Tue, Apr 21, 2020
|
With: | Karl Fieberling |
Karl and I spent the morning around the Darwin area
between the Coso and Argus
Ranges, doing a drive-up above town and a longer outing to an unnamed peak in
the Argus Range. Afterwards he left left to head home while I pondered doing
something else on my own in the afternoon.
Starting out just before 2p, I first crossed the wide, rocky
Thompson Canyon Wash
to reach the base of the North Ridge on the opposite side. Though the
wash was a bit unpleasant, I found the nearly two-mile hike up
the North Ridge to be enjoyable. Drier terrain than found on Peak
6,030ft, there were still pockets of
flowers to be found and
unbeatable views of
Panamint Valley and the surrounding
ranges. Not far below the summit I came upon an
unsuspecting burro
minding his own business. I stopped as soon as I spied it so as not draw its
attention. It continued grazing for a few minutes while I watched it. It wasn't
until I resumed my ascent that it
looked up, wandered away from my line
and then brayed in obvious displeasure. I brayed back and immediately caused a
couple of other unseen burros further down the slope to return the insult. I
passed over three modest
false summits before finding the highpoint at
the far
southwest end of the ridge not long after 3:30p. The light rain
from the previous evening had left the skies clearer and
the scenery
crisper today. As the afternoon wore on the lighting improved, too. I found no
register so
left another here before heading back.
I had planned to return via the same ridge, but after going back over the false
summits I noticed some old mine works in the canyon immediately west of
the ridge. I hesitated from some time as I continued along the ridge, looking
downslope for a reasonable decent line. Though steep, it appeared to be no more
than class 2 (and proved to be just that), and descending from the collection
of
mineshafts was a trail I could see from 1/3mi distance. It seemed
worth exploring. It took less than 10min to make my way down to the remnants of
the small mining camp. Structures once
stood here, just below 4-5
mineshafts that could be seen above the site to the west. Old machinery,
household items and collections of
rusting cans were strewn
about.
The trail proved useable in descending about half of
the canyon's length, after which it melded into
the wash
below. It
made for a much quicker descent than the ridge would have been, and probably
would have been a faster ascent route, too. I was
back
by 4:45p and though I
still had several hours of daylight, I was tired enough to call it a day. I
drove most of the way back down to Panamint Valley Rd before finding a place to
shower. I briefly considered driving myself home this evening but hit upon some
unnamed summits in the Slate Range east of Trona that might make for a nice
loop the next day. I ended up driving the sandy BLM roads around the north and
east sides of Searles Lake to the edge of the China Lake NWC. The fenceline was
old and in ill repair, and I actually drove about a quarter mile past the
boundary to the end of the old road where I would spend the night. It was more
than five miles from the pavement at Trona but not as quiet as one might have
expected. There was a regular booming sound coming from the mineral works all
night long. It was soft enough at a distance, but I wondered how
that might sound to the folks trying to sleep in the surrounding town...
Continued...
This page last updated: Sun Apr 26 08:33:37 2020
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