Some thoughts on Laveaga Peak

• It's fun to do the occasional peak with lots of likeminded people. (Especially when the route up is unclear.) Put a lot of names to faces yesterday.



• Laveaga would have been an incredibly unfun peak to do in the middle of the night, given that even in broad daylight it was a fun exercise in minimizing poison oak exposure. Respect to those that accomplished it that way, but yikes.



• That being said the view into the Quien Sabe Valley was pretty cool. I'm a little burned out on the Diablo Range but it would definitely be worth coming back to the area (with permission) for some more peaks. Laveaga itself, on the other hand, is definitely on the "glad it's done, not coming back" list.



• How the hell do you own 110,000 acres anyway?



• South Butte and Laveaga were always the two "access seems too unpleasant to be worth doing unless they're the only California county high points left" peaks for me. Now that I've actually been up both of them (and pleasantly!), it's probably time to seriously plan out the 18 peaks left on the list. I am not going to rehash what I wrote last week but I was advised yesterday of White Mountain Open Gate Day on 4 August (https://wmrc.edu/files/open-gate-2019.pdf) which miiiight be just the shortcut that makes White Mountain Peak happen this year. We'll see. Other than that, I need to work on my snow skills for Shasta, which I'd like to do sooner rather than later.