Saturday night we camped near the roadhead to Castle Rock, which is near the roadhead for Turtle Mt. We had a nice campfire, but our singing did not go too well because most of us did not remember the words to many of the songs. It would be nice if some DPS songsters would collect some popular songs and write the words in a large print so that they can be read easily with limited amount of light.
To get to the roadhead, turn off 29 Palms/Parker Road at the place indicated on the Auto Club map. Cross the aqueduct and continue about 6-8 miles. A faint road marked by some rocks will be on the right going almost 180 degrees opposite the desired direction, Persevere, it will cross a wash and turn in the right direction. (If you come up to a wrecked old model car on your left, you have missed the turnoff mentioned above by one or two mi1es.)
Arrived at Castle Rock at noon. Could not find the reported class 4 - low class 5 route on the SW corner/side. Discovered one possible mid 5 class route on the North side, but decided that it was rated too high for this trip. The greatest problem was the loose rock on the low levels and also lack of places for placing protection.
Overheard someone mumble that some leaders have high degree of responsibility regarding the participants time and investment in getting to the peak etc., but did not understand what it was all about.
Caravaned to Indio and stopped to eat at Carmen's Mexican Restaurant, 1st Indio exit from LA on right hand side (before Denny's). Everyone
enjoyed the food and atmosphere.Thanks to Ron Jones for his superb assistant lead.