I had driven northwest out of Blythe the night before, about 22mi to the end of
the pavement along Midland Rd. The defunct mining town at the end of the road
is signed for private property and there is at least one full-time resident. I
camped outside the signed area and in the morning was greeted by barking dogs
that had come out to investigate this intruder. I had hoped to drive a mile or
two in along the dirt road to do some peaks on the east end of the Little Maria
Mtns, but decided against that approach when the dogs arrived. Instead, I went
to the pass on 
dirt Rice-Midland Rd about a mile away. This well-graded
road goes all the way north to SR62, forking off Midland Rd just before the
pavement ends. This would add some miles to my outing and keep me from getting
to the second objective of the day on the east side of this pass, but it
mattered little as I had a fine time wandering the desert and scrambling on a
mix of good and bad volcanic and limestone rock. For the third day in a row,
strong winds swept across the landscape, keeping things cool for much of the
day. I wore a fleece for the first few hours, but after that it was sufficiently
warm for just a tshirt.
Sunrise
came shortly after 6:30a, just as I was getting started from the pass.
The first summit, unofficially named Midland Peak, is about 1.4mi west of the
pass, 
the first mile
relatively flat across the basin north of the Midland site.
The south side of the range has been extensively 
prospected and heavily
bulldozed to make roads all over the place. The climb up to Midland Peak from
the southeast was steep class 2, nothing difficult, over mostly broken volcanic
and limestone rock. Gordon and Barbara had left a register
in 2003, without any
other entries until my arrival. This would be replayed in similar fashion on
the next two peaks. The summit of Midland Peak is littered with downed
utility poles, a rusting 
mesh antenna, and other detritus
forgotten now for decades.
The route grows interesting after this as I followed on or near
the crest for
about 3mi. Some of it was a bit spicey and took some care to stay safe. During
this time I started receiving texts from various friends and family wishing me
a happy birthday. It was a bit absurd, stopping every five or ten minutes to
answer one of these, but it was nice to be remembered (even by my children!)
and nice to have cell reception out in this remote range. It took me over two
hours to reach 
the next summit, 
Peak 2,709ft about two miles
away. This, too had a MacLeod/Lilley register, though much older -
from 1987. A 
second page
listed earlier recorded ascents between 1947 and 1983. I'd guess most of those
were employees from the open pit Brown Mine at the peak's
base to the east when the mine was operating.
I had to drop almost 600ft as I continued northwest 
along the crest to
Peak 2,732ft, less than 25ft higher. This third summit is a P1K,
however, and my
primary objective for the day and the reason I picked this outing. The descent
off Peak 2,709ft involved some minor class 3 while the ascent to the last peak
was class 2, taking a little over an hour to traverse 
between the two.
The register I found here had been left by John Vitz 
in 2006.
Looking 
northwest,
the range highpoint was still another 4.5mi away with other interesting summits
in-between, but this was as far as I would go today - time to head back.
I had two choices, it seemed - drop 
east
onto the north side of the range and
work my way back, or drop 
southeast
to the south side of the range and do
similarly. I chose the latter because it was laced with old roads that I might
make use of. I still held out hope that I might get the second hike in, and
thought the southern route would be faster. The active Arlington mine is located
at the base of Peak 2,732ft, a mile and half to the south. Trucks and swirling
dust could be seen in the busy hive of activity and it seemed smart to skirt
the property as best I could. The descent drainage turned out to be class 2,
moderately interesting, with only a few minor dry waterfalls to circumvent.
Upon exiting, I made my way over to one of the old roads and began traversing
along 
the southern base
of the range, using these roads where I could. It turns
out these roads are all owned by the Arlington Mine folks, but currently unused
and I was able to navigate along them undisturbed. The 
main road
I followed
led out to Midland, so in order to avoid rousing the dogs and residences, I
left the road with about 1.7mi to go and skirted north of the site without
getting closer than about half a mile. I was
back to the van at the pass shortly
before 2p. I still had several hours of daylight but was low on energy and
motivation. I decided to shower instead, then head to Blythe for some birthday
dinner...
Continued...