a steep climb to the summit. On top, the crowd, which was resting, lunching, and viewing, had traffic jams resembling the freeway system. Roy Magnuson left with half the group for additional climbs of Dyadic and Tensor enroute back. Sam Fink and six less eager climbers returned by way of Tensor. Don McLean volunteered to direct the remaining members hack via our earlier route, and Fran Smith was the sweeper. Return to the cars was uneventful. Driving out to the 29 Palms Highway, we regrouped and caravaned 22-1/2 miles east and 6 miles southwest to an ideal camping location at a gravel storage area. This was the roadhead from which 18 potential summit baggers started a cross-desert hike of Granite #2 at 7 AM Sunday morning. After three miles of desert southwestward and another two miles southward up a stream bed, we reached a saddle which we had been approaching and viewing for over an hour. Following a major rest break, the real climb started. Rugged, rocky, steep uphill was the order of the hour as we left the saddle to the left (southeast) and attained the ridge. Picking our way carefully at several different rates, and utilizing the ridge wherever possible, the summit was conquered. The leader, Fran Smith, was surprised to realize, upon opening the register, that no one had signed the register since he had signed it and left the summit one year ago. Lunch and peak identifications were completed, Fred Bode thanked the group for his having made another peak, Bob Herlihy helped finish up a few leftovers, Roy Ching started his bell atinkling, and the downhill bombout started. Two stops, saddle and end of streambed, were made enroute to allow the back and front to meet. Weather had once again been perfect and all 18 reached their summit objective. The pace both days seemed to be agreeable to all participants with a minimum of pressure on anyone to hurry beyond their capabilities. The Granite #2 climb was completed two hours before dark, which should dispel rumors it is a "back after dark" desert peak climb.
MOHAVE MTNS and SPIRIT	--	John Vitz
Sometimes, prior to a trip, I get feelings which say that the trip is going to he a disaster, a ball, an idiocy or any combination thereof. The signs were strong this time. My map shipment arrived from the USGS in plenty of time. However, it showed that the range we were to explore was actually the Mohave Mtns and not the Chemehuevis as it appeared on the 1:250000 map. Secondly, the high point was supposed to be on the Buck Mtns 15' quad on the south half, which cleverly turned out to be blank - unsurveyed territory. Then it occurred to me that the weekend was a holiday weekend - Washington's birthday - a fact that had been overlooked. This meant we would probably have a large crowd in spite of the fact that one peak was - Heaven forbid - an out of state exploratory. And lastly, on Thursday night at 11, I got home and there was a card from John Linden, the DPS's own Typhoid Mary, who said that he wanted to get in on the "spirit" of the climb. He also wanted some help arranging transportation - on Thursday night. Yeah, sure. It was with some trepidation that we started for Needless (Sic) on Friday evening. I had been very obscure in defining the meeting place, and hoped that most people would not be able to tell If I meant the junction of US 66 and US 95 or Arizona 95N or Arizona 05S - all of which are south and east of Needles(s) as described in the schedule. We failed. There were 10 cars waiting for us. I now realize that had we not stopped we would have been able to lose them. And we could claim they were at the wrong place. Typhoid John had already struck as John Minor's (remember that name) VW had lost its generator. We caravanned east and south to Lake Havasu City, at 35 miles an hour so as not to lose Paul Lipsohn, and wandered through town (all quad maps of the area are useless) to a dirt road where some vehicles where left. Everyone piled into Larry Fink's Toyota Land Cruiser; Fred Bode's, Jack Bradford's, Paul Lipsohn's, and Darryl Kuhn's VW busses, and a VW squareback. John went with Darryl much to

Page Index	Prev	Page 10	Next	Issue Index