Are you aware there are two other groups quite akin to DPS?
One operates only within Death Valley National Monument, and is known as the DEATH VALLEY HIKER ASSOCIATION. Go on one of its events and you automatically become a Life Member! Traditionally, since 1949, when the renowned D V Centennial was staged, the D V Encampment remains an annual 4-day production that takes place on Veterans Day weekend in November. This is the time affluent America swoops into the Valley in droves--mostly in luxurious trailers and motor homes! The D V Hiker Association sponsors, as one of the Encampment events, a Thu-Fri backpack that makes one feel as if it were a Desert Peaks weekend, though a summit is not on the menu. Each year the routes are changed and interesting places in and around the Valley are sited. Routes like Furnace Creek to Stovepipe Wells, Skidoo to Furnace Creek, Titanothere Canyon to Stovepipe Wells, Skidoo to Stovepipe Wells, Midway Well to Stovepipe Wells, have been traversed in the past. On Fri with a usual 3PM ETA, and if at Stovepipe Wells, there is a musical fanfair awaiting the participants, given in the midst of the enthusiastic, mostly-armchair crowd, who herald the hikers' arrival. The Life Members may come from anywhere, and they all have an interest in Valley walking.
Last year, the 20+ trekkers were invited, and marched in Saturday's Encampment parade. The colorful Furnace Creek procession began at the stables and ended within the date grove. Even a live 20-mule team from Bishop was in attendance at that doings--a gross undertaking!
If you can afford to be in Death Valley on a Thu and Fri on Vets Day weekend, then sample an overnighter. You will like it! Contact this writer in advance for a schedule of forthcoming activities.
A second entertaining group is the HIGHPOINTERS CLUB. a nationwide body of over 700 members, hq'ed in Mountain Home, AR and devoted to the arrival on the apex of each of our 50 states! Many of the summits are quite nil, although exciting, as they are driveups--sometimes even hard to spot, but AK, OR, UT, WA and WY, among others, offer a lot more than ordinary saunters. An annual Highpointers Convention results in a specified peak climb--followed by an evening banquet. The Aug 1993 meeting took in SD's Harney Peak @ el. 7242', with an afterward hosting by Howard Johnson's in Rapid City. I know of several DPS members that have added this aspect of adventure to their ambitious DPS past and future thoughts. No doubt most Desert Peakers are already 4% Highpointer List-Finishers with NV(Boundary Pk) and AZ(Humphreys Pk) under their belts!
And, already quoted: "When one is standing on the summit of a great mountain, it is then you realize you have conquered yourself, not the mountain."
-Bob Greenawalt
Aug 93
