Wed, Mar 30, 2022
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Etymology |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 | GPX | Profile |
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I was up at 6a, having slept 10hrs and feeling like I could have slept more. I
was slow to get up and breakfasted, not ready to start out until 6:40a. I
followed the continuing road for a mile and three quarters to a defunct mine
found on the lower SE slopes of Peak 4,370ft, my first stop. The road
was in poor shape, but made for decent walking. I probably could have made a
more direct ascent of the peak
from the northeast, saving more than half
a mile, but the walk along the road was pleasant enough that I didn't mind the
detour. I ascended class 2 slopes above
the tailings, lots of broken
rock but decent footing, steep in the middle third of the ascent before rolling
off. It took an hour to reach
the summit. My GPSr showed that Smatko had
visited it in Dec of 1976, but I found no sign of his signature registers at
this or the other summits in the loop. I
left one of my registers,
adding Smatko's name as well.
From Peak 4,370ft, I turned south towards Peak 4,327ft about 0.8mi away,
connected by a ridgeline dropping almost 300ft to a saddle. The descent off the
summit was steep at first, but then becomes moderate for the rest of the route
to Peak 4,327ft. There isn't much cacti on the whole route, but I did find a
collection of various species at
the saddle between the two summits,
including a member of the yucca family in bloom. It took a little under an hour
to
get between the first two summits. I left a second
register
here.
The 3rd summit, Peak 3,789ft, lies about 1.2mi SE of Peak 4,327ft.
After
descending to a high saddle SE of Peak 4,327ft, I contoured
around the point to the SE before making the rest of the descent, saving me a
bit of elevation loss had I simply descended off the south side of Peak 4,327ft.
At the low saddle between the two peaks, I crossed over
a road going
over the saddle east to west. Though part of the Wilderness, the road showed
recent, light use. Someone had found a way to drive here from one side or the
other. Much like the first two peaks, Peak 3,789ft is a rounded bump with some
features to it, pretty much class 2 from any side. I reached
its summit
at the end of the third hour and left another
register.
The fourth summit lay a little over a mile to the ENE. Peak 3,736ft was
the most interesting summit of the bunch, looking to be crowned with a difficult
cap of dark volcanic rock. It would turn out to be easier than expected upon
closer inspection. After descending
the northeast side of Peak 3,789ft,
I dropped into
a wash draining around an intermediate point and Peak
3,736ft. I followed the gravel wash in the drainage for a short distance around
the north side of the intermediate point before starting up to Peak 3,736ft
from the west. The rocky summit is broken on the west side by a
vegetated slope that ramps up steeply on that side. I followed this up
to
a wide notch where I expected to find class 3-4 scrambling for the
last 40ft. This turned out to be class 2-3 via a series of steps that lead to
the summit on the south side of the notch. Another hour was consumed between the
last two summits and a fourth
register was left while I took a short
break at
the top.
I found the NE slope descending from the notch to be no more than class
2 as well, then dropping to
the desert flats on the north side of Peak
3,736ft. From here it was less than 2mi across pretty easy terrain to get back
to the Jeep. Enroute, I passed over another old road now consumed by the
Wilderness. This one showed no recent use. It was 11:45a by the time I
returned to the Jeep, the outing coming in at just over 5hrs.
Continued...
This page last updated: Sun Jun 5 21:00:33 2022
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