Moses Mountain, North Maggie Mountain

25-Jun-94

By: George Toby, Patty Kline

Two late cancellations and two no-shows reduced our group to 11. We met at Shake Camp, just next to the pack station corrals at Mountain Home State Forest. Trail 31E15 begins there. good car camping and toilets, We hit the trail at 8:15 for an easy backpack to a good campsite at the North end of Long Meadows, just 100 yards south of the Tule River crossing. This was a mixed group. A couple of vetern climbers and mostly new people to the SPS. The trip really became an intro trip and at a slower pace, We established camp and headed for Moses. Starting at the Tule River crossing we took the trail 1/4 mile North to a green and wet meadow with a black snow marker 31E15. then West up forested slopes to just below the ridge. Then South below the ridges, dropping down here and there, crossing several side chutes to almost even withthe peak and up to the summit. The ridge is very jagged but the summit is rather flat. There was some low class 3 en-route. You don't see the summit until you are almost upon it. All 11 made the peak. A snow bank helped us quench our thirst.

Due to the slower pace time was now a factor, so we headed NE more or less straight down the moutain in a large gully and through a thick forest that took us directly back to camp. A much shorter route, arriving in camp conveniently before sundown. This would be a steep but better route up and down. Going down we found a water bottle marked "BILL- T". (Nice to know Bill - T took this route). We also encountered a young bear in the forest. It was a real handsome bear about a year old. It was very curious and got up on a bluff and watched us hike on down. No one was very anxious to gather firewood so Happy Hour and dinner were held under the glow of headlamps.

Sun morning at 7:00 am we headed North to the same meadow, crossed the Tule and up thru a thick forest to pick up a prominent gully heading East, picking our way thru the brush. The gully veers to the South and narrows down into a rocky chute that ends at a saddle at 9,500'. 'l'hen due East to the summit of N. Maggie staying on the North side to avoid the brush. The weather was beautiful both days with great views of this beautiful forested area, from both peaks. These are fun climbs. We returned to camp by more or less the same route. This is very pretty country. There is a flowing stream in the big gully that flows into the Tule, But itia not shown on either the 15 min Mineral King topo or the 7.5 min Moses topo, Interesting.

We got back to camp early and hiked out for an easy drive out in daylight to about Bakersfield. I think our newcomers to the SP8 enjoyed the trip and most expressed a desire to join the SPS. Patty and I had dinner with two newcomers in Bakersfield. Delightful. Happy Climbing.