Mount Lewis, Throop Peak, Mount Hawkins, Middle Hawkins, Mount Islip

16 July 1988

By: Luella Martin

Leaders: Luella Martin, Jack Trager

7:00AM at the Pomona carpool, sixteen hikers sorted themselves out of Dave Jensen's Pine/Dawson trip and signed in. I carefully described, on a handout which I went over, how to get to Dawson saddle, then we left for same. At Dawson Saddle, I took roll, two cars were missing. To speed things up, we shuttled the remaining cars to Pine Hollow, leaving Betty Stirratt and Martha Stranhan along with the other riders to specifically let any latecomers know what was going on. One car arrived along with the Peltons, who had contacted me Friday and asked if they could join us at Dawson rather than drive around to Pomona. So when we got back to Dawson, we had sixteen but not the same sixteen. Martha was coming off a broken foot, so elected to sit out Lewis. The rest of us took thirty minutes to do it round trip. Still a car missing. Meanwhile Bruce Hale's Verdugo Hills "mob" had arrived from La Cañada for a hike to Baden-Powell. My sixteen scurried through the crowd with Jack now at the lead. He'd taken Phyllis up Throop two weeks before, while I'd done my scout with my father in 1981.

The day was hot and Martha and I were slow so the fast portion of the Bruce Hale crowd caught up with us. Mixture. On the top of Throop, we sorted ourselves out. Kathy Bantz of my group celebrated her 100th peak with champagne that she and her friends Jeff Wilson and Tom Moumblow helped carry. This turned out to be Martha's first peak and Dan Hall's second (Lewis was his first).

I took the lead down Throop and up Hawkins where we had lunch. Jack asked me which way we were going down Hawkins. I said you mean that there is another way? I've only done Hawkins nine times. He pointed toward Windy Gap, I said lead on. An old dog learned a new trick. Back on the PCT I resumed the lead. Martha elected to sit out Middle Hawkins, while the rest of us took approximately an hour for the round trip. We collected Martha and set out. I was glad that I'd recommended three canteens. It was very warm and I had already consumed two.

At Windy Gap, several indicated that they would rather skip Islip as it was hot and they didn't need the peak. I said I didn't care as I'd climbed Islip eight times. We took a vote. At least one third of the people needed/wanted Islip so I told the others that they could wait for us at the upper Little Jimmy/ Islip junction. When we got there, only three decided to wait. When we reached the top of Islip one of these had gotten bored and rejoined the group. We had the delight of a glider passing over us as we were reaching the summit.

We retraced our steps to the Little Jimmy trail, picked up the two, and headed down through Little Jimmy. After a little map reading, the PCT was located and followed to the road which leads to Pine Hollow. All were back at the cars by 2:30PM.

This was an enjoyable loop done with a good group. We had newcomers, Dan Hall, Karl Krancg, Robert Clayberg, and Martha Stranhan. It was good for me to see old friends like Austin and Betty Stirratt (now of Yucca Valley), the Peltons, Erich Fickle, Jeff Wilson, and Tom Moumblow. I met (for the first time) Jim Cook, Robert Hartsong and our "party girl" Kathy Bantz.

Oh, the missing car ... when we got back to Dawson Saddle, attached to Jack Trager's truck was a note. It seems right after we crossed the road they finally found Dawson Saddle. They were lost for over an hour. They joined Bruce Hale's group and had a good day. So, everybody was okay and happy.

Thanks to Kathy for the party and especially to Jack for the assist.