The Racetrack is a unique features of Death Valley, known for its moving rocks that leave tell-tale grooves in the slippery mud. They move only occasionally when strong winds combine with a thin layer of water covering the mud playa and transforms it into nature's teflon. Located far from the nearest pavement, there are three ways to reach it by vehicle, none of them easy. The route from the north is often 15mi of some of the worst washboard one can endure. Lippincott Canyon is reputedly one of the more difficult 4x4 roads in the park. With Tom's jeep wrangler we chose the third option, a roundabout route up and over Hunter Mountain and through Hidden Valley before reaching the Racetrack, more than 25mi one-way. We picked the route because there were several P1Ks I was interested in along the way. But first up was a visit to the Racetrack itself which none of us had previously visited.
We were up well before sunrise in order to get a start on the long drive and
allow us a full day's worth of peakbagging. Going over Hunter Mountain in the
dark, we encountered a good deal more snow than we expected, most of it hard and
crunchy, offering good traction. This would change later upon our return when
we found a good deal of mud in the mix. There were some large puddles of muddy
water, partly iced over, that we drove through, some faster than we probably
should have which resulted in mud caking just above every side of the jeep,
including the windows. At the north end of Hidden Valley we passed through Lost
Burro Gap where we had our first sighting of other humans since the previous
evening. A small group were camped off the road at one of the small turnouts
in the wash. Dropping into Racetrack Valley, it was 7a when we reached
Teakettle Junction,
notable for the large number of teakettles the sign has
collected over the years (there is a similar Crankshaft Junction elsewhere
in the park). A second group was camped for the night here where our route meets
the washboarded road coming in from the north.
The Grandstand
We were the only vehicle at
the Racetrack when we arrived at 7:15a.
The sun was trying to come out, having illuminated 
Ubehebe Peak ever
so briefly before hiding behind some clouds. The Racetrack was calm and cold in
the morning, the surface completely dry and safe for walking. Visitors are asked
not to walk on it when wet or muddy because the tracks can last for years. We
found little evidence of moving rocks but we did note a number of vehicle tracks
from a few that couldn't resist the urge to drive on it. We
walked across to 
The Grandstand, a rock formation found at
the north end of the playa. The highest point makes for a
class 3 slab climb of some interest, but Tom and Karl declined to join
me. We searched out the area for the famous rocks (
a sign at the
parking lot explains that most of these are found at the southern end which we
didn't visit). Tom found the best example on the northwest side of The
Grandstand which we duly 
photographed. It was really too cold to enjoy
further exploration around the playa so we turned our attention to Ubehebe.
Ubehebe Peak
Ubehebe is a P1K overlooking the Racetrack on its
western edge. It had
been on my radar for a number of years and was the primary objective of the day's
efforts. 
The moon was poised just over the summit as we
geared up back at the jeep and set out 
on the trail starting
from the parking lot shortly before 8a. There is no official sign and the trail
does not appear on park maps, but it seems someone (or group) has put in a good
deal of time and effort on the first two
miles of this three mile trail. It's not the shortest route to the summit and
may not even be the fastest as it takes its time to reach the main crest well
north of both the highpoint and its lower north summit. Still, we followed it
dutifully because it was the 
easiest thing to do, and it allows one
more time to take in the 
scenic views of the 
surrounding
area. Reaching 
the crest, we turned left and followed the
continuing trail up and around the west side of Ubehebe North.
Somewhere in here the good trail devolves to something more like
a use trail, but still plenty good to follow to the summit without
exceeding class 2 in difficulty.
After reaching 
the top in about an hour and a quarter, I continued
south along the crest to investigate descending 
that way. It didn't
appear to have any real trouble to contend with. Tom had
already arrived before I had returned to the
highpoint and Karl was not long in joining us. We took a short break for a snack
and rest before heading back down. I decided not to try the more adventurous
route off the south side mostly so I could pay a visit to the north summit on
the return, making for an easy bonus peak. Tom and Karl 
joined me on
this one as well before we all returned to the trail and 
back down to
the Racetrack. A
small 4x4 group had arrived at the parking area sometime during our hike. The
guys were busy securing cargo to their vehicles and trailers or else seeming to
look busy while a few children as young as 3-4yrs went scurrying about while
Moms looked on. We piled back into the jeep and headed out, leaving the Racetrack
to the other group. There is another, unnamed P1K a few miles north of Ubehebe,
but we left this one for another time. I guessed (correctly, for once) that we'd
not have enough time for all the P1Ks I'd planned on, and this seemed best to
leave for another trip driving down from the north.
Lost Burro BM
Between Racetrack Valley and Hidden Valley is a north-south ridgeline whose
highpoint
is found at the north end, above the Lost Burro Mine. We drove back
through Teakettle Junction and into Hidden Valley, utilizing a good side road
that goes to the abandoned mine site. We 
parked off the road
in the drainage between the mine and our summit. Though there is no trail, the
hike is an easy one, less than 3/4mi from where we started. We climbed the steep,
sandy slope to the 
South Ridge and followed up from there to
the highpoint over one false summit, taking 30min. We found a
1991 register left by Barbara and Gordon with about 16 pages of
entries over the intervening 23 years. Many of the usual
suspects had visited including 
Bob Sumner, 
John Vitz,
Steve and Shane Smith, Terry Flood, 
Sue and Vic Henney,
Mark Adrian & Richard Carey and others. Thus is the draw for a summit
with more than 1,000ft of prominence. At Tom's suggestion, our descent route
took us down to a saddle west of the summit and from there south down
a gully leading back to our car. Neither much harder or easier than
the original route, it made for a nice alternate. Near the end we came
upon a 
tin can graveyard, evidently the dump used when the mine was
last active many decades ago.
Leaning Rock
Another side road off the main route through Hidden Valley branches northeast to a mine site north of White Top Mtn. I would have liked to pay a visit to this easy to reach (once you make the somewhat rough 10mi
drive) summit,
but we were getting short on time. Of more interest was another P1K that can be
reached after driving the first 4mi of this route. We 
parked off the
road at a Wilderness boundary sign less than 2mi NW of Leaning Rock BM. We
followed a wash upstream around a low hill before starting the
mile-long hike across the 
gently rising desert floor to the
base of the mountain. Our route 
up from there was not particularly
inventive nor did it need be as it appears just about any route would work. We
followed a ridgeline that connects to 
the main crest at the very
summit, about as direct a route as we could manage. It was 1:40p by the time we
reached the summit, having taken an hour in the effort. We found the
benchmark
but could locate no such rock meeting the description of "leaning". A register
left 
in 1979 by Wes Shelberg had 8 pages of entries, decidedly less
than the one on Lost Burro. In addition to some of the same names (Barbara and
Gordon for example had 
paid a visit 4 days after climbing Lost Burro)
there were other familiar names such as 
Kathy Wing and
Don Palmer. We followed the same route
down, taking more time to examine rocks and admire the views. I picked up
a piece of limestone
I thought might have been a indian spearpoint but the others
were less convinced. I left it where I found it in any case. I picked up other
odd bits of rocks to examine them, but once again failed to find that large,
dirty nugget of gold that I've probably stepped over dozens of times. It was
2:40p by the time we 
returned to the jeep.
Hunter Mountain
We spent the next hour and then some driving back from whence we'd come, finding a good deal more mud and slush as we went over Hunter Mountain than we'd found in the morning when it was colder. We had moments of wondering if we were going to make it through, the jeep fishtailing, throwing mud everywhere and generally making a mess of itself. By the time we
stopped
for a last hike to Hunter's
highpoint, the jeep was splattered with mud on all sides. Hunter Mountain is a
broad mountain in the Cottonwood Mtns, rising high between Panamint and Saline
Valleys. Though a P1K, the summit is far from obvious as the mountain is huge
with several competing points and lots of pinyon and juniper to block open views.
It was almost 4p when we set out and it was only with the promise of a short
hike that I was able to interest the others in "one more". For some reason the
GPS route I'd uploaded showed we needed to be somewhere in the middle of the
Pacific thousands of miles from Death Valley, which I suspected to be
untrustworthy. As a backup, I found two points on the GPS that seemed the
primary contenders for the highpoint, guessing (more like hoping)
the one 0.4mi to the north
was the one we wanted. We started off in that direction as we headed up a low
rise in the way. Atop the low hill we noted that the other point to the west
looked higher still and went off in that direction. The short hike became twice
as long and we started to wonder if we'd get back to the jeep before dark. The
meandering hike through scattered forest and 
brush took longer than
expected, but by 4:30p we found our way to a 
rock outcrop with a
benchmark labeled "JACKASS". A large green 
ammo box held a
popular register with almost 60 pages of entries since it was placed
in 1990. The book was completely filled so we
squeezed our names in a portion of the inside back cover. It was growing quite
cold by this time and we all donned additional jackets to ward off the chill.
Another 25min saw us back 
to the jeep and the end of our day's
adventure, just as the light was fading around 5p. We
drove the few miles remaining to the junction where we'd left the other cars and
spent another night here overlooking Panamint Valley some 4,000ft below us.
Despite the cold, Tom and I showered before getting back into warm clothes. We
cooked our dinners in the van and watched an episode of Sherlock Holmes with a
bit of wine before calling it a night. We had another full day planned with a
visit to Saline Valley the next morning...
Continued...