Continued...
I awoke to the alarm around 5:30a at the Amboy Crater trailhead where we had
spent the night. It was still dark but the eastern sky was beginning to show
signs of life and the scattered clouds would add some color to the landscape
just before . Matt had gotten up at 3a and driven in to join
the three of us for some desert peakbagging around Chambless on US66 in the
Mojave Desert. Around 6a we were ready to head out, driving east to Chambless,
a poor, mostly abandoned desert town that once sported a restaurant and other
US66 businesses before Interstate 40 took the traffic away from town. It doesn't
help that US66 had a washout last winter that still hasn't been repaired
(despite the fact that nearby Essex has a Caltrans Station, the only viable
business in that town). We left three vehicle at Chambless, then drove in Matt's
Subaru around the Closed signs heading west about a mile to find our
dirt road heading north.
Marble Mtns
The range is located between I-40 and US66. It's highpoint is Castle Peak,
found at the north end of the range, near I-40. This morning we were after two
summits in the lower part of the range, both with more than 500ft of prominence.
The access road we used was not the best option in hindsight, but it worked
well enough to get us within a couple miles of both summit, making for a 6mi
loop with 2,600ft of gain. We spent a little over an hour finding our way to
Marble BM, a mile and a half to the northeast. The hike started with some
across the flats, followed by a climb up
with some fun class 3 in the
last 20min. Ahead of the others by about 5min, I took the time to reconstruct
the dilapidated found at t, a new hobby
I've discovered. Andy Smatko and Wes Shelberg had left a register here
, now extremely brittle, with a second register provided by
three years later, showing only
of entries since.
The highlight of the day was between Marble BM and Peak
2,588ft to the northwest, an interesting that would
take us most of the next two hours. There were odd finds along the way,
including and a township .
upon , I was looking for a descent
route, the most direct being down into an intricately
eroded canyon with steep slopes and narrow channels. Without being
able to see the entire route, it was impossible to discern if there were
troublesome dropoffs to be encountered, but it seemed like it ought to
work. Iris and Matt were game to give it a go but Karl balked, preferring to
head back along the ridge some distance before dropping into what he thought a
safer and surer option. turned out to be just fine, a few
tight spots where the with small drops, but nothing
more than . We found of a young bighorn that
looked to have fallen to its demise in canyon. We imagined the poor thing
whimpering
with a broken leg after a fall, eventually abandoned by its companions and
succumbing to the buzzards, coyotes and other hungry critters of the desert. We
met up with Karl again somewhat unexpectedly as our routes converged - not that
we shouldn't have expected him, just that we'd sort of forgotten about
him over the past hour since we'd separated. Easy walking in
system and some old roads to the Subaru shortly after
noon. Good fun, this one.
Cadiz Dunes Wilderness HP
15mi (or so) south of Chambless are the Cadiz Dunes, the smaller cousin of the
more impressive Kelso Dunes found between I-40 and I-15 to the north. The dunes
sit low in a depression called Cadiz Valley and because the extent of the
Wilderness boundary,
is found well away from the dunes at a very
boring corner that is nearly flat and has no prominence whatsoever. We
were heading to the Kilbeck Hills nearby, so this one was a freebie on our way
south from Chambless and Cadiz along sandy Cadiz Rd. The road is in decent,
but not great shape, and with some minor washouts along the way it was
fortunate that we had Matt's 4WD vehicle. We turned off Cadiz Rd at an unsigned
junction north of Kilbeck Hills, stopping first to search out the Wilderness
HP located somewhere near this junction. We went to the point indicated on LoJ,
but found no register from one of the previous visitors like Carey, Baxter or
the Henneys like we might have expected. It ended up being pretty much a dud,
as we kicked up sand and poked around some scrub before calling it done.
Kilbeck Hills HP
We continued southwest and south on the unsigned spur road for about 4mi before
at a fork in the road. The topo map shows the road continuing south
for several more miles and offering a closer approach, but the satellite view
shows this road petering out in a sea of sand that looks a bit dicey for
standard vehicles. We were 2.5mi from the highpoint we were after, and since
it was only 1:45p, we would have plenty of daylight to get there and back - no
need to risk the closer drive. The hike was very much unlike the morning one,
and rather mediocre, at best. There was just to sap one's
strength and none of the interesting scrambling we had enjoyed in the morning.
The first two miles are a low-angle climb up , gaining
about 300ft before steepening to climb an additional 500ft in
. It did have a few redeeming qualities, including
, I could reconstruct and a
Smatko/Yates register . There was also a newer one placed by
the San Diego Trio (Carey/Adrian/Hanna) . Ours marked only the
third party in almost 50yrs - not bad! We returned via much the same route,
easier now through the sand with gravity on our side, to
our vehicle not long after 4p. We still had more than an hour to drive back to
Chambless, the sun setting during this time. Once we had
collected the other vehicles, we reconvened another hour later near Essex at a
campsite off Essex Rd we'd picked out ahead of time. US66 was closed between
Chambless and Essex, which made for the longer drive around on I-40, but we
still had plenty of time for Matt to exercise his . Pigs in
a blanket and sausage kabobs - much better than our usual soup!
Matt's Video
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