Note found in Sequoia 40 years on

by **tim** on Sun Oct 07, 2012 12:35 pm

Interesting story in the LA Times about a 13 year old who left a note on a peak on the Great Western Divide in 1972:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... peak-.html

Any idea which peak it would be - must be fairly remote given the general area?

by **jessegooddog** on Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:18 pm

From the L.A. Times Sunday, Oct 7

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... peak-.html

by **rlown** on Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:21 pm

assuming this is a similar post:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8455

by **ironmike** on Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:18 pm

The article mentions proximity to Milestone mountain, and the boys note states an altitude of 12785 ft. There is a bump on the ridge extending ESE from Table Mountain that is listed at that altitude on the old 15-min quads. I believe it is visible in the photo on the Wikipedia page for Table Mtn. (Upper center of photo) - looks pretty tough for a 13 year old!

by **ironmike** on Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:19 pm

On the ridge extending ESE from Table Mtn...

by **ckm554** on Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:12 pm

I found a note like that on top of Red Peak Pass in Yosemite this summer. It was in a small metal container and said it was from 1974. I thought it was interesting that it could have survived for so long being that Red Peak Pass is on a well established trail... but I don't know why anyone would bother to fake a note like that. Cool find but not sure I would call a newspaper.

Link to photo of note found on Red Peak Pass for anyone interested : https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/t ... directlink

Chris

by **ERIC** on Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:16 pm

Topics have been merged.

by **ironmike** on Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:25 pm

Just saw a news story on CBS affiliate in San Diego regarding this. The boy that wrote that note (Tim Taylor) has been located. Now around 53 years old, he is a Superior Court judge in SD. He was interviewed for the news piece - evidently he vividly remembered that climb back on August 1972, though he hadn't thought much about it in recent years until he got the call from the guy who found his summit note from Peak 12785. Pretty cool story.

I'm sure there are a number of threads on HST about encounters with old summit registers. My only personal "time capsule" moment came when I left a copy of the Facts About Caltech brochure in the summit register bottle on top of Caltech Peak back in 1979. I believe it is still there despite there being fairly moderate traffic up that quite easy climb...

by **lostcoyote** on Tue Oct 09, 2012 4:12 pm

ironmike wrote:My only personal "time capsule" moment came when I left a copy of the Facts About Caltech brochure in the summit register bottle on top of Caltech Peak back in 1979. I believe it is still there despite there being fairly moderate traffic up that quite easy climb...

hmmmm maybe mt. stanford could be next?

by **Charles11** on Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:49 am

This is great. I have climbed around a dozen of the highest peaks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Most peaks have a "register," which is a weatherproof metal tube with paper and pencil inside. Climbers that reach the summit write comments and leave them for later climbers. The Sierra Cub removes entries when the register is full and archives them. Most registers have many entries every year. The most remarkable register I encountered was at the summit of 12,600-foot Mount Goddard. We traveled mostly off-trail on that venture. He hiked 80 miles in, and 55 miles out from our trailhead on Bishop Creek on the east side of the mountains..

40 miles from the nearest road, and 10 miles from the nearest trail, this summit gets very few human visitors. This was in 1978. The register included only around 20 entries going back to 1952.

While sitting on the top of the mountain, we were buzzed by a hummingbird. When we stood up to hike down, we spooked a golden eagle that had been perched on the mountainside down the slope. We watched as it glided a full circle around the mountain far below us.

by **The Other Tom** on Fri Dec 14, 2012 3:56 am

Hi Charles. Welcome to HST. Great first post !

by **giantbrookie** on Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:50 pm

This is a pretty cool story. The pk 12785 ESE of Table Mtn. does sound like the most likely candidate, especially because of its altitude, the region, and the fact that it has a relatively mild ESE flank (figure that this is a class 2 climb). In 1972 one would have been hiking with the old 15' topos so the 15' elevation is what he would have gone by then. I'm the same age as him, but I didn't leave little notes on unnamed summits until 7 years later (1979), chief among them being 11445 btw the two forks of Ferguson Creek N of the Tableland and 10960+ N of 11110 ENE of Crescent L. I was also up Glacier Divide 12416 on the same trip but Galen Rowell had been there 8 years earlier.