Tom Grundy's 2018 Sierra Challenge Day 2 San Joaquin Mountain Page

8-04-2018 This was an early morning since I would be getting a ride to the trailhead. The alarm woke me up way too early and I wolfed down some food and got ready, then I got a ride to the Minaret Vista parking lot. Fortunately we were mostly above the smoke here although we were quite close to the Lion Fire and there was a lot of smoke down in the valley to the SW. This was a pretty short and easy day for the Sierra Challenge but it was also Michael Graupe's SPS List finish (SPS list is a list of some 247 peaks put out by the Sierra Peaks Section of the Sierra Club, and this was the last of these peaks for Michael to climb). Combined with it being a weekend and a relatively easy and celebratory peak there were quite a few people. We strung out along the way following the 4-wheel drive road for a while and then the trail. Most people detoured to one or more of the Two Teats peaks on the way.

the Minarets above the smoke

it cleared a bit as we headed north and the sun rose

view north up the ridge

panorama from the west summit of Two Teats north to San Joaquin Peak is center right

Matt on the W summit of Two Teats

There were a number of people on San Joaquin Peak when I arrived and lots of people had brought food or libations to share (I brought some summit cookies that had a little problem with holding together). I spent a fair bit of time at the summit before heading down to the NE. I ended up with Kenneth and Mason following a ridge down that got unpleasantly steep and loose. We took turns moving to avoid hitting each other with falling rocks. Eventually we were able to spread out. It took longer than we wanted to get down, and then we headed up June Mountain.

Michael, Bob, and Tom - 3 SPS list finishers

Cheers

group summit photo

It wasn't the most exciting hiking bushwhacking up the rounded ridge and then at the top there were ski lifts. On the way back down we passed Clement heading up - he had bagged an extra peak before heading this way. Then back the way we came to loop around and tag another high point that didn't count. Then we dropped down to a saddle where Clement caught up to us (he cut across the valley). He wanted to bag the peak we just did and then I split from the others to go up White Wing Mountain. By the time I got to the top of that it was pretty horribly smoky. Clement arrived soon after I did and we bombed down the pumice scree slope and traversed through the woods back to the truck. I gave him a ride back to the trailhead and joined the very end of a celebratory picnic there.

Clement gets to the summit of White Wing

end of the picnic at Minaret Vista

the smoke was making it look pretty apocalyptic by the late afternoon

I was planning on getting to the next trailhead early to cook dinner and get some extra sleep, but I realized I was driving past the "green church" turnoff and decided to visit the hot springs instead. The parking area looked pretty full at Hilltop, but I could see a group was just leaving and I managed to get in for a soak before the next big group got there. It was a good use of an hour or so even if I didn't cook the dinner I planned.

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