McCoy Mountain (4th Annual Mustache Mosey Day 2)
- Updated: January 18, 2015
- Post By: Matthew Hengst
McCoy Mountain (2,828')
[Pics] [GPS]
Yesterday's climb of Big Maria HP and the subsequent festivities had left us possibly a bit hung over and certainly low on sleep. Still, we had a plan and another peak in our sights so with the exception of a few friends with other plans most of us saddled up and headed west along the 10.
I picked McCoy Mountain pretty much at random looking at interesting ranges in the area that I haven't been up yet.
I couldn't find any beta on routes so I picked a few likely looking routes and figured we'd play it by ear.
We dropped a few less capable vehicles at Wiley's Well Rest Stop continued with two Jeeps and a Tahoe.
There was a sign where we left the pavement indicating OHV/Jeep roads did exist back there which was a good sign. Right off the bat there was deep sand. I wouldn't have wanted to try without a 4WD but with one they made for a fun slalom. After that it got better for a time.
We initially went a bit further to the east along the poles road and it seemed like it might be in better shape than the direction we ended up going. If you have a less burly vehicle heading that way and them getting at close to the mountain from the south is another option.
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| This is one of the better sections |
We turned at a duck and followed tracks north along the west side of the range. The road started out decent but got rough once we started crossing washes and we lost what passed for a road several times. I even scraped the Wrangler a few times making it past particularly bad spots.
At a particular rough wash we decided to park and hike from there.
The initial approach was across the floor aiming for a major canyon.
There were signs of mining activity in the canyon but no structures or mine entrances we could see.
We picked a promising looking ridge and started climbing.
We did find one interesting thing along the way.
No idea what exactly it is but we guessed it had been attached to a balloon. I'd be interested if anyone reads this and knows.
One on the ridge we could see the high point further along.
The ridge was class 2 but we had to go around a few bumps along the way when they cliffed out.
This marked the summit.
There was an older register with several well known names.
Turns out we weren't even the first group up this month.
We retraced our steps taking only a slight detour around one of the rougher sections.
We came out in the dark without incident, retrieved the rest of the vehicles, and headed for home.
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