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Day 3 in Nevada had me hiking in the Schell Creek Range, NE of Ely. I had been to the range two years earlier, tagging North Schell, the range highpoint and a P5K, and some others. I had gotten within a mile and a half of South Schell, but left it for a future hike so I could add some others nearby that I didn't have time for on that first visit. There are two other 11,000-footers, one of which is a P900. With temps in Ely hovering around 95F, I wanted to spend some time at higher elevations to avoid the heat. I had driven in on Forest Road 424 the night before, camping around 9,000ft where it was 68F when I went to bed around 10:15p. I had to leave the windows down for the night to let it cool off inside - it's amazing how much residual heat builds up inside when it's this hot out. Everything had cooled nicely by morning with temps around 55F. It would be 77F when I returned after noon, but most of the day had cool temps at the higher elevations above 10,000ft where I spent most of the morning.
I was awake around 5:30a, moving the jeep up the road a bit to the
Wilderness boundary
at 9,400ft. There are some buildings here, part of a ranching concern
that grazes cattle and sheep in the Bery Creek drainage. 2WD vehicles can
drive the first 5mi of FR424 to the Berry Creek Campground, but after that the
road gets rough for the last three miles and high-clearance is needed. I started
up the Berry Creek Trail on foot, following
the trail towards an old prospect on the northeast side of
Peak 10,803ft. There is a nice campsite
with a picnic bench in the woods along the way and the
trail is generally easy to follow. After a mile and a half I seemed to lose
the trail, so I headed up directly to the first peak cross-country,
less than a quarter mile to the southwest. Once on the summit, views
open up across the range and
well beyond. It would grow hazy again soon, but in the early morning the
lighting was still quite nice. I turned east
to begin following the ridgeline
where I would stay above 10,000ft for the next five hours. None of the
cross-country was difficult, though there is much talus, some of it loose and
mildly annoying. For the most part, the hike is extremely pleasant, class 1 for
more than 90% of it, with fine views off one side or
Interestingly, South Schell isn't the highest of the day's peaks, that honor
goes to unnamed Peak 11,768ft about a mile and a half to
the southeast on a
spur ridgeline, only a few feet higher. There is a drop
of more than 900ft
between the two, and it was necessary to traverse it in both directions, a
tiring affair after already doing more than 3,000ft of gain. The route between
the two had the most talus and loose rock of the whole day, requiring extra
time and effort to negotiate. I found no register on the last summit, so
left one of my own since a P900 seemed decidedly worthy of one. After
taking a longish break at the summit,
I retraced most of my route back up to South
Schell, bypassing the highpoint to the south. I descended South Schell's
SE Ridge
to the first saddle, then began a descending traverse
from the crest. This took me through fields of lupine and sagebrush, and down
through a mature aspen forest that was
far easier to negotiate than the typical Sierra aspen grove,
twisted and gnarled from avalanches.
It was 12:30p by the time I returned
to the jeep at the Berry Creek TH, having
spent almost 7hrs on the effort. Though it was still early, my feet and legs
were happy to call it a day.
Plus, thunderstorms were building far earlier
than they had the previous two days, so it seemed a good day to finish early.
Back to Ely I went, where I spent the afternoon
in more leisurely online pursuits...
Continued...
This page last updated: Fri Jul 20 18:41:22 2018
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