Thu, Dec 13, 2018
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Etymology |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 | GPX | Profile |
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Brown BM previously climbed Sun, Dec 8, 2013 |
Day 13 of my desert roadtrip was set aside for some unfinished business.
Brown Mtn is a P2K in the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, a sprawling
military reservation south of Death Valley National Park. What need would
the Navy have for desert realstate is answered in their name - a fun
place to blow stuff up. Most of the testing occurs in the western half
of the reservation while the eastern portion, which includes Brown Mtn,
seems to have been used for aerial warfare exercises. Casings and clips
from 50 calibre shells can be found scattered about the place. Nothing
looks to have been actually used for bombing practice outside a few
designated aerial target areas in some of the remote valleys. There's
no easy way to get to Brown Mtn, with the shortest approach about 8mi
from the east. An unpaved NPS road runs some 40mi from SR127
north of Baker, CA to the park/reservation boundary to the west. The
first 23mi of this road are in excellent condition, leading to a gate
on the north side of Ft. Irwin (an army reservation adjacent to China
Lake on its east side). After this point, the road becomes rougher, but
never too rough - any high-clearance vehicle should be able to
navigate it. Periodic washouts and old ruts can keep it challenging,
however. I had driven this road some years ago with Adam when we climbed
what we thought was Brown Mtn. It was only upon returning home
and looking more closely at the maps that I discovered we'd climbed to
the nearby benchmark instead. The true highpoint is another quarter mile
to the west, an easy 10-15min walk, but somehow it never occurred to us
that the other point was worth considering - after all, we'd found the
benchmark and a large cairn. In true obsessive fashion, I couldn't call
that good enough and let it go, so back I came. I drove the 40mi in a
little under 2hrs the night before, camping at the turnout where the road
turns north (towards Owl BM) and an old road continues east to the
reservation. I was up before 5:30a, warmed the jeep, breakfasted, and
was finally on my way around 6a.
I walked down the old road, now used primarily by the ferral burros and
horses, about 1.2mi to the Davis gate on the eastern boundary of
the reservation. The road continues on the other side of the gate
down to a
north-south road in about 0.6mi. This other road
appears to see only
occasional traffic, judging by the faint tread markings on the road. I
continued west across the road, cross-country over easy,
pleasant terrain, aiming for Brown Mtn, easily visible before me. The
ground is fairly flat with few washes to cross until one is north of
the Crystal Hills and nearing the base of Brown Mtn. Here there are a
number of washes to cross, a few of them 20-30ft deep, but none really
difficult. The sun came up while I was working my way across this wash
system, first lighting up Brown Mtn to
the west, then Crystal
Hills to
the north, then the desert flats around me when it
finally crested the eastern ridgeline.
Once at the base of Brown Mtn on its northeast side, I was still almost
three miles from the summit. There is significant gain, more than 2,200ft
of it, but the ridgeline is fairly moderate for the ascent. It
makes for an
enjoyable climb with
fine views overlooking
a vast array of mountains
and valleys, even if there's no real scrambling anywhere on the route. It
was after 9a when I finally reached the summit, this time homing in on the
correct point to the west. There was a small cairn with a register left
in 2003 by a couple of San Diego peakbaggers. The three pages
were taken up
by a collection from the usual suspects, though most chose to obfuscate
their real names (I think I was able to guess all of them). Other notable
peaks within the military bases could be discerned - Straw Peak to
the southwest, Pilot Knob and Eagle Crags to
the south,
Tiefort to the southeast. The Panamint Range within the national park
rises high to
the north. The Slate Range is seen to
the northwest with the snowy Sierra
behind it in the distance. There was snow to the east atop Mt.
Charleston in Nevada, the furthest that could be seen in that direction.
For old times sake, I paid a visit to the large cairn and
benchmark atop
Brown BM to the east before heading back down the same series of ridges I
had ascended. Once at the base, I
continued northeast
instead of turning
east, so that I could pay a visit to the Crystal Hills. These hills are
mostly piles of volcanic rubble, but there are some
colorful strata that
look to offer prospectors untold riches. Nothing seems to have come of
it besides a few
cairns
and a few holes left by these hardy men of a
bygone age. At
the summit I found
another register
left by the same
party that had left the one on Brown Mtn, only a day earlier. No one else
had bothered to sign this lonely register until my arrival. I descended
the highpoint to the southeast, making a beeline across the desert flats
for
the Davis gate
where I rejoined my original route. Another half hour
of slow uphill walking (I was getting tired now after more than 15mi) got
me
back to the jeep by 1p.
It was still early, but I had been on the go
nearly continuously for almost seven hours. I decided to take it easy the
rest of the day and maybe attempt to shave off this scruff that's been
growing on my face these past two weeks...
Continued...
This page last updated: Mon Dec 17 08:18:49 2018
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