Jacumba Mountain

20-Oct-90

By: Maris Valkass

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MOTHER OF TWO MAKES GOOD!

Karen Leonard, a popular Sahara Clubber, claims to have finished climbing all of the desert peaks listed on the Sacred List, and demands to have her name entered in the prestigious annals of List Finishers. This was accomplished on 20 October 1990, on Jacumba Peak, and witnessed by 22 prominent climbers.

We met Saturday morning at 7:30 at the Imperial Hwy Monument, on San Diego Hwy S2. Upon arrival, Vic Henny and Sue Wyman notified us that the Mortero Wash road has been washed out, and only 4WD cars will be able to go in, due to excessive amount of sand. It was evident on Friday night that Anza-Borrego had experienced heavy rainfall. All of the paved roads on the south end were covered with sand. Fortunately we had enough 4WDs so we could all get to the roadhead in one trip. We did have to change our camping spot plans.

We started the hike at 8:30 by ascending just to the left of the spring at Dos Cabezas. We got to the midway flat area, and then for some reason we drifted to the south and ascended the southeast ridge. This got us into more big boulders, which made us to change course. However, not all of the participants got the word. Needless to say that in a few minutes we were scattered over a considerable area. All of us finally reached the summit in four and a half hours. The weather was fine, the view beautiful, and they tell me that the wine was pretty good too.

Our descent was fairly fast, and we went by the Mortero Palms canyon. Most of the people enjoyed the rock climbing, and seeing the beautiful palms. We also succeeded in making a reluctant rock climber out of Melissa Macri.

Our celebration we held in a wash east of the Hwy monument. This is a good spot for camping. It is in a depression so you can not hear or see the cars on the hwy, and you are out of the Park so you can have a campfire on the ground. As usual, our pot luck was great!

List of Participants.

Karen Leonard
Inara Beikmane
Melissa Macri
Terry Turner
Vic Henney
Ray Wolfe
Marge Montgomery
Kiet Lou
Dolores Holladay
David Wellbourn
Anna Valkass
Evan Samuels
J Holshuh
Sue Wyman
Alice Cahill
Hoda Shallaby
Sam Leonard
Maris Valkass
Laura Schwartz
Don Macri
Bruce Turner
Sue Leverton
Gabe Barber
Ron Young
Fred Smith
Don Sparks

My thanks to all participants, Karen for assisting, and Don and Ron for helping out with some leads. We were joined for the party by Sue Wyman's sister, husband, and their youngest son.


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