Hayford Peak From Hidden Forest Trailhead

What:  
  Hayford Peak (9,912')
When:  November 26th, 2012
GPS Track:  Track

Day 4 of the 2012 Thanksgiving Turktacular and we had one more peak in our sights before retreating back to life in Southern California.  This time it was Hayford Peak which had a bit of gain along the way.




We'd arrived (as usual) after dark the night before and slept out on the ground.  Even with the benefit of the morning light the Hayford Hidden Forest trailhead was slightly less than inspiring.  (The cold wind that had been hitting us all night really wasn't doing it any favors.)

We got moving slowly passing a few rather insistent barriers along what clearly used to be an old road.


The canyon we hiked up was an icebox that morning.  Both Anne and myself were miserably cold but kept moving due to a desire not to have to stop to put on long johns and the fact the sun kept coming tantalizingly close to hitting the trail several times only to have us retreat into deeper canyon.

Several cold miserable hours later we emerged (thankfully into the sun) at the the Hidden Forest Cabin.


This was cool!  It was the most impressive desert cabin I'd come across outside of Panamint City and came complete with interpretive signs, several campfire rings, and a hottub.


As an aside this would make an excellent WTC early season backpacking trip instead of the much too easy and overly done JTree outings.  You could hike the first day into the cabin, camp, have a campfire, then the following day do the 2k gain to the peak and hike out.  Did I mention you can have a campfire?

We poked around the cabin for a bit, enjoyed the sensation of finally being warm again, and in a much better mood set off up the hill for the peak.


From here the climb was generally pleasant up forested slopes.


And finally we arrived at...radio towers!


Ok so the summit wasn't exactly the high point of the day.  Hayford is a rather prominent peak and there's a bad habit to use those for towers and such.

Instead of dropping down the way we'd come we followed some ducks and a rather prominent use trail down the ridge to the southwest and followed that back down to the cabin.  It was a little easier and the terrain made it go quickly.