Nov 12, 2023
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With: | Iris Ma |
Tom Grundy |
Our last day in the Pahrump area saw us going after the remaining two P1Ks that we hadn't gotten to so far. We were camped north of town on the west side of SR160. I would be heading home at the end of the day while my companions would hang around the area for another day before Iris had to catch a plan out of Las Vegas.
We next turned southwest to follow the connecting ridgeline to Peak 3,986ft for about 1.5mi, a delightful exercise in mostly easy hiking. traversed around several intermediate bumps, using sheep trails where we could to make things easier. It would take around an hour to get between the two summits. Peak 3,986ft's summit had a cairn but no register, so we left one while we took a nice break. We didn't really know the best way to return to the Jeep, and our track shows as much. We started by reversing more than half the ridgeline back towards the range HP before I decided to steer our party onto a more direct return. We went down a ridge west of the South Ridge, then skirted around the toe of the South Ridge, and then more traversing into the drainage in which the Jeep was parked. Future parties are advised to find a better way back. Tom found an old pickaxe on the crest during our return (somehow we missed it on the way to Peak 3,986ft) and played around with it some before deciding to pack it up and bring it back for a souvenier. Maybe it will become the centerpiece of Tom's Old West Museum that he plans to develop back in Bishop. We spent about 3.5hrs on effort for the two summits.
Iris and I reversed the route we'd taken on ascent, finding it probably the easiest route available. It would take us just about as long to get down as it did up, thanks to our flagging energies, and it would be 3:30p before we returned to the Jeep. We drove back east towards the highway, driving slowly when we we were northwest of North Last Chance, scouring the slopes for signs of movement. This went on for about five minutes until we were at the mouth of the drainage emptying due north of the summit, where Tom reached the roadway only 10 seconds before we reached that point - excellent timing! We drove back to camp and said our goodbyes. I drove a short distance further to take a shower, then begin the long drive back to San Jose.
I wouldn't make it back to San Jose tonight, but I did manage to drive across Death Valley National Park and as far as Jawbone Canyon along SR14 in California. I would drive the remaining distance home in the morning after unsuccessfully trying to reach some peaks up Jawbone Canyon that are now closed due to windmill operations - grrr...
This page last updated: Mon Nov 20 17:44:13 2023
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