Hiker's Blog – Page 6 – The part of life we really live is small.

Joshua Tree NP – April 2021

Jack, John, and I set out for hiking some more peaks in JTNP before the desert gets to hot. It almost was too hot already.

Anza Borrego – Pinyon Wash

We needed a slower-paced camping trip with a focus on food and hanging out. A couple of nights in Pinyon Wash in Anza-Borrego State Park sounded good.

There are a couple of mountains that we always look at for quite a while when driving up/down Hwy. 395 on Sierra Nevada trips. We never have the time on these trips to hike them, so I put together a separate trip for these.

Marble Peak Northwest

There is some confusion about the Marble Peak that is mentioned in the “Desert Summits” book by Andy Zdon. My 2006 edition of the book does not give a description of how to get to the top, in fact a Marble Peak is only mentioned on one of the small maps. Some list this peak rather than the other Marble peak (which we climbed years ago) to the southeast on a nearby ridge. The later seems to be in better agreement with the little map in the book. To cover our bets we decided to climb this one also.

Mount Marie-Louise, The Pinnacles, Deer Mountain

Checking out three small mountains on a short overnight trip to the San Bernardino NF north of Lake Arrowhead.

29 Palms Mtn., Sheep Hole Mtn’s. High Point, Joshua Mtn.

Uwe has been working on a new list of Desert Peaks. He had 3 in mind in the Joshua Tree NP area and invited me and John.

Cady Peak, Sleeping Beauty, Van Winkle Mountain

Another outing to scramble up some desert peaks in Southern California. This time we had our eyes on Cady Peak, Sleeping Beauty, Van Winkle Mtn., and others time and conditions permitting.

San Bernardino Mountains, Desert Peaks (East)

A 3-day outing to hike Black Mountain, Chaparrosa Peak, Bighorn Mountain, Meeks Mountain with John, Jack, Frank and Ilian.

Monument Mtn., Humbug Mtn., Spectre Pk + Agua BM – Joshua Tree NP

About 15 years ago I bought the book “Desert Summits” by Andy Zdon. It contains information about 334 desert peaks/mountains/benchmarks in California and southern Nevada. I have hiked some of them, but not as many as I liked. Time to check off more of them.

Bradshaw Trail and Joshua Tree NP

A 4 day / 3 night outing to get on top of some peaks north of the Bradshaw Trail in the Chuckwalla and Orocopia Mountains that I had been eyeing for quite some time: Chuckwalla Peak, Black Butte, Orocopia Mountains High Point.