Summit: P3 5,204ft Defiance 5,584ft Web 5,335ft
Full traverse: 10m 4,500ft
Another start from the Ira Spring trailhead. At the first switchback on the Ira Spring trail you’ll find an unmarked footpath that takes you up a very steep and open south-facing slope to the hilariously named Putrid Pete’s Peak. Would love to know the back story. From P3 you can traverse a few hundred feet west to Web Mountain. You can also traverse east across the long ridgeline to Mount Defiance. To complete the loop take the Ira Spring trail down past Mason Lake.
The full view of the traverse from Scout Patrol Peak:
From Bandera Mountain:
1st Trip: 8/25/18
First of many hikes with my great friends Pierre and Ben! And of course their pro mountain dogs Gizmo and Autumn. The plan was to do the full loop starting with the steep hike up P3. We’d be spending the day in the clouds.
Took a short break atop Putrid and scoped out the route to Web Mountain.
Since there was no visibility and we weren’t sure if it was safe for the dogs we decided to skip Web and start the ridge line traverse to Defiance. The drop off to the north is very steep.
The ridge walk was a blast and occasionally we’d catch a glimpse of Defiance.
The crux of the hike was right before and after the summit of Defiance. This had nothing to do with the actual trail; it was the crux because of an angry swarm of bees. Pierre took a stinger to the face and it was swollen for weeks. That sucked but we were happy to reach another summit.
The dogs were especially happy!
Besides passing the bees again the final stretch of the loop past Mason Lake was nice and easy.
2nd Trip: 7/22/19
With clear skies in the forecast I set out on a solo after work hike to see the views we missed previously and to bag Web Mountain.
The trail up to P3 gains 2,800ft in 1.5 miles. It’s better going up then down. Atop P3 I could see our past traverse to Defiance.
The view towards Web Mountain/West Defiance is much less intimidating when you can actually see it.
It’s a fun couple hundred yards to the summit.
Great mountains all around. Mailbox and Dirtybox:
Bandera, Silver, Tinkham, Humpback and Abiel:
Glacier and Garfield:
Kaleetan and Chair with Lemah poking out:
And this thing:
It was a pleasurable trip to a putrid peak!
CAPPY TRAILS 