Lonesome Miner Trail 2017
The Lonesome Miner Trail (LMT) is a 40-mile route that traverses California's rugged Inyo Mountains. It crosses the Inyo Crest and then a series of deep canyons as it follows historic footpaths built by miners in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The trail starts at the Reward Trailhead (3,800 feet) in the Owens Valley on the west side of the Inyos and goes east to Pat Keyes Pass (9,450 feet). This is the high point of the backpack. The route then turns south and crosses 5 deep canyons. They are Pat Keyes Canyon, McElvoy Canyon, Keynot Canyon, Beverage Canyon, and Hunter Canyon. Finally the route descends to the east and ends in the Saline Valley (1,100 feet) near the mouth of Hunter Canyon in Death Valley National Park. The first image below is a "big picture map" which will clarify the above description. It is taken from the book "Hiking Death Valley National Park", by Michel Digonnet. This book has good detail about the mining history of the area.
It is a difficult hike. Although there are cairns most of the time, the route is not maintained and it is easy to lose the trail. There are sections where the trail has been completely obliterated by avalanches. Heavy brush including thorn bushes covers the canyon bottoms where water flows. We carried clippers to help navigate some of the crossings. Water is a problem. Two of the 6 camps are dry camps (Camps 1 + 4). Water can only be found at the bottom of four of the canyons (Pat Keyes, McElvoy, Beveridge, and Hunter.) In the summer, the heat is unbearable and in the winter, the route is covered with deep snow, so you have to pick a good window. And finally, the route is very isolated. We met only one other group of 2 people.
That said, I think it is one of the finest backpacks I have ever done. The scenery is phenomenal. The trail is littered with mining artifacts and you camp next to old mining camps. The Beveridge mining area is one of the best around. I did the trip on May 9 -16, 2017 with my friend Craig Taylor. We met at the Hunter Canyon Trailhead in Saline Valley, left my van there and then did the long drive to the Reward Trailhead in Owens Valley with Craig's car. 4WD is not needed although the Saline Valley road is slow going. We added an extra day to the standard 7 day, 6 night itinerary. Craig used this day to climb Keynot Peak while I explored the Beveridge Canyon mining ruins. We had moderate temperatures and fine weather except for 30 minutes of drizzle on our last night. Craig did a great job with his GPS (we had a good set of waypoints) and we managed to stay on the trail the entire time.
We obtained lots of information about the route from Tim Wagg who has been on the route many times. He gave us some maps which show the area from a Google Earth prospective. I included all 7 of his maps in the report. They give a very good picture of what the entire route is like. Note the daily elevation and mileage statistics on his maps differ somewhat from the ones that we recorded due to taking side trips here and there and turning the GPS on and off at different times. The route can be completed in 7 days, 6 nights. We broke day 5 up into 2 days to have more time to explore Beverage Canyon. Our itinerary is listed below.
Day - Camp - Gain (ft) - Loss (ft) - Distance (miles)
1 - Dry Spring Camp - 3,606 - 40 - 3.7
2 - Pat Keyes Spring - 2,457 - 2,929 - 7.1
3 - McElvoy Camp -1,505 - 3,201 - 6.2
4 - Beveridge Cabin - 3,874 - 946 - 7.1
5 - Beveridge Mine - 0 - 2,654 - 2.2
6 - Frenchy's Cabin - 989 - 230 -1.6
7 - Hunter Spring - 2,556 - 3,843 - 6.3
8 - Trailhead - 1,148 - 5,111 - 7.3
Total gain= 16,135 feet, Total loss = 18,954 feet, Total distance= 41.5 miles
The trailhead was at 3,800 feet and our waiting car was at 1,100 feet. People with 4WD's can finish a little higher at about 1,800 feet. The route can be done in either direction. Craig added another 2,850 feet of gain and loss in his 4.5 mile round trip climb of Keynot Peak (11,101 feet) on Day 5. It is easy to confuse the names of the canyons and the ridges on this route. In the photo descriptions, I used the convention that the ridges are named by the canyons that they separate. So the Keynot-Beveridge Ridge is between Keynot Canyon and Beveridge Canyon and so on.
We tried to go light for this trip. I carried 12 lbs 3 oz of personal gear, 5 lbs of community gear, and 12 lbs 4 oz of food for a total of 29 lbs 7 oz without water. I carried 5 liters of water on day 1 and day 4 - our dry camp days - but managed with about 2 liters on the other days.
Read MoreIt is a difficult hike. Although there are cairns most of the time, the route is not maintained and it is easy to lose the trail. There are sections where the trail has been completely obliterated by avalanches. Heavy brush including thorn bushes covers the canyon bottoms where water flows. We carried clippers to help navigate some of the crossings. Water is a problem. Two of the 6 camps are dry camps (Camps 1 + 4). Water can only be found at the bottom of four of the canyons (Pat Keyes, McElvoy, Beveridge, and Hunter.) In the summer, the heat is unbearable and in the winter, the route is covered with deep snow, so you have to pick a good window. And finally, the route is very isolated. We met only one other group of 2 people.
That said, I think it is one of the finest backpacks I have ever done. The scenery is phenomenal. The trail is littered with mining artifacts and you camp next to old mining camps. The Beveridge mining area is one of the best around. I did the trip on May 9 -16, 2017 with my friend Craig Taylor. We met at the Hunter Canyon Trailhead in Saline Valley, left my van there and then did the long drive to the Reward Trailhead in Owens Valley with Craig's car. 4WD is not needed although the Saline Valley road is slow going. We added an extra day to the standard 7 day, 6 night itinerary. Craig used this day to climb Keynot Peak while I explored the Beveridge Canyon mining ruins. We had moderate temperatures and fine weather except for 30 minutes of drizzle on our last night. Craig did a great job with his GPS (we had a good set of waypoints) and we managed to stay on the trail the entire time.
We obtained lots of information about the route from Tim Wagg who has been on the route many times. He gave us some maps which show the area from a Google Earth prospective. I included all 7 of his maps in the report. They give a very good picture of what the entire route is like. Note the daily elevation and mileage statistics on his maps differ somewhat from the ones that we recorded due to taking side trips here and there and turning the GPS on and off at different times. The route can be completed in 7 days, 6 nights. We broke day 5 up into 2 days to have more time to explore Beverage Canyon. Our itinerary is listed below.
Day - Camp - Gain (ft) - Loss (ft) - Distance (miles)
1 - Dry Spring Camp - 3,606 - 40 - 3.7
2 - Pat Keyes Spring - 2,457 - 2,929 - 7.1
3 - McElvoy Camp -1,505 - 3,201 - 6.2
4 - Beveridge Cabin - 3,874 - 946 - 7.1
5 - Beveridge Mine - 0 - 2,654 - 2.2
6 - Frenchy's Cabin - 989 - 230 -1.6
7 - Hunter Spring - 2,556 - 3,843 - 6.3
8 - Trailhead - 1,148 - 5,111 - 7.3
Total gain= 16,135 feet, Total loss = 18,954 feet, Total distance= 41.5 miles
The trailhead was at 3,800 feet and our waiting car was at 1,100 feet. People with 4WD's can finish a little higher at about 1,800 feet. The route can be done in either direction. Craig added another 2,850 feet of gain and loss in his 4.5 mile round trip climb of Keynot Peak (11,101 feet) on Day 5. It is easy to confuse the names of the canyons and the ridges on this route. In the photo descriptions, I used the convention that the ridges are named by the canyons that they separate. So the Keynot-Beveridge Ridge is between Keynot Canyon and Beveridge Canyon and so on.
We tried to go light for this trip. I carried 12 lbs 3 oz of personal gear, 5 lbs of community gear, and 12 lbs 4 oz of food for a total of 29 lbs 7 oz without water. I carried 5 liters of water on day 1 and day 4 - our dry camp days - but managed with about 2 liters on the other days.
