Charleston Peak, Mummy Mountain

6-Oct-73

By: Lois Fracisco

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Five adults and six children met at the Nevada state line visitors center at 6 am. We proceeded from here to Jean where we ate a big breakfast and filled our gas tanks. There were supposedly no stations open in Las Vegas. After Jean we went to the airport, left a car for Horace Ory who might fly in Saturday night, if he could make it.

After all the side trips we made the trail head about 9 am. We went up the Mary Jane Campground Trail rather than the usual route. This proved to be much easier. The elevation gain is spread out over the entire trip rather than all at once. The leader was in camp by 11 am and the rest by 2 pm. We took possession of a large cave. There was some discussion of climbing Mummy, but no one actually moved so we just lay around and rested.

The kids built a small cooking fire with green wood. I don't know what it is with caves and smoke, anyway the bats left and we should have. The adults were in bed by 8 pm and the kids settled down about 10 pm, after adding a few more green logs to the fire. At twelve what sounded like a bull moose thrashing thru the brush, turned out to Horace Ory. He was accompanied by barking dogs and voices all over the camp. Never did find out how many bodies he stepped on in the dark. After a long smoky night on the rocky ground seven of us climbed Mummy, while the Vogel family went on to Charleston.

We made the peak about an hour and a half behind the Vogels. This included a long lunch break. On the way back my legs went rubbery, the ground had tendency to sway upward, and things got black a couple of times. After Ron took my pack and I was fed lemonade and peanut butter by solicitous friends who were really more worried about getting out by dark than in my health, I got my second wind and walked out. This was the second week in a row I felt sort of poorly. I went to the doctor who said I had Walking Pneumonia. I thought I better not tell him that I'd hiked over five peaks since I got the pneumonia. And so it was another successful children's and adults climb of a DPS Emblem Peak.


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