Tip Top and Gold Mountains

Quinn came down from San Francisco to spend some time with Dorie and me at the cabin. We decided to add a couple of hikes to the visit.
Getting to Tip Top Mountain involved a long 4WD on 2N02 to the trail head, driven extremely well by Dorie. The hike was a short one but a little challenging at the start. The mountain was penetrated by mines, but all were closed or barred off to prevent entry. The mine on Tip Top was called the Silver Dream mine and it produced only about 1 ton of silver in the 1940’s. Views to the east looking at Johnson Valley and Joshua Tree, then to the west overlooking Lone Valley were spectacular. The original plan was to bushwhack another 2 miles over to Mineral Mountain, but it was getting late and Petey was waiting at the cabin. We drove another route back, 2N01, which was a little easier and faster, and on the way, we saw a beautiful doe and half-grown fawn. They were quick to run away.
The next day, Quinn and I hiked Gold Mountain. We headed up a very rocky, narrow road, then reaching a nice-looking ridge, we bushwhacked to the summit. On the way up, it became very steep and we wondered out loud if there was an easier path we missed. Just before the summit, sure enough there was a forest road we could have taken. It didn’t show up on my map. Two jeeps were parked on the road and we scared the devil out of them when we just popped out of the woods. We decided to take the forest road down, which was a lot easier.
A quick trip to the cabin to some nice grilled steaks and a beautiful sunset over San Gorgonio. It was a nice weekend to have Quinn with us at the cabin. (Click on any picture to start slide show)