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TRIP REPORTS
Mt. Dubois
13,559'
July 30,1994
George Toby & Ron Young
by George
Toby We met Fri evening Jul 29 at 6:30 pm at the little town of Dyer
Nevada and caravaned to the roadhead. However we somehow got on the wrong dirt
road for a short distance. In turning around Tom McInally managed to get his
Ford Explorer hung up on rock. I pulled him off with my new Explorer. First
time I used my 4WD Low-Low. We arrived just before dark at a beautiful camp
site in the trees next to a running stream with a circular turn around. It was
about '/4 mile from the end of the Middle Creek Road.
In Dyer it was
over 100 degrees, but at roads end at 8,200' it was cool, and cool Sat morning
when we started the hike. All carried 4 liters of water. Participants were, the
Leaders plus Terry Flood, and Tom and Lynn McInally. We followed Route A up the
ridges. All went well except the pace was slow to accommodate our new DPS
hikers. It became a dawn to dusk hike. The weather was beautiful with high
clouds most of the day. It was cool on top. On the way down it changed. We got
rained on. There was rain and lightning on nearby peaks. Magnificent but scaly.
The name of the game was to get off those high ridges. Ron did a fine job of
leading us back by a variation of Route A down a steep chute back to the cars.
Dubois is big, with lots of gain and lots of miles. A nice, climb. All drove
out safely without incident. Two wheel drive vehicles with good clearance can
do this road, Happy Climbing,.
THE GRAND TOUR OF THE INYOS
May 7-14,
1994 (CONCLUDED)
Ron Jones, John McCully & Jerry McDonald
by Ron
Jones On the third day of our backpack the seven of us spent a pleasant
evening at Bighorn Spring. Clouds were building at sunset and we were treated
to a few drops of rain and magnificent colors in the evening sky. Next morning
dawned clear and bright. While we were breaking camp for a 7 o'clock start we
found a note scratched on a rock by Ron Hudson the day before. Ron was going to
join us |
from the Bay Area but
our one day layover because of the snow storm put us out of synch.
The
trail shown leading from Bighorn Spring to the Bighorn mine on the New York
Butte 7-1/2' Topo does not really exist. With our heavy backpacks we found this
stretch and beyond to Frenchie's cabin in Beveridge Canyon very, very difficult
with long stretches where we found no trail, to places where we found many
faint trails, to lots of loose scree and then as we dropped down to Beveridge
Canyon lots of rose bushes and willows to break through. The trail is easily
followed to the small northwest fork of Hunter Canyon and then seems to
disappear. It probably stays in the rocky canyon bottom to about the 5800 ft
contour where we saw a galvanized metal water tank in the canyon bottom. From
near this location we think we saw, and Steve Smith has heard, there is a good
trail leading directly up to the Bighorn mine. At noon when we were near the
Bighorn mine we encountered Robert Hayes from Bishop who came in solo over
Forgotten Pass (about 1000 ft of trail on the west side washed out in the last
year or two he reports) and who was going to meet us the day before in
Beveridge. He had spent the night there and met Ron Hudson going north. Robert
Hayes is an excellent backpacker and route finder who would be an asset to any
trip. Robert is the son of a former Angeles Chapter hiker I know, and has done
a lot of hiking in the Inyos. After checking Out a relatively new mill site at
the east end of the Bighorn prospects he returned with us to Frenchie's cabin.
We passed over the ridge (UTM 182606) at 8700 ft and followed the trail
occasionally marked with BLM carsonite markers to the drainage at UTM 175610
which we descended and then hiked up (!) Beveridge Canyon to the cabin shown at
6560 ft. I will say no more about this leg of the trip except to say it was 6
or 7 miles, 3900 ft of mostly trailess gain and 2600 ft of elevation loss. It
took us from 12 to 13 hours, wore many of us out and was the hardest day of
backpacking I have ever done. This section of our route might be a little
easier done in the opposite direction, from north to south.
Frenchie's
cabin is an excellent spot to camp. A water tight cabin, a good spring other
cabin ruins nearby and great views. It is also on a route out over Forgotten
Pass to the west. The next morning the now 8 of us backpacked down to the site
of the old Beveridge Camp. We passed the entrance to the side canyon leading to
Cove Springs. It is marked by a jungle of thick vegetation and a cabin in
pretty good repair. There are several cabin sites and surrounded by thick brush
a stamp mill and boiler at the upper end. The Cove Spring sites are most
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