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My mom, dad, and I took my dad’s 4×4 and drove up to Flume Creek Trail #502, which is the trail that leads to Abercrombie Mountain.  The road up the mountain is in rough shape and four wheel drive is a necessity.  The ruts would swallow up most passenger vehicles.  We stayed in first gear practically the entire seven miles on our way up to 5,500 feet in elevation.

Trail #512 is in good shape and has a gentle grade up to the ridge that connects Abercrombie and Hooknose.  From the saddle my dad and I took the route toward Hooknose.    Mom didn’t have any interest in doing this and chose to go up to the Abercrombie summit to sketch.

There is no maintained trail leading to Hooknose and in places it is a bushwhack.  From the saddle it looked much further than it actually was, but this is not to say that it wasn’t time consuming.  It was a tiresome trip with a lot of ascending and descending.

When we reached the summit I was definitely ready for a break.  We leaned up against some boulders being warmed by the sun and tried to identify all the surrounding peaks.  The north slope of the mountain is steep, rocky, and a long ways down.  It was a beautiful day–clear and sunny with just a few puffy clouds covering the big Canadian peaks to the north.

Only when the wind started to sting our faces did we start the trek back along the ridge and up the top of Abercrombie.  We arrived just in time to see my mom put the finishing touches on her mountaintop drawing.  The Abercrombie summit is rocky and bare–we all agreed it was moonlike.

Abercrombie is right on the border of Stevens and Pend Oreille County.  The mountain sits at just over 7300 feet and is the second highest peak in northeastern Washington, only a foot or two behind Gypsy Peak.  Hooknose is close to 7200 feet in elevation.  These mountains can also be scaled from the west side on Forest Service Trail #117.  This route is preferred by most  because of the rough road heading up to the Flume Creek Trail.

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This particular part of Washington State is known for Grizzly Bears and increasingly rare Caribou.  Unfortunately for us, we didn’t see any wildlife.  Today is the first day of hunting season so I can’t say I’m all that surprised.  We also didn’t see any creeks or water sources.

This was my first time to the top of Hooknose, but I had been up Abercrombie before.  The mountain is along the official Pacific Northwest Trail route and my brother and I thru-hiked that trail in 2005.