Continued...
The Sacramento Mtns are a small desert range just west of Needles, CA,
close to the Colorado River and the border with AZ. I had already paid
three visits to the range, most recently only five days earlier at the
beginning of this desert roadtrip. We were here today to collect a handful
of lesser peaks in the southeast part of the range. We had spent the night
not far from US95 south of Needles, camped on a pipeline road running
west across the range. After two days, brother Jim decided to take a rest
day, while Eric, after four straight days, was still holding his own. So
we left Jim and his RV where we had camped that night and headed out
before 7a.
Peak 2,395ft
This was the westernmost of the day's collection, an easy summit with
leading to near .
There is a locked gate 3/4mi from summit requiring some effort, but not a whole
lot - it took less than 20min to make our way to and about the
same to .
Peak 2,486ft/Peak2,540ft/Sacram BM
This closely-grouped trio is found about a mile northeast of the first summit.
We repositioned the jeep for a shorter hike that could do all three in a loop
starting from the south. was the highest of the group with
more than 800ft of prominence, and the last one to reach. The
were mostly easy , but Sacram BM proved more
of a challenge, ascending the steep and descending
and . Sacram BM was the only summit
featuring a register, left by John Vitz . We spent 3 and 3/4hrs
on the 4mi loop, making no speed record to be sure, but having good fun all
the same.
Peak 2,359ft
We drove back to our campsite to find the hood of ,
tools spread
around on the ground and elsewhere, an iPhone and iPad sitting out on a
camp chair and, oddly, no sign of Jim. While we looked inside the
unlocked RV and cased the surroundings outside, we examined the clues to
the abduction that obviously took place. Clearly the took him for ransom
because they didn't bother with any of his valuables. Jim came walking
up about five minutes later, wondering why we might be concerned. Such a
trusting soul. We asked if he wanted to visit Peak 2,359ft, but he still had no
interest in hiking today. Eric wanted to take a break after four peaks, but
didn't want me to leave him with my brother, a sentiment I could understand.
So he left with me in the jeep, driving to back out to the highway and then
south to approach the peak from that direction. The peak is the southernmost
one in the range with a little over 400ft of prominence, fairly easy to reach
from the highway which we parked near. I at the
jeep with a camp chair and his book while I headed north to the peak. I crossed
a number of low, rounded ridges in the hilly area south of the peak,
eventually climbing the peak up a standard desert
. I spent about 40min making my way to
where I left because, well, because I'm not really sure why,
but I had some in my pack and this seemed a pretty unloved peak that could use
some. Another 40min saw me by 3p where I found Eric
wandering around on foot, stretching his legs.
Peak 1,980ft
I asked Eric if he was interested in an easy one at the end of the day, to which
he wisely asked, "How easy?" Less than a quarter mile from the highway, I
explained. Eric was game. Peak 1,980ft is located just east of Lobecks Pass
and US95. As we drove north to the pass, I could see a rounded
off to the right. I checked the GPSr to confirm,
parked and we started up. It was a bit more work than expected thanks to some
rather and more than I had
guessed. Still, it wasn't
too bad and we were
in about 20min. As we sat there
reveling in yet another success, Eric pulled out his phone to register the
win on the peakbagger app. He had some trouble though, unable to find the red
dot to signify the peak we'd just reached. I told him he was probably just
sitting over the red dot and needed to zoom in further. He did so, but could
still not find the red dot. What? I checked the GPSr to confirm a sinking
feeling I was getting. I then , tapped Eric on the
shoulder while pointing, "Oh, the summit's over there!" The summit had only been
a quarter mile from our starting point, but was still 0.2mi away. Seems we'd
climbed the wrong point. I was embarassed by my complete failure to navigate
but could only laugh. With a little extra coaxing, I got Eric to join me for
the climb between the two, connected by a ridge through a saddle with a drop
of about 200ft. Happily, it was all easy class 2 and would take us only 15min
to get between them. It was 4p when we reached ,
took a few photos and then started down , to make a
small loop of it. The descent was a little tricky but we managed it without
mishap and were back to the jeep with a bit of sunlight remaining. All's well
that ends well. Jim had already driven to Needles, so after retrieving Eric's
car we met up with Jim in town for dinner for the second night. Next up - back
to Arizona...
Continued...