Shay Mountain, Deer Mountain, Ingham Peak, Little Shay Mountain, Hawes Peak, Luna Mountain, Rattlesnake Mountain, Round Mountain

19 October 1991

By: Patty Kline

Leaders: Frank Goodykoontz, Patty Kline

This was a Big Bear weekend in that time window after the hot summer and before the fall rains and snows which close dirt roads and make camping outside generally miserable. We met at 7:30 am on a warm October morning in Fawnskin. There were 15 of us. From Fawnskin, we started our long dirt road drive for the weekend on Forest Service Road 3N14. A good hour later, we arrived at the roadhead for Shay, Deer, Little Shay and Hawes. We did Shay first. Then we did Deer where we had lunch. It was so hot, one participant waited for us enroute while we went on to get Deer. Deer took longer than we expected because the heat slowed many more people down. Next time, I would like to do Deer from the Deep Creek side for a much shorter, cooler hike and a pathfinder route. Next was Ingham and Little Shay. Before we did them, 3 people went on trail back to the cars, worn out from the heat thereby missing the last 2 peaks of the day. The totals for the day were approximately 3000' gain and 12 miles.

That night, there was a nice happy hour and pot luck dinner on Doug Hatfield's tailgate and the Bartel's card table. We joined some hunters around their campfire after dinner and talked about local historical highway signs that their group had placed.

The first peak of the day on Sunday was Hawes. Charlie Knapke, who had driven in on his own the night before and joined us for dinner and campfire, got up earlier than we did and knocked off Hawes and other peaks. He caught up to our dirt road car convoy enroute to Luna. Charlie hiked with us the last 3 peaks. We had the longest lunch break of the day on Luna. It is hard to designate a lunch with four easy peaks spread throughout the day. Next was Rattlesnake. Just after we left our cars for Rattlesnake, we saw a very large one going across the road. There has been a fire near the summit. The last peak was Round. This was an easier day. There was about the same 3000' of gain and 8 miles total.

At the conclusion of the trip, we all drove the dirt road down towards Hesperia. Since this is hunting season, it is appropriate to say we went in one end and out the other in Big Bear. So ends another really nice HPS weekend. Many thanks to Frank Goodykoontz who skillfully leads the peaks while I sweep, plan the dinners and camping logistics and sell T-Shirts.

In addition to the leaders, the trip participants were: Lew Amack, Tom Sakowych, Doug Hatfield, Bill Herbert, Bob Baird, Bryce Wheeler, Wilma Wheeler, Alan Hill, Evan Samuels, Theresa Ebeling, Erv Bartel, Janet Bartel, Beverly Rawles, and Charlie Knapke.