Dunioth Mountain

Calico Mountains (BLM)

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You know what? It's cold out here! One might even think it was a bit into winter. I have this idea to wander over to places that have large prominence peaks, but they tend to be even colder and particularly cold at the top and, well, maybe now is not quite the right time. So, with a little bit of grumping, I am off to an opportunistic bit of peak bagging in the Calico Mountains. The mountain itself looks fun except for the swarm of truck trails wandering all over it. (Also, the sounds of ammunition from random target shooting isn't inviting.) A geocacher offered up an alternative (by way of putting a geocache at the top) that looks much quieter and can even be done in the few hours of light left in the day. The mountain is actually unnamed, but this person dubbed it "Dunioth Mountain" without explanation. I may as well call it that. One name is generally as good as another.

Already in shadows to start on the late afternoon. The peak is not that one but the one behind it not yet visible.

No route advise is given, that is part of the challenge to sign this particular geocache. My choice is a stubby little road that comes off the main paved road. The only marker at the road for it is a break in the fence and a cattle guard. I park just off the paved road because it is too short to go worrying about the little car on it instead of walking. The purpose for the little road is soon apparent: mining. The hillside has been chewed away in a couple of spots and, this being BLM land, they are now a couple of campsites.

Looks like they just want all of it. The first mine.

The road surprisingly ends soon after the second mine. I continue up the valley as the footing is easy, then up to a low saddle. From here, um, sort of up along the ridge to my left seems like something that will go generally up to the desired finish point. The views all around open up quickly.

Looking back to Calico Peak itself among more of the Calico Mountains. It has some electronics on it.

Ahead, it looks like the peak really is not all that far away. Really quite a bit closer than the geocache point. From the saddle, I scramble around on the side, climbing and getting closer. Some folks call this sidehilling with great disdain, but I see it as so very direct. There are usually something like flats to go along and the rocks here aren't all that loose. Still, it takes a bit more energy than wandering the flat bottom of a wash. As I scramble, the answer to the distance question makes itself known. There is a higher peak right behind the one I thought I might be going for.

That looks so very close and easy to get to.

First view of the actual peak around the back of the close bumps.

So now I know a little more about the ridge I am aiming at. It looks like it could be difficult to follow directly, but easy enough to get around the rocky outcrops that make peaklets on the way to the higher peak. I finally make my way to the top of the ridge.

Actually getting up onto the ridge itself means getting a view to the southwest.

As I travel the ridge line, it abruptly drops in another sudden rockiness. There is a path easily down through it, but it becomes apparent that dropping to the wash to the right of the saddle instead of struggling along high on the left ridge would have been the easier choice for travel. The saddle before me drops practically down to the level of the wash anyway.

Didn't see that coming. Sometimes you just have to drop down to climb.

So now I could take the wash a little further before climbing, but no. I am set on the ridge. I will take the ridge. So I wander up it and around the steep rocks one way or the other. Somehow it always seems that the way that was easier for the previous one will be harder for the one before me. Whatever, each choice seems to work out well enough. I stay high and get to the slight saddle behind each ready to follow the ridge some more.

No trails are apparent anywhere, but I practically have a walkway around one rocky spot.

Getting higher. Looking back at Calico Peak and the rest of the Calico Mountains again.

Volcanism contributed greatly to the making of these hills and it made some odd shapes.

Out west, it looks like someone has found a dirt road to travel.

There are no more surprises until I find myself at the top and there is the can to sign. Sometimes I get to a peak before Bob Burd, but not this time. He signed it in January. Odd since it isn't officially named nor is it really on the way somewhere. He seems to go for the shortest way and Lane Mountain, which is somewhat of a continuation up from here, has much shorter approaches. The view still stretches out all around and I try not to get too cold enjoying it.

South view has some familiar forms of San Jacinto and San Gorgonio. A little closer, the sun picks out a little hill against the shadows of larger ones nicely.

The north maybe holds some peaks for another time.

Playas abound and there is one to the east.

One road for the bumps and another for the flats as the road heads out past Fort Irwin.

More interesting colors in the lands to the north.

Flats in a long, obvious tilt to the northwest.

Since I figure there were easier ways to get to the top, I decide to take one of them back. I'll get down to the wash, then hop over a low saddle to the wash I started in and in between will be like trail highways. First I have to get down, which is a fair bit steeper than anything I came up. Still, the footing is not bad and the brush still thin, so it is just a matter of placing each foot.

Actually, I haven't chosen between ridge and wash. The ridge looks nice, too, except it requires some uphill to get to it.

Right at the start of the wash. Of course it's the easy wash.

The wash is even easier to travel than expected. Still, my plans fall awry to impatience. Up a low saddle to my right and... that isn't where I came from. That doesn't look right at all.

Much wider and mellower than I was expecting. This is not the right wash.

So I take to walking the ridge again. Here, it is a wide, easy hill. The walking really is a lot easier across the top than it was around the side. Down the far side is a little harder, but I swing right around some steep stuff, then maneuver carefully over to a saddle which should hold something familiar. And it does. I follow an old 'dozer track, evidenced by the large rocks having been pushed into lines along the sides, that ends suddenly near and above the second mine. Around that and down into the wash, it is again smooth sailing along wash and road to the car. I do take a moment to investigate one post of a pair visible below the mines. It is likely a claim marker, but now just becomes target practice.




©2018,2019 Valerie Norton
Posted 2 January 2019