McConnell Bluffs Traverse
There are 60 km of hiking trails in the Stake Lake network. A few of them go over or around McConnell Hill. The hill rises 600 feet above McConnell Lake, with steep cliffs on the west and north sides. Below the cliffs are talus slopes of broken rock, a rugged terrain, not suitable for hiking. Yet, when the snows cover the slopes, we can snowshoe on the 2.1 km Basalt Bluffs Trail compacted snow under the west side of the bluffs. This is an interesting snowshoe trail in winter but in summer the area under and over the bluffs is rarely visited. On a recent summer day, i decided to traverse the basalt bluffs from end to end, a 2 km difficult scramble.
From the Rustler Trail the start of the traverse crossed the ragged boulder slopes bearing northeast.
Other than lichen on the rocks, there is little vegetation growing on the boulder slope, except for a few Canada junipers.
The basalt bluffs above show the angular fracturing, weathered over the millennia after the lava flow. The talus slopes below are a fell field, rocks broken from the cliffs above.
Progress along the fell fields is slow and we have to be careful hiking on unstable rocks.
At one point about 400m along is a break in the bluffs where a faint trail climbs to the summit. This was formerly the ridge ascent to the Bushwhacker Trail. Overlander Ski Club has rerouted the route to a less steep trail about 500 away on the southwest side of the hill.
Beyond the now-unofficial Ridge Trail are more basalt bluffs and rugged talus slopes. As I progressed around to the north side of the hill, there were more fallen trees too so any route choices were limited by windfall below or steep lopes above. There is no easy route through this terrain.
About halfway along the north slopes we can angle down to the edge of the forest or angle up to the top of the cliffs. The lower route looked daunting with too many fallen trees so I worked my way to the top of the bluffs. Atop the cliffs we can get some views of McConnell Lake 500m away.
There are some high meadows and open ridges along the north side of McConnell Hill. A few trees are rooted right at the drop-off, some leaning out over the talus slopes below.
At the eastern end of the hill, the bluffs are lower, the slopes are more gradual, and thick north-slope forests cover the hill. There is even more windfall in this area so it was a slow and difficult bushwhack out to the Sidewinder Trail (not a recommended route). There is a better route, but it involves scrambling on a series of ledges to the top. A short side trail angles off the Bushwhacker Trail and heads to the talus slopes. That side trail was flagged when I went by it on the way down Sidewinder. There was also flagging tape at the top showing the way down, but his route is only for those experienced with scrambling. That will be the starting for a future circuit of McConnell Hill at the top of the bluffs, not using the Bushwacker Trail. We will also be snowshoeing around the top of the hill in the upcoming winter.
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