Despite being urged to do the fall outing early to avoid snowy weather, I was busy and stuck to an early October date. September turned out to be the warmest on record in Idaho, so I was hoping it could stay nice one last week. It did!

Some people cancelled, some showed up unexpectadly, some people were in from the beginning and stuck to those plans. In the end, we had 11 people show up.

Margo, Sean, Leslie, and George stayed the night. Eric and Dave and his son Alex had arrived in the morning. I arrived a bit late with Steve. John and Dylan followed just behind me. After a few photos, we were off right from camp.

From camp we hiked due south on a logged slope. It was steep, but good footing. We then reached a road (not on the topo) that we followed a bit to the east ridge of Pavlos. Here we followed a nice ridge with great footing. After one steep section in the trees, we found an excellent elk trail and followed that baby all the way to the saddle just past point 9076.

A nice section through sub-alpine terrain got us to the treeline. So far the footing had been great. However, the group was setting a fast pace and kept going with only a short break. I was in no hurry, so I took a real break and let them go gangbusters.

The ridge ahead looked fun, with numerous obstacles. These obstacles were a bit challenging and fun to navigate. The climbing was never more than easy class 3, and you could probably keep it at class 2 if you wanted. After the towers, the ridge smooths out. The tread was fabulous, with goat tracks most of the way. With limited effort, we were all soon on top.

I had thrown out the idea of Petros Peak as a second peak to go for. However, I had just done Petros this summer and wasn't heading over. Margo stayed with me on Pavlos and we watched a team of 8 head over to climb a challenging route on Petros.

While waiting we napped and chatted. We saw the other group (or some of them) on Petros and were happy for them. Eventually we shivered and decided to head down (it was cold and windy). We descended slowly enough that we could see the other group's progress.

Never in much of a hurry, we made our way back to camp and had a celebration (me a beer and Margo wine and chocalate). As time wore on people trickled back in to camp.

We had a great outing. I need to see these guys and gals more often than twice a year, as they are great company!

After hanging out and leaving Christian Gulch in the dark, I proceeded to Corral Creek Summit. I planned to sleep right on top of the mountain and enjoy the incredible views the location offered. I didn't get there until 9pm. I had been up since 4am and hadn't eaten anything of substance all day. So there I was at 8800 feet in the pitch dark, wind howling, listening to the Jets and Ravens, and cooking my steak. It was fun watching the cars traveling US 93 below my feet. When dawn came, the views were stunning as advertised!

From US 93, turn right onto Doublespring Pass road. This is a bit tricky to find, as the sign says "May/Patterson", not Doublesprings.

Follow this road for 14.5 miles to the turnoff for Christian Gulch.

Turn left into Christian Gulch. Follow this road for 3.4 miles. We camped and departed from the left (south) side of the road.

Detailed hiking directions are in the trip report.