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Please Click Here for – Part Six
Gigantic Prominence
The Lady and my first hike to the top of Mount Jefferson, the highpoint of Nevada’s Toquima Range, was in July 2011. We enjoyed it so much we did it again the next day from the opposite side of the mountain. Today’s climb to the summit would be our fifth.
The term “prominence” for a mountain peak was not on Julie and my radar. Steve explained it to us as we discovered summit register sign ins on Arc Dome by peakbaggers they know in Washington. Peakbaggers thirst after prominence and Arc Dome has over 5200 feet. Here’s a quote from Summitpost linked above: “Mount Jefferson sees its share of hikers due to its gigantic prominence of over 5,800 feet and its status as the highest peak in Nye County.” Wow, we never knew.
The wind was howling when we reached one of our favorite dispersed campsites on the saddle in the Toquima Range known as Jefferson Summit. We all knew we’d be in for a brutal trip to the top and we really hoped the wind would die down enough in the late afternoon to allow us to camp and spend the night here. Well, we could hope.
We were kind to Steve and did not count how many times he unlocked the truck and camper to retrieve forgotten items before we could start out. An old roadbed leads up the ridge line.
After a mile or so, a use trail takes over and the elevation gain begins.
The views are outstanding over this vast piece of the Great Basin.
The wind was brutal. In a couple of exposed areas, the Lady and I were nearly blown over. Just another day in the mountains, a little more fun than usual.
Up we went. The use trail is faint, and in a couple very rocky spots is hard to see. But just keep heading up until there’s no more up.
The Lady is standing in the photo above, not sitting down.
The summit of Mount Jefferson, 11,941 feet, is broad. The Jefferson massif (or plateau) stretches to the north and includes Middle Summit (11,686) and North Summit (11,814). The Lady and I have visited all these highpoints. This is awe inspiring terrain.
See mores and the PeakFinder app went to work.
The wind was dying down and it was fairly tolerable on the summit. We wandered about for well over an hour.
Four glacial cirques were carved into the east side of the Jefferson massif.
For a summit photo the Lady remembered about the sunglasses. Oops, I did not.
It took quite a search for us to find the summit register. Yes, Steve recognized some of names – gigantic prominence. It was time to head back down.
The wind had abated enough that we felt comfortable camping where we had parked our trucks. The trucks were parked into the wind and we able to use them as a windbreak. It quieted during the night and was still in the morning.
There is a spring at the old Meadow Creek USFS guard station. It’s a great place to top off with water.
Notice the juvenile mountain bluebird at the window – photo above.
There are several cavity nests (Flickers were probably the original culprits) on the exterior that are used by flickers, mountain bluebirds, and tree swallows. One nest must have a small opening to the inside of the building. Two fledgling bluebird chicks were trapped inside. The Lady caught each of them. “They stayed still and just let me pick them up,” she reported as she released them outside to their parents. This would not be the only good deed we’d be involved in this day.
Bessie
I was pleasantly surprised the call did not go to a long recorded voicemail requiring a multitude of keypad prompts. A real live person answered the call at the BLM regional headquarters.
“I hope you can help with this,” I continued after identifying myself and where I was calling from. “Can you route me to the person who can pull up cattle grazing permits? There is a cow stuck in a hot spring in Monitor Valley, mired in the muck. The grazing permittee needs to be contacted and get out there and rescue their cow before she dies.”
“What?” was the incredulous response.
“There is a cow stuck in a hot spring on BLM grazing land. She’s in poor condition and will die if the permittee does not get out there soon.”
“Okay, I’ll direct you to Kevin, one of our wildlife biologists.”
It did not make much sense to me but at least I was moving up the chain of command.
After leaving the guard station, we continued north in Monitor Valley. There’s so much out here, it was hard to pare down what we could share with Deb & Steve in the time we had. Diana’s Punchbowl was a must see geothermal feature.
The punchbowl is a large travertine mound that encloses a large pool of extremely hot water.
There is a small creek that flows around the base of the mound. At its source pool is where we found the cow.
We’ve not soaked here in this hot spring but have met many who have, including the woman Pony Express trail section chief we’d met several nights before. She likes to come out here at night, under the stars, sit in an old folding lawn chair in the pool, and enjoy the hot spring soak.
When we first approached the cow was quite agitated. She thrashed about, struggled mightily, but could not move. She’d been here awhile, looked thin, and was growing weak. It was a hot day and Bessie – it seemed like a proper name for a cow – was stuck in hot water. All I could think about was how enthused our friend Ted was with Sous vide, the French method of cooking using hot water.
How in the world could we get this cow out? We gathered up gear – climbing rope, tow straps. We found two long posts we could possibly use as levers. First, would Bessie calm down enough to allow us to help. With calm talk and movements, she settled down.
“You’re the cow whisperer!” Deb declared.
We thought the yankum tow strap looped around her butt and two of us on each side, pulling her forward, with her help, would get her out. Nope. Once Bessie calmed down, she had no strength left to help with the effort. Note, the ground around this area is far too soft to try and get a vehicle close to help pull.
We tried packing rocks into the muck around her to give a solid base for her to attempt to climb out. Nope.
Next up, we put a rope under her and with levers thought we’d be able to lift her up.
Nope, and, as the pictures show, Bessie was sinking in deeper. It was hot and after a couple of hours of hard work we all were exhausted. All the vegetation within reach of Bessie was eaten. Steve and I grabbed hand fulls of grass. Bessie eagerly ate what was offered.
This only deepened our recognition of her plight. There was nothing else to do except for that phone call, hours later, when we reached cell service.
“Hi, this is Kevin.” He sounded like a young man and I wondered about his overall level of experience working for BLM.
“Hi Kevin. Here’s the situation. We came upon a cow stuck in a hot spring out in Monitor Valley.”
“What?”
“There’s a cow stuck, mired in the muck in a hot spring pool. We were unsuccessful in getting her out with four of us working for two hours. The cow’s weak, in hot water, and will die if not rescued soon. Can you get in the files, find out who has the grazing permit for the area, contact them, and get them out to rescue their cow. People soak in this hot spring pool and soon there could be a dead cow cooking in it.”
“Where’s Monitor Valley?” Kevin asked. “Or can you give me coordinates?”
“I’m in my truck in a grocery store parking lot in Eureka,” I explained. “I can get you coordinates but I’d need to retrieve and turn on another device to do that. I’d be happy to but could we try this first? Can you get a map or bring up your mapping program on the computer? Let me walk you through some directions and you should be able to do a ‘X marks the spot’ on your map.”
“I got the map up,” Kevin replied.
I gave directions.
“What’s this Diana’s Punchbowl?” he asked.
“It means you have the correct location.”
“Oh, this is in a different BLM region then ours,” Kevin continued. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ll take care of this and contact the appropriate people. I’ll get this done.”
I liked Kevin.
Before we reached Eureka and I made the phone call and spoke with Kevin, we made one more stop in Monitor Valley – the geographic center of the state of Nevada. The speed goats (pronghorn) moved away as we pulled to a stop.
“This is the geographic center of Nevada,” I told my three models. “Look centered,” I asked. This is what they came up with.
Next up, we visit the Ruby Mountains.
Our adventure continues. Please click here for Part Eight.
Holy cow, that was quite a trip!
ReplyDeleteHoly cow, good one Steve! Do you think we'll ever run into Bessie again? Might be she'll name her next calf after you.
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