I started my first work vacation of the year with a bang. My last work day was Wed., and then Thu., I left home at 4am from N. Orange County, passed thru Ridgecrest for refueling and breakfast, and drove to just a little shy of (just southeast of) Walker Pass on 178 at about 4,800' elev where a dirt road crosses s.w. through a wash near some old foundation ruins near mile marker 81.50. I meant to take the old, abandoned, overgrown dirt road that directly heads to the mouth of a canyon just under the ridge of the Scodies, but missed it, so I hiked across the desert cross-country until I reached it, and followed it to its end at about 5,400' elevation in a pinyon grove. This is where it gets interesting and stays so until my return on the dirt track! I decided to take a more direct approach to Scodie. I started up the main northeast drainage, and then veered left up a very loose, steep slope, with very difficult footing, making me work my legs and feet hard to gain elevation with slopes at times attaining about 45 degrees. I had to grab onto tree branches, hop rocks, and bushwhack to try avoiding the loosest of soil, which was not always possible. After so much slogging and scrambling the class-2 slope, I veered just left enough to reach a shallow notch at about 6,800' just northeast of the summit, where I contemplated my next move. I started across a slick slab, where my footing was poor, so I had to circumnavigate that by bushwhacking again, then reached the summit ridge with a huge sigh of relief! I saw rock ducks and followed them to the summit block and went around and up a class-2 route to the summit. The summit push was actually by far the easiest part of the ascent, and nearly the whole hike beside the dirt tracks I followed from and back to my car! I signed the register and reveled in my feat! I was then going to try to scramble to the PCT and follow it to Walker Pass Campground and then hike 178 back to the car. I saw another ducked route down a gully and it looked promising for about 10 minutes, and gave up, so I returned to the main ridgeline and pondered a direct descent route to rejoin the dirt track to my car. I was n.w. of the peak and started to aim down towards the saddle just south of peak 6945 and follow the gully nearly due east to return to the main drainage to the old track. I had some big obstacles in the way of class-3 and class-4 drops, so I had to navigate around them, meaning bushwhacking and slipping and getting scraped up a few times!!!! I ended up descending towards and down the main n.e. drainage, sometimes bushwhacking, hopping over large rocks, and at times sidehilling to avoid class-3 descending! After a while, the descent was uneventful, just sliding my feet down the loose dirt and filling my shoes with it! I then rejoined the dirt track and followed it to an old foundation at the hwy, and turned left and found the road leading back to my car! I was tired, but proud of my latest cross-country adventure! But next time, I will take the HPS route up PCT!!!!