My last day in the Bristol Mtns was focused on an unoffically named summit with
more than 800ft of prominence. It lies in the central part of the range, about
4mi from the powerline road to the south where I'd spent the night. Despite
rising earlier and a short drive to my starting point, I still didn't begin
hiking until 7a, much like the previous two days. It wasn't as cold this
morning, about 43F, and would warm up nicely to over 60F before I was done. The
first mile and a half were 
almost flat, walking across firm, partially
sandy terrain
with almost no drops into and out of gullies as one might expect from
the across-the-grain direction I traveled. I then turned slightly northeast up a
broad wash, gaining elevation slowly as I turned north up a
narrower wash,
towards my summit. The wash opened up as I climbed higher, eventually
leading to the start of the benign 
SW Ridge
after an hour and a quarter. The
class 2 ridge made for a nice ascent route, rocky with good footing that brought
me to 
the top
by 8:30a. Andy Smatko and pals left a register here back 
in 1974,
coming up with the name "Mt. Sysos" based on the first letters of their last
names - Smatko, Yates, Sanders, Oliver and
Schuler. The only other vistor was John Vitz and Barb Sheets
in 2003,
29yrs later. And then I show up only 16yrs after that - these desert places are
getting too crowded!
I had originally planned to reach this summit and call it a day, but upon noting
that I had gotten there faster than planned, another summit only 1.6mi away and
no real rush to get home, I decided to extend my outing through this
interesting part
of the range. I would spend another hour and a half simply getting between
the two peaks in no particular hurry and not even trying to be efficient in my
choice of route. I wandered along 
the East Ridge
because it looked interesting rather than dropping directly into the drainage
southeast of Mt. Sysos. I eventually dropped into 
this drainage,
made my way southeast 
across a low saddle
and into another drainage before starting a climb out. I had to go over
the crest
of the range to drop to a second saddle before climbing up to Peak 3,231ft
found further east. I knew Barbara and Gordon had climbed Peak 3,231ft in 1980,
so I was surprised to find they'd left no register. Was it possible their supply
of glass jars and notepads was not unlimited? I hadn't thought I'd brought one
of my own, but after scrounging through my pack I 
found one in its
deeper
recesses. Turning my attention now to the business of getting back to the jeep,
I once again deliberately chose a meandering route rather than the most
efficient. It would have been easiest to drop southwest or southeast into one
of two washes and follow those back to the pipeline road and the jeep,
a distance of about 4-5mi, mostly flat. Instead, I picked a route that went
initially into 
the southwest drainage,
but then west to regain 
the crest of
the range before following the undulating ridgeline southwest for a number of
miles in the general direction of the jeep. Had I other peaks on my agenda I
certainly would not have chosen this route, but it seemed a good way to stretch
out the remaining short time I had in the desert. My route took me through some
cool sand dunes where I found an old aluminum 
canteen
half buried in the sand. It was 12:15p by the time 
I returned,
reluctantly acknowledging that my trip
was drawing to a close. The water jug on my dash had not had time to reach even
room temperature, so I went without a shower. I was out of beer, sadly, but at
least had a single can of ice-cold soda to sip on while I was driving back out
to Ludlow and Interstate 40. It would be almost 9p by the time I returned to
San Jose. The fine weather I'd had in the desert ended as I was driving back
over Tehachapi Pass and into the Central Valley with heavy gray clouds and
light rain for most of the remaining drive. More rain was forecast on and off
for the next week, something I would have to endure before I could get back out
in the second half of the month...