This was Heather's trip and though I don't usually think of Nevada as a "go to" destination, I was mildly curious to see Great Basin National Park and to experience it in the best way possible. Unfortunately Lehman Caves was closed to tours because of the pandemic. Most of the trails center around the Wheeler Peak (13063') area where there are glacial moraines, lakes, bristlecone pines, and the peak itself. Further south at the end of Snake Creek road was another trail that went to a pleasant looking lake, past a mine, then on up to the main alpine ridgeline. Curiously the alpine terrain extended for 3.5 miles between the Johnson Mine and Wheeler Peak without a trail or route marked- I think I found my adventure! It seemed rough and potentially slow going but certainly doable. Heather kindly let me do my own thing for half a day and would be able to pick me up at the end. It would be a 12.5 mile hike with a 4000ft elevation gain.
I woke up early, packed my ultralight daypack (4lbs with water?), and loitered a bit. Though the plan was to have Heather give me a ride up the road 1.5 miles to the road end I didn't have the heart to wake them from restful sleep and so started my hike from the campground (7500'). I got to the trailhead at about 7am and made good time hiking through the aspens and meadows with the light pack and cool morning. The hike was fairly unnotable until I reached 10000' where I encountered the millsite for the Johnson Mine and a few other buildings.
It took a little under 2 hours to reach Johnson Lake. In hindsight the prettiest lake I saw in Great Basin National Park, it was a classic glacial cirque lake with pleasant meadows on three sides. I had a snack, downed a bunch of water, and filtered about a liter to carry with me. I briefly chatted with a fellow hiker at the water's edge. Turns out he was also planning to get to Wheeler Peak basin but by a different route down into Baker Lake area. I was pretty sure he was going to be having a much longer day than me, and indeed I did not see him again.
I made great time past the remnants of the mine tramway and up the switchbacks to the saddle near the aptly named Pyramid Peak. From here I would have 3.5 miles of off-trail traversing to reach Wheeler Peak. Happily the granite made for flat ground and I zoomed along for a full half mile until I hit quartzite. Yikes! The next half-mile had a broken ridgeline with a precipitous north face, so I opted to traverse across a sloping ocean of scree to where I hoped the ridge would provide better travel. Angle of repose and clearly infrequently traveled, this slope of unstable 3ft+ boulders was formidable terrain. The views were good and I am certainly comfortable scrambling so I progressed slowly across, committed. This half-mile took me 45 minutes to traverse and gain the ridge.
Once I gained the ridge I got my first of many evolving views of Baker Lake (actually lakes plural due to lower water level). Curiously I could see people boating around it in a heavy inflatable kayak. Hopefully it was for work because it seemed like pretty pointless recreation. This next mile of ridgeline to Baker Peak (12298') was very scenic and easy going. Precipitous gully cracks intermittently framed views of Baker Lake and peaks beyond. The slope up to Baker Peak provided fairly good travel though I was starting to get hungry and thirsty at this point. Down from Baker Peak I skirted around another precipitous ridge gap and then found a nice lunch rock near the saddle below. This view was probably my favorite of my hike (frontispiece) and I thought that overall Baker Peak made a more impressive mountain than Wheeler Peak. The view also highlighted the punishing final 1300' climb up to Wheeler Peak, and that my estimated arrival at the road end was also completely blown.
It took me about an hour to climb the final one mile 1300' scree slope to Wheeler Peak, certainly the hardest part of the hike due to increasing fatigue. I stood of Wheeler Peak for probably about 5 minutes enjoying the view. It wasn't much better than what I had been seeing the last several hours but it was neat to look back along the way I came.
Already later than I said I would be, I now made serious tracks down the trail. I kept a stout pace where I was half falling on my trekking poles and kicking up rocks like mad. Most hikers I past were polite about letting me rocket past. Past the saddle I made a couple cross country maneuvers to speed my way past lengthy switchbacks. From Wheeler Peak I made the three miles to the parking lot in under an hour! My party was waiting for me and so we set off. It was a nice hike. Mostly for the self-inflicted challenge but at times the scenery was nice too.
The plan was to drive on to Gandy warm springs for a swim but this was not to be. We got a hissing flat about 15 miles shy of the spring and so retreated back to pavement. The improvised solution was to get a motel room for Heather and the kids at the stateline. I would carefully limp back to Snake Creek to collect our camping gear, then back to the motel for the night (3 hours round trip). So that was a frustrating end to an already long day. In the morning I would limp over an hour to Ely to be at the tire shop when they opened and hope that that would put us back on track. Thanks to Heather for letting me have a little half day trip and picking me up at the end.
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