Bighorn Mtn, Dragon's Head, Grinnell Ridge XC, etc.

[Hikin_Jim]

Tuesday I took off of work early and headed for the SGW. I had a fairly ambitious plan to climb Bighorn Mtn (11,005'), climb "The Dragon's Head" (10,830'), go XC down Grinnell Ridge to the vicinity of Grinnell Ridge Camp, and then from the vicinity of Grinnell Ridge Camp find the old Grinnell Mountain Track and take that track to Lost Creek Camp (whatever that might be). Here's a map of my route (you'll need to zoom in to make any sense of it).

This is really two adventures in one trip. The first was to climb the last two of the ten thousand foot peaks in the SGW that I hadn't yet climbed (Bighorn and Dragon's Head). The second was to try to find the Grinnell Mountain Track and Lost Creek Camp. The long XC descent down Grinnell Ridge links the two adventures (and was an adventure in its own right).

God for some reason smiled on me; my plan actually worked, and I accomplished pretty much all of my objectives and still made it out by sundown on Friday.

I'll go into further detail in subsequent posts as well as add photos, but here's a thumbnail sketch:
TUESDAY
Drive to Barton Flats, primitive camp in East Barton Flats. Quite cold that night.
WEDNESDAY
Get up at "Oh Dark Thirty" and proceed up trail by headlamp to Dry Lake. There was frost around Dry Lake. Proceed to Lodgepole Spring. Get water. Cache overnight gear. Ascend to Lodgepole Saddle via the old mining trail (where followable) or go XC. From Lodgepole Saddle, take regular trail to SE ridge of San Gorgonio. Leave trail and descend to Tosh's Tarn. From tarn, ascend to saddle just west of Bighorn Mtn. Climb Bighorn Mtn. Sign register and descend to tarn. From tarn, go west to small saddle just north of Dragon's Head. Ascend Dragon's Head. Sign in and return to small saddle. From small saddle, ascend angling easterly, rejoining the Sky High Trail. Descend trail to Lodgepole Saddle. Take old mining trail to Lodgepole Spring. Camp, vicinity of Lodgepole Spring. I just barely made it to my camp in the last fading rays of the twilight. I was getting pretty worried that wouldn't find my gear cache in the dark, but I found it in the twilight. As I say, God smiled on me.
THURSDAY
Ascend Grinnell Ridge. XC down Grinnell Ridge passing the biggest old white fir I've ever seen. Quite challenging navigationally, mostly due to forest which limits visibility. Proceed to Big Flats east of Grinnell Ridge Camp. Attempt to find Grinnell Mountain Track (GMT) with the eye of proceeding to Lost Creek Camp for the night. Unable to find GMT. Follow game trails. Wind up in willow thickets. Getting late, so retreat to Mosquito Spring, gather water, spend night vicinity Hook Point.
FRIDAY
Cache overnight gear. Try to find GMT again. Unable to find. Take XC route, climb above willow thickets, gain ridge which angles approximately 350 degrees into Lost Creek drainage, descend ridge, find GMT (huzzah! at last!), proceed to vicinity of Lost Creek Camp (LCC). Unable to positively identify site of LCC. Search area looking for GMT beyond LCC. Unable to positively identify. Break off search as afternoon progresses. Take GMT for quite a ways until I lose the trail in loose slidey crap with downed trees all over it. Proceed XC back to vicinity Hook Point. Retrieve gear. Descend to S Fork Santa Ana R. via regular trail. Arrive trail head just as it gets dark. Join friends for dinner.

The timings couldn't have worked out better. Like I say, for whatever reason, God smiled on this trip. This was perhaps the most complex, physically demanding, and navigationally challenging trip I've ever done in the SGW. It was pretty neat to a) climb both peak objectives, b) see three bighorn sheep just above the tarn, c) reach all of my camps and exit before dark, d) do all the fairly tricky XC navigation sucessfully (with one bone headed navigational error that cost me an hour) e) find Mosquito Spring which enabled me to not abort the trip, f) find (parts of) the old GMT and explore a seldom visited part of the wilderness.

A pretty neat trip, all in all. More to follow.

HJ

[zippetydude]

Wow, great job, that's quite a trip. I look forward to seeing the pics. As you know I've been contemplating Dragon's Head - I went and did Whitney instead or we might have run into each other out there. So, where is Mosquito Spring?

z

[Hikin_Jim]

Wow, great job, that's quite a trip.

Thanks. I've been trying to get "domestic permission" for some time to do a longer trip. I finally got a chance to do this one. Lots of fun stuff in it.

As you know I've been contemplating Dragon's Head.

It's an interesting peak. Super rugged with scary drop offs into the abyss on it's eastern side. But it's a bit anticlimactic: It's only about 15 minutes from the saddle to the summit. But dang did those drop offs make my stomach drop!

where is Mosquito Spring?

Mosquito Spring is just west of point "S" in my original map link. It's the worst quality water I've seen anywhere in the SGW. I call it Mosquito Spring because it's full of mosquito larvae. I used water from it because it was the only source near where I stayed. I would have had to cut the trip short without water. Needless to say I boiled the heck out of the water before I used it.

HJ

[neverwashasbeen]

HJ wrote:

"I call it Mosquito Spring because it's full of mosquito larvae. I used water from it because it was the only source near where I stayed. I would have had to cut the trip short without water. Needless to say I boiled the heck out of the water before I used it."

Does that mean you had Mosquito Soup?

[Hikin_Jim]

Does that mean you had Mosquito Soup?

It tasted bloody good.

Mosquito Spring is a small depression into which water is ever so slowly seeping. The water has algae and looks stagnant. After I dipped my Sierra Cup into the water, I noticed that the water appeared to be moving. Looking closer, I noticed small swimming citters that looked almost like mini-polliwogs. Then it hit me: mosquito larvae. I was a bit repulsed, but being down to less than 1 liter of water left and with the sun rapidly setting, I didn't have the luxury of being squeamish. I poured the water through a bandana into my pot. I then proceeded to boil the heck out of the water. Thereafter, I was pretty confident, given that boiling is the number one most effective water treatment, more effective than chemicals, UV light, or filtration. Sometimes it's nice to be a stove geek.

HJ

[HikeUp]

Nice adventure Jim!

[Ellen]

Howdy HJ

Absolutely fabulous adventure and TR -- congratulations and thanks for sharing

If you had navigational issues at one point, I don't even want to think about what would happen to me

Mosquito soup -- eeww. Thanks Cameron, for putting THAT thought into my head.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[Hikin_Jim]

Thanks, Ellen. Aw, shucks. I haven't even started to post photos.

OK, speaking of which, navigate this:


And it was pretty steep too.


Getting into Lost Creek was work.

HJ

[Zé]

Jim, what is Grinnel Mountain track? I assume this is some old trail on an old map you found.

What's going on with UVWXY? these represent old camp sites?

I had fun with that Grinnell ridge back on this hike. It was definitely hard to navigate on the way down - you can see twice I started heading down spurs of the main ridge into Lost Creek before correcting. I wonder how the direct northern ridge would be brush-wise at the lower altitude portion.

[HH8]

I had fun with that Grinnell ridge back on this hike.

Another fun TR. thanks.