Hike Cougar Peak, Matterhorn Peak, Jarbidge Peak (Jarbidge Traverse) Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, NV

Jul 30, 2022 — Jarbidge is an isolated ghost town that, despite its remoteness, manages to attract an array of visitors. After driving for basically our entire lives to reach the little mountain dwelling from Elko, Nevada, Chris and I spent the afternoon being tourists there. I got a souvenir tank top, while Chris bought a wild children's book written by the owner of a nearby mining company (or something) and almost immediately regretted his purchase after inspecting its words and images more closely. I certainly didn't regret his purchase/treat. Additionally, having a beer in Jarbidge's saloon turned out to be a bucket list item. You can add an activity to your bucket list even while you're doing it, right? Unfortunately, the "afternoon in Jarbidge" only lasted about an hour because, while everyone was super sweet, there was nearly nothing to do. We retired to camp to play board games for the next 5 hours or so before bed.

Anyway, onto the hike. Our goal was to hit most of the major peaks along the ridgeline: Cougar Peak, Matterhorn, Square Top, Jumbo Peak, and Jarbidge Peak. We decided to leave out Marys River Peak to the south since it would add quite a bit of additional effort to the day. It seems many choose to ascend to Cougar Peak directly via its northwest ridgeline. This option is mostly off-trail and extremely steep. Chris and I were in complete agreement that using the Jarbidge River Trail, despite adding some milage, would be a much more enjoyable and clean-feeling way to reach the ridgeline.

To reach Jarbidge, Nevada, most seem to recommend coming from the north. I can't speak for the quality of that road since we came from the south. Any car can make it to the town, though the last few miles descending into the Jarbidge River drainage might require sedans to go extra slow to avoid the occasional stray rocky patch. Google had no trouble navigating us there after we left pavement and headed east here (41.53513, -115.8319). While the road is excellent, it's a very long drive and needing a tow way out here would be disastrous. We were pretty surprised at how many cars were on the road, which made the remoteness feel a little less disquieting.

The spot where we started our hike is located south of the town, and the road to reach it is in great shape as well. However, the official trailhead for the Jarbidge River Trail was a mile or so farther south, but the road became too rocky for comfort and we parked at a pull-out as soon as the road deteriorated. Since we were making this hike a loop we didn't need to drive all the way there anyway. One stream crossing and a short road walk and we were on the trail. The Jarbidge River Trail was excellent the entire way, and we made good time progressing up the drainage. The first mile or so gained elevation slowly and introduced views toward the slopes on either side. It was a really nice warm-up before starting to ascend a bit more steeply, switchbacks helping to keep it a tame few thousand feet of vertical gain up to the ridgeline. After passing a ton of wildflowers and pretty views back down the drainage, the trail made its final mile or so through forest and up to Jarbidge Lake, a cute little body of water. The trail continued to a pass at about 9450', where we kept left at a trail junction and continued up to the main ridgeline on more switchbacks.

Now on the main crest of the Jarbidge Mountains, we left the trail and headed north. Some light Class 2 and otherwise just a steep slope brought us to the minor summit of Government Peak. With a view of the traverse to come, we noted the terrain would clearly introduce a lot more talus. We hadn't done much research on the route and initially thought the traverse would be mostly tundra after viewing it on a satellite map, but we were clearly very wrong. Accordingly, we begrudingly managed our expectations and pushed our predicted finish time forward by a couple of extra hours. Cougar Peak was next, and while the ridge over to it was only Class 2, it was pretty slow-moving. The first bit from the saddle up to Cougar Peak even had some hardy little trees to 'shwhack through as well. The final couple hundred feet to the summit was much more steep, fun Class 2 scrambling on bigger boulders.

We descended from Cougar Peak on Class 2 as we admired the impressive volcanic east face of the ridgeline that would continue for the remainder of the traverse. The route over to Matterhorn was a bit tedious at times. I recommend sticking as close to the rim as you can to avoid excessive whacking through more little hardy trees. Often the rim drops off, forcing you to the left onto the slope where there are more trees, but ultimately it was the most clear option. After a section of tundra, we made the final ascent on Class 2 talus to reach Matterhorn's summit.

We were happy to see that the remaining peaks in the traverse wouldn't have any bushwhacking, and much less volcanic Class 2 to contend with. Square Top, Jumbo Peak, and Jarbidge Peak were almost indistinguishable from one another, just lumps along the ridge that added a bunch of extra vertical gain and only a little bit of Class 2 scrambling. The view back to Matterhorn was very cool, and it was neat to watch its sheer east face get smaller as we hiked farther from it.

Once on the summit of Jarbidge Peak, we peered down to the west at the descent route we'd be taking. It was incredibly steep and my knees ached a bit just thinking about it. We backtracked a few hundred feet from the summit and started down the talus/scree along Jarbidge Peak's west ridge. We moved slowly since the rocks were often loose and might cause a little rockslide. After a few hundred feet the talus faded into scree and we could descend with a bit less caution, and then finally the rock all faded away and we were descending along a steep grassy slope. At around 9100' we made the decision to just drop down to the car directly, but we noted there seemed to be some brush below. After changing our minds many times and consulting satellite maps, we determined the least brushy option would be what you can now view on my attached map as an orange line. The last mile was steep, loose, and sometimes brushy. We hopped through ditches and zig-zagged around thicker patches of brush. It was very hot out. We were overall just kind of ready to be done.

I outlined an alternative option (blue line) that adds a bit under 2 miles, taking a mining road down the mountainside rather than a more direct line. It removes pretty much all of the unpleasantness, but the downside is that that part of the road goes on private land, though I don't think there's anyone up there who would care. In hindsight, I think we both wish we'd done that instead. This was a neat hike in a remote place. Happy to be way out here once, but likely won't be back.