My second trip to the Great Western Divide had none of the issues that plagued the first trip. The weather was perfect. My partner, Ed, and his wife, Sue, had no conflicts with work. And I knew the area, since I had just been there a couple of weeks earlier. Everything went according to plan, so this is going to be a classic "just the facts ma'am" trip report.
Ed and Sue called me from the Shepherd Pass trailhead Thursday morning to let me know they were heading up as planned. I drove down from Reno Thursday afternoon and slept at the trailhead. I drive a little Acura RSX (basically a high-end Honda Civic), and I build a bed in it. There is no level ground at the trailhead, so I dug shallow holes that I could drive the uphill tires into, and I piled the dirt to raise the lower tires. Driving onto a couple of blocks made from 2x4s made my bed almost perfectly level. I was in bed by 8:30.
The alarm went off at 4:30. I don't know why it always takes so long to get going in the morning, but I didn't start up the trail until 5:30. If I matched my previous time, I would meet Ed and Sue at Shepherd pass at 1:30 as agreed. I got there 20 minutes early. After a nice break, we headed down the trail towards the Kern River. We took the shortcut and had no trouble crossing Tyndall Creek, since the water level was much lower than two weeks earlier. We checked out a potential campsite at ~11,300 and ended up continuing to a lake about 10 minutes before the Kern River. We camped near where I had camped on the previous trip. The hike in took 11:20, and I felt much better this time.
We left camp for Milestone Basin at about 6:15 Saturday morning. It was cloudy, but it never rained. We followed the old trail when we could find it and went cross-country the rest of the time. Milestone Mountain looks impossible from a distance, but it's actually not too bad. It's class 2 talus and slabs until just below the notch to the right of the summit. There are a few class 3 moves to get to the notch and more class 3 rock on the west side to get to the summit. Generous cairns helped us find the way. I was on the summit before 11:00, with Ed and Sue a few minutes behind. We all agreed that Milestone was a quality climb.
We headed down after a break. Ed and Sue decided one summit was enough, so they headed back to camp. I did an easy traverse to an obvious notch on the east ridge of Midway Mountain and then headed up to the summit. Midway is only class 2, and the climbing is fairly pleasant. It's mostly stable talus with minimal loose stuff. It took just over two hours from Milestone. I headed down and was back at camp in less than three hours. Ed and Sue were already there, and we were all pleased with our accomplishments for the day.
We got a late start for Table Mountain on Sunday morning, but we made good time hiking up Milestone Basin, since we knew the way from the day before. When we got to where the routes to Table and Midway diverged, Ed and Sue decided to climb Midway instead of Table. They headed up Midway while I continued the approach to Table.
As I got closer to Table Mountain, the terrain got looser and the route to the main ledge on the east face became less obvious. I spent a long time screwing around trying various routes. The few cairns that I found seemed to lead nowhere, and the climbing was just crappy. I eventually found my way onto the ledge, and made my way up and right. The ledge ended and I worked my way up more loose class 2 and 3 terrain. After squeezing under a big chockstone, I made it to the summit plateau. I walked across the huge plateau to the summit. After signing the register and eating some food, I headed back down. I was the only person on the summit in over six weeks, so I knew that all the tracks in the sand on the numerous ledges were mine. This and the cairns made it fairly easy to retrace my route down the mountain. Ed and Sue easily beat me back to camp after they climbed Midway. My time for Table wasn't much shorter than Milestone and Midway combined.
We hiked out on Monday morning. We stayed together until Anvil Camp, where I went on ahead. It took less than nine hours, including two half-hour breaks, to get to my car. I was back in Reno by 9:00 PM.
While I was a little disappointed with Table Mountain, Milestone and Midway were both quality climbs. I've been working on the SPS list the last few years, and these two trips get me to 165 peaks, including 32 Mountaineers' Peaks and 15 Emblem Peaks. I'll never finish the entire SPS list, but I only need ten more peaks to get to "Master Emblem" completion. I'll be working on those peaks next year.
