The Search for Red Beard

Thursday, October 20th 2005 - Duane McCully

On Trip: Robert Cranney, Duane McCully Rob and I have recently developed an interest in finding Red Beard. I actually have no clue where it is on the mountain. Rob, on the other hand, has been on a trip with Ralph where they looked for the cave but didn't actually find it. Basically, we knew our chances of finding it on the first pass would be slim but we have to start somewhere. After about forty-five minutes of hiking we decide to split up. I took the high road and in my travels ran across two caves. They are both vertical cracks. One runs parallel to the mountain and the other perpendicular. I then met up with Rob. We then decided to split up for a little longer and continue hiking higher. This led to a period of confusion where we both believed that the other person had fallen off of a cliff. About the time we reconvened to report that everyone was still alive but nothing useful had happened, the sun set. Since we were cliffed out on two sides we became motivated to descend rapidly. We arrived at the base of the mountain at 8:00 p.m. fairly shredded from bushwacking. I then proceeded to sit in the dirt and take care of various outstanding chores over Rob's cell phone. All in all it was a fine trip. The GPS receiver in conjunction with TOPO! later confirmed that we had done 1800+ vertical feet of heinous bushwacking.