Continued...
Day 2 in Nevada was completely unplanned. I had spied Ward Mtn, a P2K, late
the previous day and decided to pay it a visit. Atop Ward, I spied Egan BM,
another P2K, about 10mi
further south. So instead of heading into Utah today as I'd
planned, I spent the day in the Egan Range that runs north and south from Ely,
NV. And then I got the idea to head to South Schell the next day, so I'd spend
yet another day in the area. Sometimes that's the way it goes when you don't
have to be anywhere in particular.
Ward Mtn/Hamels Peak
PB has various TRs suggesting that this one
might be a drive-up if one
is adequately equipped. I decided I was and drove up after I'd left Ely for the
evening. Most of the drive
had sufficient light, but the last 45min was in the dark,
a fun exercise in driving the jeep on rough roads by headlight. The
was steep and loose, stalling the jeep in 4H. I switched to 4L and had
to lock the rear wheels to get enough traction to make it to the top. I had
hoped to camp at the summit, almost 11,000ft in elevation, as a way to beat the
90F heat back in Ely. The temp was cooler, about 66F at the summit, but I found
no flat areas to camp. My car was perched at the edge of the summit with
highbeams shining out into the nightsky to the east. The lights of Ely could be
seen to the north and I wondered if my car could be spotted from below - it
would seem odd, I'm sure.
I ended up driving half a mile back down the road before
I found a suitable location to spend the night. It did not take long to arrange
my bedding and settle down for the night. It was still warm inside so I left
the doors ajar until well into the night when things cooled. In
I walked the half mile distance back up to
so that I could take some about half
an hour after .
The temp had dipped to 53F overnight, but it hardly
required a jacket after the brisk climb. The summit is rather blase - a small
antennae is enclosed in a fence at the very top, a few sawed-off poles to one
side. No register, no benchmark that I could find. though.
From the summit I spied Hamels Peak to the south a few miles which looked to
make for a nice ridgeline hike. I walked back
and
down the road further where it was more suitable to access the ridgeline to
Hamels. I was in no hurry to drive back down to the valleys with more heat on
tap, so I enjoyed the hour I spent walking the ridge (with a nice breeze
blowing over from the west) to the and .
No trail, but no
bushwhacking, either, just your standard Great Basin sage and pinyon/juniper
forest.
Egan BM/Peak 10,042ft/Peak 9,558ft
The drive to Egan BM is quite long, taking me almost 2hrs from the time I had
around 7:15a.
I used Google Maps to get me to the high
saddle from the north, the only error when it tried to get me to drive through
the
(they dead-end). There's an easy way around just to the
south, but the road is pretty rough without high-clearance. As Eric Kassan
pointed out in his TR on PB, the route is
and I enjoyed it a good deal, especially the two
on the way up to the saddle. After such
a long drive, I decided I should spend more time up in this lovely area instead
of just doing a surgical strike on Egan BM. The two nearest summits would make
for a nice loop that would keep me busy for about three hours.
Egan BM is about 1.5mi from
I parked at, but it's possible to drive
to within a mile on a spur road. I followed this spur road from the saddle,
then sidehilled on
of the crest from where the road ended, slowly
making my way up to the crest. It took about 45min to make my way to
of Egan BM, the last 20ft or so some easy class 3 scrambling on limestone (most
of the Egan Range appears to be limestone from what I've seen). There was the
expected
and a Gordon/Barbara register . Almost all of the
names on the seven pages were the usual collection of prominence peakbaggers
with a few locals for added flavor. I found my via a slight
variation to the spur road I had hiked up, then struck off to the northwest for
, a climb of more than 750ft. Like most of the day's
hikes, the
footing was decent despite the steepness and gravelly slopes - limestone holds
together much better than most other rocks, even when reduced to talus and
gravel. From the second peak, I descended
into the canyon I'd driven up,
which separates Peak 10,042ft from Peak 9,558ft. This meant a little more
elevation loss & gain, but it was shorter than returning first to the saddle
where I'd parked.
The quart of Gatorade I'd brought with me would work nicely for the three peaks.
The last summit wasn't as nice as the other two, not surprising since it's
almost 500ft lower. The climb up from the west was a bit steep and loose, but
helped by a deer trail I found zigzagging its way up. The hike off
to
was a pleasant ridge stroll, and shortly after noon I .
Bristlecone Wilderness HP
I drove back down to Ely where I considered what to do for the rest of the
afternoon. I hit upon a peak to the north in the range that is the highpoint
of the Bristlecone Wilderness and a P1K. Eric Kassan had again provided a
useful GPX track and TR on PB which I availed myself of. My route was only a
slight variation on it - I
at Toner Spring just to the south, figuring
it would make for less traversing across the west slopes to avoid the cliffy
ridge Eric mentions. It was 90F when I started at over 7,500ft and it didn't
take long for the heat to sap much of my remaining energy stores. That, and the
relentlessly steep slope that climbs 1,800ft, with lots of meandering to avoid
getting blocked by brush and trees that were heavier here than on the other
peaks. It would take me about an hour and 20min to cover the 1.5mi distance to
with a much-needed
about halfway up the slope. Eric had left the register at the summit
, with John Ide and Richard Carey visiting in
the interim, both of them in the last month. The descent went faster,
naturally, getting me
by 5p with the temperature having inched up to 93F
in my absence. I need higher elevations, me thinks. Back to Ely to make plans
for South Schell the next day...