Mount Dickerman Hike

Published on 2004-10-24 by Michael Stanton

Mount Dickerman, 10/24/04}

On the spur of the moment, I left the house for a hike up Mount Dickerman. It had been a few years since I was there, and I thought I'd see what the first big snowstorm had done to the high country. I started hiking at 1:30 pm, through damp but pleasant forest. The sword ferns looked exceptionally dark green and healthy. Once above the dense forest slope I saw patches of blue sky, and unobstructed views across the valley to Big Four Mountain, Vesper Peak, Sperry and Del Campo, the latter partially shrouded in cloud. The light was quite dramatic, because a dense gray band of cloud over those mountains shaded and blackened them, but enough sun could peak through to bath me in sunshine. The snow became deeper, and I appreciated the packed-in trail as depths reached two feet below the summit. A quick look around at peaks to the south (Sloan looked especially nice, though beshrouded), then it started to snow on me. Clouds engulfed the upper slopes and I hiked away, back to the deep valley at 5:15 pm.