Mineral County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: July 28, 2007
Author: Tyler Nimke
I climbed cross country from Heart Lake. I hiked up the trail to Pearl Lake.
On the forest service map there is a trail on the ridge from Pearl Lake to the
highpoint but for the most part this trail is nonexistent. I hiked to the top
of the point directly north of Pearl Lake and continued north on the ridge,
crossing to the west of Point 7,032. I dropped out of the saddle just west of
French Lake, crossing the east face of Lightning Peak just below the cliff bands.
There is no trail here but was fairly easy, just tall weeds and wildflowers.
I climbed into the saddle just north of French Lake and here I did
pick up an old trail heading up the ridge to the east. This trail continues
over Point 7,220 to Point 7,745. Here the trail takes the ridge to the east but
it is just a short distance to the north to BM Quartz. The register in the
ziplock bag is still there. There were only two names other then mine.
On the hike back I climbed over the top of Lightning Peak, as there is a trail
that cuts from the saddle north of French Lake up to Lightning Peak's north
ridge and continues to the summit. I then headed straight down the peak's open
south face to the basin to the south, where I picked up an old trail that leads
back to Heart Lake.
It was a long hike in the late July heat but views were spectacular along the
entire route. Definitely bring ample water for this route, as I did not and was
very thirsty when I got back to camp. The whole route took approximately five hours.