Fri, Jul 19, 2002
|
With: | Ron Burd |
We arose at 5:30a, just as it was discernably lighter outside, and were on the
road leaving Mammoth at 6a. As we were to find out, it's a very long drive
to the trailhead from Mammoth, taking 2 1/2 hours. An hour south on US395 to Big
Pine, half an hour to the ridgeline, then another hour along
the winding road
that climbs towards the Bristlecone forests and White Mtn Peak. When we arrived
at
the parking lot at 8:30a,
it was the beginning of a beautiful day and there
wasn't another soul or car around. We dutifully parked in the lot before the
closed gate, though due to
lax security, it would have
been easy to open and drive up to Barcroft. I imagined we might be angrily turned
back at that point, so we didn't dare.
The hike follows a 4WD road to the summit, amidst mostly barren terrain and rolling
hills. It can be readily mountain biked (and is by many), hardly making for an
impressive climb. After two miles we came upon the
Barcroft Research Station. An
official vehicle was outside,
though we saw no officials or researchers on the way
nor on the way back.
A large trailer with NASA
insignias was prominently parked - I suspect it was used to fake many of the moon
landings thirty years earlier. A collection of
domestic sheep were found
in a pen nearby.
They must have figured pretty quickly that we weren't there to feed them, as they
all moved to the far side of the pen to avoid us. And that was about it for the
research station.
We continued on, climbing a steeper incline that led to
a rusting observatory on
the top of a small knoll. Then down through a low stretch that brought us our first
close views of our summit still
about four miles away. Ron had gotten ahead of me as we drew within a few miles, but
I shortcutted the trail at one stretch that both got me a nice picture of him
hiking the road, as well as
catching me up. The final
two miles are steep and the road deteriorates to the point that few 4WD vehicles
would be able to continue to the summit. On the northeast slopes of the summit we
were genuinely surprised by a dozen or so
bighorn sheep wandering the mountaintop.
They must be rather tenacious creatures to eke out a living in such sparse
surroundings. At the time we thought they were mountain goats, but it was
pointed out to us they were simply unhorned ewes. My first sighting and I didn't
even know it.
We scrambled up the boulder piles on the east side of the summit and found ourselves
on the north side of the structure that occupies the top. I climbed up one of the
antenna poles attached to the building in order to climb onto the roof, while Ron
walked around to the front and used the convenient ladder to achieve
the same purpose - and here I
thought I was being clever... It was 11:30a, having taken us
2 1/2 hours to cover the seven miles. The elevation of the peak does not include the
extra 10ft or so one gets by
standing on the roof, and I
climbed the antenna pole above the roof
as far as I could to gain maybe
another 8ft. The door to the building was sealed shut, and sported
a sign on the
door warning of an experiment in progress - that seemed highly unlikely as the place
looked to be deserted for some time.
Ron, a vegetarian, had brought a vegetable
salad in a large plastic container along with a number of other tasty items for
his lunch. Myself, a staunch
carnivore, had brought my usual summit meal - nothing. And
so I watched Ron feed himself until I was tired of that activity and went off to
peruse the summit register.
On the south (front) side of the building is a large, fixed box that contains a large amount of junk in addtion to summit registers that were filled on every page. People left all sorts of stuff such as Nevada road maps (helpful in reaching the summit?), business cards, and other scraps of loose paper. There was a large piece of wood that was covered with names and dates, and it was to this that Ron and I added our own summit entries. I collected the trash that I found in the register and disposed of it, we took a bunch of photos looking out on our fine (if a bit hazy) views, and after an hour on the summit we were ready to head down.
The descent was mostly uneventful, we jogged the downhill portions once off the large
boulder field, though Ron seemed to display a good deal more energy than I did for
the first five miles. Once we were back at Barcroft I jogged the final two miles
continuously, and arrived back at the car an hour and a half after we'd left the
summit. Ron was but
a few minutes behind. I'd gone
through the liter and a half of
water that I carried with me and I think Ron's supply ran out as well. On
the drive back I convinced Ron
to stop at the Patriarch grove of Bristlecone pines where we
spent maybe half an hour taking
the self-guided tour around the
parking area. The highlight of the tour is
the Patriarch Tree, the largest
known living Bristlecone pine. Other trees were old and
wind-sculpted, others but
newborns, but all were fascinating.
It was 5p before we got back to Mammoth. We actually spent more time driving that
day than we did hiking, but at least it was scenic!
For more information see these SummitPost pages: White Mountain Peak
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