Three of us were camped at Badger Flat near Mazourka Peak in the Inyo Mtns for the primary purpose of climbing unnamed Peak 10,961ft on the crest of the range. Ok, that was my purpose. Tom was here because he wanted to climb Winnedumah Paiute Monument which was slated for the next day and Laura just wanted to hang out in the mountains in excellent company. Tom and I did our best to meet expectations but it's not altogether clear whether it up to par or we were even capable of doing so. Peak 10,961ft was my last CA summit over 10,000ft with 1,000ft of prominence, a list of 125 summits that no one had completed before nor, as far as I could tell, ever cared about. Still, it was the 4th highest summit in the Inyo Mountains and seemed worth checking out. Even with a few extra bonus peaks thrown in it wasn't a hard outing at 13mi and something over 3,000ft of gain, but we all enjoyed a fine high desert romp under beautiful skies with exceptional weather.
From Badger Flat we drove about 3mi on rough roads along the Wilderness
boundary to gain about 400ft to the 9,100-foot level and save some modest
mileage. We could have started from Badger Flat and used an old road going up
Tamarack Canyon, but
since Tom had brought his Jeep it seemed more fun to make use of it. It was not
long before 8a when we 
started out, passing through an old
ranch fence that
now marks the Wilderness boundary. Oddly, the fence featured a gate that was
merely latched and would allow anyone to actually drive into the Wilderness and
judging from the tracks we saw, a few had done so fairly recently. They wouldn't
get too far as the road deteriorates slowly as one hikes east up
the canyon and
after the first half mile only a determined ATVer seems to have gotten further,
but not more than about a mile. The road, fine for walking, climbs steadily
upcanyon, eventually turning to the south where it ends at an old 
USFS
campground at 10,300ft, about 2.5mi from the start. There are 4-5 old campsites
marked by firerings that see little use, but probably did at one time when one
could drive to this point before the Wilderness was created in 1994.
The topo map shows the road continuing over a shallow saddle here but we found
almost no trace of this or any of the several branches that are also shown.
Nevertheless, 
cross-country travel was fairly tame for the 600ft of
gain over about a mile that it took to reach 
the summit just shy of
11,000ft. The views were
partially blocked by sparse tree cover at this elevation, but we still had some
open, albeit hazy views looking into Death Valley to the east. A
small register
had been left in 2014 by a Mammoth resident whose name I couldn't quite
decipher, but first name of Chris. The only other entry was from
John Vitz (who
else?) only a few months before us in July. We soaked in some sun and ate some
snacks while 
resting and collectively planning our next moves.
Laura decided she didn't really care to join us heading another 1.5mi further
south to another lower, unnamed peak but also didn't exactly feel like heading
back yet either. Our plan then was for Laura to head northwest to Blue BM
where Tom and I would meet her sometime later after visiting the first bonus
peak. We took about 40min over continuing mellow terrain
along the crest of the
range, enjoying the views and what was amounting to a very delightful day. We
checked out several 
possible highpoints closely spaced atop
Peak 10,492ft (for those that care, this would land on
a list of CA
non-Sierra 10,000-foot summits), unsurprisingly finding no register. We then
headed back north,
following in a drainage west of the crest to a saddle at 10,700ft before
dropping again, heading northwest towards Blue BM, our rendezvous point. It
took us an hour and a half from Peak 10,492ft to find the USGS
Blue benchmark at 
the highpoint after a modest climb, then
only a few seconds more to 
spot Laura waiting for us lying
against a tree just downhill. She seemed to have had a fine time of it, despite
the lack of our charming company, though she wasn't unhappy to see us finally
arrive (quite a bit later than I had guessed earlier).
After a short break, the three of us collected our gear and followed the
ridgeline northeast about 1/3mi to the higher point at unnamed Peak 10,728ft.
Here we found a little pearl in a 1976 
MacLeod/Lilley register.
Its 12 pages were mostly filled with entries from hunters looking for deer
though there were a few familiar names including 
Dennis Burge,
Keith Christensen & Paul Garry, 
Bob Sumner and Greg Gerlach.
We dropped east off the summit then across a shallow
drainage before hiking back up to the saddle where the campsites were found
earlier. Trailing behind a short distance, Laura gave out a shout that she'd
found something - a tiny 
obsidian arrowhead,
it turns out, a small game-sized
one with a broken tip. We had been talking about the case of a Mammoth Lakes
resident recently indicted for theft of Native American artifacts and suddenly
she comes up with this little gem. I was a little frustrated - I've never found
an arrowhead in 20yrs of roaming such places and walked right over this one
before Laura picked it up. We took a few photos of it before Laura tossed it
aside. As we walked through the old campground, Laura asked Tom and I if we
wanted to visit the "campsite" which seemed to hold no interest to us until we
realized she meant "camp site", her term for 
a regular cabin
in the woods that had
been someone's man-cave back in the day. Though boarded up and in disuse now,
at one time it sported spring beds, an 
outdoor smoker and BBQ
and all sorts of
accoutrements that would allow one to comfortably spend weeks away from a
nagging spouse. Only a few minutes after leaving the cabin and returning to the
road, Laura blurted out, "Hey, you almost stepped on one!" as she bent down to
pick up 
a second arrowhead
that I stepped over. At this point my panties were
in a bunch and I shouted out threat of bodily harm if she went on to find
yet another one. The two of them found this rather amusing, Tom especially
hoping she'd find a third - "I really want to see you smash her face," he said
with a grin. Of course I would have backed down if she had found
another because for one, hitting a
lady isn't gentlemanly, but more importantly, I'm pretty sure she'd have me on
the ground crying like a baby before I ever made contact. She tossed that one
aside too, and luckily for me, a third one was never found.
We 
returned to the Jeep
around 3:15p. We were back to the campground before 4p
and soon after Tom mentioned he'd like to check out Mazourka Peak. So we piled
into the Jeep for the second drive in two days to this easy summit a short
distance from Badger Flat. We explored the lower west summit in addition to the
highpoint, using the available cell service to send messages to family and
otherwise occupying our time on Mazourka as the sun started a slow fade over
the Sierra to the west and the breeze took on a cold chill. Smoke from fires
burning in Sequoia and Yosemite had blown east into the Owens Valley marring
what would otherwise be spectacular panoramic views. Back in camp, Matthew would
arrive a few hours later for our climb the next day to Winnedumah Paiute
Monument. The weather forecast was calling for more unsettled weather and
possible rain and thunderstorms the next day - for now I was hoping it wouldn't
come early during the night since I was sleeping out in the open without a tent
for shelter...
Continued...