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Ascent of Buktuklo Benchmark on 2012-04-18

Climber: Ryan Courtney

Other People:

Solo Ascent
Only Party on Mountain

Date:

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Peak:

Buktuklo Benchmark

Location:

USA-Oklahoma

Elevation:

1900 ft / 579 m

Ascent Trip Report

Tax season ended on April 17 this year - we left the office at 1:00, I ate an 18 oz. Chicago Cut Wagyu/Angus (proprietary breed) Top Sirloin at the Metropolitan, and then I headed for the airport. I had rented a Jeep Patriot and found a cheap motel on the far east side of Dallas by 2:00am.

8 hours of sleep was exceptionally rare in the month leading up to this trip, attempting to combine taxes and life. And here was another night of less than 6. But I managed to hit the road by 8:30 and was in the Buktuklo area by about noon.

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I headed east on OK 144 and turned right towards Bethel where the Indian Highway turns left towards Talihina. I took a left on what shows as the Boktuklu Trail on google maps. There is a gate, but it was open and I headed in. There is currently logging activity in the area and I passed one truck heading out to pavement not long after I headed in. I wasn't worried about the gate getting locked in the middle of a weekday, but I don't know what happens on weekends.

All roads should be passable by a low clearance vehicle, but the roads are occasionally slightly rough and I was happy to have the Jeep. I had several waypoints loaded at various turns. There are a lot more roads up there than show on any of the maps I had, especially since the area is being logged, but navigation was easy enough. I only took one wrong turn for about 1/2 mile.

I did the NW point first and was able to drive to within about 1/4 mile on an unmapped road. I could have driven almost all the way, but the final bit was overgrown and I didn't want to scratch any paint. I walked up the road, turned left into open forest, and wandered for a few minutes in the contour area. The second point (at the benchmark) is much denser forest and also requires some wandering. I did not find the BM.

All in all, an easy county in a pleasant area.

Summary Total Data

Route Conditions:

Road Hike, Open Country, Bushwhack

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