Geeky trip March 2023

[MojaveGeek]

So the next day (I've lost track at this point which day it was) we headed up to Aguereberry Point, with a few objectives.  Turned out to be quite cold and windy.



The sky was clear and the views pretty solid though.



I had in mind to climb "Pete's Peak" which is the peak immediately east of the point, but from our vantage point it looked rather sketchy and exposed.   Now it probably looks worse from here than it is, but between the wind, cold, and lack of enthusiasm from the rest of the party, I gave up on that one.



But we had an alternative anyway:  Pk 7204.   We hit the old Trail Canyon road and then followed a road trace much of the way to the summit. There was some snow and some mud from recently melted snow up near the summit, but it is always fun to get up into the trees in the Panamints, and the views were grand.   It had been about 15 years since I had been here, but I should get back sooner next time.  Not much traffic, and a nice place for views.







That was a great day, and we had time to hang out and take a nap on the summit.  There were good views in other directions to, including to the snowy Sierra.

Next day we headed to a canyon recommended by Kauri between the Kit Fox Hills and Titus Canyon.  We've all driven by the road sign teaching about "alluvial fans" there.   We parked nearby, but not actually at the right canyon, but Eric and Kathy pointed to the absurdly steep fan of "Alluvial Fan Canyon" and said "Let's go there".  Well  I am glad that I was not the one to suggest such a crazy idea, but it was good.  We thought we'd climb the chute of fresh grey gravel - except when we got there we found it was hand and foot sized talus.   Up, up, up, no respite, with Eric noting that at the top (there was a cute dryfall there, with easy bypass) you could not even begin to see the bottom.



At this point the canyon just digs right into the steep mountain side, and continues up further than we had stamina for.



Hint:  If you go up here, go up next to the grey chute, but hugging the brown rock against the wall that constrains the fan - going down this way was much faster and less tedious than going up.

It was 77 when we got back to the car, a bit warm, so we went up over Daylight Pass to climb one of the peaks we had seen there when we climbed the peak near Keane Spring.   It was 57 and windy just on the Beatty side of the pass.   We went up a different peak (4352) than the one we had started out for (4444) due to time pressure, but still got some fine late afternoon views.