EISPIRATEN

Saturday morning I parked the Jeep near the beehive site above Cima Mesa in Juniper Hills. My original plan was to hike Pleasant View Ridge to Mt. Willamson, then return via the same route. The western third of PVR was pleasant as always, though someone seemed to think that the easy-to-follow route was in dire need of way too many cairns. The ridge lived up to its name, providing great vistas in all directions. As the temperatures began to climb, I realized that the four liters of water I was carrying wouldn't suffice. A sensible person would've turned back at Will Thrall Peak and called it a day. Since it is me writing, you can probably see where this is going.

The Western section of Will Thrall gets more overgrown every year. I've spent some time pruning here, but I just can't keep up with the Ceanothus and Juniper. The only passable route seems to be across the steep north slope scree, where a slip or misstep could have very unfortunate consequences. The joy experienced crossing this area influenced my choice of return route. I continued on to Burkhart saddle, and took a break, feasting on beef jerky, Clif Bars, dried fruit, pretzels and licorice (all the food groups!).

I assumed my best chances for water would be at Rattlesnake Creek, Cooper Canyon Camp, or Little Rock Creek. I also considered Buckhorn, but it would've put me off my return route. It was very hot on the Burkhart Trail (10W02), almost unpleasantly so. Water flow at Rattlesnake Creek was really low, and the standing pools didn't look so good. I continued on to Cooper Canyon, seeing my first humans since starting at 0640. Flow at Cooper was nothing to write home about, but I found a relatively clear pool, and grabbed another 3.5 liters, which I zapped with the UV sterilizer. This turned out to be a good choice, as Little Rock Creek was almost stagnant.

I next headed up the PCT for Winston Ridge, passing a couple of groups of Boy Scouts purportedly also headed for Winston. Since I was headed for Little Rock Creek I realized that there was no way I would be back at the car by 1700, so I got my wife on the ham radio and warned her that I would be several hours late. The Turricula on the burned end of Winston Ridge wasn't as bad as last year, but I still managed to get bitten by the Poodle Dog. I made some poor routefinding choices descending the ridge to Little Rock Creek. My goal was to reach the creek close enough to the only visibly passable ridge up to 5N04.3. I ended up downclimbing a few narrow rocky gullies instead of holding the ridge top. Once across Little Rock Creek, I couldn't avoid pushing through Turricula to get up to the road.

The slog to Little Sycamore C.G. was uneventful, save for starting to lose daylight. At the junction of 4N15, I grabbed a quick snack while waiting for the SPOT to send a check-in message home. There is an unnamed gully that crosses a sharp turn in 4N15 that runs up to the saddle at benchmark 4852. Rather than walk a few more miles of road, I opted to don my headlamp and climb the gully. The use trail disappears around the point where the terrain steepens severely. I once again found myself high up on steep scree, though now in the dark. Before letting panic prevail, I realized that I really need to to be at the bottom of this delightful terrain and slowly skied down. The steep scramble up to the saddle seemed to take forever, though I knew I was almost back at the car, only four hours late. The zombie-drive back to Simi was scary, but my Wife (g-d bless her) had picked up salad, barbecued tri-tip, and veggies a little earlier and had them on the table upon my filthy, exhausted return.


Bare Mountain and Mt. Pacifico.


Pleasant view towards Palmdale.


Strawberry Peak.


View towards the rift zone and the Mojave.


Scattered brush up Will Thrall belies its impenetrability.


Random spot on PVR, looking NNE.


Nicely forested spot on Will Thrall Peak.


Dedication to Mr. Thrall.


Looking out over Pallett towards Williamson.


Steep climb up Pallett from Burkhart Saddle.


Random spot along Burkhart (High Desert) trail heading towards Buckhorn.


Eastern end of Winston Ridge, near Rattlesnake Creek.


Pretty formation atop Winston Ridge.


Burned end of Winston Ridge, scattered Turricula, Little Rock Creek road towards Pinyon Flats.


5N04.3 near the edge of the Little Rock Creek Recreational Area. PVR in the Background.


Little Rock Creek usually flows vigorously over this bridge.


Topo with track.


GPS track and elevation plot.

Great trip report and photos, Elwood. Thanks for posting.

Sorry you had the poodle brush encounter, and I hope you are spared delayed worsening. Turricula terribilis, is.

Gutsy hike in the heat with a sketchy water situation; luckily you tanked up with 3.5 L of acceptably "good" stuff. Worrisome low levels at Little Rock Creek. Does not bode well...

Will Thrall scrub looks rampantly overgrown, which is all the more annoying when the heat compels shorts vs. brush-resistant pants. Last I hiked that area was springtime a few years back, more pleasant/less grueling. But hey.

Did you really have a ham radio, or was that joshing re: cell phone? Regardless, that plus SPOT is great consideration for wife and safety.

chairs,
arocknoid

Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I've fought the poodle before, and today should be the last day of maddening itching. The strangest symptom though is continued sensitivity in the effected areas, heightened by a hot water (washing, shower, bath) of all things. I am militant about carrying a ham radio with me when hiking. I've chatted with friends from deep in the bowels of the East Fork on the thing, well out of range of cell towers. It's also a good hedge against spousal panic, when entering an area where SPOT (tracking) is unreliable.

Dang, dude, that is a freakin' trek, one of Elwoodian proportions if ever there were one. Cool stuff though. I've always thought the walk along PVR would be worthwhile even though I've never been much past the high point just west of Thrall Peak ("Pleasant View Ridge" on the HPS list) and you then added a descent westerly from Winston Ridge. How cool is that? That's some really neat, seldom-travelled country.

Hey, when you mention Rattlesnake Creek, which creek are you refering to? Are you talking about the one that the Burkhart Trail crosses as you go south from Burkhart Saddle?

And 5N04, that's closed to the public in terms of vehicular travel, yes?

HJ

In retrospect, I misnamed the creek. It's actually the fork of Little Rock Creek flowing down from the Eagle's Roost area. It (and the PCT) passes Rattlesnake Spring, thus my confusion. 5N04 is closed to public traffic. I have seen Forest Service vehicles on it periodically. It's rare that I see anyone in the area, except during hunting season. I really love this large, usually vacant part of the range.

Elwood wrote: ↑In retrospect, I misnamed the creek. It's actually the fork of Little Rock Creek flowing down from the Eagle's Roost area. It (and the PCT) passes Rattlesnake Spring, thus my confusion.

Yeah, I made the same mistake when I was out there on Sunday last week. I was talking to some guys, didn't have a map and couldn't remember whether it was Little Rock Cr. or Rattlesnake Cr. It doesn't help that there's "another" Little Rock Cr. to the west (both are forks of Little Rock Cr.). I wonder if any local guide books (Robinson?) ever referred to it as Rattlesnake Cr? Seems like there's some basis to the confusion (or am I just in denial about my senility?).

5N04 is closed to public traffic. I have seen Forest Service vehicles on it periodically. It's rare that I see anyone in the area, except during hunting season. I really love this large, usually vacant part of the range.

Yeah, interesting stuff. Years ago (late 80's), I just dropped down one of the branches of the S Fork of Little Rock Creek from Three Points. I remember seeing fish in some of the pools. One of the most interesting hikes I've done in the region.

HJ

So, what was your route down Winston? Looking at a map of Winston Ridge, it doesn't look bad at all out to point 8235 (point "C"), and doable out to point 5382 (point "D"), but dang it looks rough to get down from point 5382 to Little Rock Creek. Did you go through the point marked as "E" on my above linked map? How rocky and steep was it? Class 2? Class 3? How bad was the brush?

HJ

The couple of times I've done this, I typically aim to hit the creek near the bottom of Squaw Canyon. There is an amazingly brushy spot north of this that obscures the view of your point "E". It may well be possible (passable) to follow the suggested "D" to "E" route though I was aiming for a path that I could survey in its entirety as I skree-scended Winston.

Squaw Canyon? Intersting since that lies south of your direction of travel and there's an intervening canyon.

Do you take a line off of Winston Ridge something like what I'm showing on this map with points "B" though "F"? That looks like a fairly logical route from a topo map perspective.

The mouth of Squaw Canyon is denoted by point "A."

HJ

I sort of split the difference...

A couple of weeks ago I did this...



Last November I did this...

Ah! You're coming out one canyon north of Squaw. That makes more sense.

And on the start of PVR, where is this behive complex you mention?

HJ

I usually park at the edge of this flat over here. Most recently all the hive remnants were in what looked like a boulder-ringed fire pit. From here it's a short, steep climb to the saddle at the benchmark, then East up PVR.

Cool! Excellent map. I wasn't sure which of those roads would be accessible, so this is invaluable information. Much thanks.

HJ