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by Louise top Werner rubble of boulders became a threat to tires and gas tank. Then he shouldered an over-night knapsack and continued on foot.After a couple of miles the road ended on a level spot. Water trickled from a pipe into a rotting wooden trough below a willow-choked gully. His topographic map gave no indication of water enroute so he had carried up three-quarts (six pounds) on his canteen belt. Neither did his map indicate the trail he found zigzagging steeply up the slope to the right of the gully. He followed it, and the slope fell rapidly below him into a canyon whose bottom bristled with a tangle of boulders and brush. The trail seemed to be heading for the top of a west-east ridge which Versteeg hoped would connect directly with the main south-north crest of the Inyo Range. About three miles above the spring a grove of pinyon pines invited him to camp for the night. He estimated his elevation at 7000 feet, about 2000 feet higher than the spring. Sundown brought a nip to the air, making his campfire seem the more cozy as he brewed tea and broiled a steak; and making his down sleeping decidedly inviting soon afterwards. The next morning he was up and away early, taking only his canteens, lunch, map, moleskin for blisters and sunburn cream. He met the sun on the crest of the Inyo Range at about 9800 feet. A miner's cabin stood, deserted, on the crest. Inside he found a table set with plates of beans, as if something unforeseen had called the occupants from a meal they had never come back to finish. A volume of Tennyson lay open-face-down on the dirt floor. In one corner open drawers of treadle sewing machine spilled scraps of cloth, thread and attachments. (Later, research uncovered the story of Kate Wells, the lady operator of the old Ironsides gold mine. Kate Wells, so the story goes, |
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bringing up the trail a string of pack mules loaded with timbers for the
mine.) Nearby gaped an open well showing water in its depths. Finding water on a 10,000 foot ridge in a desert mountain range is highly unusual and upset some of the theories Versteeg knew of distribution of underground water sources. (Later trips have pretty well convinced climbers that this well holds water the year round. Most of them still carry up their drinking water, however, because who knows how many thirsty desert animals fall into the well every year in search of a drink?) The trail petered out north of the cabin, about a mile short of the summit of New York Butte. Looking to the east he saw heavily wooded canyons indicating more water there. The Saline Valley, 8000 feet below, spread out white and in the sun, and beyond it the long chain of the Panamint Range caught Versteeg's eye. At its southern end, 11,045 foot Telescope Peak lifted a snowy summit. To the west, the canyons and ridges streaked down more than 6000 feet to the Owens Valley beyond which rose the abrupt eastern wall of |
the Sierra Nevada culminating in the 14,496
foot pinnacle of Mount Whitney about 25 airline miles away. Snow lay heavily on
the long line of peaks stretching across the western horizon, while on New York
Butte the sunshine had just enough of a nip to spike it agreeably. Versteeg wished fervently that more people might enjoy this desert grandstand with him, but his friends were skeptical at first. It took a lot of blowing on the ashes to produce a little glow of enthusiasm. Versteeg was equal to the task and gradually the idea caught on. A small group began accompanying Versteeg on trips to desert ranges. That led to pouring over maps, magazines, books and making first-hand inquiries. It became evident that here was a real frontier; information from outside sources was practically non-existent in most cases. A few of the ranges had bits of written history, mostly about mining operations; official geological studies had been made of some of the ranges; people living at the foot of these ranges, had, in most cases 'never set foot in them'; some were not even mapped. Occasionally an existing map proved incorrect. The Desert |
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