Topo and GPS tracks for todays 9 mile 2500ft gain scramble out of the Pine Spring trailhead outside of Searchlight, NV.

Took the western routes on the outbound leg, the eastern variants on the return. All off-trail today.

Getting to the trailhead was half of the challenge today. Took Hwy 164 west from Searchlight to the (non-obvious) turnoff to Powerline Road.

I had incorrectly assumed that Powerline Road would be easier traveling- instead it turned out to be a maze of power pylon service roads and dipped in and out of the various gullies as it headed NE.

A better route would have been to head north at the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area sign. (This was the route I'd return on)

Continuing NE on Powerline Road, which true to its namesake followed underneath the powerline pylons.

The road soon headed into a Joshua Tree forest. The forest was pretty impressive- rivaling that of Joshua Tree NP itself

Turned left off of Powerline towards Pine Spring. The spur road traversed a ridge and then turned north and dipped down into a wash before reaching the spring.

The Outback did a decent job with the route. Don't think I'd want to try it in a lower clearance 2wd- but it would probably be possible.

Pine Spring. The spring itself was a bit further up the road but there was a pipe system drawing the water down to the horse trough. The water in the trough was partially frozen.

There were 2 other cars parked at the spring. The owner of this Geo was hiking in the vicinity of the spring. A couple of hunters were setting out from a pickup a bit further up the road.

I headed north from the spring, which turned out to be a minor mistake and caused me to scale an unneeded ridge. (Would have been better to head back down the road a short bit and head directly into the wash)

Up to the top of the first minor ridge and getting my first good look to the north. No route looked obvious, so I just continued north down the opposite side of the ridge