Owlhead BM is the most prominent peak in the Owlshead Mountains of Southern Death Valley, only 3ft shy of the coveted P2K status. It can be approached from the south or north, but is a fairly long hike from either direction. Of the two, the south side is shorter and made more sense since I was already in that area the previous two days for other peaks. Matt had hiked with me the previous day, so the two of us had camped out at the trailhead that night. Tom and Iris drove in early the next morning to join us, but because it's such a long drive, we didn't get started until 7:30a. The outing would cover a total of 17mi with under 3,000ft of gain, making it a modest climb in the middle of a really long walk.
Following an overcast day of cold temperatures, today dawned with bright blue
skies and hardly a cloud to be seen. There is an old road that runs north from
the NPS road to Lost Lake, about five miles in that direction.
We started off 
on this road
but left it after a few minutes, 
the cross-country
really little different than the old road. The highpoint is found atop a long
ridgeline at the north end and can be approached from valleys on either side. We
chose to ascend from the eastside valley and descend to the west, though the
latter plan wasn't worked out until later in the day. We had hours to converse
and while away the morning as we made our up the eastern valley, some of it easy
going with burro trails, other places littered with volcanic rock. The first
hour was quite easy, then the rocks began to appear to slow us down.
Easier going was found
in the lighter-colored terrain further east and it did not take
Matt long to figure this out. He drifted away from us towards the east but we
figured it was shorter to hug the base of the mountain more closely. Three of us
were lost in conversation for some time before noticing that Matt had gotten
some distance ahead of us by finding this easier terrain. We were probably 2/3
of the way up the valley by that point, Iris and Tom choosing to move east and
follow Matt's example. I decided to double-down on stupid and stayed
close to the mountain,
in and out of countless small and medium-sized washes, over
vast tracts of varnish-colored rocks. I periodically saw the others to the east,
becoming northeast as they gained over easier ground. Had this kept up for a few
more hours I most certainly have been left behind, but I got lucky in that we
were nearing our goal. This allowed me to start up earlier as I
ascended a wash
to the left of Pt. 1,083m shown on the topo map. Where the wash ended just
above this point, I turned left to begin 
the steep face ascent
up to the main
crest. The others were about 1/5mi to the north going up
a steep ridgeline,
climbing more directly towards the highpoint. This side of the mountain is quite
steep over terribly loose rock with very poor footing, not dangerously unsafe,
but unsafe nonetheless. After much effort on all fours, slipping and sliding as
I struggled to gain ground, I eventually reached the crest. After being out of
cell range for the past two days, my phone had begun to go off with a dozen
waiting messages. I paused to catch my breath at the crest and go through the
messages to make sure there were no serious issues needing to be addressed. A
few minutes later I got up and resumed my efforts, now easier, following
the crest to the north towards the highpoint. I reached it just after 11a, with
Tom and Iris only a few minutes 
behind me,
Matt joining about five minutes after
them. We joked about the extra effort I had to put out to beat them to the
summit via the route I'd taken, my additional energy coming when I no longer had
anyone to talk to.
It was a lovely day with fine views from our remote summit. One can see
north into Death Valley proper, 
east into Nevada and the
snowy massif of Mt. Charleston, 
south across a great expanse of
desert real estate covering two
military reservations. The snowy crest of the Sierra can just be seen to the
west. Nowhere among all this space are there signs of civilization - not a town,
a house, a road, another person. A Sierra Club party had left a register here
in 2008, with four pages of entries and the most recent visitors from
last March. We 
snacked and 
rested
after more than 3.5hrs of effort, spending about 30min before
continuing on. Peak 4,104ft lies 2mi SSW 
along the crest from the
highpoint and
would make our second and last summit for the day. There are no technical
difficulties enroute, but the going is slowed by the surplus of volcanic rock
scattered everywhere, requiring vigilance with most foot placements to keep
from tripping. It took us about an hour and a half to get from one summit to the
other. We found no register, not even a small cairn at the second summit, no
love shown for this minor summit despite 315ft of prominence. We
sat about
logging ascents on our phones (or at least those of us with cell service), more
halloween candy provided by Iris, and eventually back on our feet for the
descent.
Having little interest in the crud slopes and cliffs found on the east side of
the crest, we looked to find a reasonable route off the west side instead. There
were some steep faces on that side too, so we had to travel a bit further south
along the crest before finding a 
decent way down.
Matt had expressed an interest
in visiting the dry lakebed of Lost Lake to the west so we were angling for
the southern end of the lake in the middle of the large valley.
Tom and I got into a discussion about whether one
could land a jet on the 2mi-long lake. I thought you could land pretty much any
plane on it, but Tom thought otherwise, thinking the surface too soft to support
the weight. When we eventually got down to 
the lakebed and found it
hardpack mud, Tom came up with another objection - the many rocks scattered
about the surface would be a hazard to the engines. More interesting was how
these smaller volcanic rocks had come to be spread about the surface - seems
there must be periodic water events that wash these from the surrounding areas
onto the lakebed. The rocks aren't embedded in the mud at all and it looks like
someone just scattered them about from a bucket. Looking around for Matt, we
spied him
in the very middle of the lakebed more than half a mile from the three
of us. He was filming the views around him as he walked across the lake,
eventually rejoining us as we 
turned south
to start making our way back towards
our vehicles, another four miles away. We followed 
the old road
for much of this
distance, leaving it on a few occasions when it didn't go as straight as one
might hope. It would take us until after 4p before we had returned to
our starting point,
leaving us less than half an hour until sunset. We hadn't used
all the available daylight on the outing, but pretty close.
After showering, we began the hour+ drive back out to SR127. The last 23mi from the Ft. Irwin gate to SR127 are in excellent condition and could be driven at speeds up to 45mph. It didn't feel safe going beyond that at night, and much of the time was slower due to curves in the road. Three burros were unceremoniously scattered from the roadway in the effort - another reason not to go too fast...
Matt's Video
Continued...