View from Baldy to the south...

View High-Resolution Image
View from Baldy to the south...

View from Baldy to the south...

View from Baldy to the south as the sun sets. The picture was taken from the lower eastern subsummit toward Mount Byrd, a mountain that is tragically located on private property. Upon inspecting the possibility of climbing Mount Byrd, we quickly discovered that it is surrounded by a barbed wire fence and the most practical route would put the climber in full view of the highway for the duration of the climb. We didn't climb it.

I think that this shot emphasizes one of the factors that makes Baldy an interesting location--the sudden rise from typical Oklahoma farmland. The black specks in the field below are cows, and the view in all direction is a multicolored quilt of the different crops grown in the area.

January 16, 2005
The Lower Marmot
on Jan 21, 2006 2:11 pm
Lat/Lon: 34.89920°N / 99.3312°W
Image ID: 146889

Comments

Post a Comment
Viewing: 1-1 of 1
The Lower Marmot

The Lower Marmot - Jan 21, 2006 4:33 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Private property

Yeah, it would be great if everything was as practical as that, but very often the landowner doesn't live on the property, and even when the landowners do live on the property they are very seldom interested in allowing anybody access to their precious land. You'll see this problem (on a much larger scale, of course) in large Colorado mountains such as Culebra Peak and Wilson Peak in Colorado. Access problems become increasingly more frustrating to me as time goes on--Oklahoma's already a flat enough state, but at least 2/3 of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, about 60 miles (100 km) east of the Quartz Mountain area is off limits as a restricted area of the refuge and all of the mountains in the area outside of the refuge are on private property, and therefore legally inaccessible without the property owner's consent, which can be very hard to get. Then only a very small portion of the Quartz Mountain branch of the Wichitas is on public land, and one section of it, containing Soldiers Peak, the 12th most prominent peak in Oklahoma and one of the highest in the state, is completely surrounded by private land and therefore inaccessible. The Quartz Mountain lodge brings a bunch of casual tourons and their careless litter to the main Quartz Mountain Massif, although I believe that there are still a few areas of solitude that I just haven't tried too hard to find, but even a large portion of the QMM is off limits because it's in the general proximity of private land that is used for hunting, therefore in hunting season the private landowners hold a monopoly on even public land.



I've already been cursed enough to live in the state of Oklahoma... at least let me climb my mountains!



Here's a short list of off-limits mountains (per my experience) in the Wichitas and their prominence rank (roughly) within the range--



Mount Pinchot: 2

Soldiers Peak: 4

Tepee Mountain: 5

Mount Sherman: 6

Flat Top Mountain: 7 (access possible over King Mountain, but illegal)

Mount Marcy: 8

Baker Peak: 9

Tarbone Mountain: 11

Mount Sheridan: 12

Brown Mountain: 13

Longhorn Mountain:16

Blue Mountain: 17

Long Mountain: 18

Big Four Mountain: 19

Mount Roosevelt: 20

Mount Lugert : 21 (theoretical access through a church camp possible, but I haven't pursued it.)

Panther Mountain: 24

Saddle Mountain: 25

Cedar Mountain: 26



19 of the Wichitas' 26 most prominent peaks, and of Oklahoma's 50 most prominenent (the southeastern OK Ouachita's are a different story altogether--many of them reside on private property as well, I believe) are locked up either in private property or in restricted wildlife refuge areas. I have also climbed a few mountains with very questionable access in the area, but I am not positive that they are illegal.

Viewing: 1-1 of 1