H. Brumer
The weather was simply ideal on both days. The party met in Nipton, so that we could have a delicious cup of coffee and breakfast, but to my dismay, the erstwhile pleasant cafe has been forever closed. Seventeen people showed up, including a party of nine in a camper. This was the LeClerq-Settles party having 5 bright-eyed boys ages 6 to 11. Leon had assured me that these boys were great climbers and would not give us any problems. This turned out to be true. They were wonderfully sweet, polite boys and great climbers. They are welcome on my hikes anytime. The hikes of both peaks went well, and the routes used are described separately. One mishap to the leader - a low sharp tree branch gouged my scalp. Duane McRuer artfully performed first aid.
Saturday evening several went to Stateline for a meal - which turned out to be bummer. The camper went to Las Vegas for the evening. Sunday morning our group increased by three, as Tim and Melissa Duffy and Mike Lee from Truckee joined us. It was a fine week-end.
Driving instructions: Use the AAA San Bernardino County map. Drive 40 miles beyond Baker to the Nipton off-ramp. Drive to Ivanpah, then take a good gravel south-easter1y that has these places indicated on the AAA map Vanderbilt, Barnwell, Lecyr Well, Keystone Spring. The Ivanpah topo map will how this road continuing into Live Oak Canyon. This road continues to be reasonably good, and most cars could make it without difficulty.
The DPS hiking party of 1-18-75 stopped and parked Cars at the point where the canyon narrowed down to steep walls, although the road continues to be OK, going into Live Oak Canyon. Per the attached sketch, the hiking party hiked up a steep mountain road going in a S.E. direction. This road goes to a quarry in Section 33 of the topo. We then climbed the ridge going to a prominent hump in the section 29(USLM 87). We followed a long ridge westerly, then dropped several hundred feet, then going for the high rise lying north of the peak. The peak is made of high angle massive boulders. If there is an obvious route, we didn't find it, as we used three different approaches, all equally difficult third class. The peak 18 interesting, and not really difficult for seasoned hikers. The descent route was direct1y down into Live Oak Canyon. This route is quite steep, and hands are occasionally used for balance. The route leads directly to the mining road.
