2004.04.17 - Some friends, Carol & I had been planning on going camping in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge over the weekend, however, beacause of several factors, we decided to call off the trip a few days before it was supposed to begin. With no other plans keeping me at home, I got the "OK" from Carol to take Denali and go ahead to Mt. Scott for a dayhike.

Since the Refuge gates didn't open until 9:00, I left home at 6:00 for the 3-hour drive through the rolling plains of North Texas and South Oklahoma. I arrived at the Mt. Scott picnic area right on-schedule and began preparing for the day's climb. Denali and I both drank a liter of water between us before getting underway.

While planning for this trip, I wanted to find a decent Class 2 or 3 route to the summit of Mt. Scott. After studying the topo, I decided that it might be possible to climb up to the saddle between Mt. Scott and Mt. Scotts Boy and then traverse up onto Scott's southwest shoulder, eventually joining the auto road for the final stretch up to the summit. In reality, however, the route was much more difficult than the map indicated; Denali and I walked about 100 meters along the auto road before breaking northwest along a ridge toward Scotts Boy. We walked directly up the ridge before running into fairly dense forest that made upward progress significantly more difficult. At this point, we descended into a stream-filled gulley and the climbed back up to the crest of the western wall. While trying to climb back up, the dog and I ran into some fairly thick grapevines and brush, but we were still able to bash our way through. On the other side of the gulley, the going was much easier until we ran into really thick brush at about 1750'. The route had been solid Class 2 up to this point, but going any further would put us onto Class 3 slabs with vegetation hindrances as well. We tried going a little bit further up, but Denali was definitely uncomfortable on this type of terrain. Beaten by the current conditions, we descended back to the road to hike up to the summit the easy way.

We got back down to the summit road just below where the river of boulders crosses it. For such a beautiful spring weekend, there were strangely few cars passing along the road. I was happy since this meant less competition for the asphalt of my chosen route; after having climbed up this way, I would definitely not recommend it to anyone wishing to climb up Mt. Scott. The numerous blind turns and narrow shoulders made oncoming cars the most treacherous hazards that Denali & I would encounter.

Up and up we climbed along the road toward our goal. The calm cool of the morning had now given way to a growing heat that would become our companion for the remainder of the day. It was not yet uncomfortable since there was a strong breeze blowing, but what I didn't realize was how the pavement was heating up. It would be a long day for Denali.

Every fifteen minutes or so, we would stop so that I could give Denali some water and cool down his feet. We stuck to the grass and dirt just off the road as much as possible, but spending some time on the black-top was unavoidable. The circuitous path gave us steady ascent up to a grassy bench separating the northern sub-peak from the true summit of Mt. Scott.