Mt Inyo & the Beekeeper of McElvoy Cnyn shelter

“Mt Inyo Dayclimb and the Beekeeper of McElvoy Canyon Rock Shelter
Saturday, 7 May 2005

PHOTOS: http://community.webshots.com/album/341791704ssuOqK

Calhiker and I met Jay (aka Astrohound) and Rick Kent (aka Kernhiker) at Union Wash (4,825') Saturday morning, just north of Lone Pine, after getting lost in the maze of criss-crossing dirt roads Friday night. It was well past midnight when we decided to pull over and camp on the side of the road. This made for a short sleepless night before a death-march type hike (for me, anyway). Driving all night, and the lack of sleep, along with my short legs trying to keep up with these long-legged monsters, made it a difficult hike for me. Having to deal with altitude sickness didn't help things either. Our first stop was the Bed Spring Waterfall (6,375'). We left the wash and climbed a steep switchbacking slope. I started feeling the altitude shortly after Bed Springs Camp, just after we had completed a grueling stretch of 1,400' in 0.6 miles. Every step felt like I had cement blocks on my feet, which made me dizzy and lightheaded, which made me stop to take deep breaths and force myself not to heave.

After lunch at the 10,100' saddle, we found the Beekeeper of McElvoy rock shelter in the boulders 1/4 mi from the summit. We made the summit of Mt Inyo (11,107') with only a few soft patches of old snow to cross, and these were on the north sides of the bumps we had to hike over. Even though the Sierra got a few inches of snow, the Inyos did not, and snow gear wasn't required. The guys could have made the peak a lot quicker if they didn't wait for me. The views west over to the Sierra Nevada, and east into Death Valley were truly incredible. We were able to pick out every peak we'd done in the past several months. Rick Kent also had his eye on bagging Keynot, so I gave him my FSR radio, and he left the summit before us to accomplish this amazing "double-peak day" on the way down. He was only an hour behind us even with the extra 1000' gain for Keynot. It took us 14 hr 15 min to do 11.3 miles with 6,527' el gain/loss.

John (aka Beldar) had also driven up to hike with us on Sunday, and was parked by the entrance to Union Wash. He kept in radio contact with both Rick and our group, making sure everyone was doing OK during the descent in the dark. Once down, we found a nice area to camp below Union Wash, and stayed up til 1am talking camp talk.”

“SN - Great trip and pics! Nice shots of the Eastern Sierras”

“SN....glad to see you made it back to share the trip....tough luck on the altitude sickness....nice report...and the photos are awesome as usual....I love the last pano...that is soooo awesome....

YO Justin....nice campsite dude....i'm jealous....what a view man! How come ya didn't just set up the cot?”

“Always fun!!! Great shot of you in the shade at the falls.”

“Thanks for posting the TR snowy. Even though we have never met, I still get a kick out of reading your adventures.”

“With a clear sky, perfect sloping dirt and no wind, might as well enjoy "camping out". That, and I didn't bring the cot on this trip, just a tent, and I didn't feel like setting it up. What a view to wake up to!”

“Yeah well....from the looks of your layout I thought maybe a nice cozy cot would fit well with maybe a little night stand....and....if ya packed the lay-z-boy that would round out your campsite quite nicely!

But man....you be right...what a view!!!”

“Really neat pictures SN! & great reading hike report...I hope you are feeling okay now from the altitude sickness, has that ever happened before? I have heard of McElvoy canyon..is it in the Saline Valley area?
I did a google search on Marion Howard and got a few things, but was not able to open any of the sites for some odd reasons, do you know the story?

Beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing them. That one picture of Kernhiker with his headlamp in the dark with the light coming off of it..looks like a glow snake or something!! pretty cool looking”

“MiT, I feel better now. McElvoy Canyon is on the Saline Valley side of the ridge. All I know about Marion Howard is that he was a hermit that lived in the rock shelter, and the BLM dedicated a plaque to him.

We decided on a easy hike for Sunday, which I will post in a few minutes. Make that after work . . . lunch is over :-(”

“Really nice pictures Snow Nymph. Do you have a new camera - the pictures look better than ever.

That's one tough hike - congratulations on making it. Eventually I'm going to do it but probably as an overnighter.

From your picture of Waucoba, it doesn't look like much snow up there either. I'm headed up to to that one next Sunday, so it was really nice to see a picture of it.”

“Yes, got a new camera, the Canon Powershot S70, 7.1 megapixels. My S50 died. Took one too many dumps in the snow, I guess.”

“Jay found this info on Marion Howard, Beekeeper of McElvoy Canyon, before our trip. It was a reply to someone, but the site is down, so only this was cached:

I finally found the info on the Beekeeper of McElvoy Canyon. It was written by Wendell Moyer for the Winter 1994 edition of the SURVIVOR. I will try to summarize the article. Three climbers, Moyer, Doug McLean and Mike Riley decided to climb the canyon to investigate the mysterious ladders in the canyon.The first falls is 50 feet in height, the second is not described and the third is “close to 150 feet in height”. It took them one day to climb to the base of the 4th waterfall. ”On the second day, we located a Class 4 route around the otherwise impassible waterfalls # 4 and # 5 without resorting to installing a bolt ladder.” After 3 more easy ladder falls they broke out of the narrow canyon. After another mile they found some miners cabins and the Beekeepers cabin with wooden beehive boxes and magazines dated in the mid 60’s. Another mile above that they found the old McElvoy mine and mill site. In one of the tunnels they found another cache of the beekeeper.

After several years of searching, Mr. Moyer found the Beekeeper of McElvoy Canyon, Marion Howard, c/o General Delivery, Lone Pine, Ca. At that time Marion Howard was 84 years old, described as a “free spirit” and lived in a funky small old round shaped trailer. His home was relocated to various sites around the Owens Valley as necessitated by BLM regulations.

Other cogent details listed by Mr. Moyer are

Born and raised in NW Pa about 20 miles from Lake Erie.

Drafted into the army in WWII and served in Iran.

Moved west several years after the war and resided more or less in the Lone Pine area ever since.

First went up and over the Inyo mountains in the mid 60’s. He climbed “overland”, meaning that he did not follow any established trails.

Was active in McElvoy canyon until about 1980. Originally unaware of the road in Saline Valley until he saw car lights one night.

The ladders were fabricated over a period of years and constructed from the top down -“just lowering them until they finally hit bottom”.

The ladders were constructed of two strands of heavy baling wire with 1 1/2 inch diameter log rungs.

Traveled back and forth across the Inyos “about once a week” throughout the winter months crossing the ridge at the highest saddle between Mt. Inyo and Keynot Peak.

Spent summers in Oregon as a seasonal farm laborer

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www.snow-nymph.com
last edited: 5/13/05 8:12:31 PM”

“Great pictures (and trip, of course). Thanks for posting the additional info about the Beekeeper - I was very curious about him and having no luck finding much info on my own.”

“Great report and pics!”

“Terrific! Loved the pics. What a beautiful area. Makes me want to come out there sooner!”

“SN thanks so much for posting that info on Marion Howard! so fascinating to me to read about stuff like that! I have a friend that was a very good friend of a man who was like a hermit recluse type...my friend would visit him and bring him supplies from time to time..he lived in a remote location some place near Monitor Pass....he passed away many years ago.”