Indian Peak (White Mountains) trip report

[Candace66]

Since I hardly ever write trip reports, I thought I'd share this, even though it wasn't in DVNP!   



I've been working my way through the peaks in Andy Zdon's "Desert Summits" guidebook.  I've now climbed 311 of the 336 he described.  I started this project in 2002, LOL. The first peak in the book that I climbed was Telescope Peak!




Though it seems like I've been milking this project for a long time, there were periods when I wasn't hiking due to foot problems.  Or living/working overseas.  Or simply choosing to do something else.



Over the last year, this list has been my primary focus.  Though I have done other stuff as well...such as tracking down desert dust trap sites.  But that's another topic... 




So without further ado, here's the latest peak I "checked off" the list: Indian Peak in the White Mountains of California. 




Indian Peak from the west




This was actually one of the most difficult ones I've done.  Though maybe it wouldn't have felt that way if I had done it years ago! 

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LOL, I'm not sure why the spacing is so messed up in my OP!

[MojaveGeek]

That looks like a tough one. PA lot of elevation over not that many miles. Well congrats on a big one. And thanks for posting a TR. I should get my just-before-covid DEVA trip written up one of these days

[netllama]

Over the last year, this list has been my primary focus.  Though I have done other stuff as well...such as tracking down desert dust trap sites.  But that's another topic... 

lolwut?

[Candace66]

Over the last year, this list has been my primary focus.  Though I have done other stuff as well...such as tracking down desert dust trap sites.  But that's another topic... 

lolwut?

Ah yes, remember the "Marble Bird Bath"?  AKA a dust trap set up for scientific research.  Somehow I became irrationally interested in finding all those.    Perhaps I will do a write-up about all that someday, LOL.

[Kauri]

Over the last year, this list has been my primary focus.  Though I have done other stuff as well...such as tracking down desert dust trap sites.  But that's another topic... 

lolwut?

Ah yes, remember the "Marble Bird Bath"?  AKA a dust trap set up for scientific research.  Somehow I became irrationally interested in finding all those.    Perhaps I will do a write-up about all that someday, LOL.

Yes! Please, please do a write-up on the "Marble Bird Baths"! I remember your posts about this on the old forum. Finding those sounds like a fascinating project--especially since they were probably difficult to find since they don't show up on Google Earth?

[Candace66]

Ah yes, remember the "Marble Bird Bath"?  AKA a dust trap set up for scientific research.  Somehow I became irrationally interested in finding all those.    Perhaps I will do a write-up about all that someday, LOL.

Yes! Please, please do a write-up on the "Marble Bird Baths"! I remember your posts about this on the old forum. Finding those sounds like a fascinating project--especially since they were probably difficult to find since they don't show up on Google Earth?

No, those tiny things definitely aren't visible on Google Earth! 

A variety of research-related publications did list rough coordinates and other details about the sites.   But none of the coordinates were exact. 

For the earliest traps set up in the 80's, the sites were hand-plotted on a printed topo map, then ithe coordinates were interpolated!  Sometimes they were off by literally miles.

One limitation on posting a complete write-up is that the sites may be used again for research.  So of course the person I contacted asked me not to share the exact coordinates of them.  But I could probably still come up with something that is interesting, and/or proves I'm a nut to pursue those things for years!

[MojaveGeek]

The comment about "hand written on topo maps..."

Many years ago I started exploring Panamint Valley and found there were springs (Tuber, Surprise, Happy...).  I wondered if there were any north of highway 90?  Back then maps were not online, but my school had a map library with all the paper topos.   I found the right one, and there, up Dolomite Canyon, was hand printed in pencil an X and WATER.  I made a color copy (we had an early color copier) and...

That year I went up with my daughter looking for it.  We got to where the X was, but found nothing.  It appeared to be in the canyon, but we found nothing.   WTF?

Years later, with my wife-to-be Kathy, we were up walking from Towne Pass over to Towne Peak and looking out over the canyon we saw..  a white thing down in the canyon.  Looked like a white water tank!


Someone I knew used to ramble around the PV and I gave him the info.  He went looking, climbed a few local hills, found nothing, sent pix.

In the mean time I learned that a retired geology prof at my school used to do field work in DV.

I took the photos I had of the white thing from above, drew a few sight lines on the topo based on features in the background, and identified a location as a canyon fork about 1/2 mile upstream from where it was marked (remember, the mark was likely pre-GPS).   I eventually got there with my hiking buddy Eric.  It was a guzzler.  Indeed, a white tank, with a dam upstream and metal pipe feeding to the tank, and a guzzler with a float valve hanging off that.  Not quite functional at the time.

Probably took a decade to finish that quest!  But it was fun to finally find the WATER

[DeathValleyDazed]

This was actually one of the most difficult ones I've done.  Though maybe it wouldn't have felt that way if I had done it years ago! 

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I can relate to you on this one Candace. I wish I had discovered DEVA in my 20's!

BTW - That was a class act of yours to install an upgraded register on the summit.