Lyon County High Point Trip Report

Middle Sister (10,570 ft+)

Date: September 16, 1997
Author: Andy Martin

It looked like a pretty good bushwack. First we drove to the Rickey mine, 7,600', due north of the peak. Feeling lazy, I decided to see how close we could get on the dirt roads to the west. We went up a miserable road in Jackass Creek, passed a broken down pick-up, and took a nasty jeep road to 8,600' in Coyote Creek. We then hiked to the saddle at 9,000', made a beeline for the west ridge, and ate lunch at the nice summit, where there is a register in a white pipe. From the top you could see that in the past jeeps could get to 9,400' just north of the peak, but this is probably posted now. After lunch came the search for the county line. The Von Schmidt Cairn was a bit further down the slope than I'd expected. About 100 feet downslope was the state line cairn, which had a wood pole and

"C" (California)
"N" (Nevada)
"32" (monument 32)

spelled in nails on three sides. This cairn is in a very small saddle, and a 10' high bump just down the ridge marks the actual county high point. Thus Lyon county is not a "leaner".

The hike down was initially pretty nice on loose sand, but soon we ran into thick brush, which proved especially vexing for shorts and sneakers. A coyote trap was spotted, which no doubt might better serve as a gopher trap. On the drive out we found that an alternate route through Taylor Valley was easier. We then took FR027 out alongside Desert Creek. This is yet another solid red ("major connector") DeLorme route that is no where near passenger-car quality, due to several deep stream crossings.