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Iris had left us the previous evening, flying to Phoenix for work, leaving Tom
and I to our own devices. We had camped off a dirt road between Jean and
Goodspring in the southern part of the Spring Mtns where we would spent most of
the day. We had had a pretty hard day yesterday, so this was supposed to be
easier. We ended up with more mileage, but about 500ft less elevation gain - at
least I did. Tom went on at the end of the day to tag two other summits that I'd
done previously, so he may not have figured it an easier day.
Good BM - Joshua Peak
This was the easiest of the day's three outing. The summits are located in the
Bird Spring Mtns, a subrange of the Spring Mtns. Our starting point was about a
mile and a quarter from where we'd spent the night. Good BM is a PB-only summit
which I would normally avoid, but it seemed sort of on the way to Joshua Peak, a
summit found in Purcell's
Rambles & Scrambles. We drove a spur road north
to as close as we could get to Good BM on the west side and went up
. The ascent was pretty steep and had some scrambling which
could have been avoided if we'd started from the toe of the ridge as others had
done. It took only 15min with a bit of class 3 to make it to
, which has little prominence. We found
and a register left by a Kevin Humes party from the LVMC
. Joshua Peak is another 3/4mi to the north, and the highpoint of
the ridgeline. There is a small drop along the way, of little consequence, and
we were at 35min later. Kevin had left another
here. After a short break, we dropped southwest off the summit,
all class 2, eventually reaching the spur road that we back to
the Jeep by 8:30a, about and hour and a half for the loop.
Peak 5,187ft - Peak 5,482ft
We next drove north towards Goodspring, turning left at Sandy Valley Rd and
going over the west side of the pass. We were after this pair of unnamed summits
on the north side of the road. We took a spur road to the Kirby Mine just
northeast of Peak 5,187ft. The end of the road is signed for
No Trespassing, evidently the mine is still in private hands, even if no
longer active. We drove in and parked at a turnaround, figuring it was unlikely
the owner would be visiting today. The GPSr said we were only 1/4mi from the
first summit, but it would be of some 900ft. The limestone was
fairly solid, making for a good, albeit . It would take us
50min to work our way to , arriving shortly before 10a. The
second summit was 3/4mi to and 300ft higher, with a 300ft+
drop to a saddle . The terrain was and
we ran into , taking about an hour between summits.
Another summit, Peak 5,387ft, lay to , but the terrain to reach
it looked hard and we knew that Harlan Stockman had only made it partway across
before turning around (judging by his GPX track). We would use the southwest
side approach that others had used some other time. There were no registers on
either of these summits. We headed east and then off an
alternate ridgeline dropping to the Kirby Mine, passing by several smaller
along . From above, Tom spotted a party of
three down below at . Having trekking poles, we figured
they were probably tourists like ourselves out exploring. Such was not the case.
Upon catching up with them on descending from the mine, we
met an elderly gentleman and two younger companions. He was the owner of the
mine, and couldn't help but be a little annoyed at our trespassing. He said he
was the friendliest miner we'd ever meet and he probably wasn't wrong. We
appologied for disturbing his party and property and exchanged a few minutes of
pleasantries before continuing down, now ahead of them. We decided it would be
best to be gone before they got back to , so we wasted no
time in returning to Sandy Valley Rd.
Peak 4,402ft - Peak 4,242ft
This pair is located closer to the border with California, on the east side of
Mesquite Valley. A BLM road forks south from Sandy Valley Rd, used to access a
shooting range on the NE side of Bonanza Hill, and less often by peakbaggers to
access Little Devil, the highest summit in the southern part of the Spring Mtns.
I had been to the area for the latter back in 2015, and a second time a year ago
for a quick summit at the end of the day. This third visit would allow me to
collect two minor summits that had been orphanned, with Tom joining me for these
and then two additional ones I'd already visited. We parked in the wash on the
east side of the first two peaks, making the outing a rough triangle, going up
and down another. We hiked the continuing road for a
short distance before turning southwest and south. The
was mildly brushy, growing less so and steeper as we climbed higher. Some easy
class 3 is found among the rubbly limestone slope as we butted up against
cliffs . We reached Peak 4,402ft in about 45min, with
views to Little Devil to , Mesquite Valley to the west, and
our second summit, Peak 4,242ft to . We left
before heading off on the .
With some and a few intermediate points to go over or
around, it was no walk in the park and would take us a full hour to cover the
mile distance . We left a second atop
Peak 4,242ft.
After a short stay, we , Tom heading to
Bonanza Hill and Peak 3,694ft while I headed east, back to
with the first summit, then dropping northeast into the descent drainage. Most
of a third hour would be spent on , all class 2. Back at the
Jeep not long after 3p, I moved it about a mile to the base of the Singer Mine
on the east side of Peak 3,694ft. It would be about 45min before Tom came back
from his extended adventure, giving me time to write about half of this trip
report while I waited. We then drove back to retrieve his truck and move camp to
the southeast side of Jean, NV, where we planned to hike the next day. I picked
up a 10-pack of White Castle sliders in Jean, having been curious for decades
about this Chicago classic. I was sadly disappointed. I was only able to eat
seven of them before my stomach protested loudly. I gave the remaining three to
Tom, who polished them off with his own meal without much regard - he wasn't
much impressed either. My stomach would continue to protest the rest of the
night, not one of my better sleeps on this roadtrip...
Continued...