Scodie Meadow Loop
William Scodie was an early pioneer who lived where the small town of Onyx now lies along SR278. The Scodie Mtns above the town were named for him. So apparently was this 6,000-foot elevation meadow almost 20mi to the northeast. The large meadow is surrounded by eight summits, most of them along or near the Sierra Crest. I had been to three of these on previous occasions, so today's outing was designed to collect the remaining five. All of the peaks lie within the Sacatar Trail Wilderness though the meadow itself does not. I had thought we would be able to drive a dirt road into the meadow for a shorter outing, but the road was gated only about half a mile from the pavement, leaving us an extra two miles of hiking each way on the old roadbed.
We started out from 
the locked gate at 6:40a, reaching the southern edge
of the meadow and the foundation of an 
old homestead
in about 15min. A good deal of
local quartz stone and cement were used to make steps and walls. A concrete
foundation was surrounded on one side by what once was a courtyard. All other
traces of the home that once stood here have been removed, probably by the BLM.
Picturesque 
Scodie Meadow
stretches for several miles, green but drying quickly
now that the snow in the region has all melted. There are petrified cow patties
telling of past grazing, but there seems to be none in recent years. A mile
past the old homestead, we came to a 4-way junction and turned right on a spur
road. This spur road forks again, with one branch going north and the other
south of our first summit, Peak 7,322ft. We took the north branch then
cross-country
up to 
our summit. In what would become a habit of sorts on each
summit, we 
rested up for about 10min, took in 
the views and
left 
a register
before going on to the next one. This summit and the next sit off the west side
of the crest so we couldn't yet see down the eastern escarpment of the range,
but the sun was washing out those views in the early morning hour anyways.
Having ascended Peak 7,322ft from the northwest, we descended the northeast
side and made our way cross-country to Peak 7,536ft a mile and half to the
north. This took us over 
easy terrain, in and out of three minor
drainages on the west side of the crest. There were a few small groves of
joshua trees
growing around the 7,000-foot level, surprisingly high. More amply represented
were the pinyons, junipers and mountain mahogany. Scattered about much of the
low-lying sandy areas were thousands upon thousands of 
obsidian chips
that told
of centuries of Indian hunting in the area. As the crow flies, it's less than
7mi to the Little Lake area in the high desert region to the east where obsidian
can be sourced. It seemed like this part of the Sierra would have been a
convenient hunting area, often snow-free for nine months of the year. If there
were arrowheads to be found we were unlucky, though I spent much time scanning
the ground and poking at many of the chips as we walked through the area. We
reached Peak 7,536ft in an hour's time, 
the highpoint
atop a pile of broken granite rock. Jonathan Mason had left 
a register
here in 2017 while doing an
impressive traverse of the Five Mile Canyon drainage from the desert floor to
the east. Bob Sumner was the only other visitor, just eight days prior to our
arrival. Another hour would be spent continuing north to Peak 7,897ft, this
time close to the Sierra Crest. We would periodically have cell service during
this time, giving us an excuse to take a break and send our wives a "we're still
alive" text. Mason had left another register atop Peak 7,897ft (though my poor
camera work caught nothing of what was 
written there). An old
Budweiser can from the 1970s had been inscribed on 
the bottom
with Dick and Bob from 1976. The
can was remarkably heavier than today's more modern, and much thinner beer cans.
Peak 7,897ft was the only summit actually on the crest, though we didn't have
much of a view into Five Mile Canyon and down to the desert floor as we might
have expected, thanks to the more gentle roll-off of the upper part of the
mountain before it plunges down into the deep canyon.
We spent 45min making our way to 
Peak 7,887ft about a mile to the
northwest, again a short distance west of the crest itself. Mason had not
visited this summit, so we left one of 
our own registers before
leaving. The last summit, 
Peak 7,830ft, lies almost 2mi to the
southeast, on the west side of Scodie Meadow. It was necessary to drop 1,000ft
to the valley below before reclimbing the same distance to the summit. There are
some 
remnants of old ranch buildings, rusting tins and
other detritus found near a fork in the 
old road I
rediscovered enroute. Before descending to the base of Peak 7,887ft, Karl and I
had split up, preferring different options. We wouldn't regroup again until we
were both 
atop Peak 7,830ft. The weather continued to be near
ideal, a bit warm but with a cold wind that blew across the range. Only on
the lower leeward slopes did the wind fail to reach us, but these were only for
short durations. It was 12:30p as we sat atop the fifth summit, admiring the
snow far to the north around Mt. Langley. Upon descending, we took different
routes, Karl preferring to explore the South Ridge while I chose to descend
east down 
sandy slopes to reach 
the old road in the shortest
time possible. Karl
eventually gave up the ridge and dropped down to the road, too, apparently more
efficiently than I had. For much of the next hour I kept thinking he was behind
me, only to discover him well ahead as we entered the more open terrain through
Scodie Meadow. It was 2:15p by the time we 
got back to the TH.
Karl decided to be done for the day while I went off to tag another summit.
Peak 8,271ft
This unnamed summit lies to the west in the Domelands Wilderness. The Kennedy Meadow Rd skirts the northwest side of the Wilderness and comes within about a mile and a quarter of the summit. I
parked at a small turnout on the
south side of the road and went cross-country 
from there. The 2000
Manter Fire killed off 
most of the trees, leaving much brush to grow
back in its place. Even 20yrs later, there
are few new trees growing on the slopes. Still, the news isn't all bad - the
cross-country travel isn't too bad if one doesn't rush through it but
looks for the open pathways. The more open slopes leave more room for flowers
including plenty of 
phlox
that I saw on my way up. It appears from the maps
that the land immediately adjacent to the roadway is private, but there were
no fences encountered anywhere on the hike. There were signs of cattle grazing
along the roadside creek and further up the small drainage I followed to begin,
but nothing to make one feel unwelcomed. It took just over an hour
to reach the rocky summit marked with a spot elevation of 
8,262ft. I
left 
a register here but noted that another point a quarter mile to
the east looked
like it may be taller. I checked the elevation on my GPSr and then went over
to the other point. It proved a tougher scramble though no harder than class 3,
and the elevation measured 5-10ft higher. I would get LoJ to move the summit
location to the newly named Peak 8,271ft upon my return home. Maybe the next
visitor can move the register from the old location to the new one. If not, I
don't think there will be any long-term consequences that the world needs to
be concerned with. There is a nice view looking into 
Domelands across
the South Fork of the Kern River and 
north to Olancha, Langley and
even Mt.
Whitney in the far north. I was back to the jeep by 4:40p, still with more than
three hours of daylight but not much more energy. Time to call it a day.
I drove back down Kennedy Meadow Rd to the Sierra Crest where I had left Karl earlier. On the south side of the road there is a dirt road leading to a number of primitive campsites in the forest directly on the Sierra Crest. The wind kept all the insects at bay and a campfire helped warm us some from the wind as we sat around it as the late afternoon faded to sunset and twilight and then merged into night. Cold and tired, we would be in bed by 9p and have more than enough hours to sleep until morning. The wind kept up through the night, sounding more like the ocean surf than the usual wind noise, oddly enough. It was a very pleasant background to fall to sleep by...
Continued...