My daughter's volleyball team wasn't scheduled to play at the Reno Convention
Center until noon today, giving me time in the morning for a hike in the area.
The storm system that came through the area in the days prior had played
itself out, leaving more blue skies than had been seen recently, cool
temperatures and only a light breeze. I picked an area east of Sparks that had
several summit with more than 300ft of prominence including one with almost
800ft. This second summit is home to an FAA VOR station, listed as "Airway
Beacon" on the 7.5' topo map. VOR refers to VHF Omnidirectional Range, used
by pilots for navigational purposes. Years ago when I was flying small
planes, I would use these ground-based systems to find my way across the state.
It would seem that the use of GPS in aircraft would make the VORs obsolete, but
I imagine the aviation industry is slow to change. Still, it is only a matter
of time before these become relics of a past age, much like the lookout towers
once used for spotting forest fires. Most of the land in these hills north of
Interstate 80 are managed by the BLM with some private lands patchworked
inbetween. I chose a starting point in a 
newer neighborhood on the east
side of 
Sparks, allowing me to start about 400ft higher than I might
otherwise have by starting from the SE at the Interstate where a dirt road
climbs to the airway beacon. Signs at the 
neigborhood boundary
indicated No Trespassing, but other 
signs seemed to suggest
they were more
concerned about OHV vehicles passing through the neighborhood. I suspect the
land immediately above the neighborhood is owned by the same
developers who would like to eventually continue building higher upslope
should the Reno economy support the investment.
Starting shortly after 7a, I visited the lower summit first, taking about 40min
to follow a network of OHV roads under a transmission line to the summit. The
last 100ft or so are easy cross-country, leading to a broad summit with no
easily defined highpoint. The views stretch 
north to Spanish Springs
Valley, 
east across the Interstate to Clark Mountain, 
west to
the Reno/Sparks sprawl framed by the snowy Sierra Crest, and 
south to
the VOR station atop the higher summit, Peak 5,950ft. My route between the two
summits was fairly direct, first crossing a high plateau on one of the spur
roads to its end, then dropping 
cross-country a few hundred feet to a
canyon before climbing the peak's NW Ridge where I arrived just before 8:30a.
The summit had been bulldozed remarkably flat to accomodate the
VOR beacon, leaving no point that I could determine to be the highest.
I took a few photos of 
the instrumentation, wandered to the edge for a
view to 
the SW across the Interstate and Truckee River corridor, then
descended back down 
the NW Ridge. Less than an hour later
I was back at the neighborhood I had started at, making for a fine morning
walk. Now back to more volleyball...