Thu, Dec 17, 2020
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Etymology |
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I went over a fence on the north side of the road (I'm not sure why it
there as it's BLM land, but I suspect there are grazing rights and this keeps
the cattle off the road), then started up the gently sloped hillsides heading
northwest. Peak 1,593ft was a little over a mile away in that direction, about
900ft above the road level. The cross-country travel here is
very easy
as
the hills are almost entirely grass-covered with very little brush
and no trees. Some old bottles, shell casings and other detritus
can be found, evidence of hunters who most commonly visit these areas.
Some rain showers hit me within about 10min, a last weak effort of the overhead
clouds to lighten their load before moving across the Central Valley and into
the Sierra Nevada. I quickly donned a rain jacket and covered my pack, but my
pants and boots got pretty wet.
My boots began to pick up some sticky
mud, but thankfully that didn't last very long. My pants would be dry by the
time I reached the first summit, but my boots would stay wet for most of the
outing.
The highpoint of Peak 1,593ft is an open, rounded bump, one of many along the
ridge I traveled towards Peak 1,634ft. I reached the summit an hour after I had
started out, the sky now beginning to clear, with dark
clouds
retreating off to
the east. There are fine views of the Tumey and
Griswold Hills to the south, Panochoe Valley to
the west, Peak 2,389ft
in the Panoche Hills to
the north. A short distance north of the
highpoint, I passed by an old,
wooden marker left by surveyors to mark
the intersection of four townships, their section numbers written on the four
sides of the post. I continued following
the divide between two
drainages, with several intermediate bumps between the summits, separated by
about 2mi. I dropped down
ravine to the drainage on my left before
starting
the final climb up to Peak 1,634ft. There are two points vying
for highpoint honors, the further one a quarter mile to the west proving about
10ft higher. A transmission line runs to the north through the
Panoche Creek drainage. A spur line on telephone poles taps off
this running south across the lower east summit. The poles follow along the
ranch road heading south, the same one Marcus used to return to Panoche Rd.
After taking in
the views from the highpoint (not significantly
different than those from the first summit), I returned to
the east summit and turned southeast
to start my return. I intended to follow the southwest side of the drainage
that abuts Peak 1,593ft on the west side as it flows southeast back towards
my starting point along Panoche Rd. In hindsight it would have been better to
follow the road south from the east summit for about a mile as my route had
me crossing several spur drainages with some minor drops before landing on the
descending ridgeline I had intended. Still, this was a pretty easy and
enjoyable route, following
cow trails through the drainage, eventually
dropping me into the bottom of
the drainage with about a mile and a
half to go. Motorcycles had been driven here sometime in the past, though
infrequently. More often, cows made improvements in straightening
the route and
pushing back the encrouching brush. As such, it made for a very pleasant walk.
I took my time, examining some
colorful rock that fell from a small
cliff above, picking up various interesting rocks of quartz,
mica and
other minerals. The
mica in particular is ubiquitous throughout the region, flashing brightly in
the sunlight when reflected at the right angle. A fenceline with
a wire gate
crossed over the drainage. Though both sides are BLM lands, it likely marks the
boundary between grazed and ungrazed BLM lands in this area. The motorcycle
track gets better on the other side of the fence, leaving me with a very nice
trail to follow for the remainer of the way out. The drainage opens up shortly
before reaching the roadway, with
the jeep
parked a short distance down from
where the drainage crosses the road. It wasn't yet noon, but time to head home.
A most enjoyable time exploring this remote corner of the range at the tail
end of a small storm...
This page last updated: Mon Dec 21 12:08:25 2020
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