Another month, another desert trip. This ten day effort would take me to Death
Valley and south to San Diego. I dropped a visiting friend at the San Jose
airport in the early morning before heading out to the Mojave. I didn't have a
plan for this travel day, but figured I could make one up during the drive
using my available resources (the Internet and Peakbagger App). All of these are
fairly easy hikes, only the last one of any consequence and that only 4mi with
less than 2,000ft of gain. The others were around a mile each with embarassingly
low amounts of elevation gain. All are located on BLM lands.
Peak 2,795ft
This is the highpoint of the North Edwards area, a small
community on the north side of SR58 and Edwards Air Force Base, though this
isn't saying much. I noted that Jeff Moffat had climbed it, so figured I'd
better too. Paved Claymine Rd leads to good dirt Dennise Ave which I followed
west to the south side of the summit. 4WD can actually drive to the summit,
but the walk from the 2WD road wasn't very hard, taking less than 15min. From
the summit one can look over North Edwards to
and the huge borax mine some miles to the east. On the way back I found
of DirectTV dish
antennae that had been riddled with bullet holes and abandoned. A disgruntled
employee, perhaps?
Kramer Hills HP/Kramer 2 BM
These easy summits are found on either side of US395, south of Kramer Junction
where the road tops out as it winds through this small range of hills. 4WD
vehicles can drive to the Kramer Hills HP and any vehicle can drive to
Kramer 2 BM (this is "Kramer Benchmark" on PB, but does not appear in LoJ since
it has little prominence). I parked along US395 for the highpoint, crossing
the road (the most dangerous part of the hike) and making my way uphill to the
nearby point. There is an old antenna at though I don't think
it is used anymore. Barbara & Gordon left a register here . There
were only
a few other entries, all fairly recent. During the short outing, the quiet was
loudly disturbed by a pair of B1-B bombers roaring overhead, having just taken
off from Edwards AFB. Pretty darn fast for such big planes.
Kramer 2 BM was a little more interesting, from a history perspective. US395 was
rerouted to remove some turns in the original route and make the grade easier. I
drove up the deteriorating old pavement most of the way, then a
spur road up to the top. There are microwave and cell towers
, the
located on the north side of the highest fence.
Katz BM
This is another short outing only found on PB since it has little prominence.
It is located along Irwin Rd north of Barstow, off Old Hwy 58. I
at an informal shooting range on the north side of the peak and
made the easy climb . One can view the
to the west and Barstow to the south.
Peak 3,780ft x2
I continued north on Irwin Rd to its junction with Ft. Irwin Rd (the names can
be confusing), and then about 4mi further north. On
of the road
(really a highway, with 65mph speed limit) lies a collection of four unnamed
peaks, three of them with the same elevation of 3,780ft. I spent the hour
of daylight (and about 30min past sunset) climbing the two northernmost ones
with more than 500ft of prominence each. It was a very enjoyable hike across
easy desert terrain in the magic hours of the late afternoon with the sun
casting on the surrounding hills. I found a large
geocache at the I visited, filled with all sorts of
things, some even mildly interesting, though there were few entries since it was
placed 15yrs earlier. The second summit was less than a mile to the northwest
with a drop of about 560ft to between them. No geocache or
register at . It was 5:20p by the time I
returned, no need for a headlamp (good, since I didn't take my pack with me on
this or the earlier hikes). I showered at a turnout along Ft. Irwin Rd on my
way back to Barstow, before heading into town for gas and food. Then more
driving on Interstate 15 to Baker, the "Gateway to Death Valley"...
Continued...