Schreiner Peak

After years of looking at it and one previous attempt, I finally made it out there last Friday. My long-time backpacking buddy and I left Trail #555 at the Lake Lenore Jct and headed east along the ridge in search of the supposedly 'unmaintained' trail to Schreiner. My previous recon suggested that an actual trail no longer exists.

Found some flagging but it was fairly sporatic and there were no blazes to be found. The ridge ends at a rugged, cliffy viewpoint of Knob Rock and Schreiner- which appear to be quite aways off and subject to some tough elevation loss/gain. About the time we were ready to call it quits we located some flagging that hinted of a way down and around the cliffy section. We headed down and traversed NE towards Knob. The anemic flagging stopped somewhere on the west saddle of Knob. There was some evidence of an old tread but it was weak at best. We finally located some ancient blazes and then traversed around the meadows on the south side of Knob.

Ironically, the old trail and some well-defined blazes now appeared on the saddle between Knob and Schreiner- just when the route becomes fairly obvious. We made it to the summit in short-order. The view is great but no more so than what you'd find atop Big Slide or Bull. There is a surprisingly large cairn that appears to have been there for some time, complete with a summit register. The last entry (there were only a few since the 1st one in '04) was from one guy a year ago. Several folks had come up from Elk Lake Creek via Pine Cone ridge which seems like a really insane slog- couldn't possibly be an old trail that way, could there?

We thought the return trip would be easier since we'd already found the route- wrong! That nasty section west of Knob can be quite deceptive; it caused us to drop too low and we missed the flagging. Ended up doing a lot of bushwacking and unnecessary climbing to find our way back up to the proper ridge.

Really glad I finally got to check out this remote peak but probably don't need to go back- it's a beast for a day hike! If you do go be advised that this is fairly rugged and remote country- it's a long ways beyond where help could reach you if you ever twisted an ankle. Know how to navigate!

Sorry for the long post- but it was a long hike!

Dan