Continued...
The plans for this road trip had changed dramatically since I had left home three
days earlier. I was supposed to be in Death Valley with Patrick but had ended up in
the White Mountains with Laura. Instead of chasing P1Ks in the desert, we were chasing
10,000-foot summits in the Whites. It was a combination of Patrick not getting his car
out of the repair shop in time and Bob Sumner's inspiration to tackle the non-Sierra
10K
summits. Two days earlier, the Bob and I had climbed the last one he had to do on this
odd list, Peak 10,088ft in the Inyo Mtns. I knew I had a bunch to do still in the White
Mountains, which just happens to be one of Laura's favorite places to visit, so she
and I ended up there for the weekend. Laura met me near the SR168/White Mtn Rd
junction around 7:30a, then we drove our cars up to Schulman Grove at the end of the
paved section to leave the van. The Sierra had just received a modest amount of snow
which made for some , but the Whites had remained snow-free up
to around the 12,000-foot level which would make for a very pleasant day of rambling
about in .
Peak 10,460ft
Located about 1.5mi SW of Station Peak along Crooked Creek, this one makes for a short
outing of 3/4mi, one-way, with about 600ft of gain. We were happy to find the dirt
Crooked Creek Rd in decent condition and managed to get Laura's Element to our
trailhead near the junction of Crooked Creek's North and South Forks with little
trouble. There was almost no
water in the creek at this time, though there were some small puddles that we needed
to drive through. A truck we passed earlier on the White Mtn Rd had driven up Crooked
Creek just ahead of us, scattering pieces of ice from the puddles in all directions.
Starting up from a small turnout on the road, we hiked up , some
high-stepping necessary to negotiate the modest brush near the bottom, soon becoming
easy to navigate, ankle-high stuff as we gained elevation. It took me less than 30min
to reach where I immediately moved to the leeward side to get out
of a cold wind blowing over the top. about 10min later. She was
particularly
enthralled with the view east where a sea of clouds stretched out in that direction
over Nevada, a sight she had never seen before (she's been up here far more times than
I, so found it all the more impressive). To me it resembled a more familiar view
overlooking the Pacific from one of the coastal ranges. The views from the summit take
in most of the Crooked Creek drainage looking south, with Iron and Sage Hen poking up
to and Bucks, Blanco and County Line Hill to
. There is a very nice view of to the
northeast with the highest summits around White Mtn Peak to
the northwest.
Peak 10,820ft / Peak 10,780ft
This pair of summits is located just north of Crooked Creek and the UC Research
Station. There is a large parking area on the south side of the road that can by used
to reach both peaks fairly easily, less than half a mile to each. This was the
original plan, but upon considering our options, Laura decided to skip these two in
favor of the next pair of peaks we planned to do that would have better views. As they
were a little more than two miles from Peak 10,460ft, I decided it would probably be
faster to just tackle them from here, Laura returning to the car and then picking me
up at the parking area just mentioned. We bade goodbye temporarily, Laura descending
while I across the undulating terrain, not really finding a good
ridge to follow but at least with easy cross-country. I spent a little less than an
hour to make my way to , sporting a new
left by Greg Gerlach back in July, Bob Sumner visiting in the interim. From
, the research station is clearly visible to as
was the orange Truck of Fun parked right where it was expected in plain sight. The
slightly lower Peak 10,780ft was half a mile to the southwest, separated by a 300-foot
saddle. It took barely 15min to get from one summit to and less
than that to drop directly down where I found Laura awakened
from a light nap.
Peak 10,140ft / Peak 9,820ft / Peak 10,420ft
These three summits lie to the west of the main crest, separated by the Silver Creek
drainage. I had seen the two higher ones on previous visits but had found no roads
leading out to them. They would require a heftier effort than most of the other
peaks in the area and we expected them to have fine views overlooking Owens Valley
and the Sierra. We reparked the Element in the small turnout at
along the crest overlooking the Wyman Creek drainage, just south of County Line Hill.
We would have almost 1,000ft before
starting the climb up to the southernmost of the three peaks. We found the going
moderately brushy to start, improving somewhat as we got lower. The
at the bottom turned out to make for the easiest travel with
little brush to contend with. Footprints and parallel, wheeled tracks in the sand
suggested someone had pulled a small cart in the drainage recently. Laura guessed it
was probably hunters using it to haul out their deer. We followed the drainage south
for just over a mile, passing through of the canyon that
proved no serious impediment other than perhaps to someone trying to pull or drag a
wheeled cart through. Once we were with the northeast slopes
of Peak 10,140ft, I turned to Laura, pronouncing, "Now for the fun part!" We had to
regain all of the 1,000ft we had just lost to reach the summit less than a mile away.
As I started up the slope , Laura told me to expect her about an
hour behind me. It would not take her that long. I reached the top in half an hour,
Laura in about twice that. The wind was not blowing so much now and the sun warmed me
nicely, making my stay at the summit no particular hardship. The
were nice as expected though there was some haze. Another here
was nearly identical to the previous one, save for the different dates and
of Laura's signature.
Laura had been fighting a cold for the past several weeks and feeling the effects from
it all day. She decided she would forgo the other 10,000-foot summit and simply head
back to the car at a more relaxed pace. I had been at the summit long enough to note
that I might also tag Peak 9,820ft as a bonus on my way to Peak 10,420ft further north.
It was not long before 2p at this time and I told Laura it would probably take me
until 5p to return. With that we parted ways, Laura resting longer at the summit while
I made my north along the ridgeline. After about half an hour I reached an intermediate
bump between the two 10K summits. Peak 9,820ft was located along a subsidiary ridge
dropping , about a mile away. It would take me about an
hour to make the excursion and , some minor scrambling along
the ridge where the peak rises up almost 300ft from a saddle. Back to the main ridge,
I continued north for another mile to , Peak 10,420ft.
Neither summit had registers. This last summit was the more interesting, the top
consisting of a small limestone
outcropping. I spent the last hour making my way back down and across the Silver
Creek drainage, a fairly mundane effort with no serious obstacles, arriving within a
minute of the appointed 5p return time. I bundled in her orange
parka sitting out in her chair while playing with photos on her iPad.
Once packed up, we drove back to Schulman Grove and the Visitor Center where we would
spend the night. With the temperatures dropping swiftly into the 30s, we spent the
evening in the van, cooking dinner, drinking beer and watching a movie until around
8:30p when we were both too tired to watch a second. Another storm was expected to
come through the area the next day so we would wait until morning to decide whether
to hike or drive home...
Continued...