Tomyhoi False Summit 10/13/2024

Tomyhoi false summit

9/13/2024 10.3 3,200 ft

Ross and I decided to head up the Yellow Aster Butte Trail.  This was after a couple of unfortunately bad life weeks where I was not able to get out and do anything.  But I kicked myself out of the funk and we really needed to start getting some hiking in before Guatemala.  A fellow birder friend of our had gone up the previous day and saw a couple bird species that we would like to see so that gave us the idea of this one.

We did not plan on leaving super early and got to the trailhead at 9:30 AM and it was surprisingly not packed.  We headed out at 10:00, the plan was to just carry a steady pace, even if it was slow.  I carried only water and extra clothing/snack weight.  It was cool and clear, great weather for a fall hike!  This trail starts out and is set up the same as pretty much all the other Cascade hikes.  Some mellow switchbacks to a meadow and then a traverse and a final push to the summit.  It is amazing how many trails keep this pattern. 

I am happy to say that I felt pretty good, only mental issues but I told Ross at some point in the hike this was the happiest I have felt for the past month.  The blueberries were past there prime down below but as we got higher the fall colors were still there.  We had amazing views of Shuksan and Baker.  Before we started today, I had this idea of heading towards Tomyhoi to avoid some crowds and not to do the final push to the summit.  I remember it being steep and I did not want to kill my legs, plus over that direction is where someone saw White-tailed Ptarmigan yesterday.

We took the left away from Yellow Aster Butte and headed towards Tomyhoi.  Down in the flat saddle area between the peaks is a great outcrop of the Yellow Astor Gneiss which is the oldest rock in the North Cascades at 400 million years old.  It originated in Northern Europe and made its way over here by breaking up of continents and metamorphism and uplifting. Geology Rocks!  One more geology thing, the area also contains serpentinite which is a neat glassy/green metamorphic rock.  On a previous hike up here, I found a vein of chrysotile which I did not take some back with me…..

My plan in my head was to do a loop down around the meadow and head back up but Ross convinced me to head towards the false summit.  Ugh, tired.  Anyways we made our way over to the climber’s trail and to the false summit, I sat down and ate some food and took some pictures of Tomyhoi, it was still pretty far away but we can do it in the future and now we have an idea of what it entails. Ross left me to search for the Ptarmigan with no luck, it was pretty windy and we didn’t really see many birds overhere. eBird Checklist – 13 Oct 2024 – Yellow Aster Butte & Tomyhoi Peak trail – 13 species

Good hike overall, happy to be out and about again and gives hope for Volcan de Fuego in a month!