Hike Cleve Creek Baldy Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, NV

Sep 12, 2023 — One of the more southern notable peaks of the Schell Creek Range near Ely NV is Cleve Creek Baldy. Despite being  located far from the higher peaks like North Schell Peak, it still reaches nearly 11,000 feet. After enjoying so much of the rest of the range, I was looking forward to this summit. Some maps include a vague dotted line labeled "4WD Pack" drawn to nearly tree line, so there was a chance I would be able to reach the peak without having to bushwhack. Like many times before, there was a chance this dotted line no longer existed, but I figured it was my best chance. I drove the lovely Success Loop Scenic Drive to just north of a pass called Success Summit until I reached the start of this potential "trail". Finding a good ATV trail right where the map said it would be, I only hesitated in starting my hike because a small sign on the north side of the road read "No Trespassing". I interpreted this to mean the land surrounding the road was private property, but the trail/road was fair game. I'm not sure if that's true, but I'd already driven way out here and there were ATV tracks in the mud and no other barricades trying to deter me. I left my sparkly new car behind, and I'm glad I did because the ATV trail quickly deteriorated into pinstripe-inducing trees and deep ruts.

The ATV trail was pretty, a mostly forested hike with some rock outcroppings poking out along the way. It started to ascend up a wide gully, narrowed, and eventually downed trees prevented further ATV travel. After a bit under a mile from the trailhead, the ATV trail became singletrack and continued more steeply up the wide gully. I was surprised at how good its shape was, and it clearly gets regular attention. The hike continued through short spurts of meadow and up to the wide gully's head, the trees growing more sparsely and opening into a pretty meadow. I spotted a large storm cloud. A bit annoyed since I was scared off a larger hike with Matt earlier in the day, I started moving more quickly so that I wouldn't have two failures in the same day due to weather. The trail bent east and continued through more open terrain at the cusp of tree line. I passed a pretty viewpoint to the north where the land eroded away into steep slopes punctuated by cliffs.

Cleve Creek Baldy's summit was visible just ahead, sort of nothing more than a large hill covered in meadows. The trail faded away and I continued directly east up the gradual slope, which began mostly free of brush. Trying to move quickly as thunder began growling above, I tripped a few times on the brush as it thickened, but you could easily dodge it all. I was just on a mission to not get struck by lightning. As I snagged a few stormy shots on the summit of Cleve Creek Baldy, a loud thunderclap directly overhead had me running back. At least I'd gotten to the summit and salvaged the day, even if I couldn't spend time looking around at the various surrounding Great Basin peaks. I later found out that Matt wasn't as lucky with his consolation peak attempt due to a flat tire.