Dyadic Point & Spectre Peak M-Rock Provisional Backpack Coxcomb Mountains

  • Updated: April 15, 2018
  • Post By: Matthew Hengst

April 14th & 15th, 2018
Dyadic Point (4,360')
Spectre Peak (4,482')
Day 1: 5.9 miles, 1,300'
Day 2: 10.5 miles, 2,000'

If you follow my blog and Dyadic sounds somewhat familiar that's probably because I just did it as a dayhike back in January.  At the time I had no plans to repeat it so soon but then I was approached to evaluate a Sierra Club M provisional (aka 3rd class rock trip) up there on one of the rare weekends I happened to have open.

This time around instead of a dayhike it would be a backpack.  Unfortunately since there's no water back there you have to carry enough to last you for both days plus a fudge factor and it has a tendency to get warm out there this time of year.  On the plus side the plan was to approach via the route I'd previously descended so at least it would feel a bit different.  And finally I was interested to get another look at the route on Dyadic now that I knew more what to expect.


The trailhead is a nondescript wash along the side of 62 east of 29 Palms.  There's a short dirt road you can take to a gate maybe 100 ft back from the road and and when I was here in January I had no problem making it there with Kristen's Subaru.  This time around there was deep enough sand that we all elected to just park on the north side of the road.

Interestingly enough according to a friend of mine who was involved in the original desert protection plan for this area there was supposed to be a cherry stem allowing for closer road access to mountains.  Unfortunately the coordinates were messed up and it ended up being located in the wrong spot.  Hence the longer hiking approach these days.  (If anyone reads this and has any additional details please let me know as I'd be interested to find out specifics)


Due to a combination of the heat and the short day we met at 1 pm and planned an easy pace for the 5 -ish miles to camp.  I was carrying 12 liters of water in addition to my usual backpacking gear so at least I was going to get a workout on the way in.  (Most others were in the 8-11 liter range.)


The hike in across the desert is somewhat of a slog thanks to the loose sand but we were inside the canyon by 2:15 pm and made camp by 5.


We camped right at the junction where you make a sharp turn to the west to reach Dyadic and Spectre.  There were plenty of potential camp spots here and a little further down.

It was a nice night to sleep out and when everyone else headed off to bed right after dark I propped my bivy up against a rock and listened to a book on tape until I was ready to fall asleep.  When I was ready I just scooted down to the side and quickly fell asleep...

And then spent the rest of the night vaguely aware of what seemed like mouse olympics running around the rock and the outside of my bivy.  I'm positive that at one point a mouse shot over the top of the rock, fell into my bivy, and then ran off.

Still, a pleasant night!



The next morning we were moving at 6 am and enjoyed a pretty if slightly intense sunset as we climbed up the canyon.



The heat was ramping up rather quickly.





At about 4,100' we turned south and started climbing the gully opposite of Tensor / Aqua.



The terrain became a mix of 2nd class bounder hopping and some light 3rd class.  The first major obstacle is this downclimb which is both higher and easier than it looks from the picture thanks to some solid handholds.



As I mentioned in the January writeup the topo in this area is incorrect and what looks like the highpoint according to the map is actually lower than Dyadic.  Once around that bump we could see the actual highpoint and could make out most of the route.


We set up a pack handoff in the chimney and everyone was able to climb it with a bit of coaching.

Chimney from the top


After that the inadvisable rap station was still there set non redundantly around a rock I could move just by smacking it with my hand.


Again a combination of coaching, spotting, and hand packs got everyone up.


After that Justin took us on the northern face of Dyadic which proved to be a little more straightforward than the route Kristen and I took last time.


We aimed for the notch, crossed over, and then it was butt-scoot time.


You can find pictures of people doing an airy stepacross back and to the left but for my money this is a more friendly move.  And makes for memorable photos!



And from there after a short verticale scramble you're home free!



We were on the summit around 9:30 am.  We didn't spend too long up there since we had a long day ahead of us.


We returned the same way and once down we decided we'd make for our secondary target Spectre which is the highpoint in the back of the picture above.  It's on the Desert Peaks Section list and is a mix of 2nd class and low 3rd.


One person elected to wait for us at the junction since they were running a little short on water and energy while the rest of us made a boulder hopping beeline straight over towards Spectre.


We made the summit of Spectre at 12:30 and by now we were really feeling the heat.  When we returned to where we'd dropped our thirsty participant Justin made the call to skip Tensor / Aqua since it just wasn't worth the suffering for a non descript bump with nothing but a name to recommend it.


Dropping back down the canyon to camp felt much longer than it should have considering the stats which is something I remember well from the previous trips.  There's just enough scrambling along the way to keep you from getting a good pace going and we a few of us were starting to flag a bit.



We were back at camp around 3:40 pm, packed up, and made it to the cars just before it got dark at 8 pm.

The route finding on Dyadic was still challenging but it did feel a lot more straightforward the second time around.  It makes for a good M-Rock provisional or just a solid 3rd class scramble with some routefinding if that's what you're after just try and do it before mid April to avoid the heat.  The dry camp aspect is a bit of a drag but probably unavoidable with any decent sized group.  I'd just recommend bringing extra water because after giving some away I ended up coming out with maybe 1/2 a liter by the end.

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