Mar 18, 2018
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With: | Karl Fieberling |
We hiked the road a short distance before crossing a wash and starting up rocky slopes to the west. Our first effort was to reach Peak 1,925ft about a mile from the car, more or less on our way to Chuckwalla BM further west. The terrain is all volcanic, desert varnished rock that made for modestly fun scrambling along the class 2-3 ridgeline. No real exposure or serious scrambling, but enough for us to take 45min to go a mile. We left a register at this nice little peak before continuing an additional 1/3mi to Chuckwalla BM, another half hour's effort. The benchmark appears to be buried under some summit rocks and the remains of a survey tower, neither of us caring enough to dig it out. I took a photo of one of the reference marks as consolation. There was a Gordon/Barbara register from 1979 with five other entries since, the most recent in 2009 by Bob Greer. The summit has fine views overlooking the surrounding low desert ranges and plains that inhabit this part of the California desert. We descended to the southeast to drop into a small valley that appears to make for a nice loop. The descent down the wash was a bit tedious and not nearly as good as the ascent route, but it worked well enough without any real difficulties. Upon emerging back near the road on the south side of the pass, we decided to continue across the road to climb Peak 1,414ft, another half mile to the east. This, too, was a decent little peak and worth the effort since we were in the area. We left a register here before descending back down a different ridge that would conveniently lead to where we had parked the car. It wasn't yet noon, but that would do it for us today. We drove back to the interstate where we'd left the van, then said our goodbyes. I planned to drive to Blythe to spend the rest of the day which was turning out to be a warm one.
Continued...
This page last updated: Sun Mar 18 15:29:58 2018
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