It had been two years since I last climbed in the Inyo Mtns of Eastern California with Tom and Karl, and a few years before that with just Tom, both times with just a single day in the area. Tom had a 4-day weekend this time, allowing us a more thorough exploration of the area's peaks. We would visit 27 summit in the north end of the range over the four days, leaving a few stragglers for a future visit. We camped three nights at at an old mining site just off the main road at around 7,100ft, enjoying campfires and our modest desert cuisine (sorely missing the more gourmet offerings that Matt Yaussi used to provide). Most of the peaks we visited made for short hikes of a mile or less and it was difficult to keep track of them with so many. Most of the remaining parts of these TRs are intentionally short descriptions - one can get the best use by just downloading the GPX tracks and following those. Bear in mind that some of the roads are pretty rough and 4WD may be required to get to our starting points.
Mt. Nunn / Peak 7,620ft
This was the only long hike of the four days, about five miles each way with 3,400ft of gain. Mt. Nunn was the primary goal with more than 800ft of prominence, while Peak 7,620ft was just an easy bonus peak on the way. Mt. Nunn was named for L.L. Nunn, the founder of the Deep Springs College, a unique 2-year liberal arts program at an isolated ranch & farm at the base of the mountain in Deep Springs Valley. There is an old road that climbs up from the paved Death Valley Rd, but it is now within the Piper Mtn Wilderness and closed to vehicles. We parked at
the start of this road shortly after 7:30a
and started up from there on foot.
We followed the old road 2.7mi to its end in about 45min, finding the remains
of an 
old mining cabin with a rock hearth that took up most of the space
in the small, 1-room log structure. 
Littered about the outsides were
the remains of an iron stove and lots of detritus from the homestead. Just up
the hill was a 
20-foot deep pit that looked to be excavating a
blue-green vein of rock (copper?) from the hillside. It doesn't appear to have
amounted to much given all the effort. We left the road to head north
cross-country, reaching the easy 
summit of Peak 7,620ft in
another 30min. A Rocky Rockwell of Bishop had left a register here
in 1996, making two more visits through
2000. Only a handful of others had signed the small notepad. Not long after
leaving the summit, we got 
sight of Mt. Nunn another mile and a half
further north. There were some ravines and folds in the mountains
between the two, necessitating some unwelcome dips along the way before
finally climbing up to Mt. Nunn. We 
reached the top shortly before 11a,
about 3.5hrs from the start.
Lying in the open at the top were some scattered sheets of paper relating to
the Deep Springs College Constitution and Deed of Trust. These formed a picture
of a faith-based college built on self-determination, manual labor (there is
an alfalfa farm, dairy cows and cattle to attend to) and heavy on student class
participation. There was a register as well, with many pages and some
older scraps. The main register was left 
in 1980 by Jim
Morefield and Ed Cronk in
1980. The latter was the president of the college at the time, the register
placed to commemorate the USGS granting official status to the naming of Mt.
Nunn. Jim Morefield was a student there, and through Kirk Dixon was made
aware of the register photo I had posted even before this trip report was
written. I had a short but pleasant exchange with Jim via email, during which
he provided
a dated photo
of the two of them atop Mt. Nunn, complete with
Levis, the preferred hiking apparel of the day.
From the summit, one can tell where Deep Springs Valley is to
Continued...
the northwest,
but the valley floor (and the college) are out of view because the peak sits
back from the edge of the valley. Eureka Valley can be seen with its sand dunes
in Death Valley NP far to 
the southeast, while the Sierra Crest around
the Palisades rises in the distance to the west. One can also see far
into Nevada, with the Silver Peaks Range recognizable to the northeast.
After a short rest at the summit, we headed back, taking
some variations on our outbound route in an effort to avoid some
of the dips encountered along the way. The three of us ended up splitting up
for about 30min while I nearly went back over Peak 7,620ft and the others found
ways around it. We were back together before reaching the old road. On the way
down the road we 
shortcutted a large turn in the road before regaining
it and 
following it down to our start, finishing up by 1:45p.
an easier ascent,
taking all of 50min for the roundtrip effort. There are four contours on the
topo map of equal height and we had to visit three of them before determining
which was the highest. We left a register here whereby I dubbed the summit as
"Karl Hill"
for no other reason than there isn't already such a named summit in the state.
We considered briefly continuing on to nearby Lime Hill, but its
lack of prominence and the deep drop between the summits dissuaded us, so we
simply returned to the jeep 
on the main road.
Peak 8,100ft, a third of the
distance and
half the elevation gain. It took less than 15min to climb to the
uninteresting summit with 
decent views.
We were back before Karl had had time to fall asleep,
a little to his dismay. I'd have preferred to do a bit more, but my companions
had had enough so we called it a day and drove back to camp for showers, dinner,
campfire and beers, though not exactly in that order...