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I had driven in from San Jose the evening before, getting to bed in the back of the jeep after 11p. The cold kept me in my sleeping bag until nearly 7a and I still had almost an hour of driving to the Woodchuck TH above Wishon Reservoir. Consequently, I didn't get started until 7:45a, but it was still darn cold. I spent the first 2.5hrs plying the trail into the John Muir Wilderness, all of it through forest with nary a view. I got a view of Loper Peak from the south at a meadow on that side of the peak and left the trail soon thereafter to climb the South Slopes to Loper's summit in another hour's time. The cross-country was fairly easy, save for the steep slope. Most of the day's 6.5mi of cross-country was on the easy side. Loper's summit was rocky and open to views in all directions. I found a generic benchmark on the summit rock but no register on this or any of the peaks I visited. Sadly, I'd forgotten to bring some spare registers in my pack.
Loper is connected to the higher Peak 10,220ft about a mile to the northeast
by a high ridgeline. The part starting immediately from Loper's summit is a
bit of a tough scramble so I dropped off to the side before returning
to the ridge where the going gets easier. This second peak was forested with
poor views. A couple of small rocky pinnacles appear to mark the
highest point, both of them easy scrambles. I next dropped to a
saddle just north of Woodchuck Lake before climbing up
I put my fleece back on to ward off the chill as I left Scepter BM to return
to Crown Pass and pick up
the trail that would take me back down to Wishon
Reservoir. I had something like 4hrs of hiking
on the trail to get me back by 5:45p
and I was pretty beat by the time I finished. The cold temps meant I sweated
very little and I consumed only a single quart of Gatorade in all that time.
My shower water was only lukewarm, but better than the 55F outside temp. Time
to rehydrate and eat some dinner...
Continued...
This page last updated: Sun Oct 14 19:37:10 2018
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