Trailhead photo for Kings Peak and Gilbert Peak - Justine, Joel, Harlan, Mike, and Ali

Looking up at the route to Gilbert Peak from Dollar Lake, several hundred yards from our camp

August 2-9, 2010
Reports by Joel Brewster, Justine Ritsko, and Mike Shackleford, Photos by Joel Brewster and Harlan Stockman

Diamond Peak (10,614') - the highpoint of Eureka County in NV, a dramatic isolated peak just north of Eureka, NV

Ruby Dome (11,387') - a peak on the LVMC "Classic 50" list & the highpoint of Elko County, a beautiful, challenging peak in the scenic Ruby Mountains

Borah Peak (12,663') - the highpoint of Idaho, a picturesque mountain involving some fun, exposed class 3 climbing

Gilbert Peak (13,442') - the highpoint of Summit County in Utah, would have a pleasant, short climb (in nice weather) from our camp at Dollar Lake

Oh, and along the way, we drove almost 2000 miles! We had six rugged mountaineers on our trip: Joel Brewster, Justine Ritsko, Henry Jingle, Harlan Stockman, Ali Haghi, and Mike Shackleford, although several joined us for various parts of the week. It was an excellent, successful, and rewarding tour of the West. Thanks to all for their participation and enthusiasm!

This eight-day day-hiking and backpacking trip was amazing. This was my second trip with the LVMC and well, it was quite grand. Simply said: 3 states, 6 peaks, 8 days, 60 miles, 21,000’ in elevation gain and I’m still alive. All the ascents offered beautiful views and challenging terrain but Ruby Dome and Borah Peak were by far my favorite.

Ruby Dome was a long hike. It took us past a beautiful lake with a mountain lion's paw prints around its rim which was a little unnerving. The mountain was riddled with giant boulders creating complete mayhem for the ascent and descent.

Borah Peak was very exciting with its ever-changing landscape. It is not for the faint of heart but an exhilarating peak for those looking for a challenge. I would definitely do this hike again.

It was a long, tiring, and sticky trip, but I had a wonderful time and look forward to more trips like this in the future. I did discover that the bugs were less attracted to the men. Once I stopped maintaining my hygiene, I was granted a reprieve. Next time I will leave the soap at home.

There were good footsteps in the snow, but it demanded concentration, as there were big drops on both sides.

On August 6, I flew to Salt Lake City to join up with Joel and Justine en route to conquer Kings Peak and Gilbert Peak. After some Chinese food for dinner, we drove about three hours to the trailhead at Henry's Fork campground. While this journey started and ended in Utah, it necessitated driving through Wyoming, which was a state I was missing from my quest to visit all 50. 47 down, 3 to go. Joel and I made a wager whether or not a sign would indicate the state border crossing on the dirt road leading to the campground. Said sign was not definitively seen on the way in, but it was dark. Joel had the "no" but graciously allowed me another chance to look for it on the way back.

The first order of business was finding Harlan and Ali, who drove up separately from Vegas. It was totally dark and there were cars everywhere. Despite that, we luckily found them without difficulty. Ali's license plate reads ALIG8R, which is not only clever, but makes it easier to spot his vehicle. Joel and Justine were exhausted from a long day climbing Mt. Borah, and driving a very long distance, so we hastily set up our tents and called it a day.

The following morning, we set off for our next camping spot by Dollar Lake. It was an easy day, traveling about seven and a half miles with about a 1400' elevation gain. The trail starts out amongst tall pine trees and follows alongside Henry's Fork River. After about five miles, we came to the spot of a washed-out bridge, where he had to cross the river. Somebody before us had tied three narrow logs together, which we braved crossing. Actually, I was probably the only one who was nervous about it. The rest of the group walked across it barely slowing down from their usual pace, as if it were a six-foot wide sidewalk.

After the river crossing, the trail passed through some long, grassy drainages. Meanwhile, the mountains got larger, and the trees got smaller. This was the most scenic part of the hike, in my opinion. However, the cost of hiking through a drainage is that parts of it were so muddy my foot nearly came out of my boot as I tried to extract it from the mud. During the trek to Dollar Lake, we past at least 100 hikers coming the other way. Almost all looked like men in their early twenties, many bearing fishing poles. I was afraid the Dollar Lake area was going to be overcrowded with so much traffic on the trail.

After a pleasant and easy journey, we found Dollar Lake -- which is not visible from the trail -- and set up camp. We chose a nice spot in the woods near the lake. Despite all the foot traffic we crossed on the trail, the Dollar Lake area was surprisingly sparsely populated. There were only a few other groups near the lake, and a few others further out. This was on a Saturday, so you would think more people would be traveling to the lake than from it. It was rather bizarre.

The rest of the day we took it easy as we tried to evade the numerous mosquitoes. It would have been nice to make a campfire, as some perfectly chopped wood was left right by a fire pit. Unfortunately, we were within 1000' feet of the lake, according to Joel, and a sign indicated campfires were prohibited within this radius of the lake, a rule our neighbors did not obey. Fortunately, Joel had the wisdom to bring a bottle of wine, which some of us, including me, enjoyed a great deal. After a few cups of wine, Ali didn't hold much back about his "buy high -- sell higher" investing strategy. Meanwhile, Joel and I did what we often do when boredom sets in -- betting on anything we could think of. The most fun wager was on whether or not Justine could name more than 7.5 nuts. She got six in no time, but it took quite a while to come up with two more. After about a half an hour, she got her eighth nut, a cashew, and the over won (yeah for me!).

With an early start planned the next day, we went to sleep quite early. I still wasn't tired, so I spent some time with a book I had fortunately tucked in my pack. Normally I'm uptight about pack weight and don't allow such luxuries as a book, but am glad I made the exception.

Saturday we got started early in an attempt to beat the usual afternoon storms Joel warned us about. We started out continuing southbound until the end of the drainage. During this time, I had a backpack malfunction. My left strap came loose from the old backpack I've been using for 25 years. Fortunately, the very well-prepared Harlan had an extra shoelace that I used to remedy the problem of a lost rivet. Then we went up and over Gunsight Pass. After this point, there was a lovely valley directly separating us and Kings Peak. Did we walk across this nice level valley? No...somebody had to put up a bunch of cairns in the rocks along the dge of another peak on our right. We were fooled by these false cairns and spent about an hour scrambling over rocks unnecessarily.

Eventually we approached the base of Kings Peak, which was much more of the same. Kings Peak itself is basically an enormous rock pile. The climbing is not especially challenging or dangerous, but it is tiring and redundant. At this point, there was no trail, so one could scramble up a million different ways. I think it took us a little longer than planned, but we eventually made it in fine shape. We took the ubiquitous summit photos but were deprived of the joy of signing a register because nobody could find one. If the reader of this is thinking of following our footsteps, please consider supplying one. Here are some facts about Kings Peak I got from peakbagger.com:

Highest Point in the Uinta Range, which is noted as the only west to east mountain range in the country.

During the trip back, our party got separated climbing down the rock pile, but we regrouped at the bottom and walked back across the grassy valley this time. As we went back over Gunsight Pass, the afternoon storms set in and we walked in the midst of a mild hailstorm for a while. I should also add that several marmots and pikas were spotted among the rocks that day.

We made it back to camp in the mid-afternoon and had quite a bit of time to kill the rest of the day. Harlan occupied moments of boredom with singing, usually the Tomorrow song from 'Annie,' or random quotations. At one point, my nap was broken by a quote from Rene Descartes.

For meals this trip I harkened back to my college days, where I dined on Top Ramen and Macaroni & Cheese almost every night for three years. I never grew tired of them back then. However, my tastes must have become more discriminating (my mother would say pickier) over the years, because it seemed they didn't taste early as good as they used to. I envied everybody else who brought Mountain House meals. In all fairness, I used to add an egg to Top Ramen, and margarine to Macaroni & Cheese, which does make them taste better.

On Sunday, we again got an early start to conquer Gilbert Peak, which was just above our camp and only slightly lower in elevation than Kings Peak. After walking around Dollar Lake, it was a steep climb upward. Then we trekked along the top of a grassy plateau dotted with scattered rocks. The weather was gray and windy. Harlan said that part of the hike was very reminiscent of his recent trip to Scotland. From my memories of Braveheart, I had to agree it did seem like we were in the Scottish highlands.

As we went across this little piece of Scotland, the wind got heavier and heavier. Eventually, we had to start scrambling up rocks again, much like the day before. Fortunately, the rocky parts alternated with grassy, more level parts. The higher we rose, the windier it got. When I finally reached the top, Harlan was already there, putting more layers onto a windbreak, which I was very happy to see. I'm not a good one at estimating wind speeds, but it felt like it did when I went skydiving two years ago. The consensus of the rest of the group was that the gusts were up to 50-60 mph. After we all reached summit, everyone but Harlan hunkered down in the windbreak to get a temporary relief from the wind. Harlan seemed not to be bothered at all, as he added more rocks to the wind shelter. During this time, the normally cheerful Justine proclaimed, with great emphasis, "This peak sucks!" It was so unlike her. In the few days I got to know her, seldom was heard a discouraging word from her.

After taking some quick summit photos in the fierce wind, we headed back down.
When we reached the point somewhere near where we had scrambled up the steep face, there was disagreement about exactly the spot to descend. Harlan and Joel took the short and steep route directly back. Justine and I took a longer and more gradual descent, which we were unsure existed, but it did, and it was very pleasant. By the way, Ali didn't accompany us on Gilbert Peak, because he wasn't feeling well.

When we returned to camp, we had the option to spend the rest of the day there and hike out the next day, but that would have left us with a lot of time to kill and mosquitoes to fight, so we packed up and headed back down the trail. As we traveled, again we crossed at least 100 people hiking towards Dollar Lake. Again, where all these people go is a mystery to me. This could make for the plot of an episode of the Twilight Zone.

The hike out was pleasant and uneventful. Along the drive back to civilization, we passed a small vertical post saying "Wyoming," which was the first bet made, but the last to be resolved, fortunately my way! It was then a long drive back to Vegas. I was in the mood for pizza and beer, but since we all smelled really bad, we disgraced a Subway franchise in Heber City instead. Joel ate two foot-long sandwiches and a bag of chips, and he made three trips to the soda fountain. I didn't ask, but I think he was still hungry afterward.

On a sentimental note, after this trip I decided to retire not only my damaged backpack but my broken down tent as well. I hadn't used it in a few years. I had forgotten it had holes, the poles were bent, and the zipper on the entrance was completely dysfunctional. If mosquitoes had any brains, they could have come right in and feasted on me. Much to the chagrin of Oscar Goodman, I think I'll give the tent to the next homeless person I come across. However, after seeing the ratty shape it is in, I think even a homeless person wouldn't want it.

Overall it was a fun and enjoyable trip. Not the biggest mountaineering challenge I have faced, but one doesn't have to push the boundaries on every single trip. Hopefully this rambling trip report contained some useful information to those considering doing it. My thanks to Joel for organizing and leading the trip.

Ali graphs stock prices in the dirt for our edification. Notice the empty wine bottle by the rock!

We negotiate the boulders on the summit plateau of Gilbert and try to keep from from being blown over by the wind.

LVMC MONTHLY BIO FEATURE

Alan Nakashima

Where were you born?
Santa Anita Race Track, Arcadia, California

How long have you lived in Las Vegas?
Since December 2000

What is your occupation?
Out of work (retired) Nuclear Engineer that worked on Yucca Mountain (Thanks Harry)

How long have you been an LVMC member?
Since mid-2001

What is your favorite hike/climb?
Bridge Mt, Mount Charleston and Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim. I think of them as Classic LVMC hikes.

What is the most challenging hike/climb you have done?
There are lots of those. Day-hiking Mount Shasta. We did that 2 days before doing Mt Hood and 5 days before Rainier (LVMC Trip). Mount Williamson in the Sierras. (Took me 5 tries before I did it!.). Gannett Peak in Wyoming (never made it…we turned around 400 ft from the summit)

How did you get into hiking/climbing?
In 1976 a friend took me to do Mt. Whitney and the Grand Canyon (two different trips). After a few more backpacks the next few years, I had a 20 year hiatus until about 1998 when I started hiking again.

What are your hobbies other than hiking/climbing?
Photography and learning how to create my website, www.desertnaka.org

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