Continued...
Peak 3,503ft
Our third and last day in the Bristol Mountains had us looking at one of two
P900s in the range left undone. They were too far apart to consider doing both
together, so it was a choice of doing the longer hike to fill most of the day
or do the shorter one and head home earlier. With only two days before I was
flying to Maui, I picked the shorter option since I still had a lot to do
before I would be ready for the month-long adventure on the Islands. Peak
3,503ft lies in the center of the Kelso Dunes Wilderness which oddly doesn't
include any actual part of the Kelso Dunes but rather the northern half of
the Bristol Mountains. Tom drove the three of us in his Jeep Wrangler which
Karl and I couldn't help but remark was
far more comfortable than the
much older CJ he had previously. The two roads we took, Cruceros Rd heading
north and the pipeline road heading east were in good condition but subject
to blowing sand that leaves a few sections rather sandy. It wasn't clear that
a high-clearance 2WD would be up to the task and we were happy not to be
subjected to such experimentation.
From where we parked on the pipeline road under one of the transmission
towers that parallel the pipeline, our peak was about 3mi
,
mostly across the benign desert flats before reaching the small collection
of hills of which our peak was the highest. It is visible from the start
as the rightmost peak on the skyline, but at the time we weren't exactly
sure since there is another point to the west that is nearly as high. We
spent about 45min crossing the flats, sparsely vegetated and easy walking
before starting up one of several
emanating from the mountain
slopes. Our choice was hardly ideal, taking us closer to the
before it was obvious from our GPSr that our destination was
.
We decided to go up and over the other peak since it was now
more or less on our way following a ridgeline up and over it to the higher
peak. We were a little surprised how close in elevation the two were when
we finally reached ,
about 30ft or so. Another 20min to the highpoint,
none of the hike more than and fairly tame.
We found a register left by John Vitz ,
ours making the second entry. From the summit it was obvious
to us that we had not taken the best route. Almost
from where
we stood we could see a far more direct wash that would take us out to the
service road in that direction. As the guy responsible for finding these
things out ahead of time, I had done a poor job on this one but no one
seemed to be complaining - much. The weather today was far nicer than the
past few days when winds had kept us chilled for much of the time. We
relaxed in the warm sun, eating snacks and the usual summit banter. Once
ready to head back, we shouldered our packs and started down the steep
to the wash system below, again no more than class 2. The wash
itself was about as friendly as one can find - the route was almost
direct, free of brush in the gravel-lined washbed, and no surprises in the
way of dry waterfalls or other obstacles. Once out of the wash, it was
more for about 40min to get back
before noon.
Sand Hill
Back in Ludlow, Tom dropped us off at the Dairy Queen before saying goodbye
and heading home. Karl was going to stay another day and planned to climb
nearby Sleeping Beauty after leaving Ludlow. We got to talking about Sand
Hill which we knew to be very close by, and it wasn't hard to talk him
into going over to tag in on the south side of the highway. After finding
our way to Route 66 on the other side of I-40, we drove the short distance
to Sand Hill, a good dirt road making it easy to drive within about 50ft of
the summit, sandwiched between the exceedingly modest summit and the
railroad tracks that run next to it. This seems to be a major thoroughfare
of rail service as we found one train , another screaming
by us to the west as we got out of our cars. The sound was thundering, the
ground shook and we almost expected the trains to suck us into the vacuum
they created at such close range. We climbed the 20ft or so of elevation
required to reach , as easy a summit as one can find without it
being an actual drive-up.
came by as we returned to our cars a few minutes later - busy place indeed.
Black Butte
Saying goodbye, I left Karl to get back on the Interstate to start for home.
Karl would go on to bag Sleeping Beauty and Pisgah Crater in the afternoon.
As I was heading west, my thoughts turned to my arch-nemisis, Laura Newman.
In looking over a number of named summits days earlier, I noticed a small
bump named Black Butte east of Barstow at Newberry Springs. Had anyone
registered climbs on peakbagger.com, I wondered? Laura had. Here was yet
another California peak she had beaten me to, an unacceptable affront that
could not go unanswered. I exited at Newberry Springs and found my way to
the southwest side of (and really, that's all it is, a small
rounded bump rising up from the desert floor about 100ft). There are some
forlorn-looking homes sprinkled around the side roads south of Black Butte
and one very newish-looking church. Where just off the road
was some of the usual litter that seems to collect around such desert
communities, but I was happy to see it was significantly less than other
places in the Mojave. The climb takes but five minutes to reach the rocky,
rounded summit. I found no register (I had secretly hoped Laura had left
one I might pollute with my scrawl) and not much in the way of
. Most prominent are the Newberry Mountains which rise sharply
to across
the interstate. Newberry Peak is less than a mile and a half from the highway
but rises up almost 2,000ft from the surrounding desert. It's overshadowed
by the higher summits rising behind it, but still makes a worthwhile
objective if one has a few hours' time. Running out of time today, I would
have to leave it for another day. Hopefully I won't find that Laura has
beaten me to that one as well...