Time for a road trip with Tom (and Lola) to hike some lesser known
peaks in the Schell Range. We weren’t
able to leave early on Thursday, so Tom made plans for an afternoon hike of
North Lovell Peak and The Nipple both of which are about thirty minutes
northeast of Ely, Nevada.
We carefully negotiated McMaughn
Canyon road and started our hike about 3:00pm.
It soon became apparent that even though this is a short hike (3 miles
r/t with 1500 ft elevation gain) it was going to be grueling due to the
excessive heat. Have you ever drunk hot
water? Neither had we . . . and hope to
never have to experience that again. I
guess we wouldn’t have made very good miners of these mountains "back in the
day!"
Okay, enough whining! What a great adventure this ended up
being. We didn’t expect to find wild
horses, old log cabins and even a long-ago abandoned truck . . . but we did! And the views from atop the Nipple with its
unique rock cairn were outstanding. Tom
made it to the top of North Lovell Peak. We waited for him at the Nipple and
relaxed enjoying the scenery and thinking of the cooler full of cold drinks at
the bottom of the hill!
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| We are in McMaughn Canyon . . . our destination is The Nipple (9,243) & North Lovell Peak (9,652) |
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| Within minutes we spotted a herd of 10 wild horses on the hillside |
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| The road became very steep and we could only go so far with our 4Runner . . . so we parked and walked the last 450 ft of elevation gain to the road summit . . . Tom could have made it with his ATV, but chose to park and walk with us |
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| The canyon was quite pretty . . . It had unique geological features and a few small springs could be found |
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| We took several breaks . . . The heat was getting to us . . . not used to hiking in the afternoon! |
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| What a neat shot of The Nipple (and it's rock cairn), the horses and Tom and Lola! |
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| Did you know that Nevada is the most mountainous state in the US? (at least 314 named ranges and 40 peaks that exceed 10,000 ft in elevation) |
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| North Lovell Peak . . . can you see Tom and Lola coming down? (They are on the skyline just right of mid center - click on the picture to expand) |
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| We enjoyed a nice rest on the saddle between The Nipple & North Lovell Peak |
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| Tom helped us find a route to ascend The Nipple |
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| Views looking north towards Becky Peak . . . Becky Peak is the northern most peak in the Schell Range . . . which just happens to be Nevada's longest mountain range |
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| We were content to reach The Nipple . . . no Lovell Peak for us today |
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| Although there was a smoky haze we still had good visibility |
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| Without an actual trail we tried to follow a few horse paths . . . most went nowhere Best advice . . . pick the path of least resistance and head down |
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| I imagine the stream once flowed into this trough |
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| Kent enjoyed washing and cooling off his feet after the hike |
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| McIntosh Cabin |
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| Allison couldn't pass up a picture of this cute truck |
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| There must have been a few miners living in the area |
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| Looking back to where we were . . . |
Click here to learn more details of this hike from Tom's Peakbagger entry.
