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Please Click Here for – Part Four
Staying Home
We were successful in reaching Columbine Campground on the edge of the Arc Dome Wilderness in the late afternoon. The Lady and I had last been to the top of Arc Dome in September 2011, my goodness, fourteen years ago. Deb & Steve expressed their interest in summitting, especially since Arc Dome has so much topographic prominence and is sought out by serious peakbaggers. Our packs were on and we were ready to go the next morning. But not quite. Steve has a joke he repeats about how many times the truck or camper needs to be unlocked to retrieve a forgotten item. He claims the overall average for a group is three times. This morning the fifth unlock was to find his InReach device. The girls’ patience had grown thin.
His pack was back on. We started out again. We reached the front of their truck and Steve asked, “Where’s my hat?”
The Lady and I have enjoyed many hikes in the Arc Dome Wilderness over the years. This feels like home. The trail climbs through thick stands of aspen.
And across vast open sage.
One stand of aspen I’ve named Pornography Grove because of the Basque arborglyphs that showcased how these lonely shepherds obsessed about women. There are several in this grove that are painfully graphic. Oh my goodness. Here are a few that I can share.
The trail reached the crest of the Toiyabe Range and intersected with the Toiyabe Crest Trail (TCT).
Our route was south and the crest is far from level with many elevation gains and drops.
Steve prefers the snow covered slopes.
The views are grand up here. We were a bit surprised to see the dust hanging in the Big Smokey Valley to the east.
We came upon a lonely sign and kept it company for a few moments.
Arc Dome finally came into view.
We started up the switchbacks.
A view to the west.
A view to the southeast with stacked rock windbreaks along the trail.
The Lady and Steve were first to the top – 11,778 feet.
I’m in training for the Cowboy Olympics where I hope to compete in the 10K mosey. I moseyed to summit in third place.
Deb has a strong slower pace that will get her to the top of anything.
The Lady loves summit registers and was soon sharing what she found inside.
At the summit the girls went to work. The Lady spent quality time with her see mores taking in everything around us.
Deb put her PeakFinder app to work and pointed out all the mountain peaks visible from our highpoint.
Then came time for the summit photos.
“Take off those sunglasses!” we were told.
Deb & Steve had no choice but to follow the same directions.
It was time to start the descent and return to camp. Deb fueled up.
The Toiyabe mountain block had one small glacier in the past. We inspected the glacial cirque that remains.
We took the alternate trail back to Columbine Campground. This trail drops steeply to the west and then traverses a couple of drainages to return north. The vistas along this route are outstanding also.
This alternate route follows the trace of a long abandoned road that was put in by metal scrapers to reach the site of a B-24 bomber crashsite to melt down the aluminum and haul it out. The big bomber crashed August 3, 1945. The Lady and I visited the site in July 2017. The round trip hike to the summit of Arc Dome was 14 miles with a worthy amount of elevation gain for such a prominent peak.
We left the campground the next morning. We continued south up the Reese River drainage. Just below the divide, in a broad beautiful valley, we found the ruins of an old homestead. We wondered about all the stories this old place could tell.
Steve and I were fascinated by the amount of wear this old gate hinge showed.
The Lady sent out one of our “current location” InReach messages and decided scrambling to the top of this tank was the best place to do it.
And for those of you who remember her two total knee replacements a few years back, look at that flexibility.
Our destination for today was to reach Belmont. After dropping down out of the south end of the Toiyabe Range, we turned north into the Big Smokey Valley and filled up with gas in the tiny town of Carvers. This remote settlement had the lowest gas prices of this trip; quite a surprise.
I suggested we try to find a petroglyph site southwest of Belmont that’s been on “the list” for quite some time. It was a long drive on a narrow two track but well worth the time for us. Although very remote, it is a known, marked site.
The boulder that holds the rock art is huge.
Petroglyphs are on all sides of the boulder.
This, more recent rock art, added interest to the site.
This site was well worth the effort to visit.
Back to our trucks, it was on to Belmont. What is in store for us as our adventure continues?
Our adventure continues. Please click here for Part Six.
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