Peak 3,780ft / Peak 3,660ft
I
started this 2.5mi loop from paved Ft. Irwin Rd, An easy 3/4mi stroll
across desert flats to first climb 
Peak 3,780ft and then
Peak 3,660ft. There are
actually three unnamed, closely spaced summits with 3,780ft of elevation in
the area - two of these I had climbed on a previous occasion, so this was taking
care of some unfinished business. Both summits had 
small cairns,
but neither
sported a register. Heavy clouds hung over the area, but no rain fell. To
the east,
Calico Peak, the highest in the area, had its summit buried in the clouds.
Peak 4,140ft / Peak 4,100ft
As I was parking for the first two summits, I noticed a couple of utility trucks exiting a dirt road on the east side of Ft. Irwin Rd. I guessed this road might be the one that goes to the summit of Calico Peak and decided to go and explore along it, to see if I could reach some other unnamed summits in the area. There is a whole network of roads back here that don't show up on the topo maps or my GPSr, but are quite enjoyable to drive the jeep on. The easiest way to reach these two peaks is from the road that runs
across the saddle
between them, but I didn't figure this out until I was on the hike. I
had parked about 1/3mi to the west of 
Peak 4,140ft, climbing that one
and
then noticing the second peak only 2/3mi to the northeast. I managed to do
both of them in a 2mi loop, taking advantage of 
the road
on the way back. Peak 4,140ft had 
the broken remains
of a plastic film cannister, likely one of
Andy Smatko's registers. These don't hold up as well as his more rugged
metal film cannisters, unfortunately. There were no remains of paper or pencil,
likely absconded for the nest of a nearby mouse.
Peak 4,264ft
I had spied this one from atop Peak 4,100ft, about 1.25mi further east. I didn't have enough daylight to include it in the same hike, but after returning to the jeep I decided to see how close I could get. "Very" was the definitive, answer, less than
1/3mi away. Even though it was after 4:30p, I had
plenty of light to get to 
the summit and back without needing a
headlamp, despite the heavy skies. This summit, too, 
had bits of a
plastic film cannister.
It would be pretty dark before I managed to drive back out to the
highway, however, but that mattered little - the roads were in good enough
shape that obstacles weren't a serious problem.
Continued...