I have been vaguely working on climbing a new P300 peak every calendar day for the simple reason that Peakbagger keeps track of that. Since leap day only comes along every 4 years I figured I'd better take the chance to tag one on Feb 29th. It isn't too surprising that I have already tagged most of the easiest nearby peaks, especially those that I can get to without driving. It turns out I also needed one for the 28th so I came up with the plan of driving down to the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine on the 28th and hiking up a bump that evening, then sleeping there and tagging another bump the next morning. This way I would double my peaks/driving ratio.
2024-02-28 I packed up some camping gear and food in the truck and filled up my thermos with hot caffeine (Tea) and then drove down in the evening. I had vague plans of making it down in time for sunset, but that was not to be. Instead I drove down in the dark and headed up a deteriorating road until it seemed prudent to park off a spur that was somewhat level. I started hiking up around 11 and hiked up the road by headlamp. It wasn't very warm and there was a chilly wind blowing but hiking uphill generated plenty of heat. I hiked up to the Alabama Hills NNW point at 5200 ft and then continued on down the ridge to another bump (North Alabama Hills Benchmark) with less prominence - since I was there. Then I retraced my steps back almost over the first point and back to the truck to sleep.
2024-02-29 Leap Day. I got up early to get pics of the sunrise and the sunrise light on the High Sierra. I drove to a parking area just a bit down the road from where I wanted to start hiking and started up the ridge to the Alabama Hills Highpoint at 5381 ft. This had some bigger boulders requiring a little scrambling at the top - and nice views of the Alabama Hills and High Sierra. Then I continued on to another point (Peak 5360) that had a Lilley - McCleod register from 2004 saying it was the high point but didn't seem to be as high. From there I headed down a different ridge to make a loop and then back on the road to the truck.
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On the drive back home I stopped near Big Pine when I saw a bald eagle sitting on a dead tree across a field. I had my telephoto and jumped the fence and walked across the field to get better pics. I took a pic every 10 steps or so as I approached in case it flew away, but I was able to get close enough that getting any closer would mean I was looking up at an angle towards it plus some smaller trees in the way.
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