This ended up being a very ambitious outing. I’m not sure I would 100% recommend this itinerary to any sane peakbagger but here it is anyway!
On Tuesday afternoon Mo and I drove from San Diego to the Shepherd Pass trailhead arriving about 8:30 pm. We immediately blasted up to Anvil Camp arriving about midnight. It was actually really nice hiking in the evening. Cool breeze and no opportunity to see how many switchbacks await in the inky blackness.
On Wednesday we got moving about 7:00 am and plopped our camp over the pass to a small pond just west of the JMT. It is near the lake marked WL3490 on the Forest Service 7.5′ topo. During the planning stages of this trip, I thought it would be better to camp down by the Kern River just to take some miles off the climbing days. However I ended up being very pleased with this campsite up on the high plains. 1) Minimal mosquitoes up high, while they were ferocious by the river. 2) No need to lug your heavy backpack up from the river on the hike out. 3) We had enough daylight to bag the peaks even with the extra mileage. The only drawback is that there were some very picturesque campsites along Milestone Creek that we missed out on.
Back to Wednesday’s events. After setting up camp we immediately set off for Thunder Mountain. It sits to the north in a separate valley from Milestone / Midway / Table and requires some mindful cross country navigation to approach it efficiently. In retrospect, reaching the damn peak was about 90% of the battle! By the time we reached the exposed ledge traverse to the higher north summit, Mo was blitzed. He opted to take a nap at the notch while I bagged the beast. It wasn’t too bad thanks to Carlo Barlow’s beta pic! I used the hand line a bit to make the awkward move to the very top. All in all, a wonderful summit! We arrived back to camp about 9:00 pm as darkness fell. Mo was altitude sick and did a nice job hanging in there on the uphill back to camp.
Come Thursday morning, Mo was feeling better and proceeded as planned up the JMT to test his ultralight equipment / GU-based diet. He has plans to hike the whole JMT in 5-6 days sometime in August. Meanwhile I had designs on the rest of the Great Western Divide. The scramble up Milestone was ultra fun and really comprised the best stretch of continuous scrambling of any of the four peaks. Nice solid class three. I left camp about 7:00 am and hit the summit about 11:00 am. It was relatively easy to get onto Midway’s east ridge as the bowl between these peaks allowed for high contouring. Nice. After an uneventful class two boulder hop, I attained Midway’s summit only two hours later, about 1:00 pm. I then made a few half-assed attempts to get off Midway’s north side directly to Table. However I got a little sketched out. I hate class three / four terrain when there’s loose crap on the ledges. I opted to descend the entirety of Midway’s east ridge and then jog sideways to the nice tarn to refill my water. This ended up being a reasonable way to go although it certainly took some extra time compared to the direct descent off the north side. I ate a bag of cheese at the tarn and caught a second wind. It was not to last.
I didn’t have any beta on how to get up Table and made some of the WORST routefinding choices of my peakbagging career. I made it onto the southeast face just fine but got ledged out hard numerous times on the northward traverse toward the eponymous table. I was much too high, that is, too close to the ridgetop. I eventually found cairns on a broad ledge system lower down the face. They led me right to the funny keyhole which grants access to the table! All this took a long time and I was feelin dog tired by now. Hit the summit about 4:30 pm after the hysterical walk across the ultra-flat plateau. I followed the ledges just fine on the way back, but was forced to zig zag a bunch trying to get off the lower southeast face. So much choss everywhere, it required care to find the smart way down. The more physically tired I was, the better I could appreciate the wonderful surroundings. Smooth granite slabs guided my flowing glider descent down Milestone Creek canyon. Golden light abounded. Near the bottom I fell in the Kern River while hastily attempting to escape the mosquitoes. No matter, I was still flyin high! I once again reached camp about 9:00 pm as darkness fell — good thing as I neglected to bring my regular eyeglasses and was rockin the prescription sunnies!
On Friday morning, Mo and I were totally cramped up. Yesterday he had made it to Glen Pass in a successful ultralight jaunt. Having forgot my spoon, I shoveled tuna fish packets into my face with bare hands. PROTEIN = RECOVERY. Although my hands reeked of fish all day, it did help get my creaky bones moving, albeit slowly.
We slogged it out in the blistering summer heat. We sighted human-like apparitions wobbling through the wavy super-heated atmosphere, could it be? They are hiking up the trail? — what a bunch of maniacs. We met a new mom and her friend who had driven over from Vegas on no sleep and were exuberantly dayhiking up the pass! They were very interested to get our advice on which peaks to bag and offered “extreme” caffeinated jelly beans in exchange for our thoughts. I recommended the north rib of Tyndall, which I had fond memories of being a sweet little scramble. Much better than the hell that is Williamson Bowl.
I jumped in Symmes Creek near the trailhead to wash the crust off, completing the remaining mile in my underwear. It felt good to get some sun on my legs for once. Mo hiked ahead to avoid the blinding display.
At the beginning I wrote this couldn’t possibly constitute a recommended itinerary, but if you’re revving high and don’t mind nonstop hiking I suppose it does have the potential to “satiate the soul”. I already forgot about all the gritty parts. Time to plan another peak-stravaganza!