Continued...
It was the last of a five day road trip as I found myself camped in the van
once again, parked at the Schulman Grove at the end of the paved portion of
the White Mountain Road. Laura was in her Honda Element next door, the two of
us here to chase a handful of 10,000-foot summits in the White Mountains. To
be clear, we were here for that reason because I was the OCD peakbagger,
Laura was along for the ride because she loves being in the White Mountains.
The expected weather system had moved in during the night, and though it had
dropped no precipitation as yet, we were buried in a fog of clouds that were
blowing across the range. Our views today would be severely limited, but at
least it was dry out, for now.
Peak 10,620ft / Peak 10,340ft
Less than a mile apart, these two summits are located atop the headwaters of
Wyman Creek, east of the main crest and a few miles north of Schulman Grove. It
was a short drive out on White Mtn Rd, then a short detour down the dirt Wyman
Creek Rd to our starting point, about 3/4mi from both summits.
We could almost as easily just started from
White Mtn Rd (which I would have done with the van) but since we had the extra
clearance of Laura's Truck of Fun, we took advantage of it. There is only modest
brush encountered for both summits, found in the that must
first be crossed to reach the base of our summits. A light rain had started
even before we got out of the car, prompting us to don our rain jackets. We
made our way across the shallow valley, picking our way through the brush with
high steps, wondering if the rain was just getting started. It was coming down
heavier as we covered about half the distance, and once we reached the first
of the bristlecones found on the higher slopes, we sought shelter under them to
wait for the rain to let up some. We laughed at each other, hiding under
separate trees about , fairly certain by this time that this
wasn't our brightest decision. The rain did let up some, so we continued up,
but it would remain touch and go the rest of the morning.
It took 45min to reach the summit of Peak 10,620ft where we found another Greg
Gerlach , nearly identical to the two we found the other day -
loose pages stapled together with Bob Sumner's entry as the only one since
Greg's visit earlier in the summer. Surprisingly there were some views,
to Silver Peak and to Blanco Mtn, but no far
views with the enveloping clouds. Laura decided to head back to the car while I
tackled the second peak, accomplished in about 30min after dropping down to the
drainage between them. I avoided the brush by staying to edge of the forest,
then climbing steeply up to after I had crossed the dry
creekbed. I found a fourth here, a seemingly photocopied
version of the others. I and followed the ridge down to the
brown meadow below, to Laura's
vehicle in about 20min. I spied her making her way to the Truck of Fun about
10min ahead of me, so at least she didn't have to wait long.
Peak 10,940ft
Next up was a visit to Peak 10,940ft, about a mile to the south, halfway back
to Schulman Grove. The rain was picking up again, windshield wipers going, our
luck seeming to have run out. I was guessing it was another temporary shower,
but my optimism was not shared by Laura. When she asked, "Well, what should we
do?" I responded with, "Let's go for it!", after which
we got out during a short lull to
give it a go. As soon as we opened the door we were hit by heavier rain mixed
with slush, a most unpleasant combination. Laura laughed as we both dove back
into the car. I had to admit this one might better be left for another time,
so back to Schulman Grove we went.
Peak 10,660ft
Once we got back to the we decided to do a last hike up
to Peak 10,660ft, most of which would be on trail. This would make it easier for
Laura, not sporting a map or GPSr, to get back to the start should we get
separated again with clouds the mountain. There are more
trees for
shelter here too, so we didn't mind doing this with a light rain falling. I
had another, less-deserving reason for wanting to do this one - aside
from the 10K summit at the highpoint, there were half a dozen other minor
points on peakbagger.com that I could tag. We made our way along the
, which follows south just above the road to, of all
places, the Mexican Mine. It never panned out as a profitable venture though
several
were built and a modest amount of ore extracted. Fortunately the large-scale
operation that was planned at one point never materialized. As we were
inspecting the mine ruins, Laura said she wasn't feeling well and planned to
bypass the summit, staying on the trail for the short loop back to the Visitor
Center. So I went off and tagged the various points, wandering about in a sea
of fog, not really sure exactly where I was even with the GPSr. I landed on
where I found ,
though I thought I was on the lower
Mexican Mine Peak. I headed off down a ridge thinking I was on my way to the
higher point before realizing I had screwed up. I went back up, tagged a few
of the peakbagger points I had missed, went back over Mexican Mine Peak (which
I didn't realize the first time) marked by a small ,
and eventually back down to after descending cross-country
to find it. I got back to the shortly after noon by
which time I was done.
With Tioga Pass closed from this current storm, I had a very long drive back
to San Jose, more than 8hrs worth. We bade goodbye until future adventures,
then I started the long drive home...