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| Panorama from Gene's Trail |
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| Peak 3844 Approach (North Blue Diamond Hill in Distance) |
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| Beautiful Clouds to start the Day |
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| Top of First Hill - Going Strong |
Frozen out of the mountains, the not-so-leisurely AtBFers transferred over to Calico Basin in Red Rock Canyon for a short loop hike up and around Peak 3844. It was hard for us to believe that the temperatures in the upper Lee Canyon quadrant were starting at 24 degrees this morning ... in May! So, still wearing long pants in the coolness of the desert (50-something degrees), we started our hike from the Calico Basin Road wash area. The signs indicated that the start of this favorite hike is now called Gene's Trail. We climbed the hill and it was immediately clear that a strong group of hikers had showed up for the advertised easy moderate hike. I was very happy about that since the faster pace would keep us from getting wet with rain!
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| Gene's Trail along the Ridge |
After turning onto Calico Basin Road, we parked on the roadside at the wash found approximately 0.4 miles from the junction of SR 159. The trail is seen here going up the hill on the right.
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| Crossing over to Climb Peak |
Making sure everyone was ready, we started up the hill with a strong pace. When I got to the top, I turned around expecting to need to wait for stragglers. Absolutely no need! It was tough group!
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| View of Las Vegas - Frenchman Mountain in Distance |
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| Trail to Peak |
We followed Gene's Trail up the ridge to its summit then turned to the right onto a trail that descended another ridge in the direction of the peak ridge. There was a small saddle then we started up again. The trail curves around to the left and comes to the peak ridge's saddle where you have a good skyline view of Las Vegas as seen in the photo above. Finally, we saw the peak ahead of us and started hearing gunshots from the shooting range not far away. As we finished our climb, I noticed that Ralyn, of the Six with Sticks AtBFers, was following us with her dog Odie. She and Odie are welcome to tag along any time they want ... unofficially ... since the club does not allow dogs. We took our photo on the peak then started down turning onto the trail that forks to the right at the saddle.
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| Tough Ten on Top |
The descent trail leads to the end of the peak ridge and drops down to the bottom. A right turn put us onto a trail that circles around the east side of the peak.
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| Descent |
There was a lot of talking going on today. A lot of us had not seen each other since the pandemic began. It was so nice to start catching up!
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| Junction with Perimeter Trail |
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| Black clouds a' comin'! |
While we talked, the rain clouds were swiftly making their way from the Spring Mountains NRA to Red Rock Canyon NCA. Their blackness was undeniable! Our pace was strong but some of the hikers lagged back; not for lack of speed but for lack of fear of getting wet! We came up behind a hiker that we haven't seen for a while. Doyle! So nice to see him out on the trails again after his forced independent living sequestering. He looked great and we hope to see him again soon. We took a right fork and a left fork then T'ed into a trail to turn left. This brought us back to the cars without so much as a drop ... well, some hikers said they felt rain. Anyway, we did it! Very enjoyable morning!
Stats: 4 miles; 650' gain; 2 hours
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