Continued...
When we awoke in the morning from our campsite on the south side of Shoshone,
outside Death Valley, Tom announced he was going to skip hiking today in order
to get back home for a work meeting after lunch. That left Karl, Iris and
myself to tool around some low elevation desert summits along SR127 between
Shoshone and Baker. Most of these are found in Courtney Purcell's guidebook,
Rambles & Scrambles, none of them particularly difficult.
Ring BM
This summit with 890ft of prominence is found in the southern part of the
Resting Springs Range, east of Shoshone. SR178, called the Charles Brown Hwy
between Shoshone and Pahrump, conveniently cuts across the range just north
of Ring BM. The Charles Brown referred to here is not the famous cartoon
character by Charles Shulz, but rather the founder of Shoshone and member of
the state legislature in the early part of the last century. There is a rough
road that goes partway up the mountain to a prospect on the east side of the
range, but it falls within the Nopah Range Wilderness and cannot be driven.
Not knowing ahead of time about this road which can be nicely used for foot
traffic, we started about a mile north of the summit. The
rock is primarily limestone and makes for good scrambling, a pleasant enough
hike along the . Having started
around 7a, we took about 45min to reach under partially
overcast skies. We found as expected, but no register.
used all of her newly acquired to
make a suitable home for the new register we left before heading
. The old road we used on the way down proved quicker,
but perhaps not as scenic as the ridge route.
Old Spanish Mtn
This summit, located in the southern part of the Nopah Range, was unofficially
named for the Old Spanish Hwy that cuts across Chicago Valley and the Nopah
range on its way from Tecopa to Pahrump through California Valley. From where
we parked about a mile and a half south of the summit where the road goes over
a pass, the Old Spanish Trail cuts across the range just to the north. One can
still follow this old trail which has placed periodically along
it. A high-clearance vehicle can drive the portion of spur road
from the pavement a little higher to the
. From there it is a
cross-country route along the connecting ridgeline across the Old Spanish
Trail and up the Southeast side of Old Spanish Mtn. As with most of the
Resting Springs and Nopah ranges, the rock is primarily limestone and makes for
decent scrambling. We spent almost two hours on the venture. For some odd
reason, I didn't take any pictures after we passed by the Old Spanish Trail
marker.
Salt Spring Hills
This small collection of hills lies among the Dumont Dunes along SR127,
acting as the dividing line between Death Valley and Silurian Valley. There are
four summits, all of which I hoped to visit. Karl would join us for just the
northernmost of these, an unnamed point with more than 750ft of prominence. We
drove together in his Honda Element onto the the Little Dumont Dunes found on
the west side of the range. Across the suprisingly stable dunes, he was able to
drive us to within half a mile of the summit which rose above us to the
northeast. A very steep road continues up from there but it would take a far
beefier vehicle to manage that part. Instead, we and
hiked up the road to its end, then on of sorts to the
crest, and finally to in
about 30 minutes' time. After spending a short time at the summit we walked
back and bade goodbye to Karl as he headed down to his
car. Iris and I would along the crest to tag the next two
summits before returning to our cars where they were parked along the highway
near Athel Hill.
We spent about an hour on the 1.5mi stretch between the north summit and
, most of the route an easy stroll along the low ridgeline with
a final steep ascent up to the top. There was a register left
by a CSU Chico geology class, with subsequent entries by other classes from 2015
and 2016. In the midst of all these geology field studies was an entry from Mark
McCormick, the only peakbagger to sign it until we arrived. We spent a second
hour traversing southwest to , the lowest of the bunch, then
dropped down the south side to meet up with a
where it crosses at a seasonal spring. There are tall, dry
here and some (for the desert,
anyway) with a couple of picnic benches underneath. The trail led us back to
the just off the road where our cars were parked.
By now it was 3:15p and time for Iris to be heading home. There was still the
on the other side of the road to climb which I was
somewhat ambivalent about doing today, now that I was gettig tired. With Iris's
encouragement, I resolved to finish it off, first driving about a mile south on
the road before . I was glad I did because it was a very
pleasant time of day to be out with the sun low in the sky and the
more acccentuated. I reached the top in under an
hour, finding left by Mark Adrian and Gail Hanna in
1997. Rather than return along the North Ridge I had ascended, I
into on that side that would make
for an easier return in the failing light. by 5:15p, it
made for a long but enjoyable day. I had
thought I would drive into Baker for dinner that night but noticed there was
another peak in the area still 10mi north of Baker that I was interested in for
the next day. So I instead drove the van south only as far as Silver Lake before
turning east on a sandy BLM road which I drove for a mile and a half. I had
soup and other food that I had been carrying around in the car for a week but
had so far gone unused. Mmmmm. More
hot chocolate with the remaining irish cream, too. Slept like a baby in the
back of the van far from the truck noise back on the highway. A delightful
sleep in the desert, indeed...
Continued...