ANGELES CHAPTER - SIERRA CLUB
Dear Desert Peakers:
After an interval of two months, it is time to bring you up to date on Section activities. With this issue of the NEWSLETTER you will receive the new revised Desert Peaks Section membership list. We now have a total of 95 members in the Section, showing a steady growth and lively interest in desert activities.
Looking back into March, the Makalu lecture by Will Siri the 3rd attracted an audience of over 400, including a large delegation of DPS members. The lecture held the attention of the audience throughout and the film was unusually well done considering the difficulties under which it was made.
The Big Maria Mountains on the Colorado River near Blythe were again visited on March 5-6 with the Hendersons leading. 27 turned up for the trip, which was a bit drier than the last one. On a soggy day in January, 1952, the hike in the Big Maras looked like an underwater scene in Walt Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." The skin divers would have loved it. Yep, it was that wet.
KEYNOT PEAK - NEW YORK BUTTE
On April 9-10 Walt Mitchell and Lee Owings led the DPS Knapsack trip to these two high summits of the Inyo Range. Starting from Dead Mule Spring, 23 knapsackers made the summit of New York Butte (10,620 ft.). About 12 hardy souls continued on along the summit ridge for some six miles north to Keynot Peak. The others returned to Dead Mule Spring. Eight determined climbers made the top of Keynot. The return was made via the steep trail to French's Spring. The trip is a strenuous one, but the unforgettable panorama of the mighty Sierra across Owens Valley to the west makes all the effort well worth while.
PROVIDENCE MOUNTAINS - MITCHELL CAVERNS
The DPS bus trip to the Providence Mountains on April 23-24 was a huge success, thanks to the efficient management of Walt Heninger, our genial expert on bus transportation matters. You good people will never know how much "blood sweat and tears" went into making this trip the smooth operation it was. Our sincere thanks to you, Walt, for a job well done. Next time, we'll call on you again.
Our two chartered Greyhound buses, loaded with 81 people and camping dunnage, left Tournament Park in Pasadena at 7:15 p.m., Friday, April 22nd. After a brief stop in San Bernardino, we encountered thick fog in Cajon Pass which slowed us down to a snail's pace. Once over the hump, we had clear going. Short stops were made in Barstow and Amboy. At Essex, we turned off on the Mitchell Caverns road, 21 miles of dust and washboard. About one mile short of Mitchell's, the road became too steep for the loaded buses, so we parked here, unloaded our sleeping bags, and sacked up at 2:30 a.m.
Next morning, Ranger Bob Simmons generously hauled our duffel up to his headquarters in his pickup truck, where we cooked breakfast. Breakfast over, the hike to the high point of the Providence Range got under way at 8:00 a.m. with Bob Bear and Frank Sanborn leading the way. We started up the right canyon, but as we got higher, the main canyon subdivides into a confusing series of steep rocky draws leading to the main ridge. Somehow we picked the wrong one and, after some rock climbing and rough going, reached what we thought was the high point, but turned out to be Hitching Post Peak instead. About a half mile