Distance: 3.1 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 6168'
Prominence: 1488'
Elevation Gain: 2059'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.7
Round trip time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Recommended water: 60 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on dirt road OM6659
Difficulty: Moderate
East Ord is a DPS peak (#54) southeast of Barstow. With 4x4, you can drive close to the base of the mountain near a guzzler. The final road spur is OM6659 and required high clearance. I turned on 4x4 in part for additional traction and also to keep the off road system well oiled. There were large boulders on the side of the road and I stopped before the guzzler where I found a good place to turn around. The guzzler was no longer operational, now just a collapsed pile of rusted metal. I decided to attempt a loop of the most popular routes, going up the ridge and down the major gully. The start of the ridge was steep and I plodded up, taking my time. The ridge had three cliff bands, but they were porous with multiple ways through. Some parts were class 2 with solid rock. I could have side hilled around two of the middle bands and avoided a drop to reach the saddle below the next section. It wasn't much, 50', but each drop registered a blip on the profile. The summit came into view as a giant dome. I emerged from the final rock band to arrive abruptly on the summit. My arrival startled a herd of bighorn sheep on a far ridge. Eight or more were in the herd. I tried to get photos but the digital zoom on my phone did not serve well. Views were 360 degrees of wonderful. Ord Mountain and it's towers were visible to the northwest. Gain was over 2000' in about a mile and a half. There was no benchmark, but an ammo box held a register that went back to 1999. As an official DPS peak, East Ord is popular, so I was surprised the register was not more recent.
I stayed on the summit about 15 minutes before finding my way off the dome to the top of the gully. It started off very steep, then gradually got easier. I able to follow a use trail down most of the way, occasionally losing and finding it again. While not as steep as the ridge, there were class 2 bits in the gully. I admired the black cliffs below the summit that lined the gully route. About half way down, I got a warning from an adult rattlesnake. Looked like another speckled rattlesnake. The snake gave me a few seconds of rattle, then stopped when I wasn't moving. I watched the fine speciman a few minutes before working around it and continuing my descent. Near the bottom of the gully, I tried a shortcut to get back to the road. It wasn't ideal and I ended up sliding down a dirt slope to reach a ramp that took me back to the road. It was hard on my pants. East Ord was relatively easy by DPS standards, but a solid desert peak and solid hike.
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