EISPIRATEN

TLDR: old dude hikes Baldy again

It's been a rough August for me, and I was looking around for a strong trainer. Inspired by Rico's retest, I headed to Baldy.

Last Friday, I decided to head up Register Ridge and come down Ski Hut (some signs call it Baldy Bowl trail now). Got started before 8:00AM ...

Sean wrote: Thu Aug 06, 2026 1:02 pm Thanks for the report. Those are beautiful peaks. How old were the registers?

Morris 5/7/2025

Jenkins 5/30/2020

Nice ride. Crazy distance.

I am very familiar with most of your route. Some of my favorite SD county peaks are around Coyote Canyon. I've only been as far north as Salvador Canyon, so the trail between there and Anza is still on my exploration list. I'm curious how deep the third stream crossing ...

Arc Dome 11,775' (DPS #9) is an ultra prominent peak (5214' prom) in the middle of Nevada. I had driven to Bishop the day before and hit Iron Mountain in the White Mountains. The direct drive to Columbine Camp from Bishop was along Highway 6, then a series of two lane highways to Gabbs, NV. None of ...

Cool area! Appreciate all the photos.

I did some research on Red Slate, but it never got beyond the planning stage. Kind of bummed to learn there was a mosquito issue back there.

Wow, that's a big day!

I took the standard ridge route to Dobbs and remember it being uncomfortably steep. Your route was even steeper, quite the grind.

Thanks for the report.

Cool trip! Nice to get a seldom visited peak. The KM environs are mostly unexplored for me. I should do some zooming in.

In my head, I didn't connect KM and Monache Meadow and Olancha. I think my sense of scale was off from KM to Olancha as the crow flies.

Excellent re-hike. I kind miss Baldy, too. 4000' is great to burn up the calves and quads.

The braiding at the top has always bugged me, since I usually take a couple of wrong ones on the way.

Girl Hiker wrote: Thu Jun 18, 2026 10:57 pm congrats!!! I will return some day to do Bennet and Rogers. It looks pretty easy. Too bad it was too damn cold when I was there.

Thanks! Yeah, the sub-peaks added 300-400' gain each, but were easy open country. They do have nice views of Telescope and Rogers had the best view of the Sierra.

Thanks for the post and the photos, Tekewin. Back in the 1970's, Telescope Peak was one of my favorites. I hiked it from Mahogany Flats, from Shorty's Well, and from Mahogany Flats when it was covered with snow. Could not get enough of it. Was always thrilled by the wild burros, the Charcoal Kilns ...

Five years after my comment that Telescope was on my list, I climbed it.

I drove in the day before and the road was blocked by wild burros. They were completely unimpressed with my truck, horn blaring, so I had to get out and shoo them off the road. Love the wild burros. Did was warm up hike to ...

Siretta is a cool spot! I love the Bristlecone pines up there. I'm glad the upper mountain survived the fire a couple years ago. The fire got up the east side of the mountain within half or 3/4 mile of the summit.

Were you able to tell whether the dirt bikes came over from the east side, or if ...

My wife and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Kernville. Kernville is a river town, not a mountain town. The culture was different than Lone Pine or Bishop. That's not a judgment, just an observation. Recreation was geared around the Kern River, fishing and rafting, not the surrounding mountains.

The ...

Just a quick update on the roads out to Lupine and Pine Mountain Ridge. PMR does not deserve a new post. I was heading to Mt. Lewis, but was thwarted by a long convoy of trucks heading up PCH for repairs. I was going to bike out there, but didn't want to interfere with their work.

So, I remembered ...

Nice one!

Nate wins the Novel prize for planning. Amazing route finding using the slope shaded terrain. I used it once in Caltopo on a desert peak and it was very helpful, and changed my route. I don't always remember to check.

Ben Baumann and I planned to meet up for Clark Mountain (DPS #32), the highest peak in the Mojave. With more than 4000' of prominence, it was visible 25 miles away on the drive up I-15. I exited Bailey Road, crossed under the interstate and turned on Clark Mountain Road. The road goes through an ...

Out of curiosity, how much did the goggles weigh?

Congrats on doing that in one push. Impressive feat.

The Whitney shot was digitally zoomed 8x I think. Here is the version not zoomed. Perfect weather that day.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQMG_388itRDEaFlaALzoK6rkQcWgpTrO_6mfvTTZj0Ph4Oe7GT75Jk-2fFwaYrjnPoilszYYWhD48cltoE9B-0RH58kAQh6z-TysytmaJxHxDvfUH1Db3VBLb_8Sj ...

Olancha was great. I did it as a day hike.

Here's Owens from Olancha...

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcA9omFcFvbj6tFsbmWgjhhvnamWAnSUNt7Zp2qe9IlKqk5-Lvw2dhTRo0WSgFtSYCKntvsJL9WK_yIzE6T1XaVJSwqu_A4pNJX6upwFcPN2wC2v2rgfLL_E7_BSzfH2mcwkMVianfXGf27LkeB ...

Agree 100% on how nice the southern Sierra is and how fun Owens is. It has a striking profile from highway 395.

Congrats on the babies!! A whole different adventure.

Nice photos. That's an area I haven't really explored either. I went down to the creek on the trail once, but never ventured along the creek.

Thanks for the report.

My wife and I spent a couple of days in Lone Pine doing the things we always wanted to do, but never had time because we had bigger fish to fry.

We visited the Manzanar Historic Site (Japanese internment camp) north of Lone Pine. That was interesting and kind of sad.

We visited the Western Museum ...

"Not Occidental Mtn". Funny. I would have gone with "Accidental".

Good luck on Rabbit. It's a beast. Henry and I did the east ridge, which was an interesting scramble, then he wanted to come down an different ridge to pick up three obscure benchmarks. That was a 20 hour hike for us and top five hardest I've done. The views into Clark Dry Lake are amazing.

Dang, that looks scary! Well done Dima and Wes. Wonderful report and photos.

In one of those shots, it looks like you are hanging on the wall with no rope. Alarming indeed.

I think they are probably of similar effort if you take the south ridge to Rattlesnake. Not as many ups and downs on Rattlesnake.

Pusch Peak (pronounced push) is in the Santa Catalina mountains in Tuscon, AZ. I intentionally got a late start at 10 AM to let the sun warm things a bit. The parking lot at the Linda Vista trailhead was full, about 15-20 cars. I parked in a nearby shopping center in front of a Dunn Edwards paint ...

I love this header photo! Thanks for updating it.

Thats a nice big day!

The High Sierra is awesome and all, but I always feel intrigued by all the surrounding 'lower' peaks that are still so rugged and oak-adorned like this one.


I am really in love with the southern Sierra around Ridgecrest. Owens Peak is a favorite and I've enjoyed several ...

With unusually warm weather for December, I drove to Walker Pass Trailhead for the standard route to Morris Peak (HPS #109) and Mount Jenkins (HPS #73). The trailhead is off highway 178 near Ridgecrest. I was greeted with a sunrise filtered through the joshua trees. Most of the hike was along the ...