Derek and I planned to hike to Quartz Ridge, although we were not exactly sure where it was and how we would recognize it when we got there. But we knew the direction to go and took off.
We wound up (I am pretty sure) going past Quartz Ridge, up and up and up the side of Quartz Mountain. As you can see from the rocky picture below, at a certain point we were not dealing with what anyone would call a trail, we were just heading up. Straight up. There were a few pink flagging tapes in the lower branches of trees for us to follow. We left a few ourselves, and glad we did because coming down it was very easy to stray from the path we took on the way up.
I called it for the “up” at 3,700 feet but Derek grabbed the Garmin and went up to 3,900 feet. As you can see from the track, we were heading in the direction of the East Peak of Quartz Mountain but in the field we were not quite sure where we were.
We started at the Middle Fork parking lot, crossed FR56 and headed up the CCC Road, created in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. We were only on that for about .5 mile and there was the unofficial trail to the site of the former Nordrum Lookout.
It was a lookout from the 1930’s to the 1950’s – it was used for spotting planes during WWII – but the trees, which had been clear cut, grew up and there is no longer a view from Nordrum Lookout. All that is left is a few strands of cable and the four corner foundation pieces.
From there we followed an older trip report and went down a gully, up the other side and ‘up’ was the direction for the entire rest of the way. I believe the fabled Quartz Ledge was a spot we hit at about 2,550 feet. It had a good view point and sort of resembled a ledge. Here is the view:
There was more or less a trail up to the ledge, but from there it was strictly bushwhacking and the occasional pink tape. But that’s OK, we loved it. This was an awesome hike, we had a super time and we might come back some day – like when the snow is gone (this place will be covered with snow soon enough) and see if we can make it all the way to the summit of Quartz Mountain. At least, we know it will be a terrific workout and fun to try. It was 5.6 miles but felt like more than a dozen.
The track:
