I’ve been wanting to get up to Cameron Cone for a while now. After reading many trip reports (here, here, here), I knew for sure that the trail would be somewhat difficult to find (even though I was armed with the GPS coordinates of the landmarks along the way — see the above mentioned trip reports for those).
I decided to head up after class on Friday and see how far I could make it. I’d hit the trailhead around noon and I figured I might be able to summit and quickly run down before total nightfall. I was definitely wrong.
I did get on the trail around noon (left the car at 12:10pm). I easily found the point to cross the Cog tracks marked by the ‘no trespassing’ sign. Though I later learned that crossing the tracks about 20 yards farther east enables you to join the trail directly rather than scrambling up the slope to find it.
The trail I started on (though not the correct trail as I would later discover).
I followed the trail, covered in completely undisturbed snow, for a while before losing it completely and finding myself in a boulder field. After scrambling around for about 10 minutes I figured I had to be headed in the wrong direction so I backtracked to the trail. Somehow, while backtracking, I discovered the real trail (no idea what trail I was on before). The right trail was covered in footprints which were a welcome sight. Just after the gully crossing (on car-size granite boulders) the trail felt like it went straight up. I found myself stopping to rest every 60 seconds or so.
Once it leveled off, I found myself on Magog Ridge (1:10pm). I explored the ridge for a bit taking pictures and trying to find any sign of a trail. Finding nothing, I decided to make my own tracks (the entire area was covered in six inches of snow). I headed toward Gog Rock knowing that was the next destination along the route.
Near Magog Ridge
I hadn’t seen another sole on the trail at this point and didn’t see another person all day. Normally I don’t mind some solitude in the mountains but I was a tiny bit nervous considering I hadn’t been in this specific area before and there was no clearly marked trail. While I don’t prefer heavily trafficked trails, they do provide a certain level of security knowing that, if disaster strikes, you’ll at least be found quickly.
I reached the base of Gog Rock (2:04pm) after wandering around and backtracking a few times thinking I wasn’t heading in the right direction. I couldn’t find any trail around the rock though it appeared that circumventing the west side would be impossible. I found some coyote tracks heading in the south west direction and decided to follow them. They eventually lead me to the south side of Gog Rock and the relatively open flat area with a clear view of Cameron Cone.
Gog Rock
I knew that I was only halfway through the entire summit route at this point and the wind had started picking up (storms were scheduled that night). As frustrating as it was, I knew it wasn’t wise to push on towards the summit given the time of day. Instead I explored the Gog Rock area for a while, ate some food, and took some pics before heading back the way I came.
I’ll have to summit the Cone when I have more time.
