Pinkley Peak

Thursday I had the opportunity to go where I had not gone before. Pinkley Peak is located west of the North Puerto Blanco Road five miles north of the VC in an area that is lightly visited. There is a picnic area at the turn around with restrooms and ramada covered picnic tables. A nice place for quiet contemplation.
8:30 put the three of us there, ready to go. It was going to be a warm day so I would have voted to start earlier, but here we were.
The initial mile or so was an easy walk across the desert heading for a prominent wash on the southeast side. The underbrush was sparse and well scattered. A gentle rise all the way. Into the wash, again rising up. Half mile up the wash, our first obstacle, a water fall (less the water), actually a series of them rising quite abruptly a couple of hundred feet.
After some sweating and scrambling it was time to pause and look back down. A good feeling to see what we had done in a relatively short time.
That look down also brought a feeling of sadness and disgust, because our view was also of piles of trash. Discarded clothing, food containers, water bottles, shoes left behind by our noctural visitors. Those folks who travel by night and hide out during the day, carrying their dreams of a better life and jobs in the US and those carrying something much more sinister and illegal into our country.
We shook off that bad vibe and continued climbing. Up this wash, across that ledge, up that water fall, around that palo verde tree. Watch for loose rocks, don't want to slip. Watch where you put your feet and hands, snakes can be there. Climb up, rest and take some water, eat a snack. Need to keep hydrated and energized. Glad I wore long pants and long sleeves because the rocks and branches are always nearby to scratch and prick me.

Finally we reach the saddle where I leave my walking stick and the other drops theirs. Time for the pinnacle. I found it easy and loved climbing on and through the boulders and in s short time we were on top. Great Views! 10:50 am.  Found the Bench Mark on the summit, but no elevation was given. 3147 is what it is.  Seemed higher.  Half an hour for lunch and conversation and it was time to descend.
I am not too proud to back down in areas where it is too steep or too scary to go down "front first" and much of the pinnacle was just that. In a short time, back to the saddle, pick up the hiking stick and resume our descent. My hiking stick bacame an essential part of me on the way down. It was an extension of one arm. It allowed me to slow my progress in areas where it needed to be slow; areas of marginal traction. (Descending is more difficult that ascending because gravity is trying to suck you down the hill faster than you want to go.)

We traveled roughly the same route down as we did up and returned to the vehicle by 1:15pm. Happy to be back, safe and sound.