trail dust

The Old Dawson Peak Trail - 8W32

2010-07-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

My plans are to depart Lupine at Dawns Crack on Thursday between 5 and 6am and hike the race track pattern back to Lupine. Route: Lupine - LFF - Dawson Trail - Pine Mtn - Pine Mtn Ridge - Lupine. Just over 11 miles with Elevation Gain 4,488ft and Loss 4516ft (Rough numbers).

I will be carrying my SPOT with me so follow this link and check on my progress, or lack there of...HA! If you check the link before I start the hike in the morning it will have nothing to display and indicate no updates.

Darren

Pine Mountain Ridge Via Blue Ridge to Vincent Gap

2009-06-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

August 29, 2008

This was a GREAT hike! It was a very long day and took a lot out of me. This is another hike I did last year. I started writing the hike report but I am putting it on hold as I have a big hike to prepair for this coming weekend, June 26th and 27th. Currently I'm finding myself pressed to get ready for my upcoming hike and when I finish I will get back to this report. This will be a good story with really nice pictures.

Pine Mountain Ridge via Blue Ridge to Vincent Gap at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Share and Plan your Trips

Attempt To Find Upper Fish Fork Camp

2009-03-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

Typo's Be Damnd, I'll get to them

October 11, 2008

Having previously been to Little Fish Fork Camp, I really wanted to get back to this wonderful place. This was my second time and would be a much shorter and less strenuous route then my first. My earlier trip will be covered on another post when time permits. Be advised this post is going to be very long so grab a beverage and relax for a while. A long while.

Meet Richard

Richard, on the right, with his brother Christopher

On this trip I would not be going solo but with one of my good hiking friends Richard. Not only is Richard a strong hiker but he is also loaded with great vast amounts of wilderness knowledge. He grew up in the area and has hiked most of the peaks and canyons within the Angeles National Forest. When hiking with him he will point out edible plants, species of trees, animal tracks and so much more. To add to this he is also a volunteer with the Angeles National Forest donating much of his own free time to help others. Want another tidbit to add to his resume?

Years ago when Richard was paying a visit to a ranger station he was notified about a trail that was in really bad shape. This particular one, named Bear Canyon Trail, had fallen trees, badly eroded sections, covered by overgrowth and was basically not safe. The forest service had slated it to simply fade away and remove the referance of any trail from there maps. This did not sit well with Richard and he adopted the entire trail system of 5.2 miles. Obviously the task of resurrecting a trail that long and in such disrepair is beyond the scope of one man.

Next, he rallied several other volunteers to help him with this monumental task. With great perseverance over time, Richard and his wonderful group of volunteers finished the trail. Everything from clearing vegitation, digging out miles of trail and removing fallen trees was done with manual labor and manual labor alone.

This hard laborious backbreaking work, carried out by Richard and his dedicated group of volunteers, have created a premier trail. Along this trail are hidden natural pools and waterfalls. At the end of the trail is a campground fit for a king and his parliament. I would have to guess though that almost all of the hikers enjoying this wonderful secluded camp have no idea how much work it took Richard to keep this disregarded trail from disappearing. To date, Richard has remained vigilant with maintaining the entire length of trail along with the camp. He organizes his dedicated group of volunteers for this laborious work and then rewards them at the end of the day with a BBQ or some other means of wonderful feast.

Getting Started

The day of the hike, Richard and I met in the community of Wrightwood for a single car drive up to the trailhead. This is quite the drive too. Departing the parking lot we continued on Highway 2 up to the turn off for the Blue Ridge and from here it's all dirt roads. The cool thing about this dirt road is that it crosses right through the Mountain High Ski Resort. Well, that's also the drawback because when it snows the forest service closes the access down. I can't blame them though because the road cuts right through the upper section of the ski hill with the ski lift overhead.

Driving the Blue Ridge provides really wonderful views of the upper East Fork, and so much more. When there are no clouds and the air is ok, you can see not only the coast but also Catalina Island. During the summer mont's people will actually park up there and sit in the back ot their trucks just to watch the sunset.

Our drive along the ridge has come to an end for now and the turn off for Lupine has come up. This is also a dirt road that drops down from the ridge into a small valley with Pine Mountain Ridge to the south and Blue Ridge to the north. Sometimes the forest service will close the access to Lupine and only allow hikers in but no cars. This is to allow the area to recover from the abuse that only humans can provide. That's also fine with me, I'd much rather hike anyway. But for the time being it's not the safest road to hike on while cars are allowed. Most people seem to drive carelessly and it's a very narrow road, to narrow for my liking. The vast majority of people in this area are here for "car camping" and not hiking. Probably with their anxiety to hurry and find a first come first serve camping spot they are slightly less cautious on the dirt roads. In the days of road rage not even the isolated mountainous dirt road is safe.

On this particular day the presence of numerous outdoorsmen was very obvious from the upper heights of Blue Ridge all the way down to Lupine. This was, after all, the opening day for deer hunting season. Our parking location that doubled as a trailhead is within a stones throw from Camp Lupine. Today the camp was filled to capacity with people. Normally this location does have plenty of room for the campers, but this was not the case today. Hiking during the opening day of hunting season obviously requires a higher level of awareness, to put it lightly. At this time of the morning most hunters were barely stirring in the camp with a couple of fires for warmth already going. The morning air was cold and crisp with the wonderful smell of the pine forest and the occasional hint of somebody cooking breakfast. What a teaser that breakfast smell was with hints of pancakes and bacon.

Richard and I started suiting up for the hike and quickly hit the trail. The sun was rising but hadn't made its way to us yet. We were still within the mountain shadows and it was chilly. Hitting the trail would remedy this as we would be using some energy making our way up the twisty trail to the top of Pine Mountain Ridge. Our hiking route would take us along a path giving a direct view down to Camp Lupine and now it was quite clear of just how many hunters were down there, a lot!

A Little History

This entire area of Prarie Fork, Pine Mountain Ridge and our destination of Upper Fish Fork Camp is rich with history. Sadly though only small amounts are known and solid details are almost impossible to find. The area of Prarie Fork that includes Camp Lupine used to be a cattle ranch way back in the day. The vision of a cattle ranch down in this valley is hard to imagine. Back when it existed it would have been very difficult to get the cattle into here. But like all things that our forefathers accomplished, somehow they did it. Also along Prarie Fork are two old abandoned mines. These mines ares still there and can be found with some exploring and that is something I will do someday.

Actually there are numerous abandoned mines throughout this entire area. Most are almost impossible to gain access due to such remote and dangerous locations like the face of a cliff. Determined individuals can still get to them, its just that you may need a good foundation of serious climbing experiance. Many people have needed the assistance ot Search and Rescue after attempting to gain access to them and others have perished. Studying the maps of there locations and also seeing them from a distance I wonder just how people from the 1800's actually did it. How did they determine that an area was worth the risk, get to it and get all of the large heavy equipment to them? Hardcore determination and desperation is the answer I guess.

Anyway, the trail we are currently hiking is actually an old abandoned logging road. All I know is that sometime during World War 2 the area of Pine Mountain Ridge and going south into the Fish Fork area was being logged. This hiking path goes to the top of the ridge and splits. One continues west along the ridge and the other goes south dropping down into Fish Fork. After the logging company left the area the roads were still usable from our parking location in Lupine to the top of Pine Mountain Ridge. From there some would probably hike down to the Fish Fork camps, our destination. However, this section was declared the Sheep Mountain Wilderness and as a result only foot traffic is allowed past Lupine. Now, with regular vegitation growth, erosion and fallen trees these roads can be challenging to just hike along. Yes, this is a good thing. The wilderness area is named after its endangered inhabitants, the Big Horn Sheep. On previous solo hikes in this area I have seen a few herds of them, this trip we did not see any. Most likely since it was opening day for hunting season they were being scared off to more remote areas. Besides,
I'm sure Richard and I were making quite a ruckus keeping conversation during our hike.

There is still evidence of the logging company's past history on the ridge and hiking down to Little Fish Fork Camp.

On the ridge are heavy duty cables about three quarter's of an inch diameter that were buried in the ground but are now visible. As the trail leaves the ridge and drops down to Fish Fork I have even found an old chain saw oil can. Although rusted on the exposed side, at least one section of the can still has the old markings that are legible.

From the top of the ridge, a two and a half mile hike down, one of the trails lead to Little Fish Fork Camp. Down there I found another length of cable even larger about an inch in diameter and probably twenty feet long. I'm not really sure how long the cable is since it disappears into the brush and dirt and I'm no where near strong enough to pull that thing out. Standing there looking at it I wonder how the hell it got there and what exactly was it used for?

It's my belief that Little Fish Fork and Upper Fish Fork Camps were actually camps that the old logging company had used. From the location of Little Fish Fork Camp the maps show the trail splitting in two directions. One is further south and lowers into a canyon to Upper Fish Fork Camp, about a mile away. The other goes about five miles east and up about three thousand feet to the North back Bone Trail between Pine Mountain and Dawson Peak.

Near Little Fish Fork Camp you can see the Dawson Trail that used to be a Logging Service Road. It looks small but is atleast 12 feet wide.

Here lies the crux. Having previously hiked the route from Little Fish Fork Camp up to the North Back Bone Trail I can tell you one thing, it's a mess and it was never a trail by definition. That route was also a logging road as it is extremely wide, wide enough for a vehicle and at one time had turns large enough for a vehicle. Several years after the logging company pulled out the forest service labeled this the Dawson Trail. Well now, most likely due to its location, it is very rarely hiked. Maybe once every couple of years will people venture out here. The majority of the distance is severely overgrown and not even usable, this is when bushwhacking and cross country navigation comes into play. I'm getting ahead of myself here and that route will be covered on another post.

Where was I? This entire complex of trails and camps are only possible due to the one time presence of this mysterious logging company. I have tried very hard to find any information as they obviously played a huge role within this mountain range and moset likely the nearby community of Wrightwood. But there is no information on the World Wide Web at all of there existance, not even at the local Wrightwood Museum. Bummer indeed.

Pine Mountain Ridge

Done somewhat with our little history lesson let's get back to the hike. The distance from Lupine to the crest of Pine Mountain Ridge is about 2.25 miles and a thousand feet up. Along the way with the gain of altitude the underlying views are really something. When we made the ridge we had a very short break taking in these views. To the north was Prarie Fork with Camp Lupine and the Blue Ridge rising north of it. To the east, Pine Mountain Ridge contiues climbing three thousand feet and four miles to its namesake, Pine Mountain at 9,900 feet above sea level. Turning to the west Pine Mountain Ridge runs on for another two miles constantly losing elevation and ending at the San Gabriel River, the top end ot East Fork. Now turn to the south and there is a great view of Fish Fork below us along with the San Antonio Ridge descending from West Baldy to Iron Mountain. What a beautiful morning!

Pine Mountain Ridge is massive at six miles long starting from the east at about 9,500 feet elevation. It continues west losing elevation sharply in the begining then levels off about half way and then continues its sharp descent the remaining distance to 3,000 feet elevation. Along its run there are a couple of feeder ridges that are perpendicular in a north - south direction. One of them we will be hiking as it drops off just east of our position down into Fish Fork. Now to really confuse you, Little Fish Fork Camp is on the lower east face of this feeder ridge that descends south into Fish Fork.

Leaving our current position on the main ridge we had to descend slightly to the south and backtrack east to intercept our feeder ridge and cross over it. Around this section on a previous hike is where I found the very old empty can of chainsaw oil left behind from the logging company. That was a very cool find indeed.

The trails in this section are a trip. From a distance looking at the west face of the feeder ridge it seems as though there are at least ten different trails going all over the place. The reason for this is simple as there is the primary trail we want with another dropping down we do not need. All around these two trails are lots of game trails from the Big Horn Sheep using this as a main stomping ground just running all over the place.

The Hunter And His Son

Up ahead we could make out a hiker walking in our direction as he was on the same trail. I could tell right away from the orange hat he was a hunter. The closer we got to him I was able to make out the rifle over his shoulder.

We got within ten feet of him and introduced ourselves. He was very polite and he did the same. This gentleman was very kind and like all other hunters had a very hard time rapping his brain around the concept that we were only out here hiking. Turns out he was hunting with his son and they go into the same zone every year. They didn't see any deer so he was coming out empty handed and that seemed ok with him. I think just being out there with his son every year is all that he really wanted. I believe he mentioned that they arrived into Camp Lupine at around 3am and hiked into this area. I know one thing, they must have frozen their butts off. Right now it was 9:00am and the sun has yet to enter this section so it was still very cold, at least I was getting uncomfortable standing there.

We talked with this nice fellow for a while. It seems when they find out we are not hunting and there for not competing for the same game, they open up. They are happy and excited, and they should be, they have waited all year for this day. In general the hunters will do most of the talking about such things as where they have been, where they plan on going and what techniques they use. I have learned a lot form my conversations with hunters, but I'll admit almost all of that new found knowledge will never be put to use. From two completely different perspectives we both really enjoy the mountains and what they have to offer.

Feeder Ridge With A View

Leaving our first hunter friend of the day we hiked to the crest of the feeder ridge.

The day was still young and at this point we finally made our way to the warmth of the sun. This feeder ridge runs south somewhat level for about an eighth of a mile then drops into Fish Fork. Both Richard and I decided to take a few minutes and divert over to the location of the ridge just before it begins the sharp descent. It was an easy walk through some tall pines on a beutiful day and well worth the extra time.
Standing here looking to my left was Mt Baldy with that nasty looking San Antonio Ridge going down to Iron Mountain that happened to be right in front of me. Looking down I had an unobstructed view of the Fish Fork running west feeding its water supply into the San Gabriel River. This is the kind of stuff you live for, these breath taking views, just incredibly awesome.

Some Buckthorn

Richard and I grabbed our packs and started our journey down the east face of this ridge to Little Fish Fork Camp. The trail going down there has a few switchbacks and is in horrible condition.

There is the typical vegetation overgrowth and numerous very large fallen trees in the way. I knew from being down here in the past that I should wear hiking pants and not shorts. It was starting to warm up now and getting hot, but with shorts the buckthorn bushes will tear your legs to shreds.

Walking through a patch of buckthorn is sorta like walking through a box three feet deep full of sharp nails. The buckthorn will tear your clothes, cut your skin and you will bleed. Making our way with some bushwhacking and sliding on our butts down hill in the areas with no trail, we were making progress.

There is a small stream that we cross twice as we loop our way to the camp. Before we knew it, we were at the camp, slightly scratched up from the bushwhack and sliding, but we were there. Now it was lunch time.

Little Fish Fork Camp with a missleading trail sign.

Lunch And A Story

While we ate our lunch enjoying the serenity in an area that is very rarely visited, Richard gave a history lesson. First off, from higher up on the Pine Mountain Ridge looking down into Fish Fork it is obvious that there was a fire a long time ago. Richard said a fire had started several miles further south in the East Fork along the San Gabriel River. The cause was determined to be from a group of hikers that were camping. For some reason they decided to start burning there toilet paper and the embers began floating away thus igniting a forest fire. This fire proved to be very devistating burning all the way up to Fish Fork but luckily never made its way to the hidden Little Fish Fork and Upper Fish Fork Camps. Now here's the kicker. Due to the cause of the fire it was widely known as the "Charmin Fire".

The Hunt For Upper Fish Fork Camp

Now we pulled out our maps and began studying our next plan of attack to make our way to the Upper Fish Fork Camp. By viewing detailed topographical maps it seemed pretty straight forward. We both even had our gps receivers with us and had already set waypoints that would hopefully lead us to the trail. Everything seemed so simple from here except I already knew it wouldn't be. About two months before this trip I hiked through here with the intention of going to Upper Fish Fork Camp but I was unable to make it.

In fact I was even unable to find the trail or any such path. This area has a lot of moisture from streams that run year round. Thus the vegitation is heavy, very thick and high. The Pine trees are here and grow tall. Evidently the loggers of years past had no interest in the pines, thankfully.

After my previous hike through this area I had attempted to do as much research on this location as possible. There are several books and internet sources that do mention the camps and how to get to them. I can tell you one thing, they are horribly outdated and wrong. This area has become a canopy forest with thick underlying vegitation proving that nature will reclaim anything man has taken if left alone.

This trip did not look like it would have a positive outcome, but I kept my hopes up. Richard is an animal on the trail and is not one to shy away from the bushwhack or cross country off trail hiking on a scree slope. Just the kinda scout I need on a trip like this.

Grabbing our packs we suited up. We were to head in an easterly direction following any traces of the old Dawson Trail that is now overgrown. Our current location of Little Fish Fork Camp sits on the east lower side of a feeder ridge. Looking to the east a few hundred feet is another feeder ridge from Pine Mountain Ridge all the way down to Fish Fork. In between these two feeder ridges is a draw. A draw is the down sloping section in between two feeder ridges or also known as spurs. The draw is shaped like a "V" and in the case of this one has a year round running stream. This stream is a tributary flowing about a half mile south and down about a thousand feet to Fish Fork. On the south side of the intersection of our stream and Fish Fork is our hopeful destination, Upper Fish Fork Camp.

Studying the maps there was a definite trail opposite our location on the other side of the draw. Heading in that direction we crossed the stream that was about three feet wide and crystal clear. The ground at this level was soft from saturation and filled in with a typ of grass, like you would expect in a meadow. A quick glance down the stream and there was a solid wall of green thick heavy vegitation and the tall beautifil pines. Pausing and looking down there, the visibility was nil, like fog, there was no visibility.

We crossed the stream, made our way through the tall grass and to the area the maps
indicate a trail. Guess what? There was a small trail, faint but none the less there was something, more like a game trail though being used by animals. I checked my gps and it showed us pretty close but slightly high up the draw. I have a really good mapping program on my computer with topographical graduations that also showed the trail. As a precautionary before I left home I had set waypoints about a hundred feet apart along the trails path as an aid. These were showing up on the gps also indicating our position being slightly high and the actual trail being lower in the draw roughly twenty feet.

GPS Receivers In A Nut Shell

Using a gps receiver is pretty straightforward. Stand out in an open field with no obstructions and turn it on. Viewing a screen you would begin to see little images of satellites overhead beaming down bits of info. The gps receiver takes this information from as many satellites as it can, some signals are very strong, some not so strong and some are weak. The screen displays the satellites that are directly overhead and all the way down to the horizon. Sometimes I am able to pull in as many as ten of them at one time, the more the better. At a minimum, three are needed to triangulate your current position. The more received the less the margin of error, usually less than ten feet can be acquired. This is the error indicated on the screen but I have found the location to actually be spot on. I think that the gps receiver manufacturer places an error reading as a liability. Anyway, start walking around the open field and the gps receiver begins its constant recalculation of distance and time from each satellite giving your new position.

Now let's pretend a sky scraper is now in the field and you are standing right up against it. Obviously you will lose, at best, fifty percent of your view of the sky. That loss also hurts the gps receiver since it can't see those satellites anymore. Hopefully there are enough remaining satellites within your view of the sky to calculate for you. However, the remaining ones might be just off the horizon and transmitting a weaker signal. Your position may have just increased with an error of, let's say, sixty feet accuracy.

Add a second sky scraper about twenty feet away and now your view of the sky has been reduced to ten percent at best. Standing there in the same spot beceause you have not moved you will notice the gps screen having a tough time. Instead of showing the map and your position nice and steadfast, you will be indicated as moving forward, backward and side to side. Satellite reception is about at its worst with only a couple in view and signals bouncing off the buildings. The gps receiver is working overtime not knowing really where you are.

Take this same scenario but instead of having sky scrapers you have the sides of the draw. Remember a draw is shaped like a "V". Now add to this tall tree cover degrading the reception that is making its way to you. This is the reason I was happy with a position error of twenty feet, and it would be getting worse the further we trecked deeper into the "V" with increased tree cover.

Searching for a Trail

Making our way along the game trail, it quickly ended after about a hundred feet. The Upper Fish Fork Camp was still almost a mile away and things looked grim. By now the gps receiver was utterly useless and had no idea where we were within sixty feet. Not to mention it couldn't tell if we were standing still or running a marathon in circles. From here the gps was put away and it was back to basics with terrain association for navigation. Not only was there no indication of a trail but there seemed to be an impossibility that a trail ever existed in this jungle. Referencing the map by terrain I headed further down the draw hoping to pick up on something and before I knew it I was at the stream. This movement involved bushwhacking and climbing over and under fallen trees. While I was doing this Richard was checking the area slightly furhter south. We both came up empty handed and decided to try something else.

We worked our way out of the worst part of the thick forest and headed back up the draw about sixty feet. From here it gave us another perspective, although not much better. The decision was made to give up any attempt to bushwhack through that green hell. We made no progress down there and lost precious time and daylight. We started feeling the pressure of this loss and came up with one more plan.

Referancing our location about sixty feet up the draw above the thick forest we scanned ahead looking south. That was the decision, stay at this level moving south always paraleling the forest below and maybe get lucky. Just like the comparison of a draw to the letter "V", it was steep and slow going, but some progress was being made. Occasionally we would come across a game trail and get a little excited, but that excitement wouldn't last as the game trails always faded away. Finally, we managed to make our way to the spine of this feeder ridge and our hopes were dashed away. The views opened up to Fish Fork well below us and by referancing the map I could even see the location of Upper Fish Fork Camp!

Disappointment

Just to get to our present location we had climbed and slid through patches of scree, held on to tree limbs so wee didn't free fall and crashed through nasty patches of buck thorn.

Sitting down for a moment we thought this over. We could see the location of Upper Fish Fork Camp and there was just as much heavily overgrown vegitation down there as we encountered early on. The spine of the feeder ridge we were currently sitting on dropped in elevation fast. There would be no hiking down so much as sliding down. We judged our distance to be about half a mile from us as the crow flies with just under a thousand feet elevation loss. Getting down there would be fast, very fast and then we might have a bushwhack from hell to our destination.

Richard asked me what time it was. Well, Richard, it's 2:00pm. That was the final blow right there as it was our turn around time.Every hike has to have a turnaround time even if you do not make your goal. Don't stick to your turn around time and bad things can happen. Our time was based on getting back out of this area to the trail head before darkness set in. If we were lucky we could get to Upper Fish Fork Camp in one hour and the time would then be 3:00pm. Take a breather down there for about half an hour and now it's 3:30pm. Go back through a potential bushwhack, steep climb with just under a thousand feet elevation gain in less than a mile on a scree slope. This could be very slow going indeed. Now let's just say that leg could possibly take up to two hours to get back to the Little Fish Fork Camp and now it would be 5:30pm. This location would have been under the mountain shadows, getting cooler and the sun would be just off the horizon out of view getting ready to set. From the Little Fish Fork Camp we still had over an hour hike back to the car waiting for us at the trail head.

Weighing all of this Richard looked at me and said "If you want to go for it, you know I'll be right there with you". Tough guy that Richard, he didn't want to say it was over either, but it was. Slowly we stood up, took one last look down Fish Fork and began making our way back to Little Fish Fork Camp. This time it wasn't too bad, just trace our route we had taken to this point. Returning to Little Fish Fork Camp we dropped our packs and took a small break talking about return plans. We had a snack and studied the maps for a return in the future. Unfortunately since it was already October we knew that we were sunk until after spring as this area will be blanketed with several feet of snow soon.

We packed up and made the hike for Pine Mountain Ridge. This leg would be slow going as this area has the buck thorn, minor bushwhacking, more fallen trees and not much of a trail. Making Pine Mountain Ridge and breifly pausing for a look back down was a bag of mixed emotions. Both Richard and I were happy to have had a great day in the mountains hiking together, but on the other hand we were disappointed with a sense of failure being unable to find the Upper Fish Fork Camp.

The Dragging Buck

As we turned to begin our remaining two mile hike to Lupine we met two more hunters. While we had been searching for our lost camp the hunters had been out searching for deer. These two guys were nice and told us about there day, the locations they had been to and that they struck out. They were also just as interested in our day as we described our hike to them. Then they told us about a group of fellows, about three I think, that they had seen with a pretty big buck. Now, I always believed that when a hunter shoots the animal, like a deer, they field dress it. This allows them to carry out the meat and maybe even the rack of antlers if the wanted but leave the unwanted waste behind for nature to reclaim. To try and pack out the entire animal would be vary difficult, if not impossible, thus the field dressing. Well, our new hunter friends began to tell us a story that even they admitted was crazy. About an hour before Richard and I made it back to the crest of Pine Mountain Ridge, our two new hunting friends witnessed three other hunters with there freshly killed buck. Standing there they saw three other hunters dragging the buck and they showed us the groove in the ground. This was not an easy task. From here down to there destination of Camp Lupine it was two miles with plenty of obstacles. Remember earlier in my story this section used to be a dirt road from Camp Lupine to the crest of Pine Mountain Ridge. Well, since it is only used as a foot path now there is no maintenance at all and it shows. Obstacles include large fallen trees that you have to climb over, big boulders that have come down with slides from above and overgrown vegitation. Hiking this is not tough or challenging but none the less it does have these obstructions and I could not imagine trying to drag the carcass of a large buck through here. The path they took was obvious as the groove from the buck was in the ground about half an inch deep and four inches wide all the way to Camp Lupine. They really wanted that creature. A big part of me had a feeling of sorrow about how the fallen buck had been dragged more than two miles. But, after all, he was dead and far worse things were about to happen to him.

Goodbye....

Richard and I continued our trek to the car uneventfully and unloaded our packs.

By now the sun was getting low and some of the hunters were getting there dinners ready and had there camp fires going. In the car heading up to Blue Ridge the sun was setting and it was just a beautiful touch to the day. The drive along Blue Ridge is about seven miles and from there we turned on a paved road, Highway 2. From this point it was a quick drive to Wrightwood with Richard's car faithfully waiting for him. I helped Richard transfer his gear over to his car and with a handshake and goodbye he was on his way home. Me? I was hungry and pizza was the only thing on my mind. About a block away is one of the best pizza parlors around and within twenty minutes I had a large pepperoni with mushrooms and pointed the car towards home.

Hike Information

Search For Upper Fish Fork Camp at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

Google Map of Hike

Topo Map of Hike

Elevation Gain and Loss During Hike

Afterthought

It is now June 2009 and ever since Richard and I did this hike in October 2008 I have not gone a single day without thinking about the Upper Fish Fork Camp. I remain in contact with Richard and he also has this place in his thoughts nonstop. We are currently making plans for a return trip in July and will hopefully have our friend Ken along with us. On our return trip we will find the camp and we are planning on making an over night stay at the Upper Fish Fork Camp.

I am confident we will find it due to several things that have happened in the past eight months. One is I have been studying the pictures I had taken down there in comparison with maps and Google Earth. While studying the area closely in Google Earth I have even been able to make out a portion of the trail on the ridge we stopped at as it continues to the Upper Fish Fork Camp. How did we miss it? We couldn't see it as the trail was about 40 feet below us and the ridge is very steep, thus out of view.

Map with Google Earth Overlay that has a view of the trail and our location. Just missed it!

Another is a report on one of the local hiking forums of a hiker finding the camp. On the forum he has posted a map with a gps track of his hike along with a few pictures. In comparison we were very close, but just never saw the trail.

Map of Hiker that made it to Upper FFC. His hike track is white and my track is red. Oh so close!

One last bit starts with a thank you to "gibsonjw" for his kind offering of instructions from the last time he was able to actually find the Upper Fish Fork Camp. He even posted a link to a picture of him standing next to the camp sign.

"gibsonjw" at Upper Fish Fork Camp

Cave Mountain

2009-03-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

March 06, 2009

How many times have you been on a long drive, just a flat out burn such as the Vegas run? These obnoxiously boring drives can sometimes provide the view of something interesting along the way. In this case it's a mountain just off the side of the road. Up ahead, you will know a good one as soon as it breaks the horizon. Tall, looming, steep, craggily with massively odd shaped boulders throughout its stance. As if it had been created by an angry god. They are intimidating and will request your attention as you sail on by.

These obscure mountains, standing sentinel along the highway, bring out the imagination in everybody. Most can only think of what it's like to just be on top looking down. Others, like me, only crave the sensational climb they offer. Being on the peak is good, but the effort to get there is even better. These mountains are remote, they are rarely visited, have no trash, no graffiti and best of all no trail.
Don't get me wrong, trails are good and they serve a purpose: Get hikers from point "A" to point "B" safely and in an organized manor that provides the least amount of damage to the surrounding environment. Cool, I'm with all that, safety and minimize the nasty impact of humans. But after a while on a super highway trail, like Mt Baden Powell, you begin to feel kind of like the Mono Rail at Disney Land. Fun but yet mind numbing.

View Larger Map

This particular forlorn sentinel, named Cave Mountain, is on the east side of the north bound 15 between Barstow and Las Vegas. One would have to agree that Cave Mountain is a really cool name and a mountain of this stature deserves a great name. However I did not find any caves and I don’t know if it has any. On top near the peak is a survey marker dated 1929 with the Spanish wording El Frio stamped into it. Normally, what ever name is stamped into the survey marker would coincide with the current name of the mountain. Very strange indeed. From our experience I would have to say the name El Frio is a better fitting one. The day of the hike the temps were in the low 40’s with steady winds averaging 15 mph and gusting up to 28 mph. It was cold.

Ken, my hiking buddy, picked me up at my house around 0515hrs. I loaded up my gear and within a few minutes we were burning rubber on the 15 north bound. After a drive of just under 90 miles we were at our off ramp with the remaining few miles on a dirt road. Covering the last section on the 15, and the entire stretch of the dirt road, Cave Mountain was always in view looking as animus and dreadful as we had expected. We could tell that it has very few save passages to the top and all the others looked downright lethal.

The parking / trail head is on a dirt road used primarily by off road ATV’s. A normal 4x4 vehicle can not go any further due to very soft sand. It would be unwise to continue as it would be a very lengthy and expensive recovery.
Suiting up for the hike was cold, and windy. As I stated earlier the temps remained in the low 40’s and winds were just above 10 mph at the truck. As we progressed to the peak the winds would increase exponentially with gust measured above 28 mph.
I had expected these temps and winds after checking the forecast the day before so I was dressed adequately.

At 0800hrs the truck was secured and we were on the trail, or uh, crappy sand dune kinda thing. This stuff is just like walking on the beach loaded down with hiking boots and about a thirty pound pack. By line of site we could tell that Beach Sand Trail continued on for about a mile. It parallels Cave Mountain and ends at the base of a ridge that looked like a good approach up. Both Ken and I had about enough of this and began scanning north for something better, anything has to be better than grinding out our energy on Beach Sand Trail.

Scanning up towards the north we spotted a ridge that runs a general north west to south east direction. We altered course with a heading to the north for the intersection of the ridge. This route was also beneficial as we began gaining altitude pretty fast. The soil still consisted of loose sand but it was far better than Beach Sand Trail. Taking the ridge, as it turned out, was a very good choice. It continues in a wide lazy arch to the east eventually turning north and bringing is right to the base of Cave Mountain.

Terrain on the ridge changed from the loose soil to solid with good footing and at times we had giant piles of boulders to climb around. Oh, god bless those boulders! Along the ridge turning to the north we began to encounter strong winds and temporally ducking to the east of the boulders was a nice comfy zone of no winds.

This first ridge ended at the base of Cave Mtn and there was a flat plane area to hike across, about the size of a football field. Entering the plane we plotted or next route. Wasn’t too hard to decide as a diversion continuing along the east face of the mountain did not look promising. That route was very steep straight up to the peak with boulders that seemed like only dust was holding them in place. Another scan ahead, to the west, showed a ridge dropping down the south face. Scanning that ridge as it goes higher, there were boulders the size of houses. It looked better than the east face though as the slope of elevation gain was doable if need be.

Pressing on to that ridge we aimed for a saddle just at its base to make our next decision. From the saddle it all became crystal clear what to do next. Standing there, looking to the west, the mountain just literally fell from the face of the earth. Choosing any route west of the saddle would bring one to there maker within two steps, no, make that one.

From the visual perspective standing at the saddle looking up, the view of the terrain was simply breath taking. The climb from here required staying to the left as much as possible hugging the line of boulders protruding from the ridge. Anything to the right would be a little hairy with the angle of the slope in addition to no foot hold and nothing to grasp with your hands.

What was I getting at? Oh ya, the scenery. Remember back when Hollywood filmed movies in a Western setting that had gigantic rock boulders going ever higher. In those things would be cowboys or even an outlaw hiding. That’s pretty much what this was. This was my favorite section of the entire mountain but it was also the windiest. This is the location we measured the wind gusting above 28 mph. I remember yelling to Ken what the wind speed was. He was standing about four feet from me and I couldn’t hear him but I could tell he was yelling “WHAT?”. It didn’t take but a second to realize this isn’t the safest place to be yelling what the wind speed is. Maintaining normal balance was tough enough, but with the wind now pushing us and at times dictating our next foot placement, it was time to press on.

Just finishing up the climb through my favorite section a very large rock cairn comes into view above us. The cairn is on top of the mountain and it was just above us with about ten more minutes of hiking. It’s an amazing pile of rocks that stand about five feet high with a big stick right up the middle of it. Not that I pondered over it too much, but one glance at this thing and you can tell somebody spent a lot of time moving a lot of rocks. There efforts paid off as the cairn is visible from the desert floor over 1,700 feet above you and almost two and a half miles away!

Finally getting to the cairn was a good feeling. We dropped our gear, took a few pictures and enjoyed the views. The first thing that got my attention were the winds. Climbing up the last ridge they were really bad and normally on a peak with no obstruction it would be worse. However, it wasn’t. It was still blowing about ten to fifteen miles per hour and pretty chilly, but that was much better than winds around 28mph.
The forecast that I had checked 24 hours before the hike was pretty much dead on with the current temp’s, wind direction and speed. Luckily the only part of the forecast that was not correct happened to be the cloud cover that was predicted to be around 70 percent. We didn’t have a cloud to speak of during the entire hike until we were back to the truck. Even then it was only a rouge cloud floating by, nothing bad at all.

From the top of Cave Mtn the views were all the way to the horizon with excellent visibility due to the winds and no clouds. Standing by the rock cairn looking to the south I could make out Mt Baldy and other peaks along the North Back Bone. This is amazing because they are about 100 miles away!

Ken was the first to bring it to my attention that from our perspective we could begin to see the curvature of the earth. We grabbed our gear and walked over to the actual location of the peak. Now, Cave Mtn is a strange thing as there really isn’t a “peak” to speak of since it is pretty flat across the top for approximately 150 feet. There are some large piles of rock to scramble on and explore, but no distinguishable peak. Locating the survey marker was pretty easy since it is exposed in the open. As I mentioned earlier it has the name El Frio stamped into it and not Cave Mountain. Maybe in 1929 that was the name given but with most mountains they end up going through name changes. Sometimes this is due to a map maker’s error or somebody nick named it Cave and it just stuck. I did find this tidbit of info that states:

“...Cave Mountain looms over Interstate 15 in the heart of the Mojave Desert, not far from the town of Baker. It does have caves, but they are more like rock shelters than true caverns, which form by dissolving limestone deep underground at the water table…”.

OK, if these things are deep underground at the water table then I’m surely not going to see any caves climbing to the peak, bummer.

With all the hikes I have done throughout various mountain ranges I normally find survey markers in low laying areas as well as mountain peaks. An interesting note is that almost all of them are dated 1929. Imagination takes off from there as all of this area was vast and wild with no impact of man. Most of the roads and highways didn’t even exist back then. What a huge undertaking these people took on surveying the western United States. Brave and hardy people did all of this by packing in the surveying equipment, survey markers, tooling to dig into rock and soil and the cement that still holds them solid.
Just think that it was all hiked in and nothing was airlifted, it couldn’t have been. Twenty six years earlier the Wright Brothers made their first powered flight and in 1929 Pan Am was flying the Ford Tri Motor in revenue service. The first fully controllable helicopter, the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, wouldn’t even fly until 1936 in Germany.
A brand new Model T could still be purchased for about $300 even though Ford completed production of them two years earlier making room for the Model A. That price of the car may seem low, but in 1929 the average weekly income was a mere $25 dollars, and that was about to go down. I’m quite confident that the man pounding the letters El Frio into the survey marker had no idea that the stock market was going to crash in October followed by the Great Depression soon after.

Ok, we stayed on top for about an hour and a half enjoying our reward of solitude and views. Looking down to the west at the valley floor, more than 2,000 feet below us, was the Interstate 15. Quite allot of traffic was on this going both north and south. More than likely the north bound traffic was people going to Las Vegas for the weekend planning on spending more money than they really should. On the south bound was a stream of cars with people probably full of remorse about spending more money than they should have.
Me? I was perfectly content sitting up there eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich watching them.

Cleaning up any evidence of our presence, we packed up and began our trek back down the mountain. Route finding would not be an issue since we could just reverse the exact route we took on the way up.

The only areas of caution would be the first ridge as it is steep, so slow and steady was the key here. Winds on the way back down were still present and seemed to be a little stronger in some areas. It was nice to tuck behind some of the big boulders for temporary relief. Along the way we found evidence of what is most likely Big Horn Sheep but unfortunately we didn’t see any of the timid creatures. A couple of locations had obvious bedding areas and fresh droppings from the sheep.

Hiking along the bottom ridge we made it a goal to stay high on this as long as possible. Otherwise we would just end up descending straight down to the very unpleasant Beach Sand Trail. No thank you. This turned out to be rewarding as we were able to see a few things that we would have otherwise missed.

The first was a baby Horned Toad. I haven’t seen one of these in several years. The little guy noticed us and ran under a bush for cover to hide from us. As soon as he got under the bush he didn’t move a muscle and closed his eyes. It was funny since he probably thought as long as he couldn’t see us, we couldn’t see him.

Next was a desert tortoise shell. This was a sad thing to see as it was a young one that only had the shell remaining with the overall length about six inches.

The next really neat thing we noticed was a yellow poppy all alone surviving the conditions of the Mojave Desert.

Finally dropping down from the ridge placed us within a short walking distance from the truck on the Beach Sand Trail. Checking my watch, the time was just about 1400hrs.
On a round off, this hike was six hours and five miles with 1,700 feet of elevation gain and the same for loss. Overall it was one heck of a fun adventure!
We unpacked our gear and finished up with a little celebration before driving off.

We didn’t head home just yet as we had some more exploring to do. One of the things we wanted to check out was the campgrounds a few miles to the south in Afton Canyon.

These campgrounds provide a canopy for sun shade, and a fire pit, not much else. Although there is one outhouse and it is for everybody to share.

Most likely the majority of campers come here in the winter months as it would be unbearably hot during the summer. Nearby is a rail road with a nice looking trestle style bridge crossing the Mojave River.

It’s not really so much a wide open flowing river as is a sprawling stream. This, I’m sure, would change after a really good rain fall with some flash flooding.

It is this location that draws the majority of the people bringing the off road toys. I do admit this does look fun, driving through the canyon with a stream a couple inches deep lazily drifting from side to side.

Canyon walls towering along the south side appear to have been created about the dawn of time. Constructed from sand stone they have taken on a really eerie look from erosion caused by rain fall.

This, my friends, brings us to the end of our adventure. Finishing the 4x4 drive through the canyon we were back on the 15 heading south for home.

The line from parking to peak is the hike track as downloaded from my Garmin. Notice Afton Canyon and the campground near the lower left of the map.

Elevation profile of the hike. From parking to peak is 2.47 miles with 1,704 feet elevation gain.

Mt Baldy via Bear Flat / Manker Flat

2009-02-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

September 27, 2008

So my buddy Ken says he would like to hike up to Mt Baldy and invited me along. I was pretty excited for the invitation as Ken is a good friend and I know he must have something challenging in mind.

Turns out I was correct. There are several routes to Mt Baldy and most people go up and return the same route.
Kens choice was good and involved two separate routes and required staging of our cars to make this happen, easy enough.
I have been to Baldy five times and each hike was from the North Back Bone trail originating at Blue Ridge. That is a pretty stout hike and will be covered on a separate post, but now Ken was giving me the chance to do an approach from The South face.

The plans were drafted and refined, but it's not really complicated at all. On the morning of the hike I met up with Ken in the Baldy Village and each of us drove our cars higher up to Mankar Flat. Can you see where this is going? I left my truck at this location as we would be ending the hike here. Now all my gear is in the back of Kens truck and I hop in for a ride back down to the Baldy Village, the location of the trail head.

The parking area in Baldy Village for hikers is bad, no, it's real bad. That was the primary reason for leaving my truck up at Mankar Flat as it wouldn't fit. The allocated parking location in the Village is very limited and at least a couple of feet of the bed would have been hanging in the main road. This was not a concern since we had options, but others may not be so lucky. Ken had said that the Ranger station nearby has parking but the gate for access is secured and locked when they are closed. I don't really understand this as anybody hiking from this location will surely be there as early as us, before sunrise.

From the parking spot we would be hiking up the Mt Baldy Trail or also known as the Bear Flat Trail. Early on in the hike the trail passes through an area named Bear Flat so it seems the name sticks to the trail, I guess. The actual trail head can be tough to locate and we noticed a group of about four wondering around trying to locate it. This is a strange thing though since to actually get to the trail head you first have to hike up a paved street with houses on both sides. Probably the residence are used to having strangers walking through there but probably not. This is a very old community and some of the houses are on the other side of a stream.

There location causes some logistical problems for them as it makes it tough to get supplies to the house. They have overcome this opstical by building conveyor systems that have small baskets suspended by cables overhead. Some more intricate than others, but all operate on the same principle. Load up the supplies then wench the basket across the stream to the house, kinda cool. I have seen set ups like this on the Fawn Skin side of Big Bear L ake. I still couldn't imagine how they would get something like a couch or bed over there though.

Moving along, the paved street does turn to dirt and a mild increase in elevation starts with very good tree cover. Not much later we enter the Bear Flat area and notice that it has sustained fire damage within the last couple of years. It looks pretty bad but the damage is limited and I'm sure recovery will be fast. Hiking through Bear Flat the tree cover ends and the steep section begins. There are enough switch backs that help take the strain of elevation gain away but that didn't help much with the sun and it was beaming down with lots of heat. Temps were in the mid 80's and I would not like to be on this trail in any higher temps, it would not be pleasant at all.
We continued up the trail that gains allot of altitude within a short distance, always digging in. Ken had mentioned that not very many people hike this trail due to the difficulty and I believe him. On the North Back Bone Trail I almost never see anybody. Partially due to the difficulty but mostly due to the remote access to the trail. Well, we did see some hikers, but that was fine. Anytime somebody is on a trail like this you are sure to have a good conversation when you encounter them.

The slow grind up continued and before we knew it we had come to the turn off for West Baldy. I happen to really like West Baldy. No, there are no streams, water falls or trees with cover. The one thing it does not have is people. West Baldy is about three quarters of a mile South West of the main peak and that is the location of the masses. On any given weekend there will be on the average of 100 to 200 people loitering around the peak of Baldy. The majority of them come up alternate routes that are less strenuous and upon topping out just simply crash for a few hours not wanting to go any further. I know they can see West Baldy, but they never go there and I'm not sure why.

So with this, we enjoyed the solitude of West Baldy chowing down on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The views from here are really good. Below us to the North West is the area of Fish Fork. A very remote hard to get to area that is extremely rewarding. I will cover a few routes to Fish Fork that I have done on another entry, stay tuned. It is so peaceful on West Baldy that there are a few things you can hear. One is the noises of people talking on Baldy three quarters of a mile away, and that's crazy. Almost like somebody that lives with a freeway in site of there house, they always here the drone of the cars. The other sound you will here is the occasional fly by of a glider. These pilots are nuts and they fly those things buzzing the peak like cowboys, fast low and pull up! On Baldy you would not know they were coming until they are on top of your head, but on West Baldy you actually can hear the wind over there wings. This gives you a chance to get the camera out for a quick shot, but you better hurry since they are moving fast.

We packed up our stuff and lazily ventured over to the masses on Mt Baldy. It was crowded, very crowded. Sometimes it reminds me of a health clinic late at night. There is always somebody in there somewhere constantly coughing like they are sick. In all actuality they may be but with altitude sickness as Baldy is at 10,064ft and if they do not come up here often they will feel it. People, people everywhere. Standing, sitting laying down and some wondering around with no true destination in mind, just wondering around. A person can only take so much of this and both Ken and I agreed it was time to press on.

Departing Mt Baldy to the South we were now on the Baldy Bowl Trail. This trail also goes by another name, The Ski Hut Trail. About half way down there is a really neat old cabin that was built and maintained by the Sierra Club. Arriving at the Ski Hut was a treat for me as I have heard so much of it but never seen it. This is definitely worth a visit. As far as the name it can cause some confusion as there is no ski lift or slope near it for skiing, but I'm sure there is a reason behind the name I am not aware of. The hut does have very few provisions but lots of room for visitors and overnight gatherings of hikers. In the hut is a small kitchen with a wood burning stove, a big sink with a faucet that never stops running. It is fed be a source much higher up the mountain and I have no idea what it's location is. But the water is constantly running into the sink and spilling over to a drain that goes into the local stream, I think. Due to it's source the water is cold and pure. Pure enough to drink without treating and many passing hikers actually look forward to this natural water for a top off. Since the water is very cold the sink is also used as a somewhat refrigerator keeping perishables submerged in the never ending supply of ice cold water.

Both Ken and I took advantage of this little mountain oasis with a well deserved break. The volunteer manning the hut that day was a real nice guy and gave us a tour and a little bit of history lesson. Seems they had just put a new roof on it and this was no small chore. Every bit of the old roof had to be removed and hiked back down the trail as well as all the supplies for the new roof had to be hiked up. Don't forget they need all sorts of tooling and tall ladders. No paid labor, just all volunteers...Good Job!

We thanked the kind man and moved on down the trail moving fast as the trail loses lots of elevation in a short distance. The views just below the Ski Hut looking back at Baldy are simply breath taking and remind me of a French Chateau, although I have never been to one and therefore don't really know what one would look like.

The dirt trail ends abruptly and the remaining distance to Manker Flat is on a paved road. This road is used by the employees to drive up to the Baldy Ski Resort further to the East on Thunder Mountain. Arriving at Mankar Flat we unpacked our gear, hopped in my truck and drove down to Baldy Village near Kens truck. Exactly opposite of this small parking area is a Saloon / Restaurant. This provided the perfect location to enjoy a nice cold brew bringing another great day in the Angeles National Forest to an end.

Hike Summary:

Start hike: 0630hrs

End Hike: 1715hrs

Total Time: 10hrs 45min

Elevation Gain: 6,167ft

Elevation Loss: 4,292ft
Total Miles: 11.5

Towne Peak - Death Valley National Park

2009-02-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

Towne Peak / SA-16 Albatross

February 21, 2009

Out in the Death Valley National Park is Towne Peak with in the Panamint Mountain Range.
From the top of Towne is a ridge dropping in a South West direction.
What's special about that ridge? Well, there just happens to be a plane that crashed into it a long time ago.

On January 24, 1952 the SA-16 Albatross deadsticked into it's current location. In flight one of the engines failed and the reamining engine would not provide enough power to sustain altitude. All crew members safely parachuted and survived with no injuries. The complete story of the ill fated Albatross can be found here in greater detal. It reads like a book that gets the imagination going, a real good read.

As far as the adventure, that included my friend Ken and I, we made the best of it.

On February 20, 2009 we drove to Panamint Springs with a camper in tow and plans to overnight thus hiking the next morning on Saturday. Well, Saturday morning the alarm sounded early at 0430hrs! After the wakeup we had breakfast then we were in the truck driving about 13 miles to Towne Pass, the location of the trail head. I use the term "trail head" loosely as there was no trail and over 90% of our trek was in snow. The depth of the snow averaged between ankle and waist deep. The temps all day hovered in the low 40's(F) with winds around 5mph gusting to 15mph. It felt fairly cold but we were prepared for this and dressed adequately.

Hiking started at 0630hrs and return to the truck was at exactly 1740hrs. This ended up giving us about a 20 minute buffer before headlamps would have be needed. This is a good thing as it would have dramatically slowed down progress since the ground was covered in volcanic rock, mostly very large. This proved to be a treat since stepping through the snow and a foot landing on an unseen lava rock would cause a slip or at times stumble. Nothing serious though and the snow was a comforting buffer for this.

Total distance from start to finish was only in the vicinity of 9.4 miles but took the stated time of 11hrs 10 min. Not much time was taken for breaks along the way, not even on Towne Peak, only at the crash site. We knew the snow was slowing us down big time and kept pushing on the best we could trying to make use of the daylight. We are no strangers to headlamp hiking but this terrain was not the best for it.

Overall we did really good as it turns out since the average hiker doing this route without snow completes it in 11hrs, or more. Why so long for only 9.4 miles? Good question! Gobs and gobs of instant elevation gain. The location for the start of the hike at Towne Pass is about 4900ft and Towne Peak is in the neighborhood of 7240ft. Along the way to Towne Peak are three other hills that require up then down adding to the gain. The crux is from Towne Peak taking the ridge down to a saddle just above the plane crash. This ridge includes a loss of 1000ft to the saddle. From the saddle is a very steep descent to the plane with a los of about 200ft, or so. After the tour of the plane we had to gain that altitude back just to get to Towne Peak. The hike returning to the truck from the peak wasn't all that bad but those three hills along the way had to be answered to.

Waiting for us though, were a couple of ice cold Heineken's for our little celebration.

Finished with our little celebration we headed back to Panamint Springs for a great night including a campfire and dinner. The bummer is always the day to leave and that was Sunday, what a drag!

It was fun and I had a blast! We met all of our goals on that mountain and made it home safe.
Now it's time to clean up the gear and prepare for the next adventure!

View of the parking location at Towne Pass

Ken hitting the trail. That little road ends at it's visible location and people seem to overnight there.

Ken setting the pace up the first hill to the main ridge

On the ridge looking back

Me at sunrise

Towne Peak with an old Death Valley boundary marker. The new boundary has been moved much further to the West in 1994.

There goes Ken pressing on

Ken making the final push for Towne Peak

Ken on top of Towne Peak

Me on top of Towne Peak

The only survey marker on the peak not covered in snow

Ken leaving the peak preparing for the 1000ft descent to the saddle

The view of a hiker

There's Ken at the saddle with the plane about 200ft down to the left. Notice that ammo can? It was placed there by a pretty hardcore hiker as sort of a monument. It's got a log book to check in along with water and food if needed.

The first view of the Albatross

One of the engines. I don't know if it was the good one though. The other engine, along with lots of other big parts of the plane, are waaaaay down at the bottom. They are for the most part unreachable with out a helicopter or very long and dangerous hike from the desert floor.

Here we have Ken with the fatal Albatross

And me striking a pose

Google Earth view of the hike track from my Garmin

Google Earth of Panamint Springs looking at Towne Peak

Topo of the hike track

Topo of the Panamint Valley and Panamint Mountains