Ascent of Gold Mountain on 2008-11-15| Date: | Saturday, November 15, 2008 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | Boat | | Peak: | Gold Mountain | | Location: | USA-Washington | | Elevation: | 1761 ft / 536 m |
Ascent Trip ReportThis was a rare occasion of visiting a U.S. county high point without using a car during the entire trip away from home.
I had visited Gold Mountain, CoHP of Kitsap County, WA, in 2000. However, I had no good trip report or GPS and I did not visit the highest mossy knoll, since I assumed that the actual highest point was one of the several radio tower areas adorning the summit. After finding out from others that the benchmark and likely HP was not at a radio area, I realized I had to revisit the area. To make it more interesting, I thought I would visit it from my Seattle-area home entirely by bicycle and public transportation.
I left home at 9 AM and rode my mountain bike to a nearby bus station, put my bike on a bike bus rack, and took the bus to downtown Seattle. A short urban bike ride took me to the Bremerton Ferry terminal, where I rode the 10:15 – 11:15 AM ferry across Puget Sound. Then I biked about 17 miles west to Gold Mountain, following Belfair Valley Road to a right on Minard Road, which basically winds all the way to the summit—the bike is nice to have past the locked gate, but the road was a bit muddy and steep. There was logging activity going on, and I passed a road grader going the other way. No issues with trespassing—the friendly driver waved at me. I also saw some hunters along the road.
I arrived at the summit a bit before 2 PM and revisited all the radio tower areas, plus the actual HP—the trip reports of Bob Bolton, Adam Helman, and Edward Earl at CoHP.org are all excellent for finding the highest knoll with the benchmark, stumps, and crossbar.
I biked the 17 mostly downhill miles back to Bremerton, rushed to catch the 4:15-5:15 PM ferry back to Seattle, then got over to the bus stop in Pioneer Square, and I was home by 6:30 PM.
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| Summary Total Data | | Elevation Gain: | 1751 ft / 533 m | | Distance: | 34 mi / 54.7 km | | Trailhead: | Bremerton Ferry Dock 10 ft / 3 m | | Quality: | 4 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Road Hike | | Gear Used: | Bicycle | | Weather: | Pleasant, Calm, Clear | | Ascent Statistics | | Time Up: | 2 Hours 40 Minutes | | Descent Statistics | | Time Down: | 1 Hours 40 Minutes | GPS Data for Ascent/Trip
 GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long
Peaks:  climbed and  unclimbed by Greg Slayden
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Note: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO responsibility or liability from use of this data.
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