Lyon County Highpoint Trip Report
Middle Sister - North Ridge (10,580 ± 20 ft)
Date: August 13, 2005
Author: Scott Surgent
With Edward Earl's report from 2000 in hand, I took FR-050 north from NV-338
about 4 miles to a sharp right turn at an incline then, where the road went left,
I took another immediate left onto a rougher road that headed into the
mountains at Little Smith Valley. I camped along this road for the night and
drove to its end at a corral at about 7,500 feet. Two gates need to be crossed
and the road is rocky enough to make 4wd really nice to have. I started my hike
at about 7 a.m.
I followed the trail to Little Smith Valley and essentially retraced Edward's
route, going up a partially-wooded gully to a meadow at 9,600 feet, then up
scree and rocks to the summits and the ridge points. Cross-country navigation
is very straightforward here.
Once on the ridge, I kind of worked my way north of the summit and eventually
came into sight of two large cairns with sticks/posts sticking out of them.
I hiked to the higher of the two and saw that a number of people had signed in,
thinking it to be the CA/NV border -- but it wasn't (as many so noted in the log).
This is the Von Schmidt marker, commemorating (?) an erroneous survey of
the CA/NV border from the 19th century. Looking down, I could see the actual
state line post as well as the rock pile that signified Lyon County's HP.
First, I made a quick run to the summit of Middle Sister, then went down to the
actual Lyon HP and signed in. I was only the third person to sign in for 2005.
Going down went great -- the scree made downhill travel go by quite fast and the
good tread and open pathways made the rest of the egress go quickly as well.
For me it was 3 hours up, 30 minutes to explore the ridge, and 1:30 down.
This puts me at 16 NV COHPs, with one to go, which I'll do in 2006.