| Mohave & Needles Eye | January 30-31 | John McCully Maris Valkass |
We met at a pre dawn 6AM on the Arizona side of the bridge across the Colorado just below Palo Verde, 15 miles South of Blythe. 4.3 miles South of Baseline Road on Cibola Road a dirt road heads toward the East. After 5.1 miles the road forks, with the right fork quickly coming to a mine. The left fork continues another mile or so, to the campsite at about 900 feet from which we did both peaks.
Two Topos were used, Cobola SE and Mohave. In order to do Mohave from this location one must cross the saddle about an inch North of the "0" in TRIGO and drop 900 feet to get into the wide north south wash on the Cibola SE map. There were 4WD tracks in this wash, so I suspect that there is access was from the North. From the wash it was relatively straightforward to do Mohave Peak (2,768'). The hike back went smoothly, with the last folks arriving about 6PM. With a meeting place closer to the trailhead it should be possible to get back before dark. The stats were about 16 miles and 3,500 feet of gain.
We did Needles Eye (2,539') by going straight up the wash that runs to the North of it. The "eye" of the needle is quite spectacular, and several people clambered around on and in it. The route we took to the peak involved going over the Eastern shoulder of the peak and then coming all the way around to the SW to go up a class III ridge. This peak was quite interesting in the route finding and the rock was just difficult enough without quite getting scary. We got back to the cars about 1PM, 5-1/2 hours after starting. The stats were 6 miles RT and 1,700 feet of gain.
I liked both these peaks and plan to vote to add them to the list. I suspect that an easier way will be found to do Mohave, although the route we used was quite beautiful.
Participants were George Pfeiffer, Ken Olson, Terry Flood, Mark Adrian, Gail Hanna, J. Holshuh, Suzanne Mamedalin, Maris Valkass, Igor Mamedalin, Karen Leonard, Eric Schumacher, Ellen Lady, Tom Moumblow, Sue Leverton, Ron Bartell and myself. One person didn't make Mohave and another person chose not to do Needles Eye. - John McCully
| SALINE PEAK EXPLORATORY | Feb 13-15 | Ron Jones Dean Acheson |
"There were no tracks on top, no cans, no stakes, no register, no cairn. Nothing left by man. Only a fantastic 360 degree view of the Panamints, Saline Valley, Inyos, Eureka Valley, The Last Chance Range and of course the Saline Range. Nowhere in the last were any doings of man in evidence. Not just a bump on a ridge, either; this was a dominating main summit of an entire range." -- George Barnes, DPS emblem holder, March 17-18 on a Sierra Club scheduled trip (a first recorded ascent) with a party of 12 in 1973.
Our group in 1993 started with one of our party exclaiming three times when we met on Saturday, "I haven't climbed the peak yet but standing here in this great valley with this wonderful view, I can't understand why this peak isn't already on the list."
Seven of us met Saturday afternoon and after enjoying the hot springs we set out on the easy 50 minute drive, 9,2 miles up the Saline corridor to about 3200 ft (2-400 ft lower then where I've started before). We used 3 4WDs although any high clearance vehicle could make the trip. We camped here that night.
The next morning with an early start we hiked into White Cliffs Canyon to see the extraordinary Indian petroglyphs carved at the entrance. Outstanding was a group of 3 large, life-size thunder- birds.
We left the canyon about 4,000 ft on the right side & climbed the obvious route via ridges and slopes to the summit - about 3800 ft of gain & 10 mi RT. This was my 5th climb, Bob Emerick repeated from 1977 (he liked it both times - Campy, Steve Smith, Walt Whisman, Erik Schumacher have repeated 2 & 3 times & one climber has done the peak 6 times). Others in our party were John Gibba, Dean & Pat Acheson, Evelyn Chadwell & Ron Grau. RJ