Climb From Injury

Boundary Peak is the highest point in Nevada! I read trip reports about there being a “wall of scree” to go up, so I was a little nervous. Also about breaking down in BFE Nevada.

Trip date: August 27-28

Hike stats (round trip): 6.83 miles, 3,674 feet of elevation gain, 6.5 hours total.

Logistics

Trail Canyon Road

This is one of those trips where the crux is the road. The two main roads in are Queen Canyon road, coming from highway 6 to the west, and Trail Canyon road, coming from 264 to the east. I had heard that Trail Canyon road was in better shape, so that’s what I took. Note: Queen Mine road also seems to be ok. I spoke with some people who got their Rav4 up to the Queen Mine no problem, although I don’t know if anyone makes it to the actual trailhead on that side in their vehicle.

I tried to reach Trail Canyon directly from road 30 off of 264, which was a mistake. Where Road 30 and Rock Creek road met, the road started to look a lot worse and there was a sign saying to take Chiatovich Creek road instead. So I drove down 264 a little big longer and turned onto Chiatovich Road. I saw a lot of people talking online about how it was important to turn onto “Chiatovich CREEK road” instead of “Chiatovich Road,” but I only saw a sign for Chiatovich Road and it took me to Trail Canyon road.

From then on the road was not great but doable in my Subaru Crosstrek. I felt like it was the max that car could do. There were some spots where the road was pretty cracked and rutted out, so the AWD was helpful. It also helps to not care about your paint job, since there were pretty narrow sections with branches scraping both sides. The worst part was where some guys parked their truck part way in the road at the top of a hill and I had to maneuver carefully to avoid hitting his truck and the giant rock on the other side of the road. In most places (but not all), there is signage indicating which turn to take to get to Trail Canyon road.

I tried to check out the crossover road to the Queen Mine trailhead, since the trail on that side seemed better (avoids bushwhacking, goes along a ridge), but the road turned to bare rock pretty quickly. I talked to some guys who parked at Trail Canyon but descended the ridge and walked down the connector road on their descent. They said it was terrible, more like a rock wall, and they wouldn’t call it a road. And they drove a pretty capable Jeep Wrangler.

I found these directions on SummitPost really helpful. This is also a GPX track of my drive. 

Overnight

There were a few places to pull over and camp before the Trail Canyon trailhead. I found a nice grassy area full of a lot more life than I expected for the end of August. Hurricane Hilary had just come through and it seemed very spring-like, although bugs were not a concern. There was running water nearby but also a lot of cowpies, so I just used the bottled water in my car instead of filtering. I got there Sunday afternoon and there were two vehicles at the trailhead. So you will likely have this place to yourself!

Trail Canyon Hike

Bushy Start

The first part of the hike goes through a bushy area. With the recent rain it was pretty muddy and wet in a couple of places. The trail was relatively easy to follow though. I lost the trail a couple of times coming back, but it’s relatively easy to find again. I didn’t find any of the bushwhacking I had read about. 

The trail takes about 2 miles to gain the first 1000 feet, so it’s relatively slow to start. Eventually the vegetation peters out and the trail turns into a bit of a sandy slog, but it’s only for about 1000 feet of elevation gain and it’s on rocky sand that plunge steps easily. Nothing like the “wall of scree” I had read about.

The trail eventually gains the ridge and joins with the trail from Queen Mine road. From there it’s either trail or relatively easy scrambling over rocks. There are a lot of false summits, so don’t get your hopes up too early. The actual summit is obvious and is marked with a USGS marker.

I took one look at the traverse over to Montgomery and said “nope.” I met some women at the top who had just traversed over from Montgomery and confirmed that it was terrible. So I just headed down.

Sandy plunge stepping

I tried to see if there would be a good slope for scree skiing, but all I found were loose unstable rocks. Best just to follow the trail down. The plunge stepping makes the descent pretty easy and well controlled on the sandy section, and you’re back to the bushes pretty quickly. 

All in all, the hike was way more mellow and enjoyable than I expected. I would recommend, especially if you (1) are into state highpointing or (2) live in the Reno area and like hiking. I was almost out of water by the time I reached the ridge descent, and I had brought 3.5 liters. So you might want to bring more or be more judicous about rationing it.