2024 peakbagging and other activities

[Brice]

I finished off the Grapevine mountains today with a climb of Thimble Peak.  With Titus road closed and no bicycle at my disposal, I was forced to hike from Daylight pass.  The first 4 miles is a light bushwhack, dodging thorny plants, weaving through a spider web of washes, and climbing over small ridges if they're choked with too much brush.  It makes for slow going, but I knew what to expect having climbed Titanothere and Fliptop peaks last November via the same route.

I took this photo at the last minor saddle, looking towards the remaining hike before I eventually hooked up with the Titus canyon road.



There was about 3.5 miles of road hiking before I reached Red Pass.  The road has sustained significant damage since it has been closed.  There was one set of old-ish tire tracks that turned around at this spot.  The damage here was a couple feet deep.  There were more spots like this one that will take some work to restore.



Other than the one set of vehicle tracks, I only saw one set of bicycle tracks but no other signs other humans have been along this road since its closure.  I was surprised to not see dirt bike evidence since we all know of those two dummies that got themselves into trouble a couple months ago.  Eventually I reached a ~1000 lb boulder in the road climbing up to Red Pass.  There were many boulders and rockfalls on the road, but this was the largest.



Photo from Red Pass looking north into the Leadfield area.  It's hidden by shadow in the photo, but there was another large boulder in the road.  Possibly larger than the one I had already passed.



On the way up to Thimble I took this photo looking back at the ground I covered to get up to this point.



Thimble peak looking pretty great.



I can't say I recommend this hike as there is a significant amount of elevation gain on the way back that had my legs complaining.  But the climb from Red Pass to Thimble is very nice.  Being out there, in a normally busy place with nobody else around was also great.  With a bicycle, someone could easily bike to the bottom of the Red Pass climb, or all the way to Red Pass if physically able.  Plus the way back would be a breezy coast rather than a bushwhack.

For the curious: