essage: 16
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:36:47 EDT
From: andyadit@aol.com
Subject: Boundary NV, James tames DE, any press in good press ??
>>From: Hans Haustein
>>I am hiking Mt. Whitney this summer in early July and wanted to pick up
>>Boundary Peak since I will be in the area. The question I have, how
>>far can you drive the approach road without 4-WD.
(Andy)
As Mike, Dinesh, and Greg have mentioned, you should
consider the alternate route to the Queen Mine, then
up a jeep road to near 10,000', then along easy ridge
following horse trails, and then a final grind to the top.
To add some additional info, we had 3 passenger cars at the
Queen mine in about 1996. Unless road has started to wash out,
you should still be able to get there. You can bush camp
right at the mine, but watch for ticks in sagebrush near water.
With 4wd you could drive to 10,000' - a real dream come true
I tried this with wife's Honda, but only got 100-200 or so feet
above the mine until we stopped in a cloud of dust.
From: "Rudolph, Stuart E" <Stuart.Rudolph@landsend.com>
Subject: RE: Boundary Peak Nevada
Hans, we made it up the Queen's Canyon road (north side) all the way to the mine in a small rental car. Past that, even 4WD might not be enough. That was only about a 30 min hike to the saddle where you enter the wilderness area and turn west to gain the ridge. I can't speak for the Kings Canyon route, but we liked this one, it had lots of high altitude walking on the ridge and good views of Bristlecone Pine forests. We did it two days after Whitney, and wished we'd had an extra rest day. It is a tough climb. pay attention to the directions when coming down, it is easy to get lost, lots of confusing ridges. Stayed at a very cool B&B with private outdoor hot tubs in Benton Springs, CA (on the border) the night before.
Trip Report-Boundary Peak, NV 13140'
Highest point in Nevada
7/15/04
7.5 miles RT, 3500' gain from Queen Canyon saddle
3hr 57 min up
3hr 20 min down
My wife and I began a western highpoint assault with Boundary Peak, to be followed by Whitney and Humphries. I had read quite a few trip reports about the approach from the northeast via Queen Canyon. Some recommended it compared to the standard route, others didn't. Since the standard route entailed an additional 900' gain and routefinding through sagebrush, it was a no-brainer for me. We stayed in the wild town of Tonopah, NV the night before at a Ramada Inn complete with slot machines. Odd combination indeed! I figured it would not be a good idea to force my wife to car camp the night before after driving 700 miles. Tonopah is about 75 miles east of the border with CA and we made it to the Queen canyon saddle at 9900' at around 6:20am. The southbound road is easily found 1 mile east of the CA border on US-6, then stay on the good road to some mines. From here, even a low clearance 4WD such as my Hyundai Santa Fe can make it up the switchbacks to the saddle.
The day looked promising with little wind and warm conditions, so we left at 6:40am. Dave Covill put in his report to stay high out of the trees when gaining the northeast ridge, so when the trail looked like it was about to dive into the woods, I cut to the left and went straight up the slope. The trail is now well defined all the way to Trail Canyon saddle, so follow it all the way. Jenni was having problems with gear, etc., so we were moving at a rather pedestrian pace to the saddle, even though it is easy walking on or below the ridge. The trail then loses around 100' or so of elevation and joins the standard route at Trail Canyon saddle. We could see the summit while traversing this ridge, then it disappeared before getting to the wide 10800' saddle. From here, it is about a 1.3 mile, 2300' grunt up a pile of scree, although the trail is much more defined than I had feared.
Jenni does not like hiking through rough scree and boulders, so it took us nearly 2 hours from the saddle to gain the summit. I was pleasantly surprised that the trail went right of the subpeak at around 12K, then contoured below it to intersect with the n.e. ridge to the summit. There are several towers to traverse around on either side of the ridge, but it was no big deal. At 10:37am, I was on top of NV with an awesome view of Montgomery Peak in CA. Jenni joined me a few minutes later and reported that she dropped the walkie-talkie amongst the boulders. We did not find it. The skies were pretty hazy from the fires in Yellowstone and other areas, so the Sierra Nevadas' were a little hard to see. Since this was a Thursday, we saw nobody on the mountain all day. The register had a few recent entries, but not many for a state highpoint. We left after about an hour on the summit, and the weather looked good for a dry return with only a few high clouds.
We took nearly as long to get down to the saddle as it did to ascend, as Jenni likes to take it slow on loose scree. I found 2 bottles of Poweraide somebody left at around 12500', so I guickly gulped down one. I left the other for another lucky hiker. We took a break at the saddle, then headed back across the pleasant ridge to our car, arriving at 3pm. Boundary is a rather unpleasant hike as you are fighting steep scree quite a bit of the time, but I actually am getting used to this stuff, so it didn't bother me. Jenni was thinking of bailing at the saddle, but she hung in there for her 31st state highpoint, #33 for me. On to Whitney!
I went to Boundary Peak 12 years ago via Trail Canyon Road. I'd like to try Queens Canyon so could you give me a description of how good or bad the road is? I will be renting some kind of SUV (like a Bronco) and I do not what to damage the vehicle.
Last time I was in a cargo van and it was a tight squeeze on Trail Canyon Road.
I'd appreciate any advise on road access to Boundary.
Any stock SUV with moderate clearance will get you to the saddle below Kennedy Point. I made it up in a Hyundai Santa Fe, which does not have all that high of clearance without any problems. There are a couple of switchbacks that are tight, so I wouldn't take something like a wide wheel base pickup up there. I recommend the ridge route. It's very easy hiking across a gentle ridge with a little elevation loss to Trail Canyon saddle. From there, it's a steep grunt up loose scree, but not bad.
Rick Hartman's Suggestions for Best Approach -- From the West
October 23 2004, 9:35 PM
The “Best Route” for Boundary Peak, Nevada!
Boundary Peak of Nevada is located in the White Mountains, approximately 50 miles north of Bishop, California. The peak was originally thought to be inside the state of California until the Von Schmidt Survey of *****. At that time it was determined the Western “angle” boundary of Nevada was actually 3 miles further West. Thus the summit was placed officially inside Nevada and gained distinction as being the Silver state’s highest peak.
Somehow we have allowed ourselves to accept a difficult approach route from the East to Boundary Peak. This Eastern approach route is an unclear and confusing jeep road that leads to the trailhead. This route, due to numerous forks, not being maintained and few signs, becomes time consuming in traveling to the trailhead. Using this route detracts from smoothly initiating a trek to the summit. We are going the wrong way!
For clarity in this discussion, one can be aided by using California and Nevada State maps and specifically the U.S.G.S. 15 minute topographical map: “Benton-Nevada-California” (my map is dated 1962). Approaching from California, the drive to Boundary Peak can be done East on Route 120 from Highway 395 (Yosemite Area) or North on Route 6 from Highway 395 out of Bishop, California. To arrive from Nevada, one can approach this new trail by traveling West on Route 6 from either Tonopah, Nevada or from Nevada State Route 95. At any rate, you should arrive in the Queen Valley of Nevada. At the abandoned buildings on the North side of the highway (“JR”; Janie’s Brothel Ranch), drive “South” and/or “East” on the Queen Canyon dirt road for a distance of 6.9 miles, parking at or near the 9500-foot saddle below Kennedy Point. This is the key to the puzzle, allowing the hiker under “ideal conditions” to complete a round-trip day hike in six hours or less! NOTE: there is no water available on this route and the Forest Service cautions that rattlesnakes are present in Queen Canyon.
The specifics of this route are best revealed through automobile odometer navigation. To arrive in Benton, California from:
*Highway 395; from Lee Vining, CA; travel East on Route 120, =46 miles=
*Highway 395; from Bishop, CA; travel Northeast on Route 6, =44 miles=
*Queen Canyon is then 8.8 miles Northeast from Benton, CA on Route 6; placing the Queen Canyon road only 2.5 miles East of the Nevada State line.
A word of caution here; in late fall or winter if you are using a rental car or an automobile one should not proceed down Queen canyon further than 4.4 miles. There one will find a nice level area for a low base camp. If you have a 4x4 vehicle, you can proceed up the dirt road approximately one mile further to a major mine (It is believed to be the “Queen Mine”) that is camped at regularly. In summer and with a 4x4 vehicle you can struggle up the remaining 1.5 miles of JEEP road to the 9,500-foot saddle below Kennedy Point. This is a total of 6.9 miles from pavement. No matter the season, do not attempt this last 1.5 miles in anything other than a 4x4 vehicle, as the final turn that leads up to the saddle is sharp and steep and backing down is not an option. Trust me, I was hard pressed to negotiate this turn in a Ford Explorer 4x4 on my August 1999 climb.
From this 9,500’ saddle, start your climb by walking up the parallel tire tracks that go South up into the bulldozed mines. As you step into the mine, you will see a large cairn (G.P.S. Coordinates: 37’ 53’ 07” N. and 118’ 18’ 48” W.). This marks the trailhead. Additional small cairns mark the trail into 10,500-foot Trail Saddle, but you will still need to keep a sharp eye out for the well tread upon path that proceeds up the first two camelbacks and then Southwesterly behind the higher camelbacks. At Trail Saddle, (G.P.S. Coordinates: 37’ 53’ 58/05” N. and 118’ 18’ 55/50” W.) you will be directly below the steep buttress that leads to the summit. Select and remain on any footpath here, as long as you are going “up” you are on track.
For those who are climbing Mt. Whitney from Lone Pine, CA the drive to this route for Boundary Peak is only 100 miles.
Some points of interest on this highpoint are:
• A state sign, posted at a roadside rest stop, proclaims “Boundry (sic) Peak 13,143 feet”, this is 1.3 miles East of Queen Canyon Road on Route 6. This is a great photo op! I have not found any post cards of this peak.
• While climbing, keep your eyes peeled for wild mustangs and mountain sheep. I have been blessed with sightings of both!
• A commercial hot springs (with camping and a bed and breakfast) is available 3.6 miles West of Benton, CA on Route 120. I have not soaked there myself but it does look inviting and it comes recommended! Contact the Bill & Diane Bramlette at (760) 933-2507 or www.395/oldhouse.com.
• Mono Lake Committee, in Lee Vining, CA has a canoe tour of the lake that is outstanding. It is $17.00, (reservations required!!) and worth every penny for the experience. Mono Lake can be seen from Boundary’s summit. Contact them at (760) 647-6595 or www.monolake.org.
• Finally, an entire day spent at California’s Bodie State Park is well worth the time. The park is an 1870’s Mining Ghost Town that is a special treat for Wild West fans and geology students alike. Taking the Standard Mill tour within the park is an outstanding experience! The park is located East off of Highway 395, midway between Lee Vining and Bridgeport. Contact them at (760) 647-6445 or bodie@qnet.com.
I'm planning a trip to Boundary Peak in early Sept 05.
We have the Winger book & Holmes 1990 (?) ed.
We will probably be travelling in a 2WD Toyota Tundra.
Question:
1) How much water do folks take for the hike? We like to take a little more than we expect to use. 3 quarts / person? 4 Qts? more?
2) When we get to the trailhead, is there any way to really really confirm that we are that trailhead? I'm afraid of taking a wrong turn and ending up at the end of the wrong gravel road. Is there a sign, spot-a-pot, or something unique at that trailhead.
3) Is it reasonable to start the hike before dawn if we have good flashlights & headlamps and we scout out the first 200 yrds the day before? I want to get in practice for Whitney and we will need to start that one before dawn. Besides, I would like to hit the ridge by sunrise or so. I think the photos should be great at that time of day.
4) How long should the drive take from the highway to the trailhead?
BTW: We are planning the traditional trailhead, not the Queens Canyon TH.
> We will probably be travelling in a 2WD Toyota Tundra.
Should be fine. I'd say high clearence is almost required, 4WD isn't. Most of the road is well graded, but a few spots are ditched enought that I'd worry about bottoming out a passenger car.
> 1) How much water do folks take for the hike? We like to take a little more than we expect to use. 3 quarts / person? 4 Qts? more?
I took 4 qts (I hate running out of water) and used about 2. I also started pretty early so did all the valley walking before sunrise.
> 2) When we get to the trailhead, is there any way to really really confirm that we are that trailhead? I'm afraid of taking a wrong turn and ending up at the end of the wrong gravel road. Is there a sign, spot-a-pot, or something unique at that trailhead.
There's a Boundary Peak sign at the trailhead. I've got a photo on my website at:
> 3) Is it reasonable to start the hike before dawn if we have good flashlights & headlamps and we scout out the first 200 yrds the day before?
Definitely. I had just flown and driven from 800ft to the trailhead, so I wasn't sleeping very well and decided to quit pretending to sleep and started hiking around 4am.
> 4) How long should the drive take from the highway to the trailhead?
Great trip report! I did Boundary last year during the 4th of July weekend. There wasn't nearly as much snow up there last year. Your "leafy greens" are called Mules Ear. Evidently they make spectacular flowers, too. I think they're pretty enough just w/ their greens!
Glad you had a great trip. I just returned from Whitney: http://shelleypotts.com/AboutMe/HighPoints/CA.php
Thanks for ID'ing the Mules Ears for me. Some 12 years ago they were pointed
out to me as making excellent TP on a multi-week Outward Bound course in Colorado. But I didn't remember what they were called.
Looks like you had great conditions on Whitney. Hope to attempt that one in a few years.
You've got a great website, too bad we never meet while you were up at Indiana U's rival.
The summer 2005 highpointing trip would take on added significance for me. I would be climbing one of the peaks on this trip, Mt. Whitney, as an “Ascent for Autism Research.” As the father of a six-year-old autistic daughter, I wanted to put my climbing efforts to a good cause, and committed to raising funds for the National Alliance for Autism Research. Despite getting a rather late start on publicity, something I hope to remedy if I do any subsequent AFARs, I still had two nice newspaper articles done about the effort, in the Boston Globe and the Attleboro Sun Chronicle. All donations went directly to NAAR, making them tax deductible for the donors and eliminating the hassle of creating a charitable entity to accept donations.
Joining me on this trip was fellow highpointer Kevin Sweeney. Our plan going in was to fly in to Oakland on Monday August 22nd, tackle Boundary Peak on Tuesday as an acclimatization hike for Whitney, climb Whitney on Thursday and fly home on Friday. A word of warning to anyone flying in to Oakland and renting from Alamo: despite what you may hear, Alamo is NOT located at the airport. They are in Berkley, which, I’m given to believe, is either a train ride or a $35 cab ride away. Luckily Enterprise was able to give us a 4x4 Jeep Liberty with no advance reservation for about the same price we would have received from Alamo. Minor emergency resolved, we were on our way to Boundary Peak a little after 1 p.m.
Hoping to get to the Trail Canyon trailhead for Boundary Peak before dark, we opted to go the more Northerly Sonora Pass, instead of the more popular and possibly more crowded Tioga Pass through Yosemite. Taking time to stop for food, we found ourselves approaching Benton, CA, looking at Montgomery and Boundary Peaks at dusk. There is no lodging in Benton, though there is a B&B about 5 miles West in Benton Hot Springs. When we discovered this fact at the little gas station/diner at the intersection of Routes 120 & 6, we opted to head towards the Boundary Peak trailhead in the dark and get an early start instead of backtracking on Route 120 to try to crash at the B&B. From Benton, CA, it’s 7 miles along Route 6 to the CA-NV border, 12 more miles to where Route 360 (which you don’t want) breaks off to the North, and another 5 miles to the intersection with Route 264, which you want to head South on. The road to the Boundary Peak trailhead is well marked on your right-hand side and appears just after Route 773 comes in from the left to meet up with Route 264.
Armed with waypoints I had uploaded to my GPS unit from my mapping software, we decided to try to get to the trailhead in the dark. I was using a Garmin Rino 120 GPS unit with data from MapSource’s US Topo software. We did well until my waypoints took us off the road to the trailhead. What I didn’t realize until the next morning was that the road I followed on my mapping software detoured through an abandoned mine. After rounding a pretty steep, narrow corner and arriving at a plateau in the dark, we decided to camp there and figure out where we were in the morning. The area was littered with sharp, brittle rock that made sleeping tough even with a sleeping pad. Not having brought a sleeping pad, Kevin opted to wedge himself diagonally in the back of the Jeep.
The next morning it was easy to see the actual road to the trailhead, and we broke camp, headed down and over towards the trailhead. A pleasant surprise was that despite the fact that my waypoints changed from “road” to “route,” we were still driving along, not having hit the trailhead yet. It turns out the road extended farther than my mapping software indicated. We ended up starting up the trail around 9 a.m.
Our plan was to try the “East Ridge Route” described at summitpost.com. This route starts out on the Trail Canyon Route, but then once you cross the stream and are on the South side of it, you bushwhack to the right of a drainage up towards a saddle approximately 1,000’ above you – or so that’s what the description said. We followed the Trail Canyon trail and found the stream crossing fairly quickly. Somewhat surprised at having crossed to the South side so quickly, we continued on along the Trail Canyon trail for a little longer, to just past a point where it crossed the stream again. Not wanting to backtrack, we opted to start heading for the drainage from there. The route description does say that there is no trail, and that you’ll be bushwhacking up along the drainage, but for the most part I think we missed the boat. The low scrub was annoying and scraped against my legs, but the more difficult sections had short trees with low branches, around 3’ – 4’ off the ground, that we had to lean/limbo/crawl under. Kevin’s decision to wear long black pants in the Nevada heat actually saved his legs from the fate mine suffered.
When the path finally opened up a bit, we saw a bit of a saddle to our left, while my GPS unit indicated that the summit was generally straight/to the right, past a false summit. We headed up and towards the right of this false summit. I think this is where we really got off the East Ridge Route. When we emerged high enough to look into the Boundary Peak bowl, we realized that we probably didn’t need to have climbed this high on that false summit. Worse, the East Ridge Route proper appeared attainable only by traversing sideways along some fairly steep, scree-filled slopes. We noted the time, considered that we still had a 22-mile hike coming up on Whitney, and chose a zigzag course down the scree into the Boundary Peak bowl. This turned out to be an approximately 1,500’ scree descent. I couldn’t help but think that after I return to claim Boundary Peak I’m going to have a t-shirt made up that says “I screed Boundary Peak.” One bright spot was the animal skull with 2 holes in it (like it was once worn as a necklace) that I found on the way down this seldom-used chute. Looks like a Native American artifact, though I’m no expert, nor can I even identify the animal it came from. In any event, we met up with a few older hikers from Utah on the way down and couldn’t help but think about the fact that we, just over half their age, failed while they succeeded. I guess standard routes are standard for a reason. Our hike back from the bowl to the trailhead also proved an annoyance, given the overgrowth and poor quality of the Trail Canyon Trail (most of which we had skipped on the way up) and the multitude of zigzagging animal trails along the way. By the time we got back to the trailhead, my legs looked like I had walked through barbed wire. Anyway, on to Lone Pine, CA.
Rather than backtracking through Benton, we headed South from Trail Canyon on Route 264, which becomes Route 266 (once you cross into California, if I’m not mistaken), and then headed West on Route 168 towards Big Pine. It was early evening by the time we made it into Lone Pine. We found the ranger station in Lone Pine and discovered a motel with vacancy literally across the street. Lone Pine is only around 3,000’ above sea level, but we opted to sleep there, within easy reach of restaurants, the ranger station and a shower, rather than seeking out altitude to retain our acclimatization.
The next morning I walked over to the ranger station, hoping to be able to pass up our dayhike permits for Thursday in exchange for overnight Wednesday-Thursday permits. Fortunately for us, there were plenty available. By mid-day we were headed up the road to Whitney Portal.
The bear situation was something new to us. We got mixed responses to whether plain water had to be kept in the bear canisters and whether our large duffel bags looked too much like coolers and should therefore be kept in the storage bins available at the parking lot. Ultimately we chose to err on the side of caution, cutting back on the water we brought along & putting it all in the bear can and stuffing all our belongings in the storage bins in the parking lot. As we later discovered, some of our neighbors at Outpost Camp had left water in the open, outside their tents, with no problems.
It was mid-afternoon by the time we hit the trail. We started out hiking with two women from the San Diego area at an easy pace. After a brief discussion with a ranger, we opted to stay at Outpost Camp, 3.8 miles in and 2,000’ up, that night. We arrived at Outpost Camp, pitched our tent and still had plenty of time to meet some of our neighbors and eat before dark. Despite the fact that the tent location was much better than on Boundary Peak, we still didn’t sleep all that well. Maybe it was the altitude – or the potential of bears roaming through the campsite.
The next morning we were on the trail by 5:45. For the most part we hiked with a native Aussie named Mark now living in the Bay area. He and his group were dayhiking, having started well before dawn. Mark was well ahead of his group and, though we were able to keep up with him most of the way to Trail Crest, when we met up again there we encouraged him to press on at the faster pace he was clearly able to maintain. We next saw Mark coming down as we were ascending the never-ending dirt path just below the summit.
I was surprised at the amount of exposure at several points along the trail. The cables section didn’t seem to really need cables – at least at this time of year – but near Trail Crest and at quite a few points after that the consequences of a fall off the trail would have been disastrous.
We arrived at the summit a little after 1. Surprisingly my fairly fresh digital camera batteries died immediately after taking a shot of my name in the register. For some reason I still had the old batteries in the case and tried those – they worked! I wonder if it was some bizarre form of altitude effect. Those supposedly-dead-but-replaced-at-altitude batteries are still working today. We took quite a few pictures and headed down after about a half an hour, knowing we still had to make it all the way to the Portal tonight. Not to mention that we were flying out of Oakland just before 11 the next morning!
We got back to Outpost Camp in the early evening, and broke camp as quickly as we could. We hiked out with 2 guys that had just completed a 20-day backpacking trip from Yosemite and offered them a ride to their car parked inside Yosemite, since it was on our way back to Oakland. What a way to see Yosemite – in the dark! Our sleep that night consisted of about an hour and a half at a roadside scenic overlook, but we made our return flight with time to spare.
After all was said and done, we batted .500 as far as highpoints were concerned, but we had a successful Ascent for Autism Research on Whitney. Thanks are due (in no particular order) to my wife, Laura, who watched the kids for the week, to all those who donated to NAAR on behalf of our climb, to Stony Burk, who provided us with some great photos of the Boundary Peak area, Mike Gelbwasser and Christine Wallgren for the great articles about the climb, Jack “cyberfool” from the forum and all those who responded to my inquiries on the Whitney Portal and mt-whitney.info forums, including “bearbnz,” who took aerial shots of Montgomery / Boundary for a new route we didn’t have the time to try; hope I didn’t miss anyone!
Here is my trip report from my recent Boundary Peak visit.
After spending four days camping/backpacking/hiking in Zion National Park with some friends, I parted company and headed for a solo hike of Boundary Peak. After reading all of the trip reports, I decided to try the Queens Mine approach even though the lady I talked to at the White Mountain Ranger Station discouraged it because of the "rough road". I got to the gravel road across from Janie's Ranch late afternoon on Sunday Oct. 9th and drove up the road as far as the mines. (Heck, I've been on worse gravel roads in my county in Ohio and people live on them!) From the mines at the 6.1 mile mark, I hiked up the last 1+ miles of the jeep road to the trailhead to see if it looked doable in my rental Jeep 4X4. I decided it looked quite doable, but the wind was really howling. There were high wind warnings up for some of the mountains Sunday night and into Monday so I decided to hole up in Bishop, Ca that night and just dayhike in the area on Monday. I stayed in Bishop Monday night too.
Tuesday morning I got up early and drove to the trailhead all the way up to Queens saddle. Oh and I am a weenie and I made it up there so it's not that bad in a standard SUV 4X4. My biggest concern was not the road condition, but a few narrow spots where brush was rubbing up against the SUV. I was worried about scratching the paint on the rental SUV, but everything was fine when I got back down.
The trail starts at an old sign post/board with nothing written on it. It is a very obvious trail and I had no problem following it all the way to Trail Canyon Saddle. The wind was blowing pretty hard at the saddle so I didn't dawdle there.
Most of the reports I read said to take the trail to the left out of T.C. saddle. Well, looking up the hill, the trail to the right was very well-used and pronounced while there were just a jumble of faint trails to the left. So I took the trail to the right which was probably a mistake. I got off the trail a few times and into some nasty scree which frayed my nerves a little. I finally connected with the main trail that contours around the surrogate peak and was able to follow the ridge easily from there. Well, except for hiking around the huge rock piles on the ridge to the summit. I never did find a good route around the rock piles on the way up or down. I would be following some cairns only to lose sight of them and just fumbled through the talus on my own. All the hiking to skirt around the huge rock piles was VERY slow for me because I never did find a decent route. I hate talus anyway, but I guess the scree was worse at least on the way up.
The summit weather was beautiful with just some high clouds and light winds. No one had signed the register for a couple of days. Since I was by myself, I didn't end up staying at the summit more than 15 minutes. It was too early for lunch and I was worried about coming down the scree (I always worry about the coming down part). I met three women making their way up as I was hiking down. They had come up the standard Trail Canyon route. They were the only other people I saw the whole day.
I found the "left"hand trail (now the righthand trail) on my way down and was able to follow it easily all the way to T.C. saddle. It was actually pretty easy coming down the scree as opposed to going up and being on the correct trail probably helped too. One good thing about scree is that it is very gentle and cushioning on my middleaged joints and feet. There! I said something good about scree. LOL! I ate lunch at Trail Canyon saddle and then I noticed some darker clouds forming over the summit so I hurried back across the ridge to the trailhead. The clouds were really rolling in by the time I reached the Jeep, but it never did rain or thunder at all.
My times were:
Start 7:30am / Trail Canyon Saddle 9:00am /Summit 11:30am for a total hike up time of 4 hours
Left summit 11:45am / Trail Canyon Saddle 2:00pm / Left Trail Canyon Saddle 2:25pm / return to trailhead 3:30pm for a total hiking down time of 3 hours 20 minutes.
Total trip time with breaks: 8 hours. This was my 24th highpoint.
Rick Hartman who is the Highpointers Club liaison passes this along. Rick's email is rt1135@cableone.net
The “Best Route” for Boundary Peak, Nevada!
Boundary Peak of Nevada is located in the White Mountains, approximately 50 miles north of Bishop, California. The peak was originally thought to be inside the state of California until the Von Schmidt Survey of *****. At that time it was determined the Western “angle” boundary of Nevada was actually 3 miles further West. Thus the summit was placed officially inside Nevada and gained distinction as being the Silver state’s highest peak.
Somehow we have allowed ourselves to accept a difficult approach route from the East to Boundary Peak. This Eastern approach route is an unclear and confusing jeep road that leads to the trailhead. This route, due to numerous forks, not being maintained and few signs, becomes time consuming in traveling to the trailhead. Using this route detracts from smoothly initiating a trek to the summit. We are going the wrong way!
For clarity in this discussion, one can be aided by using California and Nevada State maps and specifically the U.S.G.S. 15 minute topographical map: “Benton-Nevada-California” (my map is dated 1962). Approaching from California, the drive to Boundary Peak can be done East on Route 120 from Highway 395 (Yosemite Area) or North on Route 6 from Highway 395 out of Bishop, California. To arrive from Nevada, one can approach this new trail by traveling West on Route 6 from either Tonopah, Nevada or from Nevada State Route 95. At any rate, you should arrive in the Queen Valley of Nevada. At the abandoned buildings on the North side of the highway (“JR”; Janie’s Brothel Ranch), drive “South” and/or “East” on the Queen Canyon dirt road for a distance of 6.9 miles, parking at or near the 9500-foot saddle below Kennedy Point. This is the key to the puzzle, allowing the hiker under “ideal conditions” to complete a round-trip day hike in six hours or less! NOTE: there is no water available on this route and the Forest Service cautions that rattlesnakes are present in Queen Canyon.
The specifics of this route are best revealed through automobile odometer navigation. To arrive in Benton, California from:
*Highway 395; from Lee Vining, CA; travel East on Route 120, =46 miles=
*Highway 395; from Bishop, CA; travel Northeast on Route 6, =44 miles=
*Queen Canyon is then 8.8 miles Northeast from Benton, CA on Route 6; placing the Queen Canyon road only 2.5 miles East of the Nevada State line.
A word of caution here; in late fall or winter if you are using a rental car or an automobile one should not proceed down Queen canyon further than 4.4 miles. There one will find a nice level area for a low base camp. If you have a 4x4 vehicle, you can proceed up the dirt road approximately one mile further to a major mine (It is believed to be the “Queen Mine”) that is camped at regularly. In summer and with a 4x4 vehicle you can struggle up the remaining 1.5 miles of JEEP road to the 9,500-foot saddle below Kennedy Point. This is a total of 6.9 miles from pavement. No matter the season, do not attempt this last 1.5 miles in anything other than a 4x4 vehicle, as the final turn that leads up to the saddle is sharp and steep and backing down is not an option. Trust me, I was hard pressed to negotiate this turn in a Ford Explorer 4x4 on my August 1999 climb.
From this 9,500’ saddle, start your climb by walking up the parallel tire tracks that go South up into the bulldozed mines. As you step into the mine, you will see a large cairn (G.P.S. Coordinates: 37’ 53’ 07” N. and 118’ 18’ 48” W.). This marks the trailhead. Additional small cairns mark the trail into 10,500-foot Trail Saddle, but you will still need to keep a sharp eye out for the well tread upon path that proceeds up the first two camelbacks and then Southwesterly behind the higher camelbacks. At Trail Saddle, (G.P.S. Coordinates: 37’ 53’ 58/05” N. and 118’ 18’ 55/50” W.) you will be directly below the steep buttress that leads to the summit. Select and remain on any footpath here, as long as you are going “up” you are on track.
For those who are climbing Mt. Whitney from Lone Pine, CA the drive to this route for Boundary Peak is only 100 miles.
Some points of interest on this highpoint are:
• A state sign, posted at a roadside rest stop, proclaims “Boundry (sic) Peak 13,143 feet”, this is 1.3 miles East of Queen Canyon Road on Route 6. This is a great photo op! I have not found any post cards of this peak.
• While climbing, keep your eyes peeled for wild mustangs and mountain sheep. I have been blessed with sightings of both!
• A commercial hot springs (with camping and a bed and breakfast) is available 3.6 miles West of Benton, CA on Route 120. I have not soaked there myself but it does look inviting and it comes recommended! Contact the Bill & Diane Bramlette at (760) 933-2507 or www.395/oldhouse.com.
• Mono Lake Committee, in Lee Vining, CA has a canoe tour of the lake that is outstanding. It is $17.00, (reservations required!!) and worth every penny for the experience. Mono Lake can be seen from Boundary’s summit. Contact them at (760) 647-6595 or www.monolake.org.
• Finally, an entire day spent at California’s Bodie State Park is well worth the time. The park is an 1870’s Mining Ghost Town that is a special treat for Wild West fans and geology students alike. Taking the Standard Mill tour within the park is an outstanding experience! The park is located East off of Highway 395, midway between Lee Vining and Bridgeport. Contact them at (760) 647-6445 or bodie@qnet.com
Has anyone ever done Boundary in the winter? Dec-Feb? I've done the peak before but in the mid-summer. What is the status of the dirt road up to the campground? What is the rocky summit ridge like?
I just completed Boundary Peak last weekend with a friendly group out of Las Vegas called the Trailblazers. The complete report is here.
There are only a few points that I noted that are not covered in other posts:
- At my site, I have downloadable waypoints for the easterly Trail Canyon approach for fellow GPS-heads.
- The roads appeared to have been recently graded and was fine for a small, 2-wheeldrive car.
- There was only minor snow, but apparently a week earlier, there was signifigant snow that would have been troublesome.
Beautiful hike, but the loose trail makes it much harder than Humphreys, in my opinion.
Humphreys somehow gets overrated, by HPers? Pretty much uniformly considered numero 10 (of 50) in difficulty followed by Boundary (11,) than Wheeler (12.)
I personally think Humphreys is also easier than Wheeler (where there isn't an easy route, either mountain goat up from Williams Lake or trudge along the ridge via Bull-of-the-Woods Pasture.) Other than some basic ridgeline commonsense, Humphreys is, relatively, easy. The day I climbed it about 25 middle-school girls were summitting shortly after me (you won't see that on Boundary or Wheeler on the average day.)
Ascended with two friends Saturday. Diane at the local B&B Benton Hot Springs made us Breakfast at 6:00AM. Got to the Kennedy Flats Trail head by 8:00. drove up with 4x4. Road is very rough.
We took a leisurely time and made it back by 4:30PM. The second saddle still has the misleading trail to the right. Find, Find the real trail on the left. Several climbers chose not to. They were very tired dirty and frustrated climbing up the steep bowls of skreet on the west.
This trail will include a 13mile round trip back to your Four wheel Vehicle. You will climb 3500up to the top, and 3500 down. There is NO water cell etc. Travel light carry at least four liters of H2O. Climbing poles are useful as well as a lunch and extra socks.
This listed as a 6 in dificulty... take the wrong trail and it much more than that.
I spent last weekend hiking to the top of Boundary Peak and Mt. Whitney. A trip report and pictures for Boundary are posted here if you're interested: http://boundarypeaknvhighpoint.blogspot.com/
Hit send too soon. The route from the trailhead to saddle is great and highly recommend taking the Queen Mine route--certainly saves you elevation gain. Hard to tell how long it takes to get to the saddle but seemed like three miles maybe(?) - I think my magellan said 2.15 miles in bird miles.
No exaggeration about the scree. There were a few times we got off trail and and you're in scree hell.
The guide books say the trail from the saddle to the summit is between 1 & 1.4 miles - we seriously beg to differ. It's got to be longer or at least it felt it. The trail is hard to find at the last tenth of a mile and vey frustrating with the rock climbing.
Coming back down to the saddle was easier as far as staying on the trail.
We drove from Salt Lake City on Friday morning and arrived at the Queen Canyon mine with no surprises along the way. The weather was terrific and we only found one other vehicle at the mine. After setting up camp and walking around a bit, the owner of the Suburban came down and we chatted a bit about the hike, the horses, the fire in the Sierras just across the valley (that this guy was the first one to report!), and about living in Fairbanks Alaska and southern California.
The sun set and we finished dinner, walked up the road to explore for the next day's hike, and got to bed early. We only found moderate breezes during the night, and the temps probably never dropped below the mid 20F range. We awoke on Saturday and made breakfast, then soon discovered that our battery was dead. Ruh Roh! We decided the best choice of action would be to call for assistance from the next cellular window (somewhere up the mountain hopefully).
So we began our journey and made good time up the road on foot to the standard Queen Canyon trailhead. We forked left immediately after passing the blank sign, and lost the trail. Lucky for us, we ran into a herd of mustangs while off-trail in the knee high sagebrush covered hill. What a fantastic sight! We climbed further and eventually merged back onto the trail. The wind was a near constant 15-20mph breeze, but wasn't too uncomfortable (especially after the colder/faster winds on Humphreys a few weeks prior).
We took a short break (after slowing numerous times to admire the awesome views of the Boundary Massif) at the Trail Canyon saddle, and applied sunblock/ate a bit. We saw a little bit of snow on the north slope, and briefly discussed our plan of action should we run into the "ice on the traverse" we'd heard from the hiker who turned back the day before. It looked like it could definitely be icy, especially considering the aspect of the hill and the lack of recent snow. We pressed ahead and climbed steadily south with Trail Canyon Saddle to our backs. I didn't bring crampons, an axe, nor did I even bring my yaktrax (dumb idea to forget these!). We never encountered the "icy traerse" we'd heard so much about from yesterday's beta, but only hard snow at worst and mostly a clear trail/good granite to detour around.
Once reaching another saddle, Boundary's summit came into view again. We were now quite optimistic that we wouldn't run into show-stopping ice, and continued along the trail. Never did we encounter anything worse than hard snow that we could generally kick steps into, or easily walk around. We arrived at the summit about 3.5 hours after we started from the mine entrance, and celebrated.
Only when sitting in the summit windbreak could I get a verizon signal on my phones (wow!), and we called a few folks and scheduled a towing service to jumpstart us upon our return to the car. We signed the log, admired the views, got chilled in the ~20mph breeze, and took off. We bumped into a couple that had was ascending from Trail Canyon, and wished them luck on their way.
The way down was uneventful, and we were more easily able to find the trail this time (isn't this always the case, finding the trail on the way down!?). I did step on a reliable looking hunk of granite in the middle of the trail, which dislodged and let loose a mini-gravel slide, causing me to fall and one of my poles to bend quite badly. Crap! I repaired it and continued, emptying my shoes from pebbles every few minutes.
We reached the trailhead in something around 2.5 hours, and ran into a bunch of folks that were quite kind and willing to give us a jump. What great people! We drove down and waited for the towtruck at US6 for a while, and never saw one come at the pre-determined time. We drove towards Tonopah and still never saw a truck heading westbound. Oh well.
Overall, I was most impressed with the relative quality of the trail, considering the geology of the mountain, and the location of it. Few granite monsters seem to have such well defined trails all the way to the top around the Salt Lake area.
Paul Bresher, from Minnesota, and I, along with non-highpointer but interesting guy Ed Darack reached the summit of Boundary Peak at 10:15 a.m. on September 15, 2008. The logistics were NOT how to do it. Lanny Wexler posted to the yahoo group that he was looking for people to go to Boundary after the HP convention in Flagstaff. I contacted him and said I was interested in doint the peak on 9/14/08. After some more people said they were coming the date was changed to 9/15/08. I received an email from Lanny asking me if I could give an airline pilot a ride after the climb to LAX so he could catch a flight home. I said ok and told him to tell the pilot he could stay in our spare bedroom.
While I was chairing a concours detailing clinic (a subject about which I know less than mountaineering if that is possible) Lanny left a message which I did not receive until Saturday afternoon that he could not do Boundary. In the interim, the airline pilot, whom I later found out was Paul, had already flown to Las Vegas. Late afternoon on 9/13 Paul and I finally touched base and arranged to meet in Benton, California the afternoon of 9/14. I finally spoke to Lanny about 10:30 p.m. on 9/13 - he was relieved to learn Paul and I had made arrangements to meet. Thanks to Paul for making what was almost a fruitless trip - had I not known that there was another highpointer concerned about a solo trip in the desert, I might have left Boundary for another day. Amazingly no one from the convention joined us, although there had been a lot of emails about people traveling to NE from AZ.
I left Malibu about 8:00 a.m. on 9/14 and met Paul at the cafe/gas station in Benton at about 1:45 p.m. We "toured" Jenny's Ranch at the turnoff spot for the Queen's Mine route and then drove the six miles to the end of the two wheel drive part of that road. I used Sierra Club Desert Peaks Section instructions for the road, which were precise and correct to tenths of a mile. We parked next to the abandoned mine and its tailings in a flat area. I "camped" in my van and Paul pitched a light tent he had in his rent-a-car.
We then walked up the four wheel drive road to the trail head, about 1 1/4 miles and 700 feet of gain. We there encountered Ed Darack, sleeping peacefully in his 4 WD. He is a photograph, see www.victorypoint.info for information about his about to be published book on the Marines in Afghanistan. We chatted a while and Ed said he might go with us the next day.
We arose at 4:00 a.m. and hit the "road" at 5:00 a.m. We reached Ed in about half hour, awakened him, again, and he said he might come along later. Paul has done most of the difficult highpoints (Denalie, Granite, Gannett, Rainier, Hood) and some other difficult summits of distinction (Aconcagua, Grand Teton) and is far fitter than I. Nevertheless if he was impatient to move a little faster he never showed it. His route finding skills are definitely superior to mine. Again, the Sierra Club route description was precise and correct. After what seemed to me an eternity of slogging up the ridge line(s) we reached the summit at about 10:15 a.m., followed in seconds by Ed, who was lugging many pounds of high end photo equipment. He is one tough dude.
On the descent I was tired and held up the other guys about 15 minutes at the saddle, while I rather gingerly descended the steep scree and talus. When we returned to Ed's car at the 4 WD trailhead, he offered a ride to our cars, which we gratefully accepted. Paul remarked that his goose was cooked - I don't remember if I remained capable of speech. You'd think by my age I'd know better than being at sea level, then at 13,000 feet 26 hours later.
Many thanks to Paul and to Ed for a most enjoyable trip. Although everything went perfectly in travel, both driving and walking, one last fiasco occurred. To get all of the stuff into Ed's car I put my small day pack into Paul's larger but not filled bag. Paul then drove off and I dawdled for a few minutes having an apple and tidying the van just slightly. That was when I realized my phone was missing because it was in my pack which remained in Paul's pack. I drove too fast and caught up to him (he had, by that time, likewise remembered) before reaching the paved road. We said goodbye again, Paul heading for McCarren to fly from Vegas back home, me driving the van six hours back to the beach.
It was a great trip - my first with a fellow highpointer other than my wife. It was also my first Desert Peaks Section summit - too bad I was too tired to spend another hour or two bagging Montgomery. The weather was beautiful one night short of the full moon. We had a brisk easterly breeze to cool us on the descent. The ascent was mostly in shade since we were pretty early. Thanks Paul and Ed.
Bill Sampson
Malibu
Loyalty to the country always - loyalty to the government when it deserves it
--------- Mark Twain
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