(2020-11-15, 10:01 PM)David_Bricker Wrote: In what kind of shape is the Panamint Hilton?
Halloween eve or technically Halloween morning at 00:30 hours I arrived at Panamint City while being captivated by a full moon hike up Surprise Canyon. I needed a flashlight to navigate some of the preliminary "jungle" spots but as soon as the moon popped out I put the flashlight away.
I was pooped for two reasons, one is that I had already done a four mile hike north of Cow Creek before deciding to take on Sentinel (The voice of Candace66 was whispering in my ear to follow in her footstep to Sentinel which she had completed in September and also to see if I could find MojaveGeeks entry in the summit register.) and second, I wasted a half hour and heaps of energy trying to bypass that first slick rock waterfall on the south side which dead ended on a cliff looking way down on the trail. I had to carefully scoot back down and find another access on the north side up the water steps. I knew I had ruined any chance of getting to PC by midnight.
Since there were two other cars parked at Chris Wicht I knew there were at least two and probably more than that ahead of me. Arriving late at PC I did not want to barge into The Panamint Hilton and awaken them or maybe get shot if they thought I was an alien attempting to abduct them.
So I did not check out the interior of The Panamint Hilton until my return from Sentinel Peak on Halloween afternoon about 4-5 p.m. Being tired I did not even think about snapping some images or shooting a vid of the cabin or interior, which I regret now. The roof is still on and seems to keep the water out, there were two sleep-able beds with one having three padded layers left behind by former guests. I did not seen any rat turds so someone had swept up the place. The kitchen area was quite clean and tidy and about two or three gallons of extra drinking water left behind with a sign -"For those who arrive thirsty." If I had arrived earlier and had the cabin to myself I would have slept on that bed instead of in my hammock strung up inside the old garage shed.
So I'm quite pleased that guests at The Panamint Hilton are keeping it up as it appears to be in the same condition that I found it about four years ago on my first hike up to PC.
Now I'm thinking i need to make a third excursion to PC and stay at least one night and maybe exploring all of the side canyons and mine works and to complete a thorough photo survey of the smoke stack at sunrise and sunset light because I'm afraid it won't be standing in place much longer. I'm surprised it survived the Ridgecrest Quake of a year to two ago.
It might be worth taking a screw gun and some grabber screws to tighten down the tin roof or scavenge some tin from around to keep the roof sound and watertight. It would be a damn shame to lose the Panamint Hilton. I'd like to leave any location in the park that I've enjoyed in better shape than when I found it. There might be restrictions on repair and maintenance of existing structures in the park? I checked the map and PC lays within park boundaries.
That's a long long trip but then Sentinel is not easy to bag at all. The ridge north from Porter is a wonderful highway in the sky... until it isn't at the end. I was up there 24 years ago. My how time flies. Very memorable, for a number of reasons.
