Mopah Point, Turtle Mountains

5-Oct-91

By: Maris Valkass

Eleven of us met Saturday morning at 7:00 at the Vidal Junction Cafe. After eating a fine breakfast, we started out for the Mopah roadhead. It was pretty warm already, and it felt like it is going to be HOT.

Using the peak guide, we did not have any trouble finding the remains of the stone house at the roadhead. We all carried about three quarts of water, and I even brought an umbrella for shade. The walk was uneventful, except for a coyote we encountered a long the way. Once we arrived at the massif, we had some discussion and regarding the notch where the route would start. Thanks to Graham Breakwell, who was the co-leader, we found the right place and followed up to the summit. it took us about two and a half hours. The "crux" presented no problems. Ascending and descending, one of the leaders was at the top of the "pitch", the other at the bottom for moral support, if anyone needed it. No one did.

We spent about an hour at the summit and returned to the cars by two. Since it was quite warm, we elected to drive to Parker, about 30 miles away. We ate lunch at a fine Mexican restaurant where the prices were right, and then the rest of the afternoon most of us sat in the Colorado River at the Blue Water beach resort. In the evening we drove partway to the Turtle Pk roadhead and continued our happy hour. As usual, we had sane lively discussions about diets, stretching, red meat, and other problems some of us were having. I don't believe that Peter Kinman will ever bring another steak with him to one of these hikes.

Sunday morning we left at 4:30 to drive the retaining 10 miles to Turtle Mountain. The place where the road crosses the large wash (5 mi from the end of the road), it was washed out, so we had to look for the road on the other side, which was about 20 yards away. We arrived at the parking place at 8:00 and started for the peak. The hike was uneventful, and we were back at the cars by noon.

The participants were; Anna Valkass, Tome Moumblow, Doug Hatfield, Paula Peterson, Peter Kinman, Keith Martin, George Pfieffer, Mark Adrian, Bob Greenawalt, Graham Breakwell, Maris Valkass.

On our way home many of us met at the world renown Wheel Inn and had an unforgettable meal. The high for both days was 105°. My thanks to everyone for good company and especially Grahm for co-leading.