Bridge Mountain

May 7, 2005

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Report and Photos by Chris Meyer

Today was a first for Kristi and I since we were both leading groups in Red Rock on the same day, but on different hikes. I was scheduled to meet a group at 6:30 to do Bridge Mountain while Kristi was scheduled to meet a group at 7:00 to do the White Rock loop. Kahmien LaRusch and I arrived at the Red Rocks parking lot a few minutes late to find an almost empty parking lot except for Janet Curry waiting and wondering if someone else was coming. I had received a call from Dave Nelson telling me he was about five minutes late. We waited around and then Kristi’s group consisting of Ron Myers and Bob Grozenski showed up really early. Eric King then pulled up soon followed by Kristi with Steffi (our exchange student). We were getting worried and wondered where was Dave? Kristi’s group left for their hike, then poor Dave pulled up after dealing with a flat tire. There were others signed up for my hike, but we waited long enough. Everyone except Kahmien was going on the Yosemite trip and wanted to use the Bridge route as a warm-up for Half Dome. We were ready for the challenge!

We piled into our cars and reached the Willows Springs parking lot starting our hike at 7:45. We had low-profile vehicles so we walked all the way up the Rocky Gap Road. If we had driven up to the washed out area, we could have saved a half-mile each way off of our journey. The washed-out area did look bad, but throughout the day we saw a number of jeeps and pick-up trucks on the road so they were able to maneuver through the washed-out area and even up to the saddle. Good news for those of you with the appropriate vehicles and gumption.

It took us about an hour to reach the start of the North Peak route, then less than an hour to hike the steep trail to the ridge (1,500 foot elevation gain). Those that had not done Bridge were happy to have made it to the saddle and then I revealed we had over two more hours to go to reach our goal. There was a low sigh!

The conditions were great, but clouds were rolling in and the temperature remained in the low 60's. All of us were comfortable with long pants and short-sleeved shirts, although we alternated putting light jackets on and off; Eric trudged along in shorts and a tank top. Eric did the best out of us all consistently leading the pack by several hundred yards, then waiting for us to catch up. He’s definitely ready for Half Dome in Yosemite!

Surprisingly we encountered mud in one of the wooded areas on the way making for a slippery, but short experience. Along the way we ran into another group of hikers. One of which, Ron, tagged along with us since we were going more his speed. We stopped several times to enjoy the beautiful scenery and seeing the dark clouds building over Mount Charleston and coming closer to us.

The class III scrambling heading towards the approach for Bridge was challenging and fun. We were glad there were a lot of cairns and black marks pointing the way the entire route. It sure made the hike easier to navigate. We were all amazed with the amount of scrambling. Dave kept yelling out in frustration “Friends don’t let friends climb slab” whenever he climbed a rock face. We reached the bridge and then found a big pool of water probably over ten feet deep and about 15 feet below us. The water presented a nice dip in the summertime if you were willing to make the long jump, but it is a difficult hole to get out of. We then looked at the side of Bridge Mountain and all were bewildered saying to ourselves we’re going up there…and how are we doing that? It sure looked difficult! Once we started the route, it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Although, it was still very steep. We were all glad we had good sticky shoes.

We made it to the top in about 4 hours and 40 minutes, and then enjoyed the great scenery. Eric kept a watchful eye on the dark clouds covering Mt. Charleston 14 miles away letting us know they were getting lower and the clouds were getting darker over us. We stayed on the peak for about 20 minutes because we were afraid we’d encounter some weather on the way down. We really didn’t want to deal with a wet, steep rock face. The temperature was also dropping to about 55. Some of us almost didn’t bring jackets since the weather forecast indicated warm temperatures with no chance of rain. We encountered very light drops on the way down. The temperature lowered even more to 47 degrees. We were again amazed!

The return trip was uneventful with the last part down the North Peak route really putting strain on our legs and joints. We were so glad to finally reach the Rocky Gap Road, we sat around for about 30 minutes relaxing. We finally got back to the cars at 5:45 ending our 10-hour journey for about 13 miles. The actual elevation only showed about 2,600 feet, but all the ups and downs and steep rock faces made it seem like a lot more than 4,000. We all enjoyed the hike and will do it again.

Bridge is a great hike to experience a lot of different terrain with established trails, marked routes, loose rocks, solid steep rock faces, class II and class III scrambling with a lot of exposed terrain. The views of that part of Red Rock were absolutely beautiful. It would have been better if the sky was not overcast, but it was still a great hike. Ironically, the clouds all but disappeared by the end of the hike. Go figure!