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Spionkop Ridge to Loaf Mountain | 2013-07-01
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I saved the best for the last of July long weekend. Perhaps this was one of the most joyful ridge walks I have done. It was well worth denying to stay in town and babysit my little princesses on Canada Day. Sorry sis.
Access:
Go west on Spread Eagle Rd from HWY 6. At the dead end, go north and follow the road. Unfortunately after the flood, one of bridges were damaged and they closed the road, so I had to park at the gate not at the trailhead. However this only added 1.2 km (one way) on bike and fording sin deep creek, so it was really nothing.
Approach:
Follow the road all the way to its end. Then follow a trail right after that. I know I would be a great guide book author. I dumped my bike somewhere closer to my descend gully.
The trickiest part of the trip was the confusing trails near a waterfall. I made the same mistake with my previous trip here too. Where I marked as "Find Right Trail", there are few trails. The trail to Spionkop is not easy to find, instead you will more likely to follow other trails. I can't really tell you how to find the right trail since I was confused and went around and around just like I did with my previous trip... However if you come to the waterfall, you are already on wrong trail. Trackback and try to find a trail which goes west not south.
To Spionkop Ridge:
From col follow the ridge. The difficulty start at last 150 m elevation to the summit of Spionkop Ridge. Scrambling wise it's just bunch of easy scrambling, however it is a sustained steep slope and bad rock quality make this part more than easy scrambling in my opinion. So I say this is moderate scrambling.
To Loaf Mountain:
From col follow the ridge. It was nothing but hiking to the summit.
Descent to Valley:
From what I could tell, the first or the second big gully from the Loaf Mountain were the safe bet. The first big gully (page 22) was just scree slop all the way down. I took second gully to descent which required more route-finding than the first gully. The second gully was surrounded by big cliffs except one spot, so you have to aim that spot or otherwise you will be in trouble. Please see page 27 for how I went down.
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