Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

February 19, 2020

526m

Mount Vernon, WA

Devils Mountain boasts over 400 meters of prominence and locates in the vicinity of Mount Vernon of Skagit County, but despite the prominence this peak is a definite “dumpter-diving” type of objective. The summit is occupied by half a dozen communication towers with a road that runs all the way to the top. Peak-baggers cannot drive up the road as it’s gated at the bottom. The walk (or bike) is about 3.5 km one way with 300 m elevation gain. The view from various stages of this hike is actually not bad but I do think that most baggers don’t come up here on a bluebird day anyway… The weather was superb on last Wednesday but I could only manage half a day to do anything, so opted to dumpster-dive. Earlier in the day I had bagged Big Rock and 10 minutes after finishing that hike I parked my truck at the start of Devils Mountain Road. There was literally only one spot to park my truck behind the gate.

My plan was to bag both Devils Mtn. along with the lower neighbour, Scott Mtn. in one go. I walked up the road on a fast pace and in short time I turned onto the spur road that traversed across the northern flanks of Devils Mountain. I was rewarded by some unobstructed views towards Mt. Baker along with some typical Skagit County scenery. The road then looped to the broad NW Ridge and followed the ridge all the way to the summit. The road condition was probably only 2WD so too bad about the gate. I walked around the communication towers. The views weren’t open from the highest point but there were spots with decent views, if one dares enough to search around.

After taking enough photos I quickly went down the upper road. I debated about skipping Scott Mountain because of what appeared like horrible bushwhacking, but couldn’t resist. It turned out to be a shit show with thick brambles type of brushes, for only 30 m prominence…