Continued...
The Soda Mountains are a large desert range found immediately west of Baker, CA,
mostly north of Interstate 15. I had visited the range on a number of occasions
over the past decade, tackling the range highpoint, those with prominence over
900ft, and the easier-to-reach summits on the south side of the Interstate. I
was now back for a more thorough study of the range that I hoped would allow me
to complete climbing all of its summits over the next few days. I had spent the
night camped peacefully in Cronise Valley under a transmission line that runs
between the highway and East Cronise Lake. It wasn't far enough to stiffle the
road noise of trucks rumbling down the highway, but it was only a little bother.
I was up by 6a, dressed, and breakfasted while I drove across dry East Cronise
Lake on a well-used path to the north side. In the predawn half-light, I missed
the sign indicating the Soda Mtns Wilderness. I had thought I was going through
a cherry stem corridor, but later found that was around the eastern edge of
the lake.
Peak 1,835ft
My first stop was to climb a peak in the adjacent Cronise Mtns, a diminuitive
range with only 4 summits. I had climbed the HP in 2012 and two other summit
a week earlier with Karl. is found at the northeast end.
From my parking spot near the lake's edge, I hiked west to gain
, avoiding those slopes where sand has piled up on the
peak's eastern flanks. It took less than half an hour to reach
, with bird's-eye views of and
Cronise Lakes found on either side. A pile of rocks had been gathered at the
summit, but there was no register to be found. I of my own
before starting down, this time utlizing to my
advantage for a quick return.
Peak 3,260ft - Peak 3,461ft - Peak 3,302ft - Peak 3,020ft
This was the meat of the day, a 12mi(and 4,000ft+ gain) tour of four summits
on the west side of the Soda Mtns, across East Cronise Lake from the Cronise
Mtns. I moved the Jeep a short distance and started from a BLM
. I headed towards Peak 3,260ft,
three miles away. Most of this was across the low-gradient slope, the
spilled down from the range's western escarpment.
It was not the pleasant, flat walking one appreciates in a desert experience,
but it wasn't terrible. After almost an hour, I was finally at
of the peak and could begin that
would take me a full hour to complete, all class 2 up the South Ridge. I
appreciated that there were a number of breaks along the ridge that would give
me a flat or slightly down section before starting the next steep climb. In all,
it was about 1,400ft from the base to the summit. As a soft-ranked summit, the
peak doesn't have all that much prominence. It is dominated by the much higher
Cronise BM to . The Cronise dry lakes can be seen to the
south and west. In ,
most of the other summits of the Soda Mtns can
be seen. Three of the four peaks I was after in this loop were along the
western escarpment of the range. My next objective, Peak 3,461ft lay in the
heart of the range, about two miles east of Peak 3,260ft. This was the longest
stretch between peaks on this 4-peak loop. Upon leaving Peak 3,260ft, one
gets a real Wilderness feeling - no more stretches of Interstate visible with
truck noises, and I enjoyed the feeling of isolation a great deal. My route
took me over Pt. 3,181ft not by design, and probably not the most efficient way
to get from A to B. I spent an hour and a half getting between the two,
finally pulling up onto after 11a. Here, the scene is
dominated by the range highpoint less than a mile . It was
well out of my way, otherwise I might have entertained a revisit.
After leaving at the summit, I turned ,
my attention now on Peak 3,302ft about 1.5mi away. I descended partway along
Peak 3,461ft's SW Ridge that I had ascended before dropping more steeply off
the ridge to the between the two
peaks. The 800-foot drop had seemed a big deal, but once accomplished it
seemed otherwise. I crossed the wash flowing southeast to begin climbing back
onto the western escarpment and connecting three of the
summits. It took an hour and a quarter to reach Peak 3,302ft. The summit is
, a small evidence of previous
visitors, but no register. I left my here while I surveyed
the terrain south to the last summit, Peak 3,020ft. The ridgeline is a bit more
complicated and it seemed easier to take a more direct line, dropping into
about 600ft below the summit.
This worked pretty nicely to cover the 1.5mi distance between them, and I used
the easy walking in the wash for about a third of this. It took an hour to get
to , arriving around 1:30p. This summit is another
soft-ranked one, not appreciably different. I
one of several ridge options off the escarpment, first going over nearby Pt.
3,013ft before beginning the real descent. It's a long way down, about 1,600ft
the flats below, then back to where
I'd . It was 3p by the time
I finished up. I still had an hour and a half of daylight and wondered as I
drove back across East Cronise Lake whether I had time for one more.
Peak 2,043ft
It seems I had time. This summit is also in the Soda Mtns, but found on the
south side of Interstate 15, about 2mi from the highway. I exited the Rasor Rd
exit (aka,
Beacon Station) and drove a decent BLM road to within a mile of the summit on
the northwest side. Better yet, I found tracks I could follow across the sandy
terrain that would take me to within half a mile, right to of
the peak. The climb would take only 20min each way, via some easy but fun
up . I found
of a teenage bighorn ram in one of these, a bit of a
reminder that this scrambling stuff has some dangers. It was the best scrambling
on the day and a neat little summit separated from its higher neighbors to
. There were all around, even if
was a little too close for an authentic Wilderness
experience. The in the late afternoon was especially
pleasing. I left here before returning via much the same
route. I was by 4:20p,
surprised that I had managed it before the sun had set. I quickly showered
where I'd parked before the sun could finish the day,
then headed off to Baker for some
dinner. I would return to the Rasor exit to camp on the north side of the
highway in preparation for the next day's adventure...
Continued...