This was the first "real" hike I'd been on since Knee Surgery 2015.

Prior to this I had done a snow travel outing with my WTC group and a number of short local hikes but I was anxious to get back out.  The last 6 months of being laid up had taken a toll on my sanity.

I picked this peak almost at random while looking around on Peakbagger.  I'm getting low on DPS peaks I need and I really wanted a two day desert trip with a car camp in between.

Clipper is just south of the infamous Edgar and Mitchell Peaks and Providence Benchmark nearby looked to make a decent pairing with it.

As I posted on Facebook that morning:
"Middle of nowhere, parked in an abandoned dump, about to do a long slog for a seldom visited bump of no particular significance. All is right with the world. -ish"

March 26th, 2016

Clipper Mountain (4,593')

[Pics] [Map]

March 3rd, 2016
[Pics] [Map]

About once a month a group of us get together and paddle Newport Harbor after work. We launch from the beach at the Newport Aquatic Center and paddle over to Pizza Nova in the main harbor in a combination of kayaks and SUPs. There we dock our boats, partake in feast of pizza and beer, and then paddling back to the cars. We do this all year round and in pretty much all conditions. Light, dark, rain, and the dead of SoCal winter where you're tempted to put a
sweater on with your flip flops.

You can find writeups of other pizza paddles here.

This should be the last one for a while that will happen in the dark due to daylight savings time. .All of the regulars except for Kristen, Jen, and myself were tied up elsewhere but we had 7 folks join us for the first time including students from this year and last years WTC class and our favorite former WTC bus driver.