrambling to get around the false summit, the terrain is easier and I arrived on the actual summit at 10:15.

This summit (photo 1, photo 2) doesn't see as many climbers as the surrounding peaks do. The register was placed in 2004 and only has three pages filled in. After a twenty minute break I headed over to unranked 13300. It has a false summit that also looks intimidating but it's easy to climb, as is the main summit. I topped out at 11:10 and studied the route over to UN 12601.

The 1,000 feet of elevation drop to the 13300/12601 saddle turned out to be a steep and slow descent over talus of all sizes. The nearby grassy slopes could be a good descent option so long as one doesn't traverse below the 13300/12601 saddle. It took a full hour to reach 12601's summit- I really picked up the pace when thunder started rumbling a few minutes before noon. I was probably ten minutes from the summit at that point and when I reached the top, I immediately headed back down to the saddle

The dark clouds moved out and everything appeared to be going well on the descent of 12601's slopes. I found great alleys through the cliffs but it all changed when I entered the trees. The amount of deadfall that I had to climb over and around was relentless, matching some of the worst I've done in Minnesota's Boundary Waters. It was time consuming and energy draining, and to top it off, I had to fight through tall willows and aspen saplings on the lower slopes. I wondered if I'd ever get out but at long last I cleared the trees and willows and came upon the creek.

I was able to hop across rocks without taking off my boots and walked up the other side, which just happened to be the edge of a camp site. That was a good feeling because the road was now in front of me and my GPS said my truck was only a half mile up the road. I said hello to a runner on the road before reaching my truck at 2:30.