Joshua Tree is the second of four outings that make up the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course.  Two weeks ago everyone joined us for a 15 mile -ish dayhike and now we had an entire weekend bus trip out to Indian Cove to focus on rock scrambling skills and navigation!

And since we're Kaweah Group (one of the three groups in the Orange County area of WTC) we like to throw a theme into the mix for our summit shot and potluck.  Themes are suggested and voted on by the class and previous years have run the gamut from simple to elaborate.  This year the winner was Medical Misadventure beating out Business Casual Murder Clowns by a very small margin.  The result is what you see above!

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts by me about WTC can be found here.

February 17th & 18th, 2018

[Pics] [CalTopo]

I was going to stay home this weekend.  I really was.  The last few weeks of constant trips and frantic work weeks had left me with quite a bit to do around the house and I decided I should really just stay home and deal with it all.

That resolution lasted until about 3 pm on Friday.  5 hours later Kristen and I were driving out to the desert planning to knock off some things that had been on the list for awhile but didn't really warrant their own weekend.

Dyadic is a peak near the DPS Spectre Peak out to the east of Twentynine Palms.  Jen Blackie and I did Spectre back in 2013 and due to running low on water we'd skipped the two named bumps nearby and ever since I'd heard people talk about Dyadic and how difficult it was.

And they were right.  I tend to discount a lot of the Joshua Tree area peaks as trivial but this one has solid high end 3rd with a bonus of non trivial route finding.  It's a great pick for a Sierra Club M provisional with the only drawback being it's tough to day hike and any plan to backpack the peaks requires you carry all your water.  And who the heck wants to do that...

January 27th, 2018

Aqua Benchmark (4,419')

Dyadic Point (4,360')

14.1 miles, 3,200'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Camping in the desert is usually really easy.  Drive to the desert, find a spot that isn't a road or private property, and throw out your sleeping bag!  However certain areas like Joshua Tree can offer some challenges since it's a National Park surrounded by housing and the campgrounds all have a bad habit of filling up early.

The following are a few locations near Joshua Tree that I've used in the past.

Joshua Tree Bivy Spots

[Caltopo Map]

This was the second weekend outing of the 10 week Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course (aka WTC).  Previously the group had joined us for a long dayhike designed to give everyone an idea of the fitness level required to complete course and now we would be spending the weekend scrambling around on rocks in Joshua Tree and practicing navigation using compasses and topo maps.

And since we're Kaweah Group (one of the three groups in the Orange County area of WTC) we like to throw a theme into the mix for our summit shot and potluck.  Themes are suggested and voted on by the class and previous years have run the gamut from simple to elaborate and we carry the costumes with us to the summit of the peak.  This year the winner was a combined theme of enchanted forest / animals the result of which you can see above.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

February 11th & 12th, 2017

Peak 4377 (4,377')

[Pics] [Map]

This was a long weekend.

The AMP13 rappel day was Saturday and the setup requires waking up painfully early to meet up with Jack, get to Chatsworth, and set up 6 separate rappel stations complete with separate belay anchors.  By the time the students show up around 8 I'd already been up 5 hours.  Actually teaching the course was a ball like always and I managed to stay coherent through the post class meal.

Needless to say by the time I got home I pretty much showered and passed out immediately.  Only to wake up at 3 am, quickly throw together a daypack, and then drive out to meet John Slagle and Mark Butski at a local carpool point so we could drive 3 hours to Sheep Hole Mountain north of 29 Palms.

Fortunately John was up for doing the driving.

April 24th, 2016

Sheep Hole Mountains HP (4,613')

[Pics] [Map]

What:      

     Spectre Peak (4,482')

What: WTC Joshua Tree Rock Scrambling & Navigation
When: February 9th & 10th, 2013
Where: Indian Cove Campground, Joshua Tree
Instructors: Matthew Hengst, James Montross, Laurent Hoffman, Paul Warren, Jeff Atijera, Wendy Miller
Pictures: Matt's Flickr

January through April is the season where myself and many other regulars on my peakbagging trips wander in from the wilderness, start showering regularly again, and act as volunteer instructors for the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course.