"Twin Peaks!" Or how a Swedish/Irish guy went up two mountains in two states in one day.
Well, the pictures aren't that great, but here's today's trip log. Hopefully it won't bore the hell out of you.
Cruised out of Bishop at about 6:30 after breakfast at Denny's. Here's a look at today's gameplan at sunrise on the way there. Boundary Peak on the left, Mt. Montgomery on the right. Kind of a wierd mountain range, as those are the two highest peaks in the White Mountains, but Montgomery is on the California side of the border, and Boundary is on the Nevada side, so even though it's slightly (about 400 feet) lower, it gets more traffic becuase its the highest point in Nevada.
Well, traffic is kind of a strong word, because I didn't see anyone the entire day after I left Highway 6. 75 round-trip miles total actually. It was 14.7 miles to the trailhead over one of the worst dirt roads I'd ever seen. I took a picture of it, but it didn't really do it justice. Just know that I was really proud to get the Corolla through 14.2 miles of it, before I got completely stopped at about 8:30. Flipped the car around and added a mile to the round-trip total, as I had to hike up the extra half-mile to the trailhead. Funny thing was, that was about as steep as anything I saw on the day. Finally got to the trailhead, which would be a tight campground if you had a 4x4 to get up the road. Two miles passed without any real problems, until I crossed over to the third ridge. About halfway up, I got off the trail, and had to scramble hands and legs style up the scree probably 200 feet until I found the trail again, which wasn't much better, but at least I wasn't losing every step sliding back down the mountain on the trail.
Got up to the saddle between the two mountains probably around 11:30. I was feeling (relatively) good, so after going up Boundary, I decided to try and cross the saddle to Mt. Montgomery, over on the California side of the border.
On the way, I took the requisite view pictures from the saddle, East towards Nevada and West towards the Sierra Nevadaa. I also had lunch and had my moron moment of the day, which luckily wasn't more of a mishap. I'd been running dry on my Camelbak, so I took to out to fill it with some of my remaining Nalgene water, of which I had about a liter and a half left. Since the Camelbak holds two liters, I'd figured I'd used over half my water, so I'd been really conserving water. As it turns out though, I'd just put it in upside-down, and wasn't able to defeat that damn gravity. Definitely my most stupid moment of the day. I'd be more proud of the Western view picture, but some horrible-looking jackass got in the way.
To my defense, I was pretty tired by this point. I also took a picture of Boundary from where I was at there, about 3/4 up the distance from Montgomery to Boundary.
I lost the trail about 500 feet from the top of Montgomery, so I called it a moral victory and trucked back down since it was about 1 p.m. and there were some menacing clouds as I was going to be above the timberline for another hour or so.
Took a North view once I got over the ridge back on the way to the trailhead.
Critter-wise, not a whole lot, though above the timberline, that's not a huge surprise. Lots of mice, a couple rabbits, and on the road I saw 4-5 roadrunners. Coolest moment was in the morning, when I heard a whole pack of coyotes howling. Didn't see any, though, for better or worse.
Getting back down the mountain was pretty exciting...the Corolla was already pretty beat up, but in a pretty good exhibition of driving, got it back down the mountain on a road that was essentially like driving down a wash for half of it.
Blasted a lot of driver friendly music from my iPod, (And I mean blasted. I was feeling it.) Ten and Two'd the whole way down and only had one scare, which is one less than I had on the way up. Two unmarked forks on the road back would have stymied a lesser human being, but I'd checked them on the way in.
One more on the way back, Boundary on the left, border inbetween, Montgomery on the right and some about to be scary clouds hovering over the top, that would be rain in about an hour. Glad I was down. I had a nifty picture of the mountains with the Boundary Peak road sign in front of them, but some idiot had his finger over the lens. Oh well.
We'll see about the other two days...nice thing about having no plans is having no plans. I might even check out what Thursday in Bishop has to offer if my windburn goes down at all. On the other hand, I'm the only person I've seen in their twenties without progeny, so we'll see. Might just watch the rest of the Cards-Cubs game on mute. Joe Morgan and Chris Berman together is the worst assault on my ears since William Hung.
Cruised out of Bishop at about 6:30 after breakfast at Denny's. Here's a look at today's gameplan at sunrise on the way there. Boundary Peak on the left, Mt. Montgomery on the right. Kind of a wierd mountain range, as those are the two highest peaks in the White Mountains, but Montgomery is on the California side of the border, and Boundary is on the Nevada side, so even though it's slightly (about 400 feet) lower, it gets more traffic becuase its the highest point in Nevada.
Well, traffic is kind of a strong word, because I didn't see anyone the entire day after I left Highway 6. 75 round-trip miles total actually. It was 14.7 miles to the trailhead over one of the worst dirt roads I'd ever seen. I took a picture of it, but it didn't really do it justice. Just know that I was really proud to get the Corolla through 14.2 miles of it, before I got completely stopped at about 8:30. Flipped the car around and added a mile to the round-trip total, as I had to hike up the extra half-mile to the trailhead. Funny thing was, that was about as steep as anything I saw on the day. Finally got to the trailhead, which would be a tight campground if you had a 4x4 to get up the road. Two miles passed without any real problems, until I crossed over to the third ridge. About halfway up, I got off the trail, and had to scramble hands and legs style up the scree probably 200 feet until I found the trail again, which wasn't much better, but at least I wasn't losing every step sliding back down the mountain on the trail.
Got up to the saddle between the two mountains probably around 11:30. I was feeling (relatively) good, so after going up Boundary, I decided to try and cross the saddle to Mt. Montgomery, over on the California side of the border.
On the way, I took the requisite view pictures from the saddle, East towards Nevada and West towards the Sierra Nevadaa. I also had lunch and had my moron moment of the day, which luckily wasn't more of a mishap. I'd been running dry on my Camelbak, so I took to out to fill it with some of my remaining Nalgene water, of which I had about a liter and a half left. Since the Camelbak holds two liters, I'd figured I'd used over half my water, so I'd been really conserving water. As it turns out though, I'd just put it in upside-down, and wasn't able to defeat that damn gravity. Definitely my most stupid moment of the day. I'd be more proud of the Western view picture, but some horrible-looking jackass got in the way.
To my defense, I was pretty tired by this point. I also took a picture of Boundary from where I was at there, about 3/4 up the distance from Montgomery to Boundary.
I lost the trail about 500 feet from the top of Montgomery, so I called it a moral victory and trucked back down since it was about 1 p.m. and there were some menacing clouds as I was going to be above the timberline for another hour or so.
Took a North view once I got over the ridge back on the way to the trailhead.
Critter-wise, not a whole lot, though above the timberline, that's not a huge surprise. Lots of mice, a couple rabbits, and on the road I saw 4-5 roadrunners. Coolest moment was in the morning, when I heard a whole pack of coyotes howling. Didn't see any, though, for better or worse.
Getting back down the mountain was pretty exciting...the Corolla was already pretty beat up, but in a pretty good exhibition of driving, got it back down the mountain on a road that was essentially like driving down a wash for half of it.
Blasted a lot of driver friendly music from my iPod, (And I mean blasted. I was feeling it.) Ten and Two'd the whole way down and only had one scare, which is one less than I had on the way up. Two unmarked forks on the road back would have stymied a lesser human being, but I'd checked them on the way in.
One more on the way back, Boundary on the left, border inbetween, Montgomery on the right and some about to be scary clouds hovering over the top, that would be rain in about an hour. Glad I was down. I had a nifty picture of the mountains with the Boundary Peak road sign in front of them, but some idiot had his finger over the lens. Oh well.
We'll see about the other two days...nice thing about having no plans is having no plans. I might even check out what Thursday in Bishop has to offer if my windburn goes down at all. On the other hand, I'm the only person I've seen in their twenties without progeny, so we'll see. Might just watch the rest of the Cards-Cubs game on mute. Joe Morgan and Chris Berman together is the worst assault on my ears since William Hung.