The stormy weather pattern finally abated and was replaced with sunny skies and mild temperatures. Despite an ongoing cold, I agreed to join Dan on a snowshoe trip to Ellen D Mountain in northern Nevada. It was close enough to Tabletop Mountain that we could visit both on our trip. We left early Saturday morning (about 6:30am) from Boise and headed over.
The peak is accessed from the mining town of Contact, Nevada. This is basically a ghost town but still has some activity from the operating Enexco Copper Mine. We ran into some bulldozers on the way in and they were doing a drill move which would be tying up the road. Fortunately we didn't need to follow the stretch of road they were utilizing for said operation.
At about 9:45am we got going heading up an unplowed road. Eventually we cut over to the main summit road and followed it all the way up. The temperatures were pretty mild but the wind was pretty chilling, especially near the top where it was strong and continuous. Of course my congested sinuses didn't like this a whole lot! My constant sniffling and sinus pain was the only blight on the day.
Due to the conditions, we didn't spend too long on top. We made a leisurely descent and also made a side trip to nearby Tabletop Mountain. We made it back to the truck shortly thereafter and made our way to Jackpot where we spent the night.
Trip statistics: 6 hours, 7.1 miles, 2700' gain.
Nevada Snowshoe Pictures!
Dan's Trip Report
Grandpa may have to call you "sniffles" like he used to do Gary. The hike looked cold and desolate.
ReplyDeleteDitto on what your Mom said. It actually looks worse (more desolate & windswept) than the prairies in the dead of winter! Hope the cold is better by now. Grandma is also stimulating the economy with purchases of boxes of Kleenex as she is suffering the same malady.
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