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2022-02-26, 10:36 AM
(This post was last modified: 2022-02-26, 10:55 AM by Beardilocks.)
I am a bit of a Death Valley back country rat and I love getting far off the beaten path. I'm in the planning stages for my next big trip to the SW (winter 2022/23). I'd like to hear anyone's ideas on bucket list through hikes. You don't have to have done it. It just has to be epic. Lol.
As far as myself, I have done Drybone through from top to bottom as well as Aguereberry through to Furnace Creek. Each as an overnight.
I've been vaguely eyeing something in the eastern Wingate Wash area to the Owlsheads. I have also been trying to find a route down the spine of the Cottonwoods, maybe from the end of Whitetop Rd to Heart of Stone, although that's unlikely to be a through hike unless I went down Bighorn.
I'm really open to any corner of the park and 4wd HC is not a problem.
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(2022-02-26, 10:36 AM)Beardilocks Wrote: I am a bit of a Death Valley back country rat and I love getting far off the beaten path. I'm in the planning stages for my next big trip to the SW (winter 2022/23). I'd like to hear anyone's ideas on bucket list through hikes. You don't have to have done it. It just has to be epic. Lol.
As far as myself, I have done Drybone through from top to bottom as well as Aguereberry through to Furnace Creek. Each as an overnight.
I've been vaguely eyeing something in the eastern Wingate Wash area to the Owlsheads. I have also been trying to find a route down the spine of the Cottonwoods, maybe from the end of Whitetop Rd to Heart of Stone, although that's unlikely to be a through hike unless I went down Bighorn.
I'm really open to any corner of the park and 4wd HC is not a problem.
Two known loops could be extended:
Marble/Cottonwood: Up Cottonwood to spring then onward to Hunter Mtn. Drop down to BigDodd/Grapevine canyon and head north to Racetrack. Return Ulida/Sand Flat/Upper Marble.
Surprise/Happy: Up to Panamint pass and Hungry Bill Ranch. Then S Fk Johnson to Warm Spring via a trail travsering between 5600 and 4600 feet to Gold Hill. Extend more into Anvil Spring Canyon (lowest saddle) then Butte Valley. Return to Happy on Panamint Crest gained at Redlands Cany divide.
Marble/Cottonwood Loop via Emigrant Campground: This is a nice way to extend yet less than 40 miles:
http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8022827
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Ditto Surprise/Happy and Marble/Cottonwood/Lemoigne! Two I've had I've had on my radar as well. Here's a few others I've been thinking about lately:
West Side of the Panamints trails: lots of historic trails connecting all of the major canyons
North Highway to Racetrack (via Bighorn Gorge)
Strozzi Ranch to Titus parking lot (via Fall Canyon or crossover to upper Titus)
Hole-in-the-Wall to Amargosa View, return via Echo
Aguereberry to Furnace Creek via Blackwater Cyn or Trail Canyon -> Aguereberry Point
So much in the Inyos, if you're not afraid of insane elevation changes, such as:
Beveridge from Snowflake
Snowflake to Keynot
Daisy Canyon Salt Tram Trail
San Lucas Canyon Road to Lippincott Road
"Lonesome Miner Trail"
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The biggest DV hike I successfully completed was what I call the Roadrunner Route. It's a loop, which I started from the Badwater parking lot, though I cached a campsite at Mahogany Flat and some water at Trail Canyon/West Side Road. (55 miles, 13400 ft gained and lost)
https://caltopo.com/m/00B2
The biggest DV hike I planned was designed to take me from Butte Valley to Harrisburg Flat, as part of an epic loop. I started on Pleasant Canyon Rd and hiked to Geologist Cabin. When I got to Panamint Pass, the forecast was quite ominous with snow and wind, even though it was mid-May, so I aborted it there and looped back down Surprise Canyon, to Ballarat, and back up to where my vehicle was parked, and just did other things with the rest of the time.
https://caltopo.com/m/07UJ
The red tracks are what I planned, including many alternates, and opportunities to bail. I wanted to hop the western canyons, but in case I just wasn't up for that, I also was prepared to do a very long road hike back down to Pleasant Canyon. The blue track is what I actually did (45 miles, 15000 ft gained and lost)
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Wow that second map is a classic. What a fun bunch of routes. I've done a bunch of them along the crest, but never actually touched Panamint Pass.
I notice you marked a waypoint at the Weston Cabin in Happy. Since you called them by name, did you know them? I stayed there twice. both times sleeping in one of the beds in Norma(?)'s studio trailer. The first time they were not there, but it was unlocked, and a log book on the kitchen table revealed their footpath route up to the locked gate at the Porter Mine, where they kept motorcycles - and suggested the dayhike route up to the mine, the peak, then along the ridge to t he ridge dividing the two halves of Happy.
The second time they were there, and were rather surprised to see my 10 year old daughter walk up to the door! They were sweet and when she and I came down from Sentinel the next day well after dark, they stayed up with a lantern out until we arrived.
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Wow, that's really cool that you knew the Westons. No, I did not know them. I got the name from a website, or perhaps Digonnet. I have never been to the upper portion of Happy Canyon. I may try to hit it on a future Panamint City trip. Panamint Pass to 10460 is one stretch of the crest I have not done. Also have not done Wildrose to Bald.
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I have not been on the Crest south of Porter, but from there north to Tucki those same two segments are exactly what I have not yet managed to travel 
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How are you defining the crest? If Tucki is included, I have missed quite a bit more. I'd be curious to see your route from Bald to Tucki.
I treat point 7726, just north of Bald, as the north end of the crest, and I treat the end of the crest road above Butte Valley as the south end. One could say it continues from there where it turns to the west toward Manly Peak, but I haven't done that area.
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Well you are right of course that after 7726 things get messy. Maybe I'd extend your definition down to the old Trail Canyon Rd. Speaking of 7726, I was up there a few weeks ago, after 15 years or so, and I'd forgotten how pleasant it is. We came up from the Aguereberry Pt. road and went back down the same way (there is an old track much of the way). Last time we did a car shuttle and went out via Wood Canyon. I found a trail up on 7726, maybe goes to Harrisburg, but I did not check it out.
So after that the "Crest" becomes a jumble and when I say I've been on it, I mean I've walked on various high points passing Skidoo on the east side, rather than a strict calculation of the highest points in sequence north of 7726. That could certainly be done, though, and it would have excellent views!
Do we consider Tucki to be part of the Panamints, or is it on it's own out there? Pinto? Does it matter? Probably not All nice country, and mostly solitude
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Oops, edit in the above. I was actually referring to 7204, which is the high point continuing from Bald along the top end of Wood Canyon above Trail Canyon, then up and over, and come down at the old Trail Canyon road just off the Aguereberry Rd. I would consider that part of the Crest. After that, it gets all mushy
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