Hike to Mt St. Benedict

Geoff and I first came upon the hike to Mt. St. benedict earlier this year when we first drove the Lost Murdo Creek FSR. We had driven past its entrance many times and had finally decided to explore it. When we got to the furthest passable point we stopped to enjoy a waterfall and while I was shooting it a group of hikers came by on their way to McKay Lake which is nestled below the peak of Mt St. Benedict. This caught the attention of both of us and we decided then to return to see the lake. As the warmer weather approached we thought we could also try for the peak itself.
So today we set off with a weather report promising cloudy by dry conditions. We were hopeful as it wouldn’t be overly hot for the hike. As we drove through Miracle Valley on our way to the main forestry road the first drops of drizzle started to fall and by the time we reached the start of the Lost Creek FSR it was drizzling! very frustrating to say the least. Well we had a secondary goal for the day – trying out Geoff’s new shotgun. So we decided to take time at the start to try out the gun and then hopefully the drizzle would be done and we could start the hike.
We drove in past the Murdo turn-off and made our way to a place that is commonly used for target practice. No one was using it yet so we picked the best spot and tried a number of different types of shots. Geoff had bird shot, buck shot and even single slug shells, and he tried all of them. The single slug had quite a kick to it and he wrenched his arm a bit while firing it. After a number of rounds and trying to hit some clay pigeons I threw for him we decided to head up for the hike as the rain had stopped. On the way we were stopped by two people needing some directions.
We made our way up the Murdo FSR quickly and were soon parked and starting to setup our cross-band repeater. No sooner had we finished setting up then rain hit us hard. It was mixed with hail and just kept coming. We decided to give it another 20 minutes to see if the rain would clear. It didn’t and now the area was soaked and not really desirable for hiking through. So we grudgingly decided to call-off the hike. We waited a bit longer for the worst of the rain to stop and we packed away the radio gear and were about to drive off when the rain stopped and the sun peaked through! Some days it just doesn’t seem to work out. But as everything was wet, hiking was still not something I wanted to do. As we had time to spare, we decided to see if we could drive past the waterfall and up the road.
Well with the rain wetting the ground the gravel was a bit softer than expected and as we approached the narrow spot in front of the waterfall the rear tire slid down towards the road edge and a drop. We had been in this situation years ago and knew that we would only slide further down whether we moved forward or back. Our only way out would be to pull ourselves with the winch. So we set that up and quickly got past the problem. Once moving again we edged our way up the road through a few narrow spots but soon came to a steep exposed bit of rock. If it had been dry we may have tried it but wet it was not worth the bother. So we turned around and made our way off the Murdo Creek FSR. Crossing the narrow section was easier on the way down, and didn’t need any winch support.