Continued...
It was still in the high 70s when I left Battle Mtn, NV around 9pm, and
it stayed warm for the next hour as I drove east on I80. I turned off
the interstate at SR229 and found the temperature cooled to 51F as I
was crossing Lamoille Valley on my way to Secret Pass in the Ruby Mtns.
This would do nicely, so I simply found a turnout along the road and
spent the night there. I had only about 15min of driving in the morning
to get to the turnoff for Secret Peak where I started my day.
Secret Peak
Secret Peak is a minor summit in the Ruby Mtns that happens to be on
the
Western States Climbers list.
Others have reported climbing it from
SR229, about 3mi one-way and 3,000ft of gain. This route up the North
Ridge uses a 4WD road that goes halfway up the mountain, as shown on the
topo map. The road can be accessed off SR229 from the east and I
figured it was worth giving it a try since I had the vehicle to manage
it, assuming it was driveable. There is an off the highway with that mentions
the road passes through private property (cattle abound
in the area), allowing the public to use it, not something one sees in
CA too often. Props to the rancher, on this one. The road immediately
before heading west, in and out of several small
drainages and crossing a smaller creek before the junction with the
road going up the North Ridge. The North Ridge road turned out to be in
decent, but not great shape, a challenging drive that took me
, leaving
me with only 2/3mi to the summit and 1,000ft of gain. I came across a
pair of out scoping the area, but they reported
seeing only cattle, no deer, and soon took off to scout other areas. I
was happy to find the hike would be surprisingly short, taking only 30min
up a moderately steep, but .
is open to views in all directions, and along
the crest of the Ruby Mtns,
east to Ruby Valley and west to Lamoille Valley. Kathy Rich and Daryn
Dodge left a register here with a few pages of entries. I
considered continuing south along the crest to a bonus peak a little
more than a mile away, but when I looked over the south side of Secret
Peak it looked a bit cliffy and just tortured enough that I gave it up
pretty quickly - I'd look for easier pickings elsewhere.
Spruce Mtn
Spruce Mtn lands on the Great Basin Peaks list, found about 30mi
southeast of Secret Peak, far across Ruby Valley. It wasn't exactly on my
way along I80, but as a near drive-up and with
nearly 4,000ft of prominence, it seemed worth the diversion. The
dirt/gravel off US93 runs about 12mi to get to the
summit.
There are many forks and other roads throughout the area and it seems to
be semi-popular with the OHV folks and primitive camping. About half of
the driving is on decent roads that most vehicles can navigate, then
it becomes high-clearance to reach the high meadow north of the summit.
The last 1.7mi goes up with sharp curves, 4WD
helpful but maybe not necessary. This takes you to a
with a large solar array just north of the
highpoint. It takes but a minute from there to walk
. There's and
left by the LVMC with quite a few
pages of entries, proving its popularity. I took
of the , signed the
register and returned to the jeep.
There is a trio of bonus peaks north of Spruce Mtn that are relatively
easy, taking only a few hours. Peak 9,226ft is the highest of the three
and the easiest, especially if you drive up the rough road that reaches
- I spent all of six minutes to reach
where one gets a really good view of
. The other two peaks can be seen to
and it was to these I headed last. More driving got me
to about 1.2mi . The other, Peak 8,861ft,
is another 1.4mi . I combined these in a 2.3hr
outing covering about
5mi, a very pleasant undertaking along the , though the ridgeline undulates quite a bit. I left
at , Peak 8,861ft, figuring such a lonely place
might see a visitor every 5yrs or less and could use a little love.
It was after 1p by the time I
and a good time to call it a day. It would be over 90F by the time I got
back down to the desert floor and US93. I would still have quite a few
hours of driving to get myself to Utah and Deseret Peak where I planned
to hike the next morning...
Continued...