Continued...
The others had left me at the conclusion of the weekend, needing to get home for
work and other duties. Iris and Scott would be back to join me the next weekend
along with others to help celebrate my birthday with more desert peakbagging. I
was on my own for the next three days and had an agenda that could be managed
without the help of a high-clearance vehicle. After spending the night at an
Open OHV area off SR62, I drove out towards Parker Dam to tackle a handful of
summits in the Monument Mountains, a sub-range on the east side of the Whipple
Mtns, adjacent to the Colorado River. This area has some of the best scrambling
to be found in the California desert, all on mostly-good volcanic rock,
unusually. Following three warm days with only
modest breezes, strong winds started up during the night, rocking the van
gently while I slept and keeping up all day while I hiked. The winds would add
some challenge to the stiff class 3 scrambling on these volcanic peaks, but this
was more than compensated by cooler temps that hovered around 60F.
Copper Basin Peak - Peak 2,020ft
Unofficially named Copper Basin Peak rises to the east above the reservoir by
the same name. LA MWD's Colorado River Aqueduct begins at the Whitset Intake
where it is pumped 300ft up from the river
to the Gene Wash Reservoir and from there it is pumped
another 275ft up to Copper Basin Reservoir before flowing through the Whipple
Mtns Tunnel. Most of the lands around the two reservoirs and along the aqueduct
route is jealously owned by the Metropolitan Water District and not open to the
public. These two summits require some stealth, but if not on the service road
leading to Bandit Pass there is little chance of discovery. I parked outside
across this road, starting early around 6a, before sunrise. I followed
the service road for about 2/3mi before turning left and following
towards the summit. Like almost all of the peaks in this area, routes are not
trivial as there are impressive volcanic cliffs around most sides. The crux on
the route I followed from the northeast was a slanting
that breaks through the cliff band, the route becomes
. There is a fine view of the
from the summit, with the other reservoir and the Colorado River visible far to
. There is also a good view of the impossible-looking
to the west, above the reservoir. Less than half a mile
to the southeast is Peak 2,020ft, a fairly involving a
drop of less than 300ft. In descending off this bonus peak, I dropped into
than the one I'd used for the ascent. It has the
advantage of being more discreet than following the service road, and offers a
class 2 route to both summits. A couple of watched me
as I decended through the drainage, not looking too bothered by my presence.
I also found one of the three I saw during the day. I
spent less than 2.5hrs covering the 4.5mi loop with 1,300ft of gain.
Peak 1,990ft
The next three peaks were all located off paved Black Meadow Rd, none more than
a mile from the road, but all challenging and fun. With 750ft of prominence,
has sheer walls surrounding the summit on three sides. A
steep gully up goes class 2-3. The lower part of the
mountain is littered with rock and boulder, becoming more solid towards the top.
I climbed
a stiff class 3 wall on the left side of the gully on the ascent but took the
easier class 2 route on the descent. Peak 1,540ft is 400ft lower about 3/4mi
to
and looks impressive. Because of the long drop to reach it,
I decided to make it a separate effort via an easier route. Even more impressive
is the higher Peak 2,056ft to , a P900 I had climbed two years
earlier on my first visit to the area.
Peak 2,037ft
This summit is very imposing from . It turns out the upper
half isn't as hard as it looks. The crux is choosing
to take after
reaching the halfway point. I chose the right (east) gap on the ascent which
turned out to be a surprisingly with a short bit of
to bypass a large chockstone. After some
chossy traversing across the
west side of the summit ridgeline, there was some good class 3 scrambling on
mostly solid rock to the summit. On
I took the alternate (west) route
to bypass the class 4 section, finding it easier class 2-3.
Peak 1,540ft
This was the most challenging peak of the day, a really good one. I used the
same starting point as I'd used for Peak 2,056ft two years earlier, following
a for about 2/3mi up to the south
from the pavement. At a low saddle the peak . Lesser
burro trails lead across the grain of the adjacent drainage to the base of the
peak, with a chossy climb up to of the peak where the
real work begins. The trick is to explore around the corner to the right to find
the to the more
solid rock above. Careful route-finding keeps it to class 3 and I found myself
going slowly and deliberately in several places due to exposure. Great fun.
Views aren't as spectacular from the summit since it is
by h on three sides. I found an empty
on my way back. It had a hole
the size of a silver dollar where it appears a predator pecked through the hard
outer shell. This was a bit surprising since it was a good-sized tortoise -
these usually have harder shells to crack than the younger versions.
Power BM
The easiest of the bunch, this is one of two peaks between Gene Wash Reservoir
and the Colorado River (the other is which lies on
MWD property). It has the distinction of being the easternmost summit in
California - should be special points for that, no?
It rises above to the north, offering a fine
view of and dam from the summit. There are
criss-crossing the mountain, making it
a relative snap to get up and down, at least compared to the other summits.
Nothing harder than class 2 on this one. Just as I was reaching the summit I
startled a desert bighorn which promptly got up and disappeared out of sight
before I could get my camera out. Drats. I finished up not long after 2p and
decided to call it quits. The mileage today wasn't long, but there was almost
5,000ft of gain - time for a shower...
Continued...