Karl and I had planned to meet Monday morning in the Coso Range for a few days
of peakbagging. I knew he had left a day earlier to hike around in the
Southern Sierra, so as I was driving south on I-5 Sunday morning, I texted to
see what he was up to. He had cell coverage and told me he was on the summit of
Lamont BM. That happens to be only a few miles from where I was planning to
hike in the afternoon, so we made plans to meet up on Chimney Peak Rd at
2pm. The timing worked well as he finished up his morning hike and got to the
meeting place less than 15min before I pulled in.
Peak 6,294ft
Located about 1.3mi southwest of Lamont Peak, Peak 6,294ft is deceptively
tiring. It's only a mile from the first hairpin turn in Chimney Peak Rd out of
the Kern River Valley, but has 2,000ft of gain - about twice what it had looked
like from our starting point. The route up the Northwest Ridge is
steep to start and gets steeper in the second half, not rolling off until the
last 200ft. We crossed a dry creek, somewhat brushy, immediately off the road
where I picked up a pair of ticks. On the way back I must have picked a worse
crossing because I got another 10 ticks that took some work to dislodge and then
check everything for hidden cohorts. There is what seems like
a use trail at
the start of the ridge, but this doesn't last long. The footing on sandy soil
was decent thanks to damp ground from light rains a day earlier. The upper half
had a fair
amount of brush, downfall and broken granite rock to negotiate and it would
take us an hour and a quarter to make our way to the summit. There are
fine views of Lamont to the northeast, Spanish Needle and Owens Peak to
the east, Canebrake Flat and the Kern River Valley to
the southwest. A small granite block serves as the highpoint, a
small perch from which to take in the surrounding Owens Peak Wilderness. We
left a register here before heading back down. The generous rains of
March and April did wonders to bring out the yellow flowers on much of
the slopes, a very picturesque scene. It was almost 4:30p
by the time we returned. Karl was done for the day, so we made arrangements to
meet up later in the Coso Range while I went off to do another nearby summit.
Peak 5,354ft
This summit is about a mile and three quarters south of Peak 6,294ft, separated
by Spanish Needle Creek. A ranch is located between them along the creek, a
private cutout in the Wilderness. I drove a short distance south from where we'd
parked, using a spur road to get me to an overlook above Spanish Needle Creek,
about 1.3mi northwest of Peak 5,354ft. I'm not sure if this is
the easiest way to approach it, but it worked. I had tried to climb this peak
once before from SR178 southwest of the summit. On that occasion, I had climbed
to the slightly lower southwest summit thinking I was at the highpoint. It was
only after I had gotten home and looked at the GPX track that I realized I'd
missed it by 1/5mi. My route today started by crossing Spanish Needle Creek,
only a trickle of water, but non-trivial amounts of brush making it a bit
tricky. Once this was accomplished, it was a very enjoyable cruise across low
gradient slopes on the west side of the Wilderness, yellow flowers
brightening the scrub-filled slopes. I went around an intervening slope to climb
Peak 5,354ft up a sandy but low brush slope on its northwest side. The slope led
to the gully between the two summits, a little steep and loose at the
top before reaching the saddle and then the easy finish to the higher northeast
summit. It took an hour to reach the top where I found
a register left by Jorge
Estrada a year earlier. The return was more enjoyable with the late afternoon
"Golden Hour" light painting a more flattering scene on the terrain and
lingering clouds. It was 6:15p by the time I returned to the jeep where I
showered before heading over Walker Pass and north to the Coso Range where I
found Karl having just finished his dinner...