DESERT PEAKS SECTION - NEWSLETTER NO. 55 ANGELES CHAPTER - SIERRA CLUB
				August 28, 1958
Dear Desert Peaker, Arriving by taxicab at midnight at our camp in the Ponderosa pine forest on the outskirts of Flagstaff, Arizona, Andy and Shirley Smatko, Fred Jensen, and John Robinson joined the group of Desert Peakers who had come on Memorial Day weekend to climb Mt. Humphreys, the highest mountain in Arizona. Andy's brand-new car had been demolished east of Kingman when the driver inexplicably fell asleep and the car collided with the wall of a highway cut. Al Finney received a fractured jaw and multiple lacerations, and was taken to the hospital. The rest of the group miraculously escaped injury and, after seeing that Al had been taken care of, continued to Flagstaff by bus, where they hired a cab to search for our camp. The next morning the Flagstaff police arrived and arrested a member of our group. He had bought gasoline that morning and absentmindedly forgot to pay for it. He was released after paying for the gas. We then drove up into the San Francisco Peaks, through the magnificent aspen groves, to the Arizona Ski Bowl. Bob Bear led 13 hikers to the summit of Mt. Humphreys (12,7914'). About half the group then traversed the ridge to bag Mt. Agazziz (12,340') from which they glissaded down into a canyon that led directly back to the Ski Bowl. That night camp was made at Hualpai Mountain Park, southeast of in the well-forested heights of the craggy Hualpai Mountains. On Sunday the group walked up a steep truck trail to the rocky summit of Hualpai Peak (8,265'). A dense cluster of radio and TV antennas violated the summit. On June 21-22, Ralph Merten, assisted by the DeDeckers of Independence, led a scheduled ascent of New York Butte. With a slow leisurely pace they knapsacked from the heat of the Owens Valley, up via the trail from Dead Mule Springs in Long John Canyon, to camp at the abandoned Burgess Mine in the cool heights of the Inyo Range. The summit was reached early Sunday morning, and everyone made it back to the cars by mid-afternoon--except two persons. They failed to make the turnoff to the trail to Dead Mule Springs, and continued along a jeep track to the south. One person became aware of his mistake and cut back and reached the trail. But the other person followed the jeep tracks all the way down to the valley floor at Swansea--around ten miles away from where the cars were parked. Our chartered Greyhound rolled on through the night as 38 Desert Peakers and campers twisted themselves into odd positions in their seats to try with varying degrees of success to got a night's sleep. Arriving at Lehman Caves National Monument in east central Nevada on Fourth of July morning, we were welcomed by Bill Massey, acting

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