Dec 4, 2022
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Today's outing included half a dozen summits in the Ship Mountains, SE of Cadiz. I had climbed the highpoint of this small range a decade earlier, then promptly gave it no further consideration. Seems that what most folks do. The Sierra Club gives it no love at all, skipping it completely for their DPS list. The US Congress gave it no love, either - none of the range is found within Wilderness area though it seems it could easily qualify. The first two peaks are isolated summits found on the north side of the range. The other four are found in the eastern part of the range.
My eastern descent off Peak 2,667ft took me down a curving gully going by the west side of the next summit, Peak 2,109ft. I climbed up to a low saddle west of the summit, then up the rocky NW Ridge. These last two summits were yet a different type of rock, volcanic rock covered in desert varnish. This made for better climbing than Peak 2,667ft, but not by much. After reaching Peak 2,109ft's highpoint, I descended the north side down steep slopes to reach the wash system below. I would spend about 30min following this northwest and north from one drainage into another. I approached the last summit, Peak 2,214ft from the southwest, utilizing an old mining road that climbed halfway up the slope to a prospect shown on the topo map. I continued past this to a saddle south of Peak 2,214ft's summit, then up to the top over more of the dark volcanic rock. This summit has more than 500ft of prominence. The much larger Old Woman Mtns can be seen in profile to the east. Old Woman Statue could be clearly seen, though it is almost 12mi away. I left my third and last register on this summit before descending steeply down the northwest side directly below the highpoint. After reaching easier ground below, I turned WNW to cross the broad wash to the Vulcan Mine on the other side where I had parked the Jeep.
I was done before 2p, but ready to call it a day. I would drive back out to the utility road and a short distance towards the Old Woman Mtns where I planned to hike the next day. I found a nice campspot on the north side of the range overlooking Fenner Valley that had cell service. This would do nicely for the rest of the afternoon and evening...
Continued...
This page last updated: Thu Dec 22 17:05:10 2022
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