Continued...
Expecting another warm day in the Las Vegas area, I planned to hit up a
lower P1K in the early morning and then switch to higher elevations for
another P1K in the afternoon. My wife is leaving town today which means
I have no more hotel room which means I have to sleep in the Jeep
tonight, something I've yet to do. Rather used to the roominess of the
van, I'm a little worried I might find the Jeep somewhat cramped. We'll
see...
Black Mountain
This P1K is located at the northeast end of the McCullough Range, found
south of Las Vegas and Henderson. It has a 3.5mi trail all the way to the
summit, from the edge of a newish development at the south end
of Henderson, ample parking available. The trail is quite deluxe,
and a godsend - it climbs up the West Ridge of Black Mtn, which is a heap of
dark volcanic rock with somewhat tedious cross-country. of
the Black Mtn Trail isn't obvious, as one first climbs the HC accessible
concrete path to the top of a catch basin, then takes this
around the west side to the back where the trail officially starts.
Henry the Mountain Man on PB has left his mark all over
the mountain, adding the lower north and south summits as well as other
non-peaks (with zero prominence) along the trail and elsewhere in the
range - someone needs to take away his computer. The summit features
, an american flag on a short pole and a huge
. I
kinda wanted to knock all the rocks down but it would have taken an hour
and I'd probably have smashed my toes in the process. A large ammo box
holds a ton of trash serving as a register. I didn't bother to sign in or even
take anything out of the box. After visiting the , I
considered continuing south along the crest to the next actual peak, but
this is where the cross-country looked most tedious. I sidehilled back
along the west side of the highpoint to return to the trail, giving me
a small taste of the cross-country. Bleah. There were five or six other
parties on the trail during my visit - fairly popular considering it was
a Monday morning. In addition to a few cute , there were
several rattlesnakes along the trail. One gentleman I came upon was tossing
small rocks to get one to move out of the trail. Not sure why he didn't just
walk around it, but I got of it as it was moving into the brush.
I was back around 10:30a, making for a three-hour effort.
Pas Rump / Bluebird
These two summits are located in the Spring Mtns, south of SR160 and
northwest of Potosi Mtn. Access is via the well-graded, gravel Potosi
Canyon Rd going up and over Potosi Pass. My was at the
start of a side road, closed to vehicles, that goes up towards the saddle
between the two peaks. There is parking for a few cars here and the old
road worked nicely to get me about 1/3 of the way up towards
the saddle. Rather than climb to the saddle (which would have worked
as well), I went up a line to the north that would more directly get me
to Pas Rump. There are significant cliffs on the of the long
ridgeline, so one needs to choose a line carefully. Once ,
I found I had to go up and over a lower south summit before
to at the north summit five
minutes further on, taking about an hour from the start. In contrast to
Black Mtn, this one sees . It appears to have
been named "Pa's Rump" by Hugh D Q (Harlan Stockman) in
2005, no doubt a play on the town of Pahrump.
After a short break, I spent a second hour
south to , about 9/10mi
in that direction. This was the most enjoyable part of the day, slow-going
in most places but it had some rather fun (and contrived) scrambling along
the ridge with knife-edges
and other completely avoidable obstacles. A fine breeze was blowing over
the crest, keeping me cool, and I probably could have continued on for
several more hours before tiring of it. Bluebird Peak had
, too, also infrequently visited. For the descent, I went
down the south side of Bluebird to a saddle (with its own lower, south summit)
before dropping . There was some spiciness in
getting through the upper
cliff band, but once that was negotiated it was pretty straightforward
to make my way back down to . I intersected it near Potosi
Spring where there is an for the Potosi Mine
(about a mile up
a side road) that produced lead, silver and zinc on and off from the
1850s until around 1930. There is a homestead just up the road that I
went by, though it doesn't appear to be regularly occupied and looks
rather dumpy. It was 3:30p by the time I finished up and called it a day.
I drove into Pahrump where I spent the rest of the afternoon inside,
waiting out the 88F temperatures outside. My plan is to drive up
Wheeler Pass Rd and spend the next three days between 7,000-10,000ft
where it should be significantly cooler. My options are somewhat limited
since I need to be back in Las Vegas when my wife returns for a second
long weekend of volleyball reffing. Good times...
Continued...