While recovering from surgery I was hiking up a lot of the high summits around Flagstaff, and a hell of a lot of them had registers placed by these folks. Anyone here know these folks? Or, is anyone here ONE of those folks?

Are you sure it wasn't the Sierra Club - Mother Lode Chapter ???

see below

Andinistaloco wrote:While recovering from surgery I was hiking up a lot of the high summits around Flagstaff, and a hell of a lot of them had registers placed by these folks. Anyone here know these folks? Or, is anyone here ONE of those folks?

I used to hike with them in the mid sixties Here are a couple of links
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/dps
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/dps/dpsemblem.htm -- (I am #160 here)

My better half Penelope (DPS Emblem # 557) is a Member of the DPS and led hikes for them in the 90s and early 2000s. They are very friendly and happy group of people, who just hike all over the Western desert mountains. Their Saturday night in the field potlucks and parties are something to experience. We enjoy going with the group (infrequently) very much.

The DPS list includes some really nice desert peaks, Little Picacho, Big Picacho (Baja), Guardian Angels in Zion, Bridge in Red Rocks, Martinez In Santa Rosa Mts, Rabbit out of Salton Sea, Signal Peak in KOFA Wildernes, Muddy Peak out of Valley of Fire, most of the California, Nevada and Arizona desert mountains, all in all about 90+ peaks.

The membership includes some very accomplished hikers and climbers (see above). Greg Vernon (you might know the name) has been placing summit registers for them for some time.

All in all, very nice group of people, worthy goals, lifetime of friendships.

A lot of obscure peaks, not on the official DPS list, had registers placed by Gordon MacLeod, Barbara Lilley and cohorts, often with "Simi Valley" after the DPS notation. Arkel Erb is even on some of the very old registers. Just a small sampling:
http://hwstock.org/bvms/html/IMG_0191.htm
http://hwstock.org/bonelli/html/IMG_2131.htm
http://hwstock.org/qtz/html/IMG_2760.htm
http://hwstock.org/tomr/html/IMG_4373.htm
http://hwstock.org/nspir/html/IMG_3859.htm
http://hwstock.org/kt/html/DSC08095.htm
http://hwstock.org/iret/html/Ireteba5072register.htm
http://hwstock.org/sap/html/DSC04861.htm

Harlan, that's exactly it. I recognize not only the writing but how they often copied the names and info from the old register when placing a new one.

BTW. Barbara Lilley is one of the US pioneering women climbers of the first rank. She was putting up First Ascents when most women were not even part of the sport. Sahara Terror, Fools Rush at Tahquitz for example are her climbs. She put up routes in the Sierra and the desert mountains of the US. Barbara, the late Ellen Wilts and the late Ruth Mendenhall are true pioneers of modern rock and alpine climbing in the Western US.

Lilley also did some notable alpine ascents... Denali, Elias, Logan, way back before there was a lot of information, back before plastic boots...

There are some great photos of her from way back when, on the web...short shorts... nuff said.

Nowadays, they use a tofu burro.

Cy, Harlan, thanks for the links. Very interesting stuff. After having been up some 30-40 of those summits around here, I started to wonder. Those folks sure hiked a hell of a lot of stuff here, and few in the area know about it.

If interested, here is link to all the peaks that Gordon MacLeod has climbed.

http://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ClimbListC.aspx?cid=1374&sort=AscentDate&u=ft&j=-1&y=9999