Quail Mountain, Queen Mountain, Ryan Mountain, Bernard Peak, Little Berdoo Peak, Lost Horse Mountain, Mount Inspiration

19 March 1988

By: John Sheldon

Leaders: John Sheldon, Bill T. Russell

Some confusion began this trip as I was unable to reserve a group campsite. I elected to stay at Jumbo Rocks Campground since it is the largest in the Monument and I hoped that we would be able to reserve sites close together. It worked out just right. Bill T. had driven up late Friday afternoon and had found a spot in someone else's site. It turned out that they were leaving Saturday morning so we were able to take the whole site.

There were 26 of us that met just outside the campground and we caravanned to the Quail trailhead where we met John Strauch from San Diego. We hiked Quail in 3.5 hours round trip, and we had lunch in the shade of the cars. It turned out to be quite a warm day. Three participants signed out and we had 23 for the climb of Queen. A hot afternoon slowed us down a bit, and we questioned whether we should try for Ryan. Those "needing" the peak went for it, while others went back to camp. We had a great "happy hour", a community garbage salad and campfire to end a nice day. Bill T. shared with us the joys of climbing Big Iron each year as a backpack, and tried to convince us to join him this Memorial Day. I'm not sure he was persuasive enough!

Sunday we drove in to the Bernard/Little Berdoo trailhead and we made short work of the loop. Nice flowers surprised us in the canyon. We again found shade around the cars and had lunch. On to Lost Horse where we visited the mine, after climbing the peak, and then Inspiration to finish the weekend.

All in all it was a great weekend with a super group of experienced peakbaggers. The participants were: Pat Russell, Ruth Adler, Evan Samuels, Marc Rattner, Hoda Shalaby, Larry Monzon, Dan Skaglund, John Southworth, Cindy Okine, Roy Stewart, Karen Nikisher, Art Schain, Lou Brecheen, Jon and Betsy Lutz, Daniel Bleiberg, David Jensen, Eivor Nilsson, Alice Cahill, Don Henderson, Bob Sumner, Roy Magnuson, and Spencer Buckner.