I finished a solo tour of old mines in the Inyo mountain range of central California west of Death Valley. The “Lonesome Miner Trail” — what the late Wendell Moyer* called it — is 40-50 miles of rough, hard-to-follow disused trail involving somewhere near 17,000 vertical feet of elevation gain/loss.
Because I didn’t have shuttles arranged, I added about 50 bonus miles (and 14k more vertical feet) to the route: I walked thru Death Valley to the Hunter Cyn trailhead. That was 18 miles with 7.5 liters of water on my back, only to experience torrential rain the first night in San Lucas Canyon. Ugh! I didn’t have to carry all that water! To avoid what was pretty heavy snow on steep terrain, I hiked out the French Spring trail March 28 and then back in May 1st. At the end of my hike, I walked out the Pat Keyes Trail and then all the way to highway 395 to hitch back to Lone Pine.
Only counting the actual 30 miles of its length, the Lonesome Miner Trail is by far the most difficult “trail” I’ve hiked, definitely tougher mile-for-mile than the Hayduke and Sierra High Route and Lowest-to-Highest.
Why so tough? Elevation changes! As soon as it drops 2000-3000 feet, it goes right back up 2000-3000′. Hikers must carry large amounts of water spring-to-spring in the radiant, sometimes sweltering heat of Death Valley. At times the unmaintained trail would vanish *poof* and I’d be left clamboring around piles or rock trying to aim at where I thought the trail would pick up again. Rinse, repeat. Concerns were cacti, rattlers, cyanide poisoning, and long plunges to my certain death. The total isolation, high risk, and exposure to 49er history frozen in time (and one surprise big Paiute camp with tremendous petroglyphs1) makes the Lonesome Miner Trail a treat one might love to hate.
Here’s a few photographs from spring 2017 2-section hike of the LMT. I’ve been up several times since to scout out things that struck my fancy in 2017. But these photos are all from my LMT hike in 2017.
March 2017
San Lucas Canyon was “on the way” along my 18-mile walk to the Hunter Canyon TH from highway 190. I was mesmerized by this remote gem. This canyon would be much like many other Death Valley Canyons except one thing. Incredibly, at one point it was economically advantageous to build a road up a 70-foot dryfall to cart up SALT (before the tram was built). Salt, not gold. Once the tram was functioning, the road stopped being used. This was last driven by a pair of drunk men in the 1960s. At this point it would be too dangerous to try to drive since slides have covered most the old road surface and threaten to slip more. I could hardly HIKE it, but its path is still clear… and incredibly steep and narrow. If you’re interested in seeing more, there are some great photos of San Lucas canyon over here. Curious about more information, read here, from the Waag brothers.
It’s not just that it was sorta COLD, but I was growing concerned about the high slope angles on trail and remaining snow/ice patches esp on the north faces. I decided to descend for a few weeks and wait for it to melt, then hike back up and continue. I came out over Forgotten Pass.
Continue reading about the rest of my LMT hike…
Lonesome Miner Trail Paper Maps!
Check out my maps of the Lonesome Miner Trail
- NOT TELLING WHERE. Other hikers I met in 2018 at Frenchie’s Cabin had just found a prayer stick in a small cave they spotted while hiking. They left it in place. All items found should be left in place so that others can enjoy them, too. ↩︎
