April 22-26: The Roadrunner Route

[MojaveGeek]

Sorry, I'm a tad confused. Was the red route your old one and the blue route the one you took this trip? I thought the blue was the way you were planning but it seemed like you changed your mind at some point, from what you wrote?

[wbdeford]

I don't even know if you drink, but I feel obligated to buy you a beer after reading that one. Helluva route you pulled off there.

I'm a pretty big fan of drudgery when it comes to physical endeavors but am arriving at a point in my life where the idea of establishing a good basecamp is probably how it'll be done from here on out. Thanks for sharing the adventure and route map.

Would be really cool to meet up with all you guys there some day.....if anyone is out there when I am, would definitely be interested in getting together if it can be arranged.

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Sorry, I'm a tad confused.  Was the red route your old one and the blue route the one you took this trip?  I thought the blue was the way you were planning but it seemed like you changed your mind at some point, from what you wrote?

The red route is the old one.  The blue route is what I planned for this one and is more or less what I did, except where I didn't have my landmarks and drifted into the Devil's Golf Course....red dots show some spots there.

Digonnet said the descent to the Morning Glory Mine starts at the saddle southeast of Wildrose, but that looked like too much side-hilling to me to get over to the main ridge, so I went further up the trail to roughly where the switchbacks start to take the ridge more directly.  Still more or less the blue route, considering I drew it as a general route down the ridge.

[MojaveGeek]

It occurred to me... you talk about your epiphany at the tree and how you don't need to go on gonzo trudges any more... But there's a hell of a lot of backpacking you can do without needing to climb 10K feet - and go back down. That was a pretty epic hike you did there!

[John Morrow]

Incredible! Simply, incredible.

[wbdeford]

It occurred to me...  you talk about your epiphany at the tree and how you don't need to go on gonzo trudges any more...  But there's a hell of a lot of backpacking you can do without needing to climb 10K feet - and go back down.  That was a pretty epic hike you did there!

The biggest appeal of the long distance stuff, aside from the satisfaction of accomplishment, is experiencing the continuity of the place, much of which is missed even if driving it is possible.  But, yeah, I have much to look forward to in the shorter trip business!