Moses Mountain, North Maggie Mountain

21-Oct-95

By: Tina Stough, Doug Mantle

This last scheduled trip of the season was a great success. Fifteen (our permit limit) met at the Shake Camp trailhead in Mountain Home State Forest and began hiking at 7:05 on the Summit Lake trail. We established camp at Long Meadow and soon started out for North Maggie behind Doug, fighting our way up brush soon after leaving the trail just several minutes north of our camp (we left the trail about the M in Middle on the Moses Mtn 7 1/2 map. Eventually the brush gave way to less vicious terrain as we went up the drainage west and a bit north of N. Maggie (north of false summit 10,113'). We spent an hour or more on the summit, enjoying the sunshine and the register placed in 1963 by John Robinson and congratulating John Dobbs on his fiftieth Sierra peak and R. J. Secor on his five hundredth Sierra summit. Our return route followed the drainage, generally on the south side, but switching to the north and then the south again closer to the bottom. We crossed the Tule River to the west side to pick up the trail again and soon were back in camp. Gathered around a fine campfire, we shared memories of Vi Grasso doing her Tina Turner imitation on this same trip of ten years ago and other reminiscences of our friend.

Despite a lot of grumbling about the early hour, the group set off Sunday morning at 7:00 for Moses, going north on the trail again to the meadow where we had picked up the trail after our climb of N. Maggie. We went up the slope to a false summit where we rested while Donna Cheslick professionally cared for a razor-like cut inflicted on Bob Bruley's leg by a rock.

Doug tried to shame us into waiting at least till 5:00 to begin feasting on all of the goodies, but some of us couldn't resist the temptation, no matter what. Then we traversed south to the true summit with some nice scrambling. To retun, we went back to the false summit immediately north of the true one and went east down into the drainage, angling south somewhat through the forest in the lower portion. We crossed the river and hiked back north on the trail briefly to arrive in camp. Back on trail about 12:50, the last of us reached the cars about 2:10. All fifteen made both summits.

Participants were Mark Adrian, Bob and Steve Bruley, John and Donna Cheslick, Barbara Cohen John Dobbs, Terry Flood, Bob Latter, Dan Richter, R.J. Secor, Dave Shoile, and Pete Yamagata.

Thank you, Doug, for a fine lead of our hiking and climbing.