Dan and I decided to embark on a Saturday hike but the weather wasn't looking too good. Southeast Oregon seemed to offer the best weather and the chance to visit an obscure, remote area. We met at 6am and began the long drive to McDermitt, Nevada, and thence to the trailhead. We managed to drive a little further up than we expected, saving us approximately 45 minutes of hiking. We were moving around 9:30am and started uphill through the very open terrain. The weather was initially in the upper 30s with no wind which was actually quite comfortable. As we got higher the wind picked up which, while brisk, was tolerable.
The terrain was very gentle, consisting entirely of open sagebrush slopes and snowy jeep tracks. The area is quite remote and while out of the wind we observed the rare sound of total silence. It is also a popular rockhounding area and we found some large chunks of obsidian which I've never seen anywhere else. The expansive views and undeveloped nature of the area were definitely the highlight of the trip.
We initially had thoughts of visiting some other peaks but the shortness of the day and worsening weather caused us to abandon those plans and head directly home. Once home I was able to watch the tail end of the "SEC East Championship Game"... sadly, the Gators lost to the Gamecocks.
Trip statistics: 9.36 miles, 2599' elevation gain, 6:07h
Malheur County Highpoint Hike Pictures!
GPS track
Dan's Trip Report
Sunday, November 14, 2010
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2 comments:
Sounds like we were all having unpleasant weather. Barb and I ran into snow when we went down to MInneapolis that weekend. The "sound of silence" maybe you should write a song about that!! Oh, wait Simon & Garfunkel already did. LOL
Anyway the area sound very nice inspite of having to cut things short.
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