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| Hiking | 4.81 Miles |
1,575 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.81 Miles | 5 Hrs 25 Mns | | 1.98 mph |
| 1,575 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 59 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I had a couple choices on how to get up Webster Mtn.
Surveyors in 1947 went up from the south, and the 1967 team went up from the shorter north end. I chose a longer south approach, as there appeared to be old ranch/mining roads that I hopefully, could use to get close to the mountain.
Since Webster Mtn is just north of being nestled in between all those open pit mines in the Miami area, my approach from the south could be thwarted with ‘private’, ‘no public access’ roads, since I’d have to drive up roads literally between those huge open pit mines.
I lucked out, and found a set of many old (and bad) roads that let me weave thru the mine area. My ‘off the grid’ hikes take more ‘drive’ planning than actual ‘hike’ planning.
Ironically, I read Cannondalekid’s Webster Mtn triplog AFTER my hike. He went up Webster from the north and ran into issues with more steepness and even more brush than I did, with my south approach. I guess my blind luck helped me.
The hike.
First - Hike up a ‘no-longer-drivable’ road, go through thick brush and locate Webster Azimuth Mark. Accomplished.
The Azimuth disk was set in a very scenic spot, with ‘line-of-sight’ to the BM over a huge valley - Cool.
Next, backtrack a bit and try to locate a random BM, that has nothing to do with the four Webster named disks. The ‘random disk’ search ended quickly, as the vegetation became almost impenetrable. That random disk will stay unobserved.
And finally, hike down, then up, to the main part of Webster Mtn, to the high point and locate a summit log, then travel to the far north end to locate Webster BM & its two reference marks. All that was successful, even though the summit log glass jar was in pieces.
It’s only .6 of a mile from the azimuth mark to the BM, as the crow flies.
Since I’m not a crow, the distance was about a mile plus, of ups and downs, through mostly avoidable brush.
The prolific plant of the day was agave. I came across some agave that were almost as big as Volkswagens. It appears that most of the big ones had recently toppled over from their own weight, possibly helped by the recent rains softening the soil.
The recent rains also led to very noticeable higher humidity. This was probably from the ground trying to dry out, and filling the air with its moisture. It felt like I was back in the midwest.
It was a fun experience.
As usual, I saw no one all day, either on the hike or the drive.
Oh …. It’s so lonely out there.  |
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Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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