Toiyabe Crest Trail, Nevada

Great Basin road trip part one of three: October 16-17, 2015

Ben’s been in my rear-view mirror for the last four hours. I’m sure he needed to stop for gas about an hour ago, but we’re still driving. Ten long years since I’ve been on a real road trip; the sun is setting behind the Santa Rosa range north of Winnemucca, Nevada and the Basin and Range topography is lit up in its continuous namesake pattern. The 850 miles it takes us to travel from Seattle to the Toiyabe Range in west-central Nevada is not a quick trip, but with high, remote mountains surrounding us even the fatigue of straight-line highways hardly dampens spirits.

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The Toiyabe Crest Trail is a National Recreation Trail traversing the range from the South Twin River at its southern extent to Kingston Canyon, about two-thirds of the way up the Toiyabe. Starting on the southern end at 6300’, the trail maintains an average elevation of 9300’ and dips briefly below 8000’ only once. Opting to try and stay on higher terrain and summit the range’s high point (Arc Dome, 11,773’), we took a cross-country shortcut by climbing Arc Dome’s southeast ridge from the 9100’ pass above the South Twin’s headwaters. We also summitted Cirque Peak (11,290') a few miles later. Our two-day route was ~56 miles with 15,200’+ of gain. We only saw one group of two local hunters on horseback.

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Quaking aspens flared from yellow-gold to burnt copper and even red, their colonies populating the moisture-collecting ravines and valleys across the Toiyabe. The dying grass, sage, scrub plants and pines stand by in near grayscale compared to the aspens. Cottonwoods going yellow, though slightly less dramatically, play a supporting role at lower elevations.   

Ben's single file and my files (day 1, day 2)

Surprised to find a privy at the remote trailhead

South Twin River canyon

South Twin River canyon

Mining relics

Upper South Twin River

Ascending Arc Dome from the southeast

Upper southeast ridge of Arc Dome

Ben on Arc Dome's summit ridge

Looking north along the Toiyabe Crest, from the summit of Arc Dome

Descending the trail on Arc Dome's north ridge

Cirque Peak summit register

Unfortunate shoe color coordination

The two local hunters; the only humans we saw

On the TCT; Ben's photo

A basin on the Toiyabe's west side, with the Shoshone Range

Toiyabe Crest at Ophir summit

Ben at the end of day 1, starting to look for a camp with water

Morning of day two; we camped in the Aspen basin at left, the only running water we found in 22 miles

Lower-elevation aspen-filled basins on the northern half of the TCT

Cat print

I didn't even need to ask; Ben dons a cow pelvis at will

A few fancy signs show up on the northern half

Looking south down the Toiyabe, from the final high point

Descending to Kingston Canyon, below Bunker Hill at right

Time to drive to the next destination...

Peari Izumi shoe giveaway!

UPDATE: Jason Donaldson is the winner selected at random! Jason, please see my comment below with the info required to get some PIs shipped out to you. Thanks to everyone who commented :) .

To celebrate the inclusion of the Pearl Izumi Road N3 in Outside Magazine's 2015 Buyer's Guide, I get to send out a free pair to a reader of my blog!

Photo: Matthew Widzer

While the N3 Road is a "road" shoe, I wore it for the duration of the Glacier Peak 100+ (across all sorts of trails and snow) and two weeks ago on the Wonderland Trail. It has more than enough cushion for 100 non-stop miles, a simple chafe-free upper and more outsole tread than most road shoes. It feels very similar to the Trail N2, just with more cushioning. They also work well as a recovery shoe or a general trainer if you're looking for something cushy.

A trail version of the N3 is coming out in March 2016!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post with your favorite trail, route, mountain, etc, that you have run/hiked/summited this year. The trail can be anywhere, but the shoes can only be sent to US addresses (and not a PO box).

The winner will be chosen at random after midnight Saturday, October 17, so please comment by then to have a chance. I will update this post on Sunday or Monday with the winner, so please check back as I'll need your shipping info, size and color preference (dependent on availability).

Photo by Korey Konga. on the Wonderland Trail

Photo by Ben Mayberry, descending Spider Gap

    

Burch Mountain-South Fool Hen peaks loop, Pasayten Wilderness

Although requiring a hefty commute, the Pasayten Wilderness is one of my favorite areas to visit. Even with my checkered record there (ash-whacking the 30-mile burn with my brother in 2003, glorious Devil's Dome loop in 2013, June snow in 2014 and record-breaking heat in June 2015) I don't hesitate at an opportunity to spend time in the Pasayten's vast solitude.

Unfortunately, I can now add "white-out rainstorm" to my list of Pasayten experiences (weather stations in the area recorded .7"-1.5"of precipitation).

Raising3hikers and I set out to do a lollipop from the Billy Goat trailhead to Billy Goat Pass, taking the Burch Mountain trail up to summit Peak 7697' and Burch Mountain 7782', then doing a sweeping ridge traverse all the way out to Little Fool Hen 7857', South Fool Hen 8055' and Fool Hen 8168' before descending south into the Drake Creek drainage to pick up the trail back over Billy Goat Pass.

After enjoying a relatively calm (just light rain) morning, by the time we reached the point near where we would head north to Fool Hen the rain and winds increased and we'd spent the last hour or so in a complete cloud whiteout. With the forecast predicting possible snow overnight the temperatures were decreasing. Turning around early was the right call, especially with limited-to-no visibility on the ridge.

Definitely another area that I will be going back to...

Past-prime larches and Burch Mountain, from the way up to Peak 7697'

Looking north from the summit of 7697'; we wanted to go all the way to the summit just left of R3H, but turned around at the point just right of him

Very moody morning weather looking south down the Eight Mile Creek drainage

North Craggy, Big Craggy and Eightmile Peak

We traversed this entire ridge and then dropped south into the drainage at the end; R to L: Burch Mountain, Little Fool Hen, South Fool Hen 

Yellow carpets of larch needles on the way to Burch Mountain

Descending off the summit of Burch in increasing weather

Descending South Fool Hen on time-consuming slippery lichen talus

Basin we descended into to drop down to Drake Creek, the valley in the background

Boulder River Wilderness

A family stroll for a recovery weekend...