Quick stop at JBL on the way to the mountains

Crossing Johns Brook over the substantial bridge, we headed southeast on the Woodsfall Trail, pausing to talk to a couple of guys who had just come down the landslide area up ahead. We got to the spot where you cross over Woodsfall Brook at 9:50 a.m. (2 hours and 40 minutes into our hike) and took some photos of the great scenery here. Immediately past the clearing, was the junction where we turned right for the Wolfjaw Trail. Heading up the trail, the terrain got steeper, but only moderately so, and it was a mostly pleasant hike with lots of moss and erratic boulders. We stopped a short distance in to grab some snacks before continuing up. The day was beautiful, and the conditions were great, with a surprisingly dry trail. At 10:47 (3½ hours since our start), we hit the Great Range Trail at Wolfjaw Notch, and headed right towards Upper Wolfjaw. There was a nice view of Lower Wolfjaw looming about 750’ above and immediately behind us. We commented that it would be a good option to bag this one too, if we were both eager to do the 46, and I hadn’t already done that one.

The ascent of Upper Wolfjaw wasn’t too bad. There was a fun spot I dubbed the “Lemon Squeeze'' where we had to remove our packs to squeeze through the crack of a cleaved boulder. There were two spots that tripped us up a bit as we tried to determine how to scale some large rock faces and opted instead to find some bypasses (which slowed us down by a total of about 40 minutes).  An open area near the col between the false and true peaks was interesting. We figured it was probably insect damage with all the dead trees, and white flowers growing in the newly sun-exposed area. Finally, at 12:10 (exactly 5 hours after hitting the trailhead), we arrived at the summit of Upper Wolfjaw. Two others were just leaving here. The views to the south and east were excellent, and we took them in, while another pair of hikers joined us. The bright green of the young trees on the burned areas of Noonmark Mountain really stood out. This was David’s 20th High Peak.

Rocky portion of the trail, not far past the junction with Lower Wolfjaw

We headed out after 15 minutes, eager to get to Armstrong, especially knowing that we needed to make it back to the lot by 7 p.m. to get the shuttle. We quickly descended the now wet rocks to the col and began our ascent of Armstrong. At 1:00 p.m., we turned a corner, and my first words were “Oh crap!”. There was a wet rock about 4 to 5’ feet high that we needed to pull ourselves up and on top of, with a small area to stand that was only about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long. There were no clear hand or footholds here either and about a 10-15’ drop onto a rock below. Once on the ledge, you'd need to haul yourself up a similar rock face. Even though conditions were otherwise perfect, I’d been losing my mojo over the last half hour, and this was a real mental wall for me. Unfortunately, it was for David too. Even as we watched a woman climb down, and a man, woman, and dog(!) scramble up this spot, neither of us was comfortable tackling it. We considered using my rope but were concerned if we’d face more obstacles ahead with the ladder and cables that were coming up, and knew we had to get back to the shuttle in time. After about 35 minutes of debating, hedging, and looking for alternatives, we decided to bail. I was quite upset, since this ruined my plan, and I was so close to getting all 46 peaks, but I decided to take my own advice that there’s no shame in turning back—especially if you're not mentally prepared for it.

Our Waterloo - walking along this ridge, that rock step was almost as tall as us, and drops off precipitously to the left (obscured by vegetation here); we couldn’t summon the mental energy/confidence to climb up it

We bemoaned the experience on our way back, and even decided that if someone else more confident had been with us, we probably could have gotten over that rock. Instead, we’d fed off each other, and spiraled downwards. However, after about 30 minutes, I felt better, and decided that it just wasn’t my day to do this, and I’d reassess my options at a future date. We hit the summit of Upper Wolfjaw again at 1:45 p.m. and enjoyed our lunch here. 20 minutes later, we began our true descent. At the junction with the Wolfjaw Trail, we decided for a change of pace, and took the northerly trail to the right. This gave us a scenic crossing of Wolfjaw Brook, and a generally nice walk back until we hit the Southside Trail about 15 minutes later. The northeast portion was closed (as noted earlier), and I didn’t feel like walking back in the other direction to the bridge. So, we took a shortcut and headed straight past an abandoned shack. We easily stepped across the stones in Johns Brook, and straight up a steep ravine wall that was covered with leaves. I was determined to just go straight up, and David followed, amazed that we’d just scaled such a steep, leaf-covered slope with this bushwhack. As expected, the Phelps Trail was at the top, and we turned right, and headed back to The Garden lot, arriving just before 6 p.m., and about 10 minutes before the shuttle arrived to bring us back to the car. Total time from leaving The Garden to arriving back there was about 10.5 hours.