Humbug Mountain
Located just north of Joshua Tree NP in the Pinto Mtns south of SR62, this summit is found in Andy Zdon's Desert Summits. The name derives from the term miners used for prospects that didn't pan out. This could describe about 99% of desert prospects but fortunately we were spared having hundreds of Humbug Peaks scattered throughout the region. Bob Sumner has been collecting Zdon summits over the years and it was at his suggestion that we added it to the agenda for this desert roadtrip. It isn't particularly difficult, except perhaps that a high clearance vehicle is needed to get near the starting point suggested by Zdon. Using Karl's Element, the three of us rode down Gold Crown Rd to a fork heading southwest and west through a wash system bordering the south side of Humbug Mountain. We drove further than suggested in the guidebook, but not as far as the Imperial Mine - the Element doesn't really have sufficient clearance for this rough road and it took a little bit of a beating to get it as far as we did. We
parked
on a flat expanse of desert, amazingly smooth
considering the rough wash we'd just navigated, about 3/4mi from the summit.
The hike is pretty straightforward, hiking north across the flat portion of
the desert followed by a 
400-foot climb
up the SE Ridge. It took less than 25min to reach 
the top
where we arrived before 7:30a under overcast skies. We found a MacLeod/Lilley
register 
from 1992 with six pages of entries, not all that many.
There was a rare 
Zdon entry (he seems to seldom leave his name)
and a few other recognizable names including 
Don Raether who I seem
to be chasing around a number of these desert peaks lately. We
descended off the SW side to pay a cursory visit to the
Imperial Mine site, not finding much. The main prospect
was higher up a side canyon we didn't descend and none of us felt like putting
in the extra effort to climb back up to it. All-in-all a rather ho-hum summit.
Joshua Mountain
Not to be confused with the higher but far easier Joshua Peak near Ryan Mtn further inside the park, this summit is really just a rocky dome offset from the higher collection of mountains just west of the North Entrance Station. Although inside the park, one doesn't need to drive into the park to reach it by the easiest means. We parked just off Utah Rd at
the junction with Wellock
Rd in a few clearings so as to not block traffic coming or going from this
small collection of homes. We crossed 
the road, followed by the
park boundary marked by a collection of 
survey markers,
and then a dry wash before 
starting up the 1,000-foot climb to
Joshua Mtn. We weren't exactly sure where the
mountain was when we started - from the topo map it appears to just be some
bump off the main ridge, but as we climbed higher and started zeroing in, it
became apparent that our summit was 
a rock formation
with a high cliff on the
south and southeast sides with sloping granite slabs on the other sides, unusual
for a desert summit. We manuevered around to the 
north side
where we found the only way 
to scramble to the summit.
Reaching the summit in just under an hour,
we found a rounded, roomy perch from which to take in the views in all
directions. To 
the west and south rose yet higher terrain, but in
other directions we could see for quite some distance.
Looking north, we were in a
direct line looking down Adobe Rd, the main street of 29 Palms and the
military base just beyond. A register in a plastic jar
did not date back very
far, more a collection of loose pages than a tidy notebook. Gordon would
definitely not approve. We 
sat up here
for about 15min before 
heading back down. Our return route was more
direct, following a gully straight down without
the extra sidehilling we'd done on the way up before we'd figured out just
where the peak was.
The Bone
Back in 29 Palms we stopped for gas and
supplies
before more driving for one
last peak. We were a bit ahead of schedule so I figured we could get an extra
P1K near Johnson Valley that I'd run out of time for on the first day of this
roadtrip. This unnamed summit had very little interest for Bob, but they were
more or less on the way to the next day's summits (that he was interested in
because they were range highpoints) so I got him to humor me, or as we often
put it, to "throw me a bone." This became a source of some amusement and
eventually led to the name we selected for the peak. Whether it sticks or not
will depend on others, but for us this one will henceforth be known as The
Bone.
Our driving took us north on SR247 and then the good gravel/dirt Boone Rd to
Means Lake. We left my van and Karl's Element at the junction with SR247,
driving in with Bob's Jeep Liberty. This proved a very worthy vehicle for the
OHV roads found throughout the area. Whereas the van would only have gotten me
within 3mi of the summit, we managed to get the Liberty almost
within a mile.
We didn't hit bottom even once, despite the whoop-dee-dos an other rough road
portions.
The Bone is the highpoint of a small mountain island between Melville and Means
(dry) Lakes. From the east side we followed a more or less direct route up to
the summit, climbing 
some 1,000ft
in about 45min. A moldy register dated 
to 1987 was
left by the Martellotti brothers. They seemed eager to hear about other
ascents, leaving their phone numbers by which to reach them. Vitz visited in
2006 with Gordon/Barbara signing in 2007. Steve Martellotti made two additional
ascents in 2004 and most recently 
in 2013 -
26yrs after his first ascent(!). We 
made it back
to the car in about 40min, finishing up our day by 2:30p.
After returning to SR247 it was time for Karl to head home. We bade him goodbye
and then continued west on SR247 another 11mi to Bessemer Mine Rd which would
take us to Upper Johnson Valley where we planned to hike the next day. We got
as far as Soggy (dry) Lake where we found a BLM kiosk with a map that showed
the marines had taken control of a large part of Upper Johnson Valley in 2011
to use as they saw fit. We drove another 4mi+ north to check it out. We found
a line of 
signs
(but no gates) indicating that it was, indeed, closed off. We
decided not to take our chances since we would still need to drive another
12mi+ to get to where we wanted to hike the next day - seemed too easy to get
caught back there and there was no way we could deny having seen the signs. We
went back to Soggy Lake to spend the night - Bob planned to get up early in the
morning to drive homeward while I still didn't know what I would do the next
day. Simply driving home seemed unappealing...
Continued...