Continued...
Peak 4,019ft - Peak 3,585ft
My last day in the Mojave National Preserve had me back in Jackass Canyon
where I had hiked two days earlier. Today I was going to climb peaks on the
north side of the canyon, north of Old Dad Mtn, a DPS summit I had climbed
back in 2005 with Matthew. I had camped up near Rocky Ridge to the
east, and was up by 5:30a to get an early start. After warming the car, I
dressed, breakfasted, and drove a few miles down the steep powerline road into
Jackass Canyon. I then drove about a mile and half up the wash north of Jackass
Canyon, following tracks until they gave out, leaving me a
five mile loop for the two peaks. Later I found that the wash I had driven
is part of the Mojave Wilderness, with no cherry stem leading into it. On foot,
I up the wash to the northwest, gaining altitude as
gradually morphs into and ascends
up to peak 4,019ft. The slopes look
difficult from below, but I found them
to be no more than class 2 with a few easy class 3 moves, and numerous options
to choose from. I had expected there to be much limestone rock like on Old Dad
Mtn, but found it mostly volcanic with little limestone. It took an hour to
cover the two mile distance to , sharing a high ridgeline with
about a mile and half to . Andy
Smatko had been to the peak in 1979, but I found no sign of a register. I
of my registers before starting down. There is an 800-foot
drop to between Peak 4,019ft and Peak 3,585ft, steep
for much of the distance. From the saddle, the nature of the terrain changes,
becomes more vegetated, lighter-colored rock, and gentler,
. As the elevation of the second peak was lower,
the climb from the saddle was less than 400ft. It took a bit under an hour to
get from one summit to the other. Smatko had visited here on the same day in
1979. I found some of from one of his plastic pill
bottles, but the contents were long gone, save for a single penny. I left
here, adding an entry for Smatko, before starting down. I
descended a ridgeline to and eventually dropped into
just to the east of the one I had ascended earlier
in the morning. This worked out nicely since I had parked at
where the two washes meet. I was back to the Jeep by
9:15a, taking less than three hours for the loop.
Peak 2,962ft
This last summit lies just above Jackass Canyon, outside the Wilderness. The
transmission lines running through Jackass Canyon go over the north side of
the summit. A spur road to one of the towers on the north side of the peak can
be driven to within a tenth of a mile. It took all of six
minutes to scramble the class 2 terrain to , with good views
of , the peaks I had climbed two days earlier to
, and Old Dad to .
My day was done before 9:40a, but I still had more than seven hours of driving
to get myself home to San Jose. It had been an enjoyable roadtrip and I was
looking forward to future visits to the Mojave NP - there are still over
100 summits in this vast area that I have still to climb...