Below are reports for dayhikes of Mt Tipton, Spirit Mtn, Whipple Mtn, Chemeheuvi Pk, Stepladder Mtn, Old Woman Mtn.

Mt Tipton starts with an obscure but simple drive (see the Tipton trailhead page for details and a map). We drove beyond a somewhat obvious trailhead parking area (waypoint TIP2WD, which passenger cars might be able to reach) to a gate that wasn't there when the DPS guide was written. From that locked gate (waypoint TPTNTH) we walked up the old road until it reached Lower Indian Springs (waypoint INDSPR), where it sort of vanishes. We crossed the wash, climbing on a rib until we picked up the old road east of some washouts. We followed it to the former 4WD trailhead (waypoint OLD4WD) at the small saddle above Point 4288.

Finally, it felt like climbing. Going more east than south, we angled uphill to enter the wash described in the DPS guide. It's indistinct in places, has both uphill and downhill branches, and can be somewhat brushy. After going up and down, we decided the best place to enter the wash is around waypoint TIPWSH. A nice scramble around boulders and into a thin forest leaves you with only a few choices. At 4600' (waypoint TIPXC1) we angled right (south) into a smaller gully, which becomes indistinct above 5000', and climbed to the saddle east of Point 5534 (TIPXC2).

From that saddle, it's tempting to go straight up to the ridge, but the brush is better if you head south and approach waypoint TIPXC3 from the northwest. We didn't stay exactly on the ridge, finding less brush in the transition zone between the ridge and the shallow valley to the south. There's a problem spot just below 6600' (waypoint TIPXC4) where you can traverse on the south or climb huge boulders on the north of the ridge, then it's clear pine forest sailing to the summit. Except when there's a foot of fresh snow with breakable crust! The snow was inconvenient above 6600, and really slowed us down for the last 200-300' of gain.

It was warm on top when we arrived, but a breeze came up and we only stayed half an hour. Tipton had not been climbed since John Hooper was there in Nov 2007 - perhaps because it has a reputation for bad brush, a reputation we thought was undeserved. Our round trip was about 7 hours, 7 miles, 3300' of gain.

After an easy drive (see the Spirit trailhead page for details and a map), we enjoyed the decorated pinons at Christmas Tree Pass and slowly realized that the turn to the DPS Guide's trailhead is now staked as closed wilderness. The new trailhead is on the main road (waypoint SPIRTH), which adds about a third of a mile and 150' of gain. Follow the old (closed) 4WD road from your car until it ends (waypoint SPIRTX, the old DPS trailhead) or until you think it's bending left away from the saddle at XTRSAD. Either way, get to that saddle and head downhill.

Staying high as you drop into the bowl containing the Yellow Stone Mine is bad, because you end up going in and out of steep ravines (adding up and down in addition to bad footing). Staying lower puts you on soft dirt footing, there's a use trail that's worth finding and following as you go to waypoint SPIR01. From that rib you'll climb steeply to the prominent notch in the NEXT rib (waypoint SPIR02). This notch is critical since it leads to the use trail under the cliffs between SPIR02 and SPIR03.

There's a big cairn on a huge boulder in the wash at waypoint SPIR03. If you cross there, you'll find the use trail on both sides of the wash. Climb steeply to waypoint SPIR04, then traverse up and left to the ridge at waypoint SPIR05. (I'm using waypoint names because this terrain doesn't have features that are easy to describe clearly. Follow the line on the map, or look for the plentiful ducks and hope you follow the right ones.)

When you hit the ridge near the summit, there is a nice flat area for camping, complete with fire ring. Follow the ridge north until you have to turn west, then scramble through a notch and cross a sandy area to the summit.

Spirit has lots of traffic, really good rock formations, a short hike, and an easy drive. We spent only 2 hours getting to the summit, 2400' round trip.

My GPS was quite useful in finding some of the unmarked turns, so check the Whipple trailhead page for details of how to get to the War Eagle Mine. The powerline road is excellent, and the only alternate road we found was NOT passable. (We got about a mile west from waypoint EAGLE1 before deciding the chance of getting stuck was too high to continue with just one vehicle.) It's interesting that my Garmin GPS wanted to route us on that road instead of the one that works. Hmmm.

We spent a quiet night at the mine, thinking it would be a great party spot - no risk of making a mess compared to all the junk that's still there! We saw two sets of burros on the drive in, one set peering at us from a ridge and another set trotting along the wash as we drove the 4WD road. We heard them braying from camp, but unlike bears they don't seem to like human food. Or they haven't figured out how to break into a Jeep.

The DPS Guide has two routes from this trailhead, and we do NOT think they are equal. We went up the eastern-most one (green line below) and came down the western-most one (red line below, west of Point 1806). There's no question the western route is better! Better footing, better views, running water, and cool slick-rock features. The burro picture above was taken about a thousand feet below the summit, near waypoint WHIP3K.

From the mine we stayed just right of low bumps in a broad wash. So broad that we were never really sure if we were in the right place. It was often easier to walk above the edge of a channel than to be down in the brush-and-sand bottoms. Around the saddle at waypoint WHIPE2 we were sidhilling to avoid the narrow strip of brush that passed for a drainage. The route drops into another drainage here, passing west of Point 2005 and entering a deep canyon. WATCH OUT for branches. We missed the one at WHIPE3, going straight instead of turning left because our branch looked better. It was fun, but it ended at a chockstone. We climbed out to the left on class 2-3, ending up on the north ridge of Point 3292. Oops. From there it was an easy traverse back around to the 3000' saddle (waypoint WHIP3K) which was on the western route. Our little excursion is the purple line, but I wouldn't recommend it.

From the saddle at WHIP3K, we went up to the base of a cliff band, traversed left (east) around it, then headed up a steep brushy chute at waypoint WHIPE5. I wasn't looking forward to coming down this, and lobbied Daryn to consider going further west and then north on the summit ridge. The route checked out, and we went down that way - so I don't recommend this ascent to the summit ridge either!

We reached the summit at noon, 4 hours and 3000' of gain including mistakes, and spent an hour there. This is living! But all good things must end, and we headed down the summit ridge in a stiff breeze. The ridge is very easy, with about a 100' bump after the 4000' saddle (WHIP4K) where we first hit the summit ridge. Going almost over Point 4092 we strolled down much friendlier slopes, crossed fields of barrel cacti, leaving the ridge at 3200' (waypoint WHIPW7) and dropping into the bowl near the saddle at 3000' (WHIP3K). It would be easy to connect this ridge route with either of the DPS Guide routes, and we wanted to explore the western route on the way down.

This excursion I do recommend! It's a cool canyon. Way cooler than our uphill route. There are mini-waterfalls, considerable slick-rock to walk on, steep canyon walls, running water, and (unfortunately) plenty of burro dung. The picture to the right was taken somewhere between waypoints WHIPW6 and WHIPW5. The burros helped us out by tramping a use trail into the rocky soil below the canyon exit. Walking their track was far better than walking in the wash, because they stayed up on the west bank and the soil was very stable with few bushes. Between waypoint WHIPW3 and the trailhead our route was apparently quite different from the published route. 8 hours total, including the hour at the top, 3200' of gain.

As mentioned on the Chemehuevi trailhead page, it's good to stop here on the way to or from Whipple. We crossed the Lake Havasu Road and stayed on the powerline road after Whipple, easily finding the trailhead in the dark because I had a pre-entered waypoint. We spent the night at the trailhead, with only occasional coyote howls and distant road noise to break the silence of a full moon on a calm night.

It doesn't matter too much exactly where you start, but being a bit too far east means you'll either wander or go up and down in some small bumps. We started from the car (waypoint CHEMTH) where the powerline crosses the road. The washes braid and separate without ever forming a main channel. It's easy to stop paying attention and end up following the wrong one. Walk sorta due north for almost half a mile, then sorta bend to the right a bit and get yourself to waypoint CHEM02. We almost drifted into the canyon west of the one we wanted, because the walking is easy and we were talking too much. OK, at least I was talking too much. Stay in the really wide/broad/flat wash here, and stay in the deepest cut once the gully forms.

The DPS Guide says to follow the gully to a saddle, which we faithfully did, but you don't need to. We came down much more directly to where the gully steepens, and found some interesting rocks along the way (Olivine crystals, I think Daryn said). We spent only 2.5 hrs getting to the summit, half that much time on top, and about 1.5 hrs getting back to the car. A 2000' yawn. But the view from the top was cool and the wind was positively cold.

As mentioned on the Stepladder trailhead page, the pipeline road used in the DPS guide is a really bad road... and if you're doing Whipple or Chemehuevi you're already on a much better road! Follow the powerline road from US Hwy 95 (waypoint PWRJ95) to where it intersects the pipeline road (waypoint PIPPOW), then follow the pipeline road half a mile west to the 4WD track (PIP4WD). The trailhead page will give you the secret to finding this road.

The DPS Guide describes the wilderness boundary, and the road is staked as closed, but those places don't seem to match. We drove to the stakes and stopped there, even though we saw fresh vehicle tracks going around the stakes. The legal trailhead is now at waypoint STEPTH, and it's a slow drive getting there. (Daryn kept promising to wash and wax his Jeep so his wife wouldn't be upset by all the scratches from sideswiping brush.)

Instead of walking down the road on foot, we struck off at a GPS bearing. The terrain is open and easy to walk. There's no reason to walk the square cornered route they suggest if you have a GPS or if you're a good navigator - just head for the mouth of the canyon. (If you're worried about getting lost, walking straight east to the closed road and following it to your car is safer.) We adjusted our route a bit on the way out, and decided skirting relatively high on the alluvial fan was the best (waypoint STEPL1). Stay above (north of) Point 595 (meters) on great footing, and drop into the main wash around waypoint STEPL3 to avoid steep ravines coming in from the north.

We walked in nice sand for a while, then crossed a low ridge into the next drainage south. The best place to cross seems to be the saddle between STEPL4 and STEPL5. On your way back, look for the purple ground around STEPL5. On your way in, just look for the first low way over that ridge. We generally stayed out of the second drainage, preferring the footing elsewhere in the canyon.

The DPS Guide wants you to go to the saddle, but there's no real reason to. Angle left before you get there, and pass through a cliff band (better than contouring around the cliff band) to reach the talus fan above the cliffs. There are lots of interesting mineral deposits which formed in old rock cracks here, but you're still not to the unique part of this peak.

Follow the talus to the base of aggregate cliffs, then zig-zag your way to the top following a use trail and ducks. The ramps leading to summit are serious class 2, summit block is class 3 aggregate (see photo). There was one group here in 2002, no one in 2003, no one in 2007, and 3 groups in 2008 (Doug Mantle was the most recent).

The USGS names the north summit (waypoint STEPLM), the DPS climbs the south summit (waypoint STEPSS). We thought the south one was clearly higher and didn't bother to climb the north one. Only 2.5 hours from the car, we must have shaved off a LOT of mileage compared to the DPS guide. The 1250' of gain comes all at the end, some on steep unpredictable aggregate, and the long flat walk out would be really hot in the summer. There's 100' of gain on the way out, and we took almost as long returning to the car as we did climbing. Be sure to mark your car's location with a GPS or take along someone who can really follow a compass bearing. (Daryn lead this part on the way out, just checking a compass occasionally, while I followed behind with a GPS - he never wavered more than 100' from a straight line!) The brush is thin but fairly tall, and you won't see your vehicle until you're pretty close to it.

Our last peak of the week. We saved a short one so we could drive all the way back to the Bay Area the same day. It seems the northern approach to Old Woman has been pushed back, making the harder drive for the southern approach more worthwhile. As mentioned on the Old Woman trailhead page, the roads out here don't have very good signs. Drive during the day, drive with a GPS, or hope your odometer matches the guy who wrote the DPS guide. Ours didn't.

Once you're in the Carbonate Gulch wash, it's a real 4WD road - slow going, some risk of cutting a tire, etc. The drive is worth it, however, when you see the excellent campsite just inside the slot canyon that starts the route. It's a narrow steep canyon with a flat sandy bottom. We thought it would be very sheltered, but when the wind came up the during our climb, we found it can really whip down this canyon. The campsite featured a fire ring, complete with a stack of firewood. Nothing like a full moon and a campfire in a slot canyon!

There are two routes up the south side of the mountain, both branches of the same canyon where we camped. We went up the west branch (green line on the map) and came down the east branch (red line on the map). We liked the east branch better. Maybe there's a pattern that we like the descent canyon better, but I think the footing, the plants, and the rocks were all better in the east branch. The DPS Guide says there's an "easy 3rd class waterfall", but it's easily bypassed on class 2 ledges.

No surprises on this climb, unless you count Cat's Claw Acacia. We were on the summit at 8am, 2100' of gain in under two hours. We stayed only half hour on top - it was getting cold and windy, much more so than on previous days!! You can climb this peak in the morning and almost be home for dinner the same day.