Jack's,Jill's & Humpty's Hills & Hickory Hill Off-Trail hike on 27-Ma

It was a day of unusual occurrences in fine weather. The gravel section of the Well Road trail was fairly free of snow. The dirt section, as we neared the first hill was somewhat muddy. The route up Jack's Hill was quite open on grass which made for an enjoyable climb after the mud on the road.

The group agreed to a traverse to Jill's Hill rather than going back down the trail we had come up.

As we bottomed out, the climb to what we thought was Jill's Hill looked very steep and ominous.

We proceeded up

and once we had regrouped at the top Bill pointed out on his GPS phone app we were actually on top of Mesa Square Butte

. Talk about explaining why this location looked so familiar with the picnic table and fire pit and the climb was so steep. Somehow the coordinator had gotten off-track going too far west resulting in this snafu. He should have known better as there was a sign at the bottom of the hill indicating that the Mesa Back Door trail from Mesa Square Butte was further to the east. Jill's peak was further east of this trail, but alas the coordinator didn't possibly believe/channel this information. Oh well! At least it was a new summit for some of the group.

This seemed like a good spot for a 1st lunch/break which we did for about 20 minutes taking in the views. The solution to resolve our problem now was to take the Mesa Back Door trail from the summit down to the Well Road trail where the start of the trail to Humpty's Hill was located. At the top of the Mesa Back Door trail there was quite a lot of blow down which made progress slow in places. Fortunately someone had navigated this section and we were able to follow their footprints which speeded things up. The descent of the lower section of this trail proved easier than one would have thought. There was some snow but generally very little ice which would have made it much more tricky. We arrived at the base of this trail where it branches north and south, but no Well Road trail yet. The question was which branch would get us closest to the trailhead for Humpty's Hill. In the end after referring to Yolande's GPS telephone app we decided to go cross-country as the distance was relatively short to the Well Road trail. At the arrival to the Well Road trail, we found the trail head for Humpty's Hill without too much difficulty and proceeded upwards. As we gained elevation, we encountered more blow downs along this trail resulting in extended off-trail excursions. Eventually, we arrived at the top in the trees with limited views. We stopped for a 2nd lunch for most and first lunch for some. As a trail continued over the hill towards Hickory Hill we decided to follow this. A lot of blow down on this trail forced us off of this trail. It seemed most of the blow down was closest to the ridge edge top and was much less once off of this area. So we descended more directly west to the Well Road trail. Once off the trail, the blow down eased and there was limited deadfall making the going down fairly straight forward..

We crossed the trail for Hickory Hill without fully realizing it, as there was quite a bit of blow down as we neared the Well Road trail. This could have been due to the open area near and at the Well Road trail.Upon joining the Old Well Road we checked on Yolande's GPS app to see where the trail was in relation to our location on the Well Road trail. Turns out we were more or less at the Hickory trailhead after searching around and going past the blow down we were able identify an obvious trail heading up to the hill. As we proceeded up we encountered the worst bow down area yet forcing most of us to scramble over multiple trees laying across each other. After getting past this area the blow down eased somewhat as we came to an area which seemed to be the top. However, the trail continued on so we followed discovering there was in fact a higher open area with quite good views

.

We took a break once again

and group shot here

before proceeding down on a trail we thought would take us to the Well Road trail. It did not as we began to realize as we dropped lower in elevation. Once again Yolande's GPS app was used to determine a possible route back to the Well Road trail. This involved going cross country through low bushes and a forest to get to the trail.Two separate groups took slightly different routes to get to the trail where they once again joined up. From this point it was what seemed like a long rather uninteresting hike back to the parking lot on a trail covered in a ankle height covering of snow. Most of us had had a fairly full day already, so any thought of ascending Jill's Hill was not in the cards as we passed it..The snow on the trail proved to be better than the mud we were to encounter for about 750 meters as we came alongside of Jack's Hill. It definitely made the boots feel heavier until it was removed by snow or water after this stretch. The gravel on the last section made for better traction as we arrived at the cars around 5:00pm.

An interesting day which proved the usefulness of GPS phone apps over maps at times particularly in the foothills where landmarks are not as apparent or always visible. Thanks to Yolande and Bill for volunteering the use of this technology when it was helpful to expedite route finding and thereby saving time. Sometimes trips that would appear to be straight forward are not always due to physical issues such as blow down and multiple trails, some of which are not documented.

Somemore editing to come.

Thanks to participants Yolande,Susan,Alda,Bill,Alicja,Janice,Janet,James,Yoko,Jane,John,Jo and Kate for joining me on this exploratory trip. There seemed to be lots of socializing and conversation happening so I hope people were not too bothered by the fact we had to spend some time checking locations and finding trails/trail heads.

Thanks to Susan, Bill and Yoko for providing photos.

Bob C/S