Continued...
The three of us were
in Indian Canyon on the east side of the White
Mtns, about a mile inside the Nevada Border. We were awake around 6a, the sun
already up and the day promising to be a warm one. The plan was to tackle a
few of these summits listed in Zdon's Desert Summits before Patrick was
scheduled to leave us in the evening. The first peak was located less than a
mile away to the north, but almost 2,000ft up a steep, crappy-looking slope. At
least we wouldn't have to drive anywhere to start with.
Davis Mountain
Zdon describes a route from the north that is six-miles roundtrip with 2,900ft
of gain. Our route would be both faster and far shorter coming up
. Perhaps he didn't consider this route because it
looks pretty horrendous from the road in the bottom of Indian Canyon. In fact,
turns out to not be so bad at all. Though it looks terribly
loose, the footing was pretty good going both up and down. By doing it early in
the morning we did not suffer from the heat, and there was
that could be
taken advantage of. It was, however, steep going almost from the start, and it
would take a lot of legwork to cover the mile distance. The lower slopes are
fairly open and easy to navigate. , mountain
mahogany and
other trees require more care to get through or around. Getting ahead of the
others, I arrived at ,
found at the south end of the long summit
ridge, around 8:15a. I had first gone to another point about 10ft lower more
to the north before realizing where I needed to go. I spotted Patrick about
15min later some distance away heading to the far northern point. I caught his
attention with a shout and 10 minutes later he had wandered through the maze
of tree, brush and rock . We signed
left by Guy Dahms in
2013 and then waited some for Laura. We began to worry that she might do the
same as Patrick and head north, so after more waiting we decided to head off
in that direction so as better to intecept her. We had covered just shy of half
the distance when Laura caught sight of us from behind, having reached the point
I first mistook for the summit. We pointed out the location of the actual
summit so as to return there, but Laura was hardly as particular as the two of
us about reaching some exact point in time and space. And so after a brief
rest, we all , returning much the same way to get us
by 10:15a.
I half-expected Patrick to call it a day after this, knowing his penchant for
getting home early, and this is exactly what he did. After packing up
camp, we drove back down to where I'd left my van the previous day in Fish Lake
Valley and said goodbye to Patrick. Laura and I still had the rest of the day
and Sunday to play in the hills more. Given the heat, we decided to drive up
to Queen's Mine on the north side of the range to tackle Mustang Mtn.
Unfortunately, we found the road rougher than expected and Laura's Element
suffered a flat. We had the spare tire swapped out pretty quickly, but it was
not advisable to continue driving to the trailhead. We drove back down to US6
where we'd left my van and I tried to fix the original tire with the repair kit
I carried. Failing this, Laura decided to drive back to Bishop to see if she
could get it fixed properly at a repair shop.
We tentatively agreed to meet later in the day to hike in
Yosemite on Sunday, and parted ways.
Peak 8,580ft
As I drove west across SR120 I was searching for something I could do in what
was becoming an oppressive heat. I figured it might be cooler near Sagehen
Summit at 8,000ft, and found a couple of unnamed summits
. I parked west of Peak 8,580ft and headed
towards the
summit less than a mile away. This area south of Mono Lake is composed of minor
hills and summits, desert scrub and lots and lots of sand. With the temperature
at 85F and nothing but sand to climb for nearly 800ft, there was no way to
describe this as "fun". The class 2-3
was the only redeeming feature on the mountain save for
(nice one of Mono Lake to ). A fire near Lee Vining left
a good deal of haze across the
landscape, though not as bad as the day prior when we were atop the White Mtns
crest. I had originally planned to continue to Peak 8,340ft another 3/4mi to
the northeast but as far as I could see, all the terrain consisted of yet more
sand. I started down briefly in that direction but soon came to my senses and
capitulated. This just wasn't any fun.
Williams Butte
Back in the van I cranked up the air-conditioner and headed west. As I was
driving north on US395 I noted an interesting summit I soon discovered to be
Williams Butte. This good-looking summit south of the US395/SR120 junction
has more than 500ft of prominence and had been climbed by the likes of Andy
Smatko and Gordon MacLeod - plenty enough reason for me.
It was still too warm out (94F) to consider it, but I thought
perhaps I could eat an early dinner and wait until later. I hung out at the
Whoa Nelli for more than an hour, enjoying some buffalo meatloaf. Laura
contacted me during this time to report that she found no repair shops open in
Bishop. Further,
a friend was in town and offering her a ride up to Coyote Flat, which she
readily accepted. I was on my own again.
I waited until 5p before heading out to Williams Butte. It had cooled back to
85F which was far from ideal but would have to do. I followed the dirt
(Forest Road 1N16) west from US395 for about a mile to a junction.
The left fork, which winds around the east side of Williams Butte, looked to
be in not-so-great shape so I opted for the right fork which I followed a
short distance to the lovely .
I must have driven by here a 100
times and never knew this scenic area existed. I was almost due north of
Williams Butte, whose summit could easily be seen from the start, little more
than a mile away. I walked across the meadow's dry, fluffy tufts (this could
be absolutely awful earlier in the season when it's wet and marshy) to the base
of the mountain before climbing more sandy slopes up to the summit. It took me
just under an hour to reach ,
climbing it from the easier south side where it is standard class 2. It had an
even better view of
than the previous summit with the added bonus of being able to watch helicopters
fetching water from the lake to fight the fire that could still be seen burning
to the north on the slopes of Mono Dome and Lee Vining Peak. The summit register
proved quite popular - there were
filled with way too many
entries to photograph, so I simply signed in on the more recent one and stuffed
them back where I'd found them. I descended off the north side (class 2-3) of
the summit rocks, then down a variation ,
finding it much like the ascent route I had used. It was after 6:45p by the
time , still quite
warm out. Driving up towards Tioga Pass proved far cooler and it was in the
60s when I found one of my usual spots to camp near Ellery Lake.
Continued...