EISPIRATEN

With Highway 2 open again I decided it was time to get back to some good ol peak bagging. Unfortunately I fell substantially short of my goal but none-the-less managed to tag 25 named peaks. This was not a single continuous hike but rather a combination of hikes.

1. Messenger Peak
2. Mount Gleason
3. Rabbit Peak #1
4. San Gabriel Peak
5. Mount Disappointment
6. Mount Deception
7. Mount Markham
8. Mount Lowe
9. Inspiration Point (the peak above the shelter)
10. Muir Peak
11. Occidental Peak
12. Mount Wilson
13. Mount Sally
14. Vetter Moutain Lookout
15. Mount Mooney
16. Winston Peak
17. Mount Akawie
18. Kratka Ridge
19. Mount Baden-Powell
20. Mount Burham
21. Throop Peak
22. Mount Hawkins
23. Mount Lewis
24. Pinyon Ridge
25. Pacifico Mountain

I started at 3:40am Saturday morning and arrived at the top of Pacifico Mountain at 3:29am the next morning. I had also intended to tag Granite and Round Top but failed to reach these in time. My apologies to everyone whose sleep I interupted: the tent city I wandered into on the south side of Throop, the two tents on the summit of Hawkins, and all the campers up at the Pacifico campground.

Some things didn't work out so well. The road to Barley Flats was closed so I had to skip that one. The road to Vetter Lookout was also closed but I went ahead and hiked that one from the highway.

While most of the hikes were short I did two substantial loops. One in the San Gabriel Peak area (14.3 miles) and another from Baden-Powell to Hawkins (11.7 miles).

Total mileage was 39.5 with approximately 10,000 feet of gain.

Photos are here:

http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... lderID=807

-Rick

only 10,000' gain? meh

I am still interested in the 'big 3' idea you had.

I was thinking

Heaton Flat to Iron,

San Antonio Ridge to Baldy;

Baldy to Pine;

Down Pine Mountain Ridge to Mine Gulch.

Up to Baden-Powell via Big Horn Mine and ridge

Down to Vincent Gap.

26-27 miles, 15000-16000 ft gain

is that enough miles for you?

dayum Rick....nice photos though!

Nice plan Ze! Certainly more efficient than my 43 mile planned loop starting and ending at Inspiration Point on Blue Ridge.

The fawn is adorable!!!! Can't be more than a couple of days old! And the horned lizards are awesome too.

Nice stats...!

Not only 25 peaks, but some great animal sightings!

Insane. And some nice photos to boot.

Ya, the fawn looked very feeble and was having a lot of difficulty following its mother up the slope. Does anyone know what kind of lizard this is?:

http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... ?ID=112621

I saw quite a few of them near Inspiration Point. I saw 3 or 4 horned toads. I picked up one horned toad on Mount Mooney that had a lot of personality. On the ground he puffed up and stood on his toes to look bigger. He also opened his mouth wide and rocked back and forth. I stuck my finger out in front of him for fun and he lunged for it.

Lots of lizards but no snakes.

I think thats a coastal whiptail. I have seen them mountain biking and they move like snakes when they run.

Indeed. Looks to be a whiptail.

Info:

http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/CAwhiptails.html

Here's a better shot too:

http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... ?ID=112628

Well done Rick!




Nice pix.

Wow, that little fawn is awesome! I've been lucky to have seen two fawns (but not as young as the one Rick saw) on two different occasions, both in the Icehouse Canyon Area. The first one was at the saddle and at around 11pm on July 4th (lilbitmo still thinks this was a cougar or at least a chucacabra or somethin )

The other time was in broad daylight at about 2pm on Timber mountain.

Nice work on a tough hike, Rick!

Rick Kent wrote:Nice plan Ze! Certainly more efficient than my 43 mile planned loop starting and ending at Inspiration Point on Blue Ridge.

lol, yeah but it isn't a loop!

beast!

Hey Rick,

Richard and I missed you by a few hours (9 actually) on Baden-Burnham-Throop-Hawkins. Did you get rained on? I was going to tag Mt. Lewis on my way out, but it was raining, thunder & lighning when I passed Dawson Saddle around 5:30pm.

I love that caption, " This horned toad was quite lively and didn't seem to appreciate being handled."

Nice work Rick, as always it's inspiring to hear the stuff you do.

Lilbitmo

Very inspirational! 8)

Rick Kent wrote:Unfortunately I fell substantially short of my goal but none-the-less managed to tag 25 named peaks.

Dare I ask what your goal was?

Ha! I wanted 34 (yeah silly I know) but would have settled for anything in the 30s. I would have had 27 peaks if I had another 45 minutes but the driving time took longer than expected. I would have had 28 if the road to Barley Flats was open and 29 if I had reached Middle Hawkins. If I could also have tagged Islip or Winston Ridge that would have made 30. If if if.

Mike,

I got a few sprinkles earlier in the day but it had cleared out by the time I got to Throop, etc. It was actually rather cold when I did those peaks after dark which was actually rather refreshing. After 11pm however I lost energy rapidly and trying to stay awake became more difficult. By 3:30am I was a Zombie. Thank God there are only 24 hours in a day.

Rick Kent wrote:Total mileage was 39.5 with approximately 10,000 feet of gain.

Slacker.

Hey, I think ya done good, Rick.

For the future, you should start measuring hikes like these in terms of peaks per hour (pph). This past hike was 1.04pph.

We'll be following your progress closely.

Hikin_Jim wrote:For the future, you should start measuring hikes like these in terms of peaks per hour (pph). This past hike was 1.04pph.

I can think of examples of doing 2 peaks in 1 hour, thereby doubling Rick's figure of merit.

Actually, pph is an amusing stat to banter about. We do the San Gorgonio 9 Peaks hike in about 12 hours, which is 0.75 pph. Not bad for no driving. On the other hand, my best for the Whitney Main Trail is about 0.14 pph.

AlanK wrote: We do the San Gorgonio 9 Peaks hike in about 12 hours, which is 0.75 pph. On the other hand, my best for the Whitney Main Trail is about 0.14 pph.

Like I say, Rick, ya done good. You beat Alan by 0.254pph.

AlanK wrote:I can think of examples of doing 2 peaks in 1 hour...

Actually, it might be fun to plan a hike specifically to see just what you could do in terms of max pph. The Mt. Lowe/Mt. Wilson area might be a good one. It would be pretty easy, I would think, to bag Markham, Lowe, San Gabriel, and Disappointment. If you do that in one hour (pretty tough), you'd have 4pph. Better be a trail runner for that. Do it in 2 hours and you've got 2pph. Do it in three, and you can claim 1.33pph. You'd have to see what the timings would do to your pph, but Occidental, Wilson, and Harvard could bagged as well.

Speaking of 1.33pph, that's probably the only way I could beat any stat of Rick's.

The true test is to get a combination of high peak count and a high pph. On that matter, I think you're pretty safe, Rick. Must be those Brazil nuts.

"You done good Rick", is an understatement to say the least. You guys speak of pph but I hike at "ppd", (peaks per day).
Great job!