After being turned back last year because of thick manzanita and snow, three of
us took off the day after Thanksgiving for another attempt at the summit. The
route we took was different from the customary routes over Daugherty's property
or over Apache Peak. Instead, we approached it from the west. The route included
leaving Route 74 just below Keen Camp Summit on Road 5S05. We followed this road
for approximately 3 miles until Road 5S05C was reached. This road is the
entrance to the Fleming Ranch. We parked the car at the junction and proceeded
to walk up 5S05C. This brought us to the locked gate at the Fleming Ranch, but
the ranch hands have placed a wooden ladder over the barbed wire to make a climb
over the wire easier. We continued on the road until we came to what appeared to
be a ranch hand's or ranch master's living quarters, where we knocked on the
door to request permission to pass over their property. No one responded to our
knocks, so we continued on our trip. We turned right through a barbed wire gate
with a red flag hanging on it and continued up the road. From here on, the early
part of our trip up differed somewhat from our trip back, so we'll give what we
think is the best route up from this direction.
Continue up the road after going past the gate with the red flag hanging on it.
This will bring one to a "Y" intersection. Take the road to the right and
continue until another "Y" intersection is reached. Again take the road to the
right and continue until the end of the road. This takes one into a wash.
Continue up the wash about 50 yards until what looks like a small bulldozer
trail goes up to the left. We left ducks here to mark the spot. Go up this
bulldozer trail which leads into another wash. Continue up this new wash until a
duck we placed in front of a big cedar tree is reached. Turn right into a wash
coming down the mountain from that direction and follow this wash. The upper
part of this wash is all granite and makes climbing fairly easy. There is one
tricky spot that requires some exposure climbing on the way up this wash, but if
one looked hard enough he could probably find a way around it. Continue up the
wash until the vertical rises of the false summit area are reached. Contour
around to the left (north) at the base of these rocks. One then comes to what
looks like an approach up to the summit (we thought about climbing this, but
decided it would take us to a false summit, so therefore ignored it). Continue
past this approach until a second logical route is reached. Take this route.
Exposure climbing takes place almost the entire way up, so it is a good idea to
take a rope along (although we didn't use it). The route up is almost
self-explanatory. This brings one out on the ridge coming in from Southwell
Peak. From there only a short distance presenting very little difficulty leads
one to the top. At the top, one can see the many reasons why people who took the
wrong approach came close and could see the top, but never made it.
From the top, we looked over the possibility of climbing the rock from Red
Tahquitz via Southwell Peak and agreed with How Bailey and Vic Miller that this
is not the most desirable way to come. We felt the route we took was much
easier. In discussing our route, we agreed that every guess we made was correct.
Total climbing time from the parked car to the top took three hours. The weather
was clear and crisp. We had lunch on top and then proceeded down. Total trip
time from leaving the car to returning took about five hours.
