Well it has been some time since I've updated this blog, but it is something I've always wanted to complete. I will update when I'm able to so as to track all 100 summits during this one-year challenge.
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| Jake, Rhian, and Ava coming off Unnamed 6900 |
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| Saddle below Lightning Peak |
On the 17th we woke leisurely, had some breakfast, and made a pretty good start in the morning on our way toward the main summits of the trip. We walked briefly up Pearl Lake in the same direction I had gone the evening before. After a short distance we decided to leave the trail and just head straight up the slope on our way to the ridge. Jake and Rhian's dog, Ava, was not very excited about leaving the trail, and it took some coaxing to get her to join us on our off-trail adventure. The slope was steep with old stalks of beargrass turning to seed and other flowers near the end of their bloom. We worked our way up through the beargrass and sparse forest to the top of the ridge, and once on top we could see that we were a short distance from a highpoint on the ridge. It was worth the slight detour to the top of that summit. Upon returning home and reviewing a map and a peakbagging website I realized this summit gets a "Soft" rank, which means it falls below the 300' mark to be considered its own ranked peak, but because the summit has 280 feet of prominence, it is considered too difficult to determine its prominence exactly in terms of that 300' mark as the contour lines are 40' at best and sometimes larger. This means that some of these "Soft" ranked peaks could potentially be within that 300', but at 280' this summit probably doesn't make it on that degree of error.
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| Ridge up Lightning Peak |
Either way, the summit provided great views of the ridge we would follow to Lightning and beyond to Quartz Benchmark. The walking along the ridge was easy and mostly open. Occasionally trees would be growing thicker on the first section of the ridge, but a trail could be found sometimes off the ridge in the forest and sometimes it followed the ridge directly. As we neared the hump before Lightning, the forest became more dense and the going became more tedious. As the goal was Lightning, which was to the north, we were drawn in that direction in an attempt to cut off the top of the rounded hump and save distance. This didn't necessarily work out in our favor. We found cluster after cluster of fir that seemed more impenetrable than the last. It's at these points where I start to apologize to the others as the plan was mine to go way out to these summits. On the way back the old trail was a bit easier to find and follow and did lead closer along near the ridge. Don't be tempted to cut off too much of this rounded hump.
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| Ridge walk to the true summit of Quartz |
Near the saddle between the hump and Lightning Peak there is a beautiful meadow. The grass was green and tall, and we enjoyed a part of the walk where we could go in any direction we pleased, especially after bashing through the trees. From the meadow at the saddle there is an open forest that leads upslope to the ridge of Lightning. Out on the ridge it is pretty open and the flowers were blooming. We had some wonderful views off toward Quartz, which seemed to be quite a ways away. We pushed up the open slope and eventually made it to the summit of Lightning Peak. We found some shade to rest in and to help Ava cool off, and we had a nice lunch with great views from the summit.
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| View from near summit with Saint Patrick Peak on right |
The summit of Quartz appeared to be still quite some distance from Lightning. Jake and Rhian were wanting to get down to French Lake to do some fishing while Carrie and I hiked out to Quartz, so we all hiked down the north ridge on the trail and followed it into the amazing basin below Lightning's summit and beyond to the first small saddle. Jake and Rhian left us at this saddle and started down toward the lake on what appeared to be a faint trail. It turned out that it was likely an animal trail, and it disappeared into thick brush well above the lake. This eventually turned them around as we were all a long way from camp at Pearl Lake.
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| Walking on the open ridge |
Beyond the little saddle where we left Jake and Rhian, the trail suddenly became the most clear and obvious it had been all day. This lasted for quite some time as we ascended but deteriorated, in small sections at first and then in larger and larger stretches, as we climbed higher and the forest thinned out. Eventually we reached a highpoint and could see over top of the mountain. It still looked further away than I had expected. This is a long hike, and we weren't even to the turnaround summit yet. The afternoon grew longer and yet the weather remained perfect with sun and a few lazy clouds. There was no trail near the top of the highpoint we were on and beyond to the true summit, but the ridge walk was very enjoyable with great views to the north and west.
Carrie and I shared the summit with thousands of lady bugs and enjoyed the weather and the views along with having attained the highest point in Mineral County. We contemplated how long the walk back to camp was going to be and wondered about Jake and Rhian's adventures down at the lake. Eventually we reluctantly stood up and tried to crush as few lady bugs as we could as we left to retrace our steps back toward Lightning Peak.
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| Unnamed hump (right), Lightning (left), and Quartz (left center) |
The walk back was pleasant but long. We stopped up in the shade near a small snowbank up in the Lightning Peak basin before making the final push up to the peak. We sat and enjoyed some water, made colder with some freshly-scooped snow in our bottles, while we took in the beauty of the upper basin. Rocks were perfectly laid and lined with flowers and grass, which, with the snow, gave us a small alpine feeling. We found that the later in the day it became, the harder it was for us to leave our resting places, and we could have stayed in that upper basin forever. For a bit we had wondered if we would see Jake and Rhian on their way back from French Lake. After a ten minute break with no sign of them, the day not getting any shorter, and camp not getting any closer, we figured they were well on their way to camp and followed after them.
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| Pinnacle on cliff face with view back to peaks |
The climb up Lightning was a grunt but worth it again for the view. It was a quick drop on the open ridge back down to the saddle, where I spotted the trail heading off closer to the ridge of the unnamed hump than where we had first come to the saddle. We followed this faint trail and it avoided all the thick growth we had encountered on the way out and led us to the open forest on top of the ridge before tapering out. It was pleasant hiking along this ridge, and we made a final short climb toward the first highpoint we had climbed that day. Instead of ascending it again we found a way around the north side that gave us nice views of a small pinnacle on a cliff face. Near the cliff face there was a trail we followed, but it too eventually faded away in the beargrass on the face above Pearl Lake. At one point we spooked up a deer that we saw jump once or twice, but if it was not jumping, its body was out of view in the thickest beargrass stalks I had ever seen. We bashed our way through this beargrass ghost forest down to the lake and Jake and Rhian and camp. They cooked a great meal that night and we were all in bed earlier than we had been the night before.
Elevation gain: 4050' Total gain: 133,970'
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