Mable Mountain of the Garfield Hills

Stillwater Field Office BLM

(map link)

If I could figure out a way to make permanent travel work, I'd have turned south to finish wiggling around Nevada. I've not, so I turned north to finish circling Nevada. However, there were still a few days of good weather left, so I stalled out in the Garfield Hills to check them out. Reports for getting to the high point on Peakbagger indicate Garfield Flat Road is rather rough on the east side, where it starts in Mina almost at an NDOT station. I came by the west side, past a tiny NDOT sign stating this road gets "minimal maintenance", and up some wash crossings. It looked like that minimal maintenance was quite recently done. I decided I would go up Mable Mountain. I read it as "Marble" and was a little upset there's no obvious marble like spots on it. There is a marble quarry half a mile down the road from my camp, though.

00: mountain covered in sagebrush — There's no hint of marble on this Mable Mountain.

I considered combining Mable Mountain with the Garfield Hills high point to the east, but any start my car could get me to seemed to have a 14, more likely 15 mile loop. I seemed to only be finishing 10 miles in the light on these short days. I decided to make a long approach to the peak touring through the various mining areas instead. Then it would be so late when I got to the top, I wouldn't even be tempted to wander the ridge higher. Someone had placed geocaches at old buildings in a few places including one at Mable Mine to encourage this sort of thing. I could have easily driven in more than a mile closer if not for the single wheel sized gully crossing the road almost as it starts. Maybe I should have got the shovel out? I got to walking instead.

02: bit of iron — A mystery beside the road. The inside is clear for longer than my hiking pole.

04: peaks disjointed — There's the high point, way in the back to the right. But not the rightmost.

05: white stone — That could at least be marble adjacent...

06: road and hills and mountain — Just a little way along the road and Excelsior Mountain is popping up behind the southern portion of Garfield Hills.

08: flooded flat and mountians — There's a lot of Excelsior Mountains visible south of Garfield Flat (currently flooded).

Having got to the junction with another little road, I turned left to climb some more. These roads definitely get a little use by vehicles. Someone had been through in the last few weeks.

09: basalt — A pile of dark basalt with huge gas bubbles is more like the rocks I expect to see on a mountain that looks like this one.

12: mountains — Mount Grant, high point of Mineral County, Nevada, and Corey Peak to its left, part of the Wassuk Range.

14: flaky rock — A golden shale is apparent as the road passes through a wash.

15: more mountains including snowy ones — A snowy peak appears! (Way back there to the right.) It may be specifically Kuna Peak. It is certainly one of the 13k peaks near Mono Lake, about 70 miles distant.

I passed a faint junction for the road out to a weather station, or at least that's what it looks like at first glance. There's an inordinate number of these weather stations dotting the hills. I came to another junction almost as faint and turned down the little used road to a mining area left unnamed on the USGS map. This road hadn't seen more than a traveler or two in many months.

18: grey rock — One of a few grey rocks that look like they could be a carbonate. Marble? Maybe I should carry a dropper of vinegar and do chemistry!

19: faint road — Up a faint road around Mable Mountain.

21: hole and collapsed building — Mining at the end of the road.

As expected, I came upon a mined area. Almost covered tunnels with failing timbers trying to hold up the ceiling, generally dug out areas, and a building with a commendable number of bookshelves. Or maybe not. There's something funny about those bookshelves. I'd figure it out in a few days, but not yet.

22: hole in the ground — I was happy to stay out of this hole in the ground.

23: pile of wood and metal — A pile of debris that was once a structure. Zoomed in, this is the first view of Walker Lake, too.

25: waste rock and holes — More holes in the mountain on either side of a pile of waste rock.

There wasn't all that much to see of that mining area, so I crossed the wash and started a short cross country climb up the hill to the Mable Mine area. That turned out to be a very nice climb. The wild horses have been making it too.

27: lake and mountains — A better view of Walker Lake (right) down below Mount Grant (left).

28: built things — Found strange piles of built up basalt and a hint of more colorful mountains in the Gabbs Valley Range at the top of the ridge.

30: mine and mountain — Mable Mine below Mable Mountain. Found the cabin where the geocache is.

I came to some roads as I climbed. They would take me to Mable Mine, but I decided to go a little more directly along a faint trail. It's probably animal trail. It had a segment in the middle that didn't quite connect just as the going got hard and the footing unstable.

32: fuel can — A fuel can with Shell Oil branding.

34: cabin and more — There's more than the cabin, which appears to be a kit home. There's an ore hopper above it and a cellar or something built into the ground (dug out for mining, then roofed thickly).

I wandered a bit around the mine area and found the geocache, too. It took a little more than just locating the cabin. I even looked at it a couple times before seeing the sneaky little thing.

36: lifting frame, forgot what to call them — The workings at the top of one mine shaft.

And then I headed up the road. Next up, Garfield Mine!

40: mine and more — Leaving Mable Mine behind.

41: three sided — More mysterious gatherings of rocks at the ridge.

43: road and waste rock pile — The road to Garfield Mine.

Garfield Mine seemed to have some large boulders collected. Or maybe big rusty barrels. Or perhaps horses, although they really weren't moving. Eventually they did move a bit. It's about time I got to see a bit more than piles of poop.

44: good look — The horses got a good look at me, too.

48: three horses — There's actually three of them and they jogged off in spurts.

49: three horses leaving — And off they go for good, for now.

51: moved dirt — Lots of evidence of earth movement around the Garfield Mine area.

53: flat of land between hills — Flooded Garfield Flat, now completely visible below.

The road got to climbing a little more, leaving the old mining areas behind.

56: higher hills — The slightly higher hills peek up. (The high point is only 70 feet higher than Mable Mountain.)

59: ridge line — The winding route of high ridge that would take one over to the slightly higher unnamed high point.

60: hills — The section of Garfield Hills that contains the high point.

61: big top — Arriving at the top of Mable Mountain.

The top of Mable Mountain had a cairn at the high point containing a register. Many said what they drove up to the top. One group seemed to be part of a race that had the top as a check point. They had contributed stickers for a completely different race. (The one they were on at the time may have been less official.) Easy to find in the mess of surveyor trash is the station. I also found the two references.

67: bit of rock — And I found the drill hole core for reference 2.

The wind wasn't blasting and it was even a bit warm under the sun. It was plenty warm to try to take in the view.

70: Grant and Walker — Now not just Mount Grant and Walker Lake, but a bit of the Hawthorn Army Depot. If scattered storage bunkers are your thing.

71: long row of pictures — The whole of the north (and west), new peaks to see of the Gabbs Valley Range and Cedar Range. (link within album)

72: high point — The whole around the high point of the Garfield Hills to the east. Pilot Peak of the Pilot Peak Range behind it. Lone Mountain is still just visible, too, above the righthand hill. (link)

73: big mountains — Everything south (and west) including a distant bulk of White Mountain. (link)

As desirable as it was to continue on, it was late and time to return to camp as expected. I started down the way I'd finished coming up, then continued down that last road. I picked out a ridge line and when the road left the ridge, I left the road. There were two more "weather stations" along it below that point. I kept to the ridge, mostly, aiming at the road to camp. At least I thought I was aiming there. I seem to have missed slightly and got a minor wash instead.

76: smooth hills — About to leave the road. It's a pretty easy downhill to walk. Apparently it's a little steep for wheels.

78: alluvium — Back on the flatter bits with another mile back to camp.

Shadows had already fallen across camp, but there was still an hour until sunset. It was a nice one. It was good to have a smaller hike with plenty of looking around instead of a rush to try to get a long one done.

80: colored clouds — The eastern sky as the sun sets.

81: colored clouds — And the western sky as the sun sets.

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Moments in Dirt and Ink