May 11, 2014
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Etymology Horse BM |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 3 | GPXs: 1 2 | Profiles: 1 2 | |
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The first match of the tournament's second day was scheduled for 9:30a, so if I was going to get some hiking in before sitting around on my arse, it would have to be a quick one. A perusal of the SummitPost offerings in the area came up with Canoe Hill on the outskirts of Sparks.
I followed a powerline road up from my parking spot along Long Valley Rd, heading south to a shallow gap north of Pt. 6,776ft where the road forks several times in a high flat area west of Rocky Peak. From here I proceeded cross-country through modest brush to the 7,082-foot summit of Rocky Peak on the main crest. As the name implies, the summit is an unusually (for the range) rocky prominence that offers some class 2-3 scrambling, the most interesting peak of the afternoon. It took about 45min to reach this first summit. I dropped off the east side to continue on the crest, now open to views off both sides. The better views were to the south and east where the range drops dramatically more than 2,000ft to US50 and the Carson Plains. The hiking is fairly easy over the entire crest. The range is lightly vegetated and presents no serious obstacles. I went over antenna-topped Pt. 6,963ft, finding an old prospector's shovel on my way to Horse BM, about 40min NE of Rocky Peak. Aside from the 1949 benchmark, there was little else to this summit.
Another 45min to the NE is the twin summits of Tibbie Peak. The highpoint is the east summit where an old survey tower still stands and a mis-labeled (TIBBLE) 1951 benchmark. A 4-foot cross made of broken rock is found just below the summit, purpose unknown. About a mile north of Tibbie I unexpectedly picked up an old road running along the crest most of the way to the range highpoint. Not shown on the topo map, this road made a fairly easy hike even easier, giving me more time to look around as I went along without having to focus so much on the ground in front of me. The road stopped just below the range highpoint. There are two competing contour areas so I visited both, but the north summit with the benchmark, spot elevation and register appears to be the higher of the two. Placed by Brian Kalet in 2008, it had only a few pages filled since then. Bob Sumner was the last to visit some 3.5yrs earlier. Looking west from the summit, I could see the road down below, about 3/4mi distance. It took only about 20min to drop down through the juniper and pine forest that occupies much of the landscape here, landing on the road. The road appears to see almost no traffic. Passing through several gates along the way, it eventually leads back out to Long Valley and my car where I arrived at 7:30p, not long before sunset. At just 4.5hrs, the outing went faster and far more smoothly than I had expected. It would leave me plenty of time to shower, drive back to Reno for dinner, and then on to the staging area for the next day's adventure...
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Canoe Hill - Rocky Peak - Horse BM - Tibbie Peak - Flowery Range HP
This page last updated: Thu Apr 26 16:08:42 2018
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