Continued...
Today's outings comprised a small handful of summits that can be found in
either Walt Wheelock's Desert Peak Guide, Andy Zdon's Desert
Summits, or both. They included a pair of P1Ks and a few others with over
700ft of prominence, but despite their stature, none were more than a modest
hike. This was an exercise in driving, Tom's Jeep doing the brunt of the work
with Tom behind the wheel enjoying (almost) every minute of it. None of the
hikes were more than 3.5mi roundtrip but we enjoyed it all the same.
Excelsior Mountain
Located southeast of Hawthorne and Walker Lake, The Excelsior Mtns are a
smallish NV range that has seen much mining activity. Oddly, Excelsior Mtn is
not the highpoint, but it still sports significant prominence. Our approach
was from the southeast off SR360 where an excellent dirt road runs almost 10mi
to Marietta, an almost-ghost town that once supported extensive mining activity
on Excelsior's southern flanks. The road and area are signed as a
viewing area where horses, too, can be found roaming the hills. The area is
also
popular for OHV touring. From Marietta, poorer dirt roads, in some cases the
Jeep-only variety, can take one more than 2,000ft higher in about 4mi to get
within about 1.5mi of the summit. Be warned these roads can be pretty rough.
Zdon describes an entirely different approach and route from the northeast, a
much longer hike but possibly easier roads. With low clearance, one could hike
from Marietta about 12mi roundtrip, about the same effort as described in Zdon's
guide. From where , we followed a shallow draw heading north
to a saddle before starting the up the Southeast Slopes,
both pinyon-covered. Once at the , it was an easy half mile
walk over more to reach the highpoint, covered in low
scrub, the climb taking just over an hour. Gordon and Barbara had left a
register , relatively late for those intrepid desert wanderers.
The summit sees only about one party ever two years or so. The views are quite
nice, with the 11,000-foot Mt Grant rising to with Walker
Lake visible to its right. To can be seen Moho Mtn, the
range highpoint and our next destination. Before heading back down, we stopped
off to visit an old just north of the highpoint, possibly
a survey tower, but really a bit of an oddity. We returned to the Jeep via much
the same route. On our drive back down to Marietta we stopped at the Endowment
Mine ruins, just below where we'd starting hiking from. There are several
buildings still standing, seems to have had some
renovation done before it was abandoned. One deep horizontal shaft is found
beside the , other holes and tailings spread about the
place, but nothing of much significance seems to have come of it.
Moho Mountain
Back at Marietta, we turned east and drove about 3mi before noticing some OHVs
coming down a decent side road off Moho's southwest side. We stopped to consult
our GPSr and maps, eventually deciding this might be a shortcut route to the
one I had planned to use further east. It worked nicely to get us high up the
slopes towards Moho, and proved better than the road I had planned to use. The
upper section above the junction of these two roads becomes increasingly
rougher until the Jeep becomes more a necessity than a luxury. And compared to
the older Jeep Tom used to own, this one is a far more comfortable ride,
particularly on the toughest roads - no more kidney failure from all the
jarring and bouncing. was similar to the first, only shorter,
taking but 35min to reach the summit. We found and a 1990
Gordon/Barbara that was far more popular than the earlier one.
The views were somewhat better with a nice one to Teels
Marsh (not sure how it gets termed "marsh" - it looks more like a dry lakebed).
A had been wandering over the summit when I arrived,
slightly ahead of the others. They took off a short distance and then stopped
about 50yds from us what we were up to. They seemed
disinclined to leave or go around us, waiting somewhat impatiently (judging by
the occasional snorting from the leader) for us to leave before continuing
their journey down the south side. Not wanting to disturb them
too much,
we only a little while before heading back down and leaving the
summit to our hooved friends.
Emigrant Peak
Back on SR360, we headed east to US95 and south to its junction with US6 at
Coaldale, a defunct waystop that has become for some creative
graffiti but no longer serving up gas and cold drinks. We left two vehicles here
and took the Jeep into the hills south of the junction to reach
. One
could reach the summit directly from Coaldale on foot, less than 5mi each way,
but we had the Jeep and did not want to do anything to keep it from reaching its
full potential. In this case, it was to get us about 1/3mi from the summit. The
last 3.5mi of driving were on some tough road sections, - narrow, rock-strewn
ones, a few steep ones, some cliff-hangers, too. The last part may or may not
have been on actual BLM roadways, hard to tell when they see so little usage
and are devoid of signage. was an easy stroll, taking about
10min up a short, from where we parked. Brian French
had left a makeshift register with just a few entries since
then. Unlike the Excelsior range with pinyons at the higher elevations,
surrounding Emigrant Peak do not reach 7,000ft, with almost
no trees to be found anywhere. This leaves the summit open for unobstructed
views with a good one to of Fish Lake Valley framed by the
White Mtns. We looked under the summit rocks for a benchmark but couldn't find
it - despite the we found pointing us in the right
direction. in short order, we drove back via the same
route and headed to Tonopah where we planned to get dinner.
Mt. Butler
I wasn't quite done yet, having one last easy one before calling it good.
Mt. Butler doesn't need a jeep and doesn't even need high-clearance. It
is the highest of the dozen or so modest peaks that comprise the hills
surrounding Tonopah. A well-graded road climbs to the top of Butler's lower
twin, Brock Mtn, site of a USAF telecom site. The road is about
halfway up the hill, but there is a small place to park just outside the gate
and the signs indicate no unauthorized vehicles but don't seem to prohibit the
public on foot. Mt. Butler is and south of where we
parked and it can be reached most quickly with a steep cross-country climb in
that direction. Not realizing this at first, we followed the road for a few
minutes before one long switchback and then walking the
road until we were above our starting point. From there we continued
up a steep slope to a saddle east of the summit, followed
by a short scramble to . provides a
nice view of , but then so do half dozen other summits that
surround it, I imagine. We found no register but there was a name & date
into
a large block from 1985. Normally I would just call this graffiti, but the
carving was quite good, possibly done by a draftsman in the age before
computers took over this lost craft.
Back down to the Jeep, we returned to our vehicles, showered at various
locations around the base of Mt. Butler and then reconvened for dinner. We
found some good beer and one of the best BBQ experiences of my life at the
Tonopah Brewery. Good eats, there.
There were probably a dozen police and sheriff vehicles in
town, perhaps half the combined total of Nye and Esmeralda Counties, cruising
about town, looking for any sign of trouble. The car races were being held at
7p nearby and it seems that this was the only happening place for 100mi in any
direction. The speed limits drop to as low as 25mph in town so it doesn't take
long to find a scofflaw in need of a lesson. After dinner we got out of town
quietly, driving south on US95 towards Goldfield. We found a nice spot off
SR265 (Silver Peak Rd) to spend the night, not far from where we planned to
start the next day's adventure...
Continued...