On several maps the road (3N06) continues past the junction with the Baldy Notch Road and heads up along the left bank of our unnamed tributary. If anyone knows the name of this branch, I'm all ears.
A half mile beyond the junction the wash forks left and right. We turned right to stay on course, but by now there was little evidence of an old road.
Soon we encountered high, rocky canyon walls and a frozen stream.
It was not snowing, and the temperature was probably in the upper 30s or low 40s. Occasionally the fog rolled in a bit thick, dropping visibility to a hundred feet or so. As we climbed, the stream took shape and often flowed underneath a layer of ice.
We climbed around a few frozen waterfalls. Some of the scrambling was class 3.
The toughest waterfall obstacle could be bypassed along one of those crumbling ledges for which the Gabes are famous.
Our turnaround time was 1pm. We made it to an elevation of 8000 feet, where several gullies, including the main one, ran off to the left toward the mean upper slants between Baldy and Harwood, while the route to Dawson peeled off to the right.
Here we ate lunch and enjoyed the wintery surroundings.
We entertained ourselves by guessing which kind of animal had passed through the canyon before us.
Then we marched back to the car, passing another pair of explorers somewhere above the Baldy Road junction. But apart from those two we had the place all to ourselves the entire day, which is not surprising considering the sorry state of the fire road.
