| KINGSTON AND CLARK | MARCH 24-25, 1990 | TIDBALL/ FRITSEN |
We started out from the Escelsior Mine parking lot as described in the Peak Guide, hiking over the small saddle on the 4WD road shown on the topo. This road is driveable (4WD) about 1/2 mile along the route shown on the topo. We ascended the canyon (use your map and compass to pick the right one) up to the ridgetop and saddle passing through a burn area near the top. After a brief rest and tick inspection we continued on up the North ridge of Kingston Peak going over and around the bumps along the way.
After lunch on top, we headed back the way we came. We had planned to drive on over to the Clark trailhead to camp, but it looked like it might be dark by the time we drove over there, so we camped at the Kingston trailhead. Not very scenic but lots of flat. Participants on Kingston were: Martha Flores, Karl Kraves, Jim Murphy, Elaine O'Connell, John Radalj, George Pfeiffer, Ron Young, and Roy Bishop.
2 or 3 of the previous day's participants couldn't join us on Sunday, but we were joined by Adrienne Knute and Carl Faber at the Clark trailhead. We also lost the assistant leader on the drive over to Clark. Richard stopped to pick up a stray puppy in the desert, and went looking for the owner at some nearby homes before heading home. Ron Young became the new assistant leader so we were still legal for our climb of Clark. We hiked up a use trail heading directly up the small gully from the picnic area, and as the way became less passable, we climbed up and right (East) to follow the ridge leading north about 1 mile East of the summit. This ridge goes very easy. Before reaching the top of our ridge we traversed across (passing an old plane crash) directly towards the 3rd class climb up through the cliff band on the summit ridge. The 3rd class went well and we passed over the false summit to the top of Clark. We came down the way we went up, ate lunch in the picnic area, and got an early start for home.
