Continued...
Inspired by Kyle Atkins effort to climb all the Sierra Crest summits between
Walker Pass and Donner Summit, I got curious, wondering what a list would look
like that covered all the Pacific Divide summits within CA. It took me
probably 8hrs or so to come up with
the list
of 500+ summits, and it instantly
got my attention. I had already done more than half of them and thought it
would make a fine long-term project. It so happened that I had already
suggested to Tom that we might visit the Scodie Mtns south of Walker Pass.
There were two unnamed peaks with little going for them, other than they were
on this list and in the Scodie Mtns. Iris was looking to do something this
weekend as well, so we made plans for the three of us to head out. As I was
driving across the Central Valley, I happened to learn via email that Karl was
already on the east side of the Sierra and quickly had him joining us as well.
Peak 6,712ft/Peak 7,070ft
These minor summits are found along the Sierra Crest between Skinner Peak and
Scodie Mtn, both within the Kiavah Wilderness. There is a cherry stem right
through the Wilderness to allow motorized vehicles to drive to the historic
McIver Cabin from the east side, up Horse Canyon. The road is in excellent
shape for most of the way up Horse Canyon, but once at the crest it becomes a
rather
requiring high-clearance and a narrow wheelbase. Most folks
who drive it seem to come in on motorcycles. We took
Tom's jeep for the effort since he was lamenting that he'd had little
opportunity to drive it of late. The road goes over Peak 6,712ft, or nearly
so, requiring us to stop and hike about 40ft to find
atop some
rocks buried in forest without any real views. Another 45min of driving got us
to the end of the road where we found ,
your typical
built by some lonely soul 100yrs ago and now weakly maintained by
generous members of the public. Peak 7,070ft is found less than half a mile to
the northwest, so we simply parked at the cabin and
from there. The
area is a bit brushy, so it helps to find one of several trails, maintained or
abandoned, to help with the effort. The PCT runs across the gap between the
cabin and the summit, so it may or may not help depending on route choice. It
took us less than half an hour to find our way to the rather
.
Despite its shape, it had pretty decent views of
, marred
today by smoke blowing in from other parts of the state to the north. We left
here before returning to the cabin. We spent well over twice as much
time driving to and from these peaks as we did on actual hiking.
Peak 5,992ft/Peak 6,273ft
These peaks are located on the south side of Horse Canyon. On our way back from
the previous summits, we stopped at a large parking area north of the summits
and headed out just before 12:30p. After an easy but short hike across the
, we started up to Peak
5,992ft, 1,400ft of loose, sandy slopes that taxed us far more than the easy
peaks earlier. Our route up the northeast side was fairly direct, taking us
45min to . Gordon MacLeod, sans Barbara, had left a register
. He had scooped Andy Smatko who didn't show up until the
following year. 34yrs had gone by before had signed it just a
few years ago. made for an enjoyable mile-long traverse
southeast to the higher . It, too, had a Gordon register
from the same day , but had quite a few more pages, six in all.
had been the last to sign in just a year earlier.
was fairly direct but not the fun, sandy descent we'd hoped
for. I picked a steep, descending through the pinyon
forest that required caution instead of wild abandon. We just
under the 3hr mark, a modest but enjoyable outing.
Later, while looking for a suitable place to make camp near the El Paso Mtns,
Tom lured Iris into driving her Malibu into deep sand where it quickly
. After trying to
free it by manual means, we eventually got out Tom's recovery kit, threaded
the tow strap through her rear side windows and used the winch to pull it out -
the first use of Tom's gear for saving someone. After having so much fun with
it all, we'll probably look for future opportunities to catch her in similar
dangers. Gotta love the desert...
Continued...