I had spent the night camped in 
Mill Canyon in the northwest corner of
Mono County, off the excellent gravel road that comes in from US395 near the
town of Walker. My main objective today was Peak 8,376ft, the highest summit in
the Sierra Nevada with more than 900ft of prominence that I'd yet to visit. I
know that's a pretty obscure criteria, but that's mostly what I have left these
days. The other summits were in the same area and the collection made for a full
and interesting day.
Peak 8,376ft
I drove the main road south to the end of Mill Canyon, taking a lesser road that forks left and climbs up to the head of Terry Canyon at
a saddle. From
here it was less than a mile and about 1,000ft of gain to the summit. In
hindsight this probably wasn't the easiest way to reach the top.
The ridgeline is rocky and long-ish, class 
2-3 scrambling that
would take me a little over an hour to complete. The brush was minimal and the
scrambling fairly enjoyable. After a couple of 
false summits, I reached
the highpoint of 
the ridgeline separating Mill Canyon to the
west from the West Walker River to the east. I knew that John Ide, who had
passed recently, had been up here in 2017. I left 
a register with both
of our names before starting down. I decided to drop more directly off the
southwest side, down steep, sandy slopes that took but 20 minutes to
descend. I ended up back on 
the road I had driven up, leaving me about
3/4mi of walking along it to 
get back to the car. I suspect the easiest
ascent route is also up the SW side which would make for a shorter drive, too.
Peak 9,711ft
With 891ft of prominence, this summit very nearly qualifies as a P900. It lies 2.5mi southwest of Peak 8,376ft and I had a very short drive to get from one starting point to
the next. I approached Peak 9,711ft from the
northeast, another all cross-country route, this one climbing more than 2,500ft
over two miles, mostly through forest understory. The lower 1/3 of the route has
had the forest floor raked of deadfall which has been put into numerous
slash piles. 
Pink ribbons marked the boundary
between this area and the upper 2/3 that had not been disturbed. I followed an
old motorcycle track in the lower part to make things even easier. Above this,
I had to slow and watch my footing more carefully, the slope growing steeper
until rolling off near the end. Considerably higher than the first summit, this
one had much 
better views with a really good one of
Lost Cannon Peak to 
the southwest. I left 
a register
on this summit, too, thinking it well deserved one.
Peak 8,168ft
This minor summit is found between the first two. After
returning to
the jeep, I first attempted to continue driving south up the canyon, hoping to
visit the three peaks I did later. I found the road ended soon after starting
off, in a forest clearing where a trailhead is found. The old road is now trail
and not the easiest way to reach those peaks. Instead, I parked at the trailhead
and headed off cross-country up steep slopes to 
the northwest to Peak
8,168ft. There are some 
rocky cliffs to avoid on the west side of the
summit and I skirted these 
on the right up through forest to reach
the top in 40 minutes. There's a good view to 
the west of
Peak 9,711ft, but otherwise nothing special to this one.
Peak 9,060ft #1
In perusing my maps, it occurred to me that I might be able to reach these other three peaks from the south, going through the Marines' Mountain Warfare Training Center on SR108. There is a public easement to allow use of the National Forest lands in the area when not being used for training purposes. I spent about an hour driving back out of Mill Canyon, south on US395, west on SR108, and then up the forest roads to the three peaks around Grouse Meadows. Two of the unnamed summits have the same elevation, making for some confusion. The first of these is located at
the north end of
the meadows with a
rough road that can be driven 
nearly to the summit. There are two
points about 1/5mi apart, the northeast point higher by about 10ft. I parked
the jeep, walked up to the lower point a few feet away, then continued on to
the other point when it became obvious it was higher. There was a
small pile of rocks at 
the highpoint, but not much else. There is a
nice view of the Sweetwaters looking over the West Walker River canyon to
the east.
Peak 9,060ft #2
This summit is located at the south end of Grouse Meadows and was the
most interesting peak of the day. The summit is a large dome of broken granite
that proved a challenging scramble. An old road goes partway up the slope from
the northwest, becoming a trail that works its way around the west side of the
summit without getting very close. I eventually left this to find a challenging
class 3 way up 
from the south, with several 
dead ends before
finding a way that worked. There were 
shell casings scattered all over
the peak, probably from some military exercises that utilized the summit. There
was 
old wiring left in few places as well, probably from some portable
telecom equipment back in the day before satellite radios. I found a class 3
descent gully off the NE side that I used to make a shorter return
back to the jeep. I spent a little over an hour on this one.
Peak 9,401ft
This last summit is found a mile west of the previous one and I simply used the same starting point. It was the brushiest of the six peaks, a straightforward class 2 scamper from
the east, with an 
open summit and a great
view 
looking south towards Tower Peak atop the Sierra Crest
and the headwaters of the West Walker River. I found a less brushy return
route descending more directly to the east, but in the end it wasn't really
any better than the ascent route.
It wasn't yet 5p by the time I 
returned
to the jeep, and I had hours of daylight
remaining. Though I had several other summits on my list to visit, I decided
to call it a day and give myself more time to rest up for the main event
tomorrow,
a climb of Petit Griffon. I stopped at the Whoa Nellie for dinner, then drove
up to Mosquito Flat at the end of Rock Creek Rd where I would spend the night
and from where our group would be starting the next morning.