2024 peakbagging and other activities

[Brice]

Stuck inside on a rainy day.  I'm bored so I'm going to post something, but it's only DV adjacent.  Anyone who lives near Vegas, possibly already knows of this mountain but it's new to me.

Bridge Mountain is one of those fun mountains that looks utterly impossible from a distance.  It's steep, but no more than class 3 climbing is needed to reach the summit. There's a use trail much of the way,  and helpful cairns for the sandstone parts. It's a bit of a maze to get to the top.   The arrow points to the bridge that I passed through on the way up, and crossed over on the way down. 



Here is the bridge closer up.  There's a nice bowl of water inside with a large pine tree growing in there.  Since there isn't much soil for the tree to hold onto, it's tipped over onto the wall behind it, but the roots are still keeping it healthy.



The mountain is located Red Rock canyon National conservation area just outside of Las Vegas.  My national park pass got me in for free, and by arriving early I didn't have to reserve a timed entry pass on recreation.gov ($2 fee).  I also saw no other people until I got back to the trailhead at noon, which by then was packed with people exploring the official trails.

[Beardilocks]

Wow! Helluva bridge dude. And a really neat bowl. I love those.

Really killer summit. What was the gain?

[Brice]

Wow!  Helluva bridge dude.  And a really neat bowl.  I love those. 

Really killer summit.  What was the gain?

Gaia says 3,300 which seems about right.  But look what it says for my last hike which was an out and back by the same route both ways.



Notice the asymmetrical position of the summit.  Notice the distance says 7 miles but the chart goes out to 8.  Notice if you take the difference in max and min elevation it is 2560 feet, 200 more than the stated ascent. 

What kind of programmers are they employing over there?

[Beardilocks]

Noise from the satellites. All that reptilian alien chatter man. Screwing up the signal.

I had two years of Gaia over reporting gain like crazy. This year it’s under a lot. I dunno. On our Scruge hike it showed zero gain until the climbing section. Which was 650ft up.

I feel it’s better than previous years but still not great. But I mean, cmon. Satellites, what, 50-80,000ft above me are trying to get accurate reading on me? Pretty cool we get this close. My standards for humans as a species is kinda low anymore.

[TacoLand]

That's an incredible bridge ... your photos always have such good composition & color too. What's the deal with Gaia versus Strava for tracking hikes? Ever since I started road cycling I've been 100% Strava, even though it seems like it isn't really / at all meant for hikers.

I'm with Beardilocks with regards to the "I'm just impressed it kind of works," though I once had my Garmin inReach ping to my people back home that I was camped in the middle of Africa once. Super bizarre.

[Brice]

What's the deal with Gaia versus Strava for tracking hikes? Ever since I started road cycling I've been 100% Strava, even though it seems like it isn't really / at all meant for hikers.

GaiaGPS is best for mapping, navigation, and exploration.  Strava is for tracking exercises.

Gaia isn't going to tell you anything about how many calories you burned, heart rate, how far you ran last month compared to this one, etc.

I've barely used Strava though, and never paid for it, so I'm possibly uninformed on the capabilities.  The free version of GaiaGPS is very usable though.  Give it a try.  The main reason you would pay is to get all the extra map layers which I find invaluable.  For example: public lands, USGS topo, snow cover, wildfires, cell coverage, bedrock geology, slope angle, and lots more.

[TacoLand]

Oh yeah, I kind of flubbed that one and focused on you discussing distance and elevation recorded during your excursion.

When we're out I use a super random iOS app called Topo Maps for way finding, because all it is is old USGS topo maps with nothing else to it really. As simple (and old for the maps) as possible has served me well for over a decade now. That said, sounds like I should give GaiaGPS a spin. Thank you.

[DVexile]

I finally was semi forced to Gaia a couple of years ago having used Topo Maps for ages and ages. Yeah, subscription model, blah, blah, blah. Lots and lots of map layers. Various fancy features I don’t care much about. What I do like is:

Extremely space efficient vector based Gaia topo layer. Can cover massive area with small storage requirements.

USGS Topo series as well, which I do like better in many cases, but now I don’t necessarily have to cover huge areas.

Nat Geo maps which sometimes are better for indicating what routes are actually open.

USFS maps, again good for open routes.

Various satellite layers that I sometimes download just for a hike region, not as high resolution as Google maps aerial photos though.

USGS geologic maps! Sort of fun.

[MojaveGeek]

In addition to a pretty small Garmin etrex, I also have an app, USATopo, on my Android phone. I wear the Garmin on a lanyard around my neck so I can't lose it. It will record on a pair of AA Alkaline rechargeables for a couple of days. Easy to download / upload tracks and waypoints. When I see a faint track on the satellite images on my computer, I make some waypoints and load them into the Garmin, because old trails can be very hard to see unless you are sighting right down them.

But the app on my phone is good in that it uses tried and true USGS and USFS maps, which is what I use for planning purposes anyway, so they make the terrain look familiar. When I got it I paid $5 or something to get the ability to store the maps locally and run without signal. Except the GE images won't cache due to license issues. Since I do all my planning off the USGS maps (I use caltopo on line) I whip out the phone when I'm challenged by the navigation.

The app also lets me load and save waypoints and tracks, though it did not when I first got it.

All my old tracks are in my Dropbox. So if I am out some place with a signal, I can grab and old track and display it on the map app, which is pretty cool and has been helpful more than once.

I also carry a paper map as a backup I don't use it often, but all it takes is one moment of clumsiness and the phone gets dropped, screen breaks, and it is useless

[Brice]

Weather and other reasons kept me from DV summits for the past two weeks.  So this week I was really itching to get back into it and headed to Eureka valley, a place I've never been before.

First stop was Granite Benchmark and the peak above it that marks the true highpoint.  No snow on the southwestern face, but I did encounter some on the way to the top.  I wasn't able to drive all the way to the base of the peak as I had hoped because the main wash was cut too deep for me to safely cross in my vehicle.



Here's a vew from the summit.  Big Pine road is in the center, snaking up into the mountains.



Some nice flowers on the way back to the vehicle.



Next I was off to Lead Benchmark.  The previous trip report for the benchmark in early May last year indicated a "subaru friendly" parking spot a little over half a mile up the mining road towards the benchmark.  It would now take a heavily modified off-road vehicle to make it to that spot, and even then it would be faster to hike.  This photo is from most of the way up.  Lead benchmark (out of frame on right).  Snow covered Sandy point on the left, the dunes far below on the right.



Next on the target list was Peak 6960, just east of the dunes.  Here's a photo of it (left of center) from the dunes summit that I climbed later in the day.  It's also visible in the Lead benchmark photo above.   I camped next to the road below the flat pancake on the right.  Up to that point the road was fine, but high clearance was necessary for some washed out areas.  I didn't try going any further into Dedeckera canyon.   I expect it's in bad shape given the state of the Lead benchmark road.



It was a difficult climb, taking 5 hours despite being just over 5 miles round trip.  Here's a view of the valley from half-way up.



And the view from the top looking south.  On the distant left is Tin mountain, Marble peak (closer), then Dry mountain left of center.



Once back down to the valley floor, I went over to climb the dunes.  The wind had started whipping near the summit.  Many of my footprints had already been erased on the way back down.



The next day I devised an 18 mile loop to grab three summits all at once.  Hidden dunes high point, Brass benchmark, and Peak 4285. With the exception of the climb up Brass benchmark, virtually every footstep this hike was on sand.  Not the softest sand, not the worst sand, but still sand.  View overlooking the dunes high point.  Snowy Zinc benchmark left, Waucoba mountain on the right. 



The long sandy hike over to the base of Brass benchmark was kept interesting.  First finding an arrowhead, then some flakes from tool making, but also many larger chunks of obsidian scattered throughout the wash.  Everything has been smoothed and rounded off like beach glass, having spent millennia tumbling through the sand. 





Photo of the Brass summit once I got up to the ridge.  Cucomungo canyon entrance on the right.



View down from the Brass summit of Peak 4285 (just right of center).  No fewer than a dozen fighter planes shot the gap between the two ridges during my hike that day.  somewhere along those slopes seems like a great place to perch yourself if you want to see them up close and personal.



The sandy 800 foot climb to the top of Peak 4285 was at the end of a long day, but I still remembered to grab a photo of Brass before heading down the other side.



I escaped the park today (Friday), and on the way out it was apparant that the President's day weekend crowd was already on their way in.   I'll be happy sitting on my butt for the next few days until everyone clears out.