rodman's GPS route of our hike to Mt. Howard... starting from the Merritt Lake trailhead (3080').
Arrowhead Mtn from the Merritt Lake trailhead.
At the trail junction (4840') of trails 1588 and 1583 we turned left and started up hill.
rdyhiker shows where the Mt. Mastiff turnoff sign (5420') used to be.
We continued on Trail 1583... where rodman and rdyhiker started giving back 400 feet of elevation on the way to Royal Creek.
rdyhiker gets ready to do some boulder work above Royal Creek.
One and a half miles beyond Royal Creek we arrived at Crescent Lake (5400').
ragman and rdyhiker (a.k.a. Kung Fu Hiker) chill at Crescent Lake.
rdyhiker and rodman heading west of the lake with their eyes on the snow field leading up to the ridge.
rdyhiker and rodman at the west end of the lake.
rodman and rdyhiker heading for the ridge.
rdyhiker and rodman at ~6000 feet... nearing the 6200 foot low point on the ridge.
rdyhiker and rodman are seriously close to the 6200 foot low point on the ridge.
The 6200 foot low point on the ridge did not give a clear route to the summit... so we decided to traverse back to the east in search of a good route.
Looking down on Crescent Lake as we traverse to the east.
Almost due north of Crescent Lake we found a gully that would get us above a cliff band.
From above the cliff band we are losing visibility on Crescent Lake.
rodman and rdyhiker are ~100 feet below the Mt. Howard summit.
rodman and rdyhiker on the Mt. Howard summit (7063').
rdyhiker's tribute to EastKing.
rodman checks out the Mt. Howard summit register.
rdyhiker on the way down... a couple hundred feet below the Mt. Howard summit.
rodman and rdyhiker getting ready to drop into the abyss.
We had a nice stretch of boot-skiing... rdyhiker uses the 'one flap up and one flap down' technique.
ragman and rdyhiker start down the gully towards Crescent Lake.
rdyhiker is heading back down to Crescent Lake.
rdyhiker and ragman fight through a short stretch of slide alder.
Almost back to Crescent Lake... with weather to the east looking a lot better.
Looking east from the west end of Crescent Lake.
A pano shot from the east end of Crescent Lake... only 5.5 miles of hiking is left to get back to the car... total trip was 15 miles, gaining ~5600 feet of elevation.