Stensgar Mountain

September 1, 2019

1774m

Chewelah / NE Washington, WA

Stensgar Mtn. is only one meter lower than the nearby Huckleberry Mtn. that holds over 3000 feet of prominence and for some prominence peak-baggers this is “too close to call it good”. Adam and I were originally aiming to do Hucklebery Mtn. only but once I pointed out the height of Stensgar Mtn. during the drive we immediately agreed that bagging both would be an absolute must, especially since the ascent of Stensgar Mtn. was nothing but a drive-to-the-top. James Barlow and his family agreed.

Huckleberry Mtn. and Stensgar Mtn. drive-up and bushwhack. GPX DL

We finished the hike of Huckleberry Mtn. at sunset and spent the next 20 min negotiating that narrow roads for an additional 3 km to the summit of Stensgar Mountain. The actual highest point was flattened by some man-made facilities and the last 20 meters of the road was gated. We walked around a barbed wire fence that closes the summit facility. We then drove to the lower eastern sub-summit but didn’t get much of additional views.

Arriving at the summit with fading daylight in dusk hours

Me on the summit of Stensgar Mountain

Just one of the few facility towers on the summit of Stensgar Mtn.

One last photo to show the views. Nothing really worth noting…

James walking around the summit fence to safely claim this peak.

James and his family drove down while Adam and I spent another half an hour on the summit area cooking some Indian dinner. It was almost 9 pm and we were at least 5 hours away from Seattle, but the plan was still to drive all the way back that night. Adam was very energetic and awake and drove the whole way back by 3 am while I slept at least half of the time duration. I don’t know how he managed to stay awake, but thanks! I spent that night in Adam’s home and resumed the last 2 hours back to Vancouver on the following morning, and that concluded another productive peak-bagging road trip.