Video of the entire hike.
Strawberry Peak, via the Mountaineering route out of Colby Canyon. Definitely not for everyone.
Our group met up in RedBox Picnic Area, which is ordinarily the start point for the hike up Strawberry Peak. We then split up the cars, and drove down a few miles to the Colby Canyon trailhead.
The beginning of the hike is nice with lots of cover through the canyon. Eventually you will rise and do some ridge hopping till you get to the switchbacks to get to the watertower.
This is where the trail splits up to Josephine Peak, the Strawberry Fields trail, and the Mountaineering route. The Mountaineering route is a few dozen feet from the Watertower that veers off to the right up the hill if you follow the Strawberry Fields trail. It's a sharp incline for a hundred or so feet. Then you will be on the spine till you hit the first rock scramble. This one wasn't too bad, but there was a lot of loose gravel and sand. Gloves and long pants/shirts help in grip and scratching yourself up.
After this point, you will continue to follow the spine for a while. You will get to one point where you have to boulder hop down about 30 feet. Then you will get to the base of Strawberry Peak. This was the much more difficult rock scramble. Here you have to climb and hug the rocks, and at times it seems like you are perched on a cliff. Just make sure you have a hand grip and your feet are on solid ground.
Once past the scramble, it's a short trail to the top of Strawberry Peak. It took us about 3 hours to get to the top. 1 to get to the Watertower. Another 2 for the scramble and spines. With good breaks in between.
After taking a long break on the peak, we followed the normal Strawberry Peak trail back to RedBox Picnic area. Jumped in the cars we had parked there back to the Colby Canyon Trailhead.
Responses
Awesome way to ascend this one! I’ve designed a loop from Colby to Strawberry to Red Box like you did, but then you cross the street and take part of the Gabrielino Trail back to Colby. It’s about 12 Miles with 3,000 feet of gain this way.