Next day we climbed Table Mtn at the NE end of Gold Valley, a striking affair with a flat top tens of acres in extent and forested an well. A wall of cliffs circles the top varying from 30-70' high. This mtn, too, is volcanic in origin, although immediately to the west of it and connected to it by a ridge is a short range of granitic hills-again like the Joshua Tree situation and quite rugged. It is indeed a geologic puzzle. We found a road leading towards the north side of the Woods Mtns and across a cow pasture. Our climb up the N slopes was made very easy due to a well-used burro trail. It was so good in places that we wondered if it had not been man-made. The Woods Range is a fairly large one and our trail took us to a broad saddle just E of a rough, rocky summit some 150' above the saddle. All along this appeared as the high point and it is thus shown on the topo sheet. However, upon looking to the east we saw a broad summit that was equally high, or even higher. It lay one-half mile away, so we sauntered over to it and found a cairn with an iron stake in it which to me was definitely higher. Ellen & Bill judged. it to be about the same as the western summit. We left a register and descended via the good trail. As we plenty of daylight with us, we next headed into the Mid Hills via a road trending SW from the Black Canyon Road-a short way south of our camp the night before. Our objective was a most striking granite tooth that can not go unnoticed as one travels between Cima and Kelso, Ellen & I had reached the base of the north face last year, but did not climb it as we had no rope for the last 100' of definite 4th class. This time we were prepared with pitons and hardware, but these were not necessary. Bill led, up and it was a first ascent and quite an airy perch it was! The E & W faces were good 5th class while the S face was overhanging. Another striking summit a hundred or so yards to the south would give a rock climber a probable bolt climb. Time did not permit us to check this one out. Other granitic pinnacles abound in this section of the Mid Hills. The actual high points lie a couple of miles to the north, and those were climbed by Ellen & I last year. Those are class 3 to minimal 4 and are composed of twin spires of granite. Mar 1 Diary: On a couple of weekends in the past five weekends several friends and myself have done the following peaks: Dome Mtn @ 4985' in the Lava Mtns NE of Johannesburg was climbed via a south ridge to the plateau west of the summit-all class 3 to easy 2. We also, on another weekend, did the high point of the Sawtooth Range, 22 miles south of Needles. Actually three high points were done before the true one was found, all mostly class 1. I can't explain the naming of this range as the skyline profile is quite gentle. On the same weekend Snaggle-Tooth just to the west of the Sawtooth group was climbed by Bill and me. This is a class 4 affair up the vertical south edge of the summit block. Ellen declined this attempt preferring to stay at the car. Another weekend, Feb 24th, Ellen, Frank Yates and I did, several peaks NE of Baker. Turquoise Mtn @ 4511' was almost a drive-up. Squaw Mtn @ 4880' over to the NE was an easy walk in almost summery weather. The high point of an unnamed range ENE of Silver Lake proved to be a rugged climb up and down ridges and gullies due to the broken character of the east side of the range. A really extensive view was our reward-with snow-capped Telescope Peak clearly visible nearly 80 miles to the northeast. At least a dozen other well-known ranges and mtns were identified from this summit. Charleston Pk, nearly 100 miles away, likewise shone clearly high in the azure sky. Our crowning climb of the day was that of a peak I had longed to climb for many years. This was the beautiful, symmetrical Squaw Tit. So elated were we, that we stomped our feet in sheer joy on the summit; Ellen less thunderously than Frank and I. On Sun we did the high point of the Silurian Hills to the north of Baker. This was a most pleasant hike up a winding wash with short dry waterfalls to enliven the ascent. We had to detour two of these. This day was so hot that we decided to make no further climbs..it being well over 100

Page Index	Prev	Page 10	Next	Issue Index