Last year we had snow, wind and cold temperatures the whole time but were able to climb White Mountain and traverse the crest to climb Headley Peak and get as far north as Chiatovich Flats. At that point, we headed east and exited the range via Indian Creek and walked out to Nevada highway 267.

This year we returned to Indian Creek and with 4-WD vehicles were able to drive in to 8,100'. We retraced our route back into upper Chiatovich Flats and made camp on a bench at 12,000' with good views looking south to White Mountain and down Birch Creek. Next morning, it was easy walking up to the crest and northward a short distance to Mt. Rogue. The crest goes real nice northward but it is a hefty distance to cover. Coming in from the traditional ridge above Middle Canyon is certainly more direct although Indian Creek offers a much higher starting point.

Hiking north to Mt. Dubois, we observed six Bighorn sheep run across the crest and drop down into upper Davis Canyon and then a mustang which stayed around for awhile, seemingly interested in seeing some people. We reached Mt. Dubois at midday, having just missed Bill Banks who had day hiked up from Middle Canyon.

Four members headed back south to camp in upper Chiatovich Flats while Morgan and I headed north to finish hiking the crest, We reached The Jump-off by late afternoon and ended up camping in the saddle below Montgomery Peak. The plane wreckage on the east side of the pass, just a few feet below the saddle was about the same as when I first saw it 20 years earlier when my dad and I had done this loop.

Some recent footprints were visible in the scree and the next morning, the Montgomery register showed that Bill Banks had gone across ahead of us and done the entire loop in a day. Our hike on down to Boundary and out to Queen Canyon was fast with Campy and Dave both driving vehicles around and arriving just an hour before us. From there it was on to Bishop for a group dinner at El Charro to end a pleasant trip and finish to our year delayed completion of the crest traverse. -Steve Smith-



Patterson/Glass, Oct. 3-4, 1992
DPS CHAIR LOST IN WILDERNESS
Friday night was cold, 16 degrees by our thermometer, for those who slept out on the desert floor that night before the bagging of Patterson peak by DPSers on a beautiful day in early October. Shivering and scraping off the frost, we met at 7:30 am Saturday at the intersection of US 395 and the Burcham Flat dirt road 14.8 miles north of Bridgeport, a long 358 miles from L.A.). Consolidating vehicles to drive the 16 miles of poor dirt road to the Lobdell Lake trailhead west of the peak, we found Bill Stevens had beaten us there and left a sign-in sheet for the leaders before he started up the road, which was lightly dusted with snow near the 11,673' peak. We did Patterson (5 miles, 1200' gain) from 8:50 to almost noon, hurrying off the chilly windy summit to eat lunch back at the vehicles and greet Pete Yamagata, that well-known DPSer from Sacramento, and his friend who were hiking in from the lake to do both Patterson and Wheeler that day. We said good-by to George Pfeiffer, who having done Glass previously went off to San Francisco at this point.
 
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