22.04.02 Owen's Peak

Owen's Peak

Map

 

Owen’s Peak was set to be my first twenty-mile hike. The entire hike I had planned out would be around 21mi with 6000ft of elevation gain. I had driven up from Santa Barbara the night before, a Friday, and slept at Walker Pass Campground.

Owen’s peak has been on my mental list for about a year now after my first trip to the Eastern Sierra after graduating from high school. It's one of the first big pieces of granite you can see, hiding behind the gentler hills separating the Mojave basin from the uplifted Sierra.

I started the morning at Walker Pass proper, and started up the trail. Thankfully much of this hike would be along the PCT, so despite the large miles, the trail would be fast and cruisy. As the sun rose the sky grew various shades of pastels, silhouetting the Joshua Trees around me.

Before I had set out, I had seen someone set off maybe fifteen minutes before much, just before the sun had risen

. I’ll admit I kept a good pace trying to catch up to them – and I did. Within 45 minutes or so and a few miles in I caught the mysterious figure. Turns out they were just another peakbagger, which I was delighted to learn since there are so few of us. The peakbagger in question, John Sheehe, was perusing the HPS list.

We walked together for 10 minutes or so, discussing peakbagging and the like, before John stopped for a “bio-break”, and I continued on. After a mile or so views out to the west opened up, looking into Domelands Wilderness and Sequoia Nat’l Forest. I was now crossing the west face of Morris Peak, which was on the HPS list, and I considered doing it on the return.

I continued on, and maybe less than thirty minute later I was now on the east side of the Mt. Jenkins. I could see views out to Five Fingers, Inyokern, Ridgecrest, and the great Mojave. The trail continued for a while, maybe another hour or so. I ran into another peakbagger who was doing a long 26mi point to point hike to Chimney Peak. After traversing a mile of PCT cut into the side of Jenkins I saw a figure, not the woman I had just talked to, but John hot on my tail. I waited about five minutes for him to catch up, and asked if I could join him up Jenkins. To the north I got a view of Owen’s imposing ridgeline, its pale granite shining in the sun. It had been a long time since I had been in the Sierra and being able to see great masses of granite seemed to heal my soul. John sat down and had a snack, but within a few minutes we were moving again.

John catching up

Jenkin's plaque (along the PCT)

Owen's Ridgeline

John knew the way up Jenkins better than I, but it was straightforward with a use trail marked by cairns and worn into the steep hillside. We toiled our way up, both of us huffing and puffing under the load of our backpacks and the steep hillside. There were a few sections of class three, which we both climbed with ease.

The ridgeline leading up from the PCT

About 45 minutes after leaving the PCT we found ourselves at the summit. There was a beautiful blocky knife-edge ridge running south, which thankfully we didn’t have to traverse. To the north I could see my next objective, Owen’s Peak, and behind it lay the High Sierra. John and I spent time identifying peaks to the best of our ability; Langley, Whitney, Kern, Kaweah, and more. This was my 30^th HPS peak, and John signed the register for me.

Panorama looking south

Pano looking north (Owen's Pk center)

Jenkins south running knife ridge

John for scale

Owen's Pk 

Register

After a good summit snack and absorbing the views me and John began our descent. About halfway down to the PCT we said our goodbyes and I traversed off the north side of the sub ridge, eventually reaching the PCT again just further north of where we had departed on the way up. I continued another 2 miles to the saddle between Jenkins and Owens. This is where the fun would really begin. As I still had two liters totally unopened, I stored them under a shady tree, figuring the liter and a half I had would more than get me up to Owen’s and back. The ridgeline was steep, hot, and hard. It comes out to about 1450ft over 0.83mi from the saddle, which is extremely steep.

1/2 way up the ridge, looking forward Owen's east ridge

Nearly to the top 

The ground varied from pine needles to granite cobbles, to shale like scree, to airy class three. About ¾ way up the ridge I ran into a high class three section. Stubbornly refusing to drop 100ft of the ridge and sidehill I found myself climbing with a good 40ft of exposure below my heels, oh well, it was good practice for the upcoming summer. Hot, tired, and starting to enter ‘type 2 fun’ territory I eventually found myself at the summit.

 

Summit view north

There were some Ridgecrest locals up there, belonging to China Lake SAR. Turns out SAR doesn’t necessarily mean your intelligent (although I wish It did), as the two refused to believe me that operating a drone within congressionally designated wilderness was not only illegal but just plain loud and annoying. They had come up a shorter and easier route from a dirt road in Indian Wells Canyon. They left after 15 minutes or so and I had the summit to myself. The peaks I had spotted earlier on Jenkins were well defined up here, with nothing in the way to block them. The High Sierra looked bare, even at its highest elevations. I could see across much of the state, all the way down to the San Gabriels in SoCal, to Telescope Peak in Death Valley, to the Domelands Wilderness and Mineral King in Sequoia National Forest/Park. The aesthetic granite ridgeline extended out to the east, terminating at Five Fingers.

East pano

East ridge

 

Zoom to Mineral King (left mountain grouping) and High Sierra (right)

North face gullies 

After taking a long break at the summit I started down, but not before realizing I had lost my beloved Teddy Roosevelt Bull Moose Party handkerchief. Sorrowful, I descended the steep ridgeline. I briefly considered reclimbing the airy class three to look for it, but figured I would need to spare that energy for the return. I trudged on down, but to my surprise, as I looked down the slope I could see a red cloth on the ground! There it was! I was surprised I had come across it, as the ridge was covered in pinion pines blocking my view and this was one of the only places where I crossed where I had walked earlier. Thankful to have it back I tied it to my backpack and continued. After much loose descent, I was back at the saddle. I found my stashed water and continued back the way I came.

Looking back where I came from 

There is not much to say for the return. I retraced my path in along the PCT. At about 9mi in from the road I had quite a bit to go. The trail went by fast, and I got to reexperience some great views. My legs seemed to work fine on all the downhills, in fact I didn’t even feel tired, but as soon as the grade turned slightly positive I slowed down below what my average pace would be. I walked along with little complaint, eventually reaching the north side of Morris (I had paced this on the way in). It looked choked with pinion pines, and based on John’s advice from earlier I decided I would continue along the PCT, torwards my car, and check the south side which is the standard route. Arriving at the south side I found a much clearer route up, but it was horribly sandy. My quads and hamstring burning I fought gravity up the slope, it was two-steps-up-slide-one-down sort of deal. I cursed the peak for its inclusion on the HPS list. To make matters even worse I fought my way all the way up just to find out it was a false summit and I had maybe a quarter mile to go. Eventually I made it, took a picture of the benchmark to prove I was there (and nothing else), and left after a few minutes when my heartrate had returned to normal. The good thing about sand is that its much more fun to descend than it is to go up, and I had a great time plunging my heels into the mountainside and I ran, skipped, and jumped my way back down to the PCT.

Benchmark

Now late in the day I only had a few more miles to kill before I would reach the trailhead. My legs were now tired, but mentally I was still having great fun. I was proud of myself knowing I was about to complete my first twenty-mile day. As Walker Pass came back into view Joshua Trees once again greeted me, and the warm breeze brushed past my face. An hour or so past the summit of Morris I was back at the road. I had completed my first twenty-mile day. Proud of my accomplishment I drove twenty minutes to Indian Wells Canyon where I ate and set up camp for the night.

Continued…