The goal of the day was very simple: To get to this strange building that is next to Inspiration Point to see if it was mine related. The following image is from 1960 and has the building circled.
On the side, I have been trying to locate all the mines in the Monitor Consolidated Claims with Dima, so this spot was close to a shaft we mapped. I started my hike at the bottom of the Lone Tree trail and climbed up to West Fuji. Now some sources told me that someone put a sign up on West Fuji calling it Phillips Point! This is totally inaccurate since the local common name has been West Fuji since at least the 1970s according to John W. Robinson in his book, "The San Gabriels." This person even crossed out the correctly named "West Fuji" and wrote "Phillips Point" in the peak registry that was placed by Coby King. I reached out to Coby on Facebook and he said he did not place the sign. More on this later.
- Sign
- Registry
I continued my hike up to Muir Peak. The stretch between West Fuji and Muir is steep AF with grades hitting the 35% range and it never gets easier the more and more you do it. After reaching the summit, I took a much needed break and took in the wonderful scenery of Mt. Wilson and Upper Eaton Canyon.
- Views
From the peak to Inspiration Point is about 10 minutes of flat road on the One Man One Mule trail. From Inspiration, I took Castle Canyon trail down then started a short scramble up the hill before immediately finding broken old plates and glasses!
- Plate
Right there, under an oak and next to a manzanita, I found the old wall of the cabin! Most of what was left were pieces of metal, glass, plates, stone, and concrete. There was also a circular wide pipe in the ground which was probably where the outhouse was.
The next few photos were provided by Jeremiah showing what the cabin looked like in the 50s. The cabin was owned by a WWII vet named L.T. Gotchy and not the site for a mine I was trying to find.
Okay, back to West Fuji! I picked up the sign and registry and got back to my car pretty late in the afternoon after many breaks in the shade (it was 85F outside.) The question on me and my friends' minds was who would rename an already named peak something as random as Phillips Point? There was no mention of it on OSM or on any major hiking forums nor was it on any facebook posts. I began digging through the registry and finding people's social media accounts based on full names written. Here is the timeline that we have to work with.
3/3/2024 Johnny's Syndicate (youtube channel) logs an entry. I find a video of him climbing the peak. No sign in sight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqNKRzdGGLw
3/24/2024 on AllTrails taken by Ryan Kellis with Phillips Point sign.
4/6/2024 Joseph Koetters posts a TR on AllTrails calling the peak Phillips Point. This is the only online mention of the peak.
5/11/2024 Noti Akino takes photo of sign.
8/17/2024 Darren Ng takes photo of sign.
9/20/2024 Dima removes the sign and places it behind bush
9/22/2024 I, Matthew, takes sign and registry and places sign in my living room.
There are 2 entries in the registry by a person who signed it "JTK" in all caps. This is notable since they spelled PHILLIPS POINT in all caps on the cover of the registry. So whoever JTK is, "Hey! You misspelled the sign. It should have been spelled W-e-s-t_F-u-j-i with an elevation of 3681 Ft."
