Cutting My Teeth on Sawtooth Mountain

Center: Sawtooth Mountain. Just off-center to the left: Lynx Peak, a part of Sawtooth. 

After many years of backcountry travel, I still make bonehead mistakes. Is it that I STILL haven’t had enough experience? I’m still a relative novice? Or is it something else?

On a mid-June trip to Sawtooth Mountain I made all sorts of errors: navigation, map reading, gear handling. Nothing serious, but still. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve got an inner Homer Simpson.

I’ve long been curious about doing a trip into the Sawtooth Mountains and finally found an unmarked, unsigned ATV trail off the Elliott Highway that accesses a series of ridges into the mountains. The first half-mile of trail is swampy, but then it’s ridge hiking all the way. (See note at bottom of blog post about location of the trailhead.)

I took advantage of a recent good weather/no smoke weekend to attempt hiking up Sawtooth Mountain, namesake for the range. I planned to do it in two days with some other exploring thrown in. However, I’d only glanced at mileages and elevation gains. Corrine, a bit wiser, suggested that I take three days. I agreed, but first I had to tackle some things on my to-do list Friday morning. 

I arrived at the trailhead early Friday afternoon and tried waiting out a rain shower but was too antsy. I sent Corrine an inReach message, then quickly put on mosquito repellant and my rain jacket, shouldered my pack, and started. 

Swamp, rain, and bugs. What a great way to start a backpack! 

By the time I topped the ridge, about 2.5 miles later, the rain had stopped, and I was sweating. I peeled off my rain jacket and applied repellant to spots I’d missed. You’d think I’d learn to be more careful with that. A breeze soon picked up, keeping the bugs mostly at bay. (Most of the ridge hiking had nice breezes!)

Lots of lupine and other wildflowers in June!

Navigating was pretty simple. ATV trails run along the ridges, and the clear weather made for easy map-to-land comparisons. I made one wrong turn, mindlessly following the main ATV trail onto the wrong ridge, but corrected myself fairly quickly. Quick enough that I patted myself on the back.  

The ATV trails in the ridge were obvious at first but barely visible later.

I had to make one water resupply decision – stay on the ridge and hope for melt pools or shortcut from one ridge to another, dropping down into a brushy drainage. I decided on the shortcut.

I would love to tell you that I got all my water stuff ready BEFORE I left the breezy ridge and dropped to the buggy, brushy drainage, but no. I descended, dropped my pack at the edge of the brush, and gathered water while swatting away hordes of bugs. 

I had problems with my first water filter and switched to my backup, a SteriPen, which worked great (after I – swat, swat – re-read the instructions). And I spilled only a bit of water while stirring and swatting. Later, I realized I could have filtered the last liter on the breezy ridge instead of with the bugs. Doh!

Resupplied, I bushwhacked through the drainage and hiked back to the ridge. 

Bushwhacking through buggy creek bottoms. Fun! (Fortunately, this was very short.)

Bugs were bad down low, and up high when the breeze died. 

The trek to my camping spot, a ridge overlooking the valley at the base of Sawtooth Mountain, took a lot longer than I figured. It’s about 15 miles with more than 3,000 feet of elevation gain. My original plan had been to hike in, set up camp, and then climb Sawtooth. Then go exploring toward Wolverine Mountain on the last day! Everything looks so easy on a map. It’s just a few inches! Doh!

Tent site with a Sawtooth Mountain view. 

The next morning, I hiked down to the valley, gathered water a little more intelligently, and set off toward Sawtooth. There’s an old mine near the top of the mountain and from afar I had seen an old mining trail leading up the main mountain drainage. I figured I would just follow that. It would be steep but otherwise straightforward and easy.

I found a trail that led along the valley past the mountain drainage, but I couldn’t see the one leading up the mountain. Did it start in a different place? I shrugged and started bushwhacking. Fortunately, the northern-facing side of the drainage had a couple of long snowfields, which minimized bushwhacking. 

Pussy willows above one of the snowfield highways that saved me from more bushwhacking.

I finally attained the top of the ridge between two prominent peaks. 

“Now, which one is Sawtooth?” I wondered. 

Is this the peak of Sawtooth Mountain?

Or is this?

Neither! I hadn’t looked at the map carefully. The top of Sawtooth Mountain was still further along the ridge. Doh! 

Ah well, I had wanted to see the old mine, which was on the way. I headed off. 

Sawtooth Mountain ridge line. Old mine on right edge of photo.
See that rounded, boring dome just off-center? Remember that.

The mine site, strewn with old mining equipment, has a partially collapsed cabin and an old shaft now full of water. I took a few photos and kept moving. I was getting hungry and wanted to eat lunch atop the mountain. Soon, I was hiking over a large, slightly rounded, boring dome.  

Partially collapsed cabin at the mine site. 

Old mining detritus.

More mining detritus. The collapsed tripod was over the water-filled mining shaft.

Then I saw it: the peak of Sawtooth Mountain, a nice jagged piece of rock! According to the map, it had a survey marker named Tooth. And it looked like a sawtooth. A worthy peak to mark a mountain. But – uffdah! – I’d have to hike down off this boring dome and climb Tooth. I was hungry! Still, that rocky peak had plenty of grassy areas to climb up. I could do it. I took a deep breath and trudged on. Lunch could wait. 

There it is! The peak that surely has the survey marker named "Tooth."

A half-hour or so later I ascended the peak! I looked for the marker but couldn’t find it. Then I saw behind me an even higher point on this peak. Doh! I hiked down and over and then – finally! – I climbed to the high point. I again looked for the marker but couldn’t find it. Tired and hungry, I gave up. I had lunch and enjoyed the sun, breeze, and views. (Later, I looked more carefully at the map. The slightly rounded, boring dome is the one that actually has the Tooth survey marker. Doh!) 

From atop the peak-that-should-have-been-Tooth, I scanned with my binocs. I looked for participants in AlaskAcross, a semi-organized wilderness race, routed across the Sawtooths that weekend, but I didn’t see anyone.

Lunch from atop the peak-that-should-have-been-Tooth. Lynx Peak is in the background. 

Sated and satisfied that I had reach my goal, I headed back. At the top of the drainage I looked at Lynx Peak, a rugged outcrop of Sawtooth Mountain. Earlier, I had considered hiking to it on the way back, but it would have required a bit more climbing. No way. I was tired! I decided to take that mining trail down.

That dark green, brushy strip marks the old mining trail that climbs Sawtooth. 

Doh! That trail is years old and collects water. It’s wet and way overgrown, almost no use for hiking. Instead, I hiked to one side. I should have known better. Still, with some good navigation choices, I was able to avoid most heavy-duty bushwhacking and again found the valley trail. So, maybe I do know what I’m doing! 

More wildflowers! Arctic poppies, I believe.

Hiking across the valley, I got chased by a rain shower, which caught me just as I got to the stream at the base of the ridge. It was only 4 p.m., but I finally started getting smart. Rather than gather water and use some for dinner at my camping site, I had dinner while waiting out the rain. Then I filled my water containers, fully prepared for the dry ridge hike the next day. Ha! Had I quieted my inner Homer?! I got back to my tent feeling rejuvenated. I decided to move camp a few miles along the ridge to make Sunday a shorter day. 

I hiked just over 2 miles and found a campsite. Of course, the breeze died, and the skeeters came out in hordes. I found a just-barely-wide-enough flat spot and pitched my tent as quickly as I could. I had a quick snack and went to bed. First, though, I had to kill the hundred or so mosquitoes that came inside with me. Finally, I could lay back and relax. But I had pitched the tent cock-eyed to the flat spot. Doh! Too bad. I wasn’t getting out again. 

My second night campsite was blessed with a rainbow! 

My second night campsite was also blessed with many of my enthusiastic fans! 

Around 3 a.m. I woke and thought I heard voices. I waited but heard nothing more. I figured it was probably some AlaskAcross participants and thought it would be fun to say hi. Then I looked at the mass of skeeters buzzing under my rain fly. 

No, I’m sure I just imagined those voices.

Of course, I few minutes later I had to pee. Grumble, grumble. I got up and faced the hordes. After taking care of business, I scampered along the ridge until I could see a couple of people farther along. Yep, must’ve been AlaskAcrossers. I turned and beelined back toward the tent for another round of skeeter-killing and sleeping off-kilter. 

A buggy, breeze-less morning made for a quick breakfast and tent pack-up. Fortunately, a breeze picked up as I hiked. I’d lose it occasionally, but for the most part I had a nice breeze all the way back. For my last water stop, I avoided a bushwhack and filtered the water atop the ridge in the breeze. Goodbye Homer! 

I love this abrupt part of the trail that drops off the ridge toward the Elliott.

While I was a bit disappointed in myself for making some bonehead mistakes, I was glad I had finished the main thing I had set out to do – climb Sawtooth Mountain. 

When I got home and talked to Corrine about the several inReach messages I had sent, she looked at me with a furrowed brow. She had gotten some but not others. I was rusty in using the inReach, so I had tried different ways to send messages. Clearly, some hadn’t worked. Oh well. 

The next day I called my mom to wish her a belated happy birthday. I had been climbing Sawtooth that day, so I couldn’t contact her. 

“Well, I got the messages from your hike,” she said. 

Doh!  

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After my trip I learned the trailhead, just off Mile 108, and portions of the route I took are on land owned by Doyon, Limited, a Native corporation. The land is private property and use of it, including crossing it, requires written permission from Doyon: https://www.doyon.com/.  To be honest, I’m not sure how much Doyon cares about casual use like hiking and backpacking, but that’s the official line. I checked. 

There is another trail with a legal easement that starts just after Mile 99 of the Elliott Highway. You can get to Sawtooth Mountain using that trail. In fact, I was on a portion of it as I approached and left the mountain. However, a lot of that trail is down low, so I imagine it can be swampy. (I couldn't find anything about this trail on the Internet, but I'm pretty sure it's popular during hunting season.)

The trail that climbs Sawtooth to the old mine is also a legal easement. If you really want to get into the weeds researching this stuff, go to: https://sdms.ak.blm.gov/sdms. Expect to spend a lot of time there. That's one of the reasons I'm posting in mid-July about a mid-June trip!