RonnieAdventure #0165 - Griffith Peak, Spring Mountains, Clark County, Nevada

In July 2013 the Carpenter fire burned substantial portions of the wooded areas on Mount Charleston, causing the U.S. Forest Service to close many of the higher elevation trails. Since that time, most of the trails have reopened, except the Mount Charleston South Loop Trail that is scheduled to reopen in 2016, the South Loop Griffith Peak Trail that is scheduled to reopen in 2018, and the Harris Springs-Griffith Peak trail that is scheduled to reopen in 2020. Since I have no idea where I will be in 2020, I decided to include a RonnieAdventure Classic (Number One Son came up with that name.) of the Harris Springs-Griffith Peak trail. 

Griffith Peak at 11,056 feet is the third highest peak in southern Nevada and historically almost everyone that wanted to summit Griffith Peak used the South Loop Trail. Since we had previously been to the peak using the South Loop Trail, we asked Kolohe to drop us at the Harris Springs trailhead and then drive around the mountain and pick us up a the South Loop Trailhead. She was not overly excited about the idea because it is a four-wheel drive trip to Harris Springs that includes some narrow, steep grades  that are only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. We finally convinced her that the trailhead was so remote that she would never meet another vehicle and she could just dive slowly in four-wheel drive. She reluctantly agreed.

Things went well up the mountain to the Harris Springs Trailhead, so we turned the vehicle around and then started up the trail while Kolohe started back down the mountain road in four-wheel drive. We had a really great hike up to Griffith Peak and then went down the other side, where we found Kolohe waiting for us.

Unfortunately, we learned that on the way down the mountain Kolohe met another vehicle in the steepest, narrowest part of the trail. After saying some not too nice of things about us, the other vehicle was able to back down the trail until they found a spot in the trail that was wide enough for the two vehicles to pass. The rest of her journey was uneventful. Three cheers for Kolohe!!!