A weekend trip to scramble two peaks west of Leavenworth at the end of Icicle Creek Road* (FS Rd 7605). I had been on Blackjack Ridge out as far as Bootjack Mtn a year before. While there, we talked about extending the ridge scramble and doing Highchair as well. Great choice. This is a fun rocky ridge to walk, with beautiful eastern Washignton mountain scenery and easy (mostly class 2) scrambling. The trail leads almost to the top of Bootjack Mtn. and morphs to a pick your own path in the rocks along the ridge top from there to Highchair.
We drove over that morning and got our usual leisurely start. We had hoped to find a small pond to camp at below Highchair, but it took the group longer than anticipated to reach Bootjack and then traverse along the ridge top. By late afternoon, we decided to play it safe and drop off the ridge to a sure water source a few hundred feet down The next morning as we continued the scramble along the ridge, we came across the pond we were looking for. Good choice to stop where we did, as the pond was dry. You can scramble straight up the continuation of Blackjack Ridge as it becomes Highchair's east ridge without much difficulty. Descent was the reverse of the ascent.
*Flooding in May 2008 closed the road at Doctor Creek and it's unknown when repairs will be made.
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