Jan 16, 2018
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With: | Iris Ma |
Karl Fieberling |
When we awoke in the morning from our campsite on the south side of Shoshone, outside Death Valley, Tom announced he was going to skip hiking today in order to get back home for a work meeting after lunch. That left Karl, Iris and myself to tool around some low elevation desert summits along SR127 between Shoshone and Baker. Most of these are found in Courtney Purcell's guidebook, Rambles & Scrambles, none of them particularly difficult.
We spent about an hour on the 1.5mi stretch between the north summit and Salt BM, most of the route an easy stroll along the low ridgeline with a final steep ascent up to the top. There was a register left in 2014 by a CSU Chico geology class, with subsequent entries by other classes from 2015 and 2016. In the midst of all these geology field studies was an entry from Mark McCormick, the only peakbagger to sign it until we arrived. We spent a second hour traversing southwest to Athel Hill, the lowest of the bunch, then dropped down the south side to meet up with a BLM interpretive trail where it crosses Salt Creek at a seasonal spring. There are tall, dry reeds growing here and some large trees (for the desert, anyway) with a couple of picnic benches underneath. The trail led us back to the BLM parking lot just off the road where our cars were parked.
By now it was 3:15p and time for Iris to be heading home. There was still the range highpoint on the other side of the road to climb which I was somewhat ambivalent about doing today, now that I was gettig tired. With Iris's encouragement, I resolved to finish it off, first driving about a mile south on the road before starting up. I was glad I did because it was a very pleasant time of day to be out with the sun low in the sky and the colors of the hills more acccentuated. I reached the top in under an hour, finding a register left by Mark Adrian and Gail Hanna in 1997. Rather than return along the North Ridge I had ascended, I dropped west into a wide wash on that side that would make for an easier return in the failing light. Finishing up by 5:15p, it made for a long but enjoyable day. I had thought I would drive into Baker for dinner that night but noticed there was another peak in the area still 10mi north of Baker that I was interested in for the next day. So I instead drove the van south only as far as Silver Lake before turning east on a sandy BLM road which I drove for a mile and a half. I had soup and other food that I had been carrying around in the car for a week but had so far gone unused. Mmmmm. More hot chocolate with the remaining irish cream, too. Slept like a baby in the back of the van far from the truck noise back on the highway. A delightful sleep in the desert, indeed...
Continued...
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