Leaders: Bob Hawthorne, Phil Martin
When schedule write-ups were due last Dec. 6, rains had raised such havoc with mountain roads, participants were asked to contact leaders for feasability of a two-day backpack. Those who called found a quite opposite report. The Forest Service had the roads in such good condition that all scheduled peaks could easily be climbed in one day except McDonald which was out-of-bounds because of early fire closure.
All cars though shaken a bit and covered with dust, easily made the last saddle before McDonald Peak. Due to limited parking and a last mile of rough and twisting road, all jammed into the compacts and the three four-wheel drives and were soon within a few feet of the summit of Sewart Mtn. (Shall we take it off the list because it is a drive-up? Incidentally while scouting, a jeep was seen almost to the saddle between White and Cobblestone Mtns. Makes one wonder how long our list will last if the Forest Service continues to build roads and we take off all drive-ups.)
As the return of the 29 peak-baggers varied from 2:30 to 5:00 from the down-up-----up-up-up trail over Snowy on to Black and reverse to Sewart, the group scatte |