John and I convoyed up to Inyokern and from there went up Indian Wells Canyon. Right at the bottom of the Canyon is a very rocky ridge on the north side of the canyon called “Five Fingers”. The highest point can be reached with some moderate scrambling. We parked at a big camp\/parking area and headed straight up the very steep and sandy slope. It was one of those go one step up and then slide half a step down situations. Quite tedious. In the 84F heat we quickly worked up a good sweat. Once on a little saddle between the two highest rock formations we had to scramble down a little and traverse north to find the ridge that was supposed to provide a class 2+ route to the top. On that ridge we reached the final ~100ft climb. Here hands were needed. We dropped our packs and hiking poles and went up. Someone had carved out footholds so that the climb was straightforward. From the top we got nice views of Indian Wells Canyon, the road to the campsite and trailhead for the Owens hike the next day, and Owens Peak itself. It was only a 2.1-mile hike, but the elevation gain was 1,600 ft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>Once back down we continued up the canyon on road SE164 to the end of the road and parking area for the Owens Peak trail. The very nice campsite with a couple of big trees providing shade was available and we quickly settled it. Unfortunately it was too windy for a campfire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Day 2<\/strong> It was warm and we really appreciated the shade from the trees and from the mountain itself as we worked out way up this very steep trail. We eventually got to the “infamous” slabs. It turned out that the section was not too steep and there were good handholds to get over the slabs. Above the slabs it’s an easy walk up to the top on a comfortable use trail. The views from up there were great even though it was a bit hazy. We clearly could make out Langely and Whitney, the closest 14ers. Both of them did not seem to have much snow on them in this low-snow year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the peak we went down the southern ridge to get to the PCT which would take us to our next goal, Mount Jenkins. With lots of fallen trees and loose rock it was a slow descent and while there were a decent number of rock cairns to point the way, there were sections where we got off the route a bit. Once on the PCT we right away met a couple of through-hikers. They were 460 miles into their track. It was nice to have some solid trail for a while and we enjoyed it for a brief 1.8 miles. There we left the trail and went up straight the eastern ridge leading up to Mount Jenkings. On the ridge we found a well-worn use trail. This was a good thing since picking a route to the top through the very rocky and bushy terrain would have been quite tough. There was a little 10 ft climb just below the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we were having a snack John discovered that he was down to his last small water bottle. Since I also had used up more than half my water we went to plan B. Between us we did not have enough water to go over to Morris Peak and then down to our canyon. So we took the PCT back north a bit and headed down a ridge which I had marked as a possible bailout for just this kind of situation when I planned this hike. The ridge descent turned out to be easy, fun even, and we soon were down at camp enjoying some beers. We scrambled\/hiked only about 9.5 miles that day, but with 4,700 ft elevation gain, the heat, and the terrain it was quite a good effort in 9h out there. That evening there was no wind, but we were too tired for a campfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Day 3<\/strong> Done by noon we headed home drawing on our fresh memories from a great couple of days while enduring the unavoidable traffic going through San Bernardino and Riverside counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (click on any image to enlarge\/start slide show)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We got up around 5:30 and hit the trail around 6:30. It starts out on an old mining road and then becomes a nice, shaded hiking trail that progressively gets steeper. About 1.3 miles from camp we dropped the packs and headed up the northern side of the canyon to some big boulders. The map and trip reports indicated that there were some pictographs to view. A use trail led us right to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>
With the heat and feeling the previous days efforts a little we decided on an easy 9 miler \ud83d\ude09 (2,000 ft elevation gain). We drove to Walker Pass on the 178 and took the PCT to Morris Peak. There was a nice use trail from the PCT to the peak. How much easier it is to cruise along a trail than over the nasty terrain we had been on the day before. We met a total of 10 PCT through-hikers on this hike, all coming fresh from the Walker Pass campground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure><\/div>