Moments in Dirt and Ink

Owens Peak Wilderness, BLM Link to map. The scheduled Hundred Peaks Section hike was hitting in a sweet spot weather wise between far too hot the day before and a storm rolling in the day after and I was wanting to get a bit further afield than I have been getting recently, so I signed up. It does tend to mean a far too early meeting in a remote parking lot after already driving nearly two hours and then another few hours to get to the trailhead. The road up cannot be too bad as the Subaru made it. Watching it get there, often with a wheel floating a foot in the air, was certainly entertaining. A large rock leaving nearly enough road to get around right at the end seemed the most difficult obstacle, but was only a problem for the vehicle with the longest wheel base. It does not seem like a very early start as we collect at the marked trailhead. Looking back down the road up Indian Wells Canyon. Plenty of desert out there, but we are already up in the pinon pines. ...

Bureau of Land Management The second peak of the day with the Hundred Peaks Section is a little way down the road and up another minor maze of numbered roads full of large rocks. As things get steep and eroded, we pull aside to embark with the much more reliable two foot drive. One set of truck tracks continues further, but seems to have quit after dislodging a large rock in the road just a few feet further. There are only motorcycle tracks on the road after that. We climb upward toward a saddle between a lovely rounded lump and a ridge to the peak lost in the clouds. It had looked clearer in this direction as we traveled between the mountains, but the hope is now dashed. Maybe it will clear a little by the time we get up there. The ridge to the peak vanishes into the clouds. The road looks better again up here where things level off again. The town of Red Mountain below.

El Paso Mountains Wilderness (BLM) With the new year, I seem to be out playing the Hundred Peaks Game again. Today has two targets that will be two separate hikes in the expanses of generally ignored Bureau of Land Management lands up peaks simply named for the color of the rocks that bring them to their height. The first is not entirely ignored as it sits within a Congressionally designated wilderness area. The route to the start is a decidedly rough road where the high clearance 4x4 is very desirable. After a slight maze of numbered roads, we park at the top of a gentle and rocky slope ready to get started up the mountain. Out on a gentle slope of desert with snowy mountains in the background and nature cheering us on with a rainbow. Or maybe that is just a good indication we will get some rain on us eventually. We head up the gentle slope past a mysterious fenced structure. It looks a bit like there is a gap between ourselves and the mountain to the north, then ...

Owens Peak Wilderness After heading up Scodie Mountain on an official Sierra Club Hundred Peaks Section trip, we join our leader, her carpool companion, and one of the Bills to climb Five Fingers unofficially. A dirt road off to the left just north of the brewery at Indian Wells is our starting point. We park at a thing marked "powers well" on the map and whatever it is, the ruins remain. The Bureau of Land Management has an information sign and a lot of fences as we are on a 4x4 road surrounded by the Owens Peak Wilderness. There are fewer fences to the north where we are headed as the rugged land is expected to protect itself. The HPS groups usually start off a little further up the road, but it is a short and wide open, if steep, expanse we are about to go up and it can hardly matter where we park. Climbing the scree slope on the south side of Five Fingers, looking up the road along Indian Wells Canyon. We start up the hill where a small path winds brief...