Jeeping jeepers may run

Panamint mountains

The monthly club run was held in the Panamint Mountains.  Everybody arrived late Friday afternoon or early evening May 20, 2005 to camp in Ballarat near the old cemetery and General Store.  The wind was blowing and midday the temperature had been 108 degrees in the shaded patio of the General Store.  The wind continued to blow throughout most of the night but finally calmed down a little after midnight.  The wind made it impossible to have a camp fire Friday night.  Everybody woke to a calm day Saturday morning with the sun shining and the birds singing and hardly a breath of wind.  We all loaded up and everybody was ready to head out of camp by 8:45 am, in an effort to try and beat the heat of the day.   

We headed out up Pleasant Canyon with 5 vehicles and encountered water within the first few miles.  Because of the abundance of water in the canyon, the vegetation was dense and very green with lots of birds enjoying the Saturday morning with us, plus there were flowers everywhere.  The water was flowing quite strongly most of the way up the canyon (for several miles), and the wet boulders in the trail gave slippery footing in some of the more tight spots.  Because Jim Arbogast is active in an “Adopt a Cabin” program at the World Beater Mine Cabin, he had brought along several shelves and cabinets to be installed at the cabin that morning.  We all stopped at the cabin to work on the shelves with Jim which only took maybe an hour (if that).

After the work at the cabin we proceeded up the canyon and had an early lunch just before Rogers Pass.  The view from the pass was spectacular into Death Valley.  The sun was shining but because we now were up into the pine trees, (7400 feet), the temperature was very pleasant.  We proceeded up the mountain  and into Middle Park.  I have been there numerous times and have never seen Middle Park so totally green.  Everywhere you looked it was green with flowers blooming everywhere.  After passing through Middle Park we dropped into South Park after doing some old mine exploring.  We found that South Park was also totally green as was Middle Park, with flowers everywhere.   After exiting South Park we encountered the trail down the canyon, over “Chicken Rock” and over the wash out-bridge, to the Briggs and Stone cabins.  We took a brief break at the two cabins before proceeding on down the trail.  Jim Arbogast attacked a sharp rock with the side-wall of his tire and the rock won the battle after leaving a good sizable gash.  

Back in camp the temperature was very warm but bearable after returning at about 3:15pm.  We all kicked back and relaxed and recounted the excellent day we had just had.