At Belknap's Summit.

This is the summit area of Mt. Belknap, 12,139 feet. The summit register is in the robust yellow container. I opted to leave my bike at the summit of Belknap and continue on foot to Baldy. From Belknap's summit to the lowest point on the ridge is an elevation change of about 1,200 feet. The distance on foot one way between the summits is about 2 miles. Once reaching Baldy, I followed the same route back to the summit of Belknap to get the bike and return to Big John Flat. September 25, 2010 I decided to hit up both summits. I found that the road leading to Kimberly Pass was closed to motorized traffic. I biked up from the Big John Flat area to the first pass at about 11,550 feet, dropped on the ridge further north following the road to Kimberly Pass, at 10,973 feet. Once reaching the pass, several people (think hillbilly's) on ATV's had made it there from the Marysvale side from the east. Very strange, odd uncomfortable looks were cast in my direction from these people. That song from that movie Deliverance started playing in my head, Duelling Banjos, almost immediately. (Which unfortunately repeatedly played in my head for the rest of the day) After that staredown, I lugged the bike initially up the steeper portion north of the pass, planning on hiding it in the trees somewhere. However with the nagging feeling of eyes watching me I reached the long south ridge of Belknap, rode to the base of Belknap's summit pyramid. I shouldered the bike up loose talus and scree about 800 vertical feet to the summit. I knew those "locals" wouldn't go out of their way to summit that day. If I had left it below, did the traverse and returned to find the bike had disappeared, it would be pretty devastating. Having a long way to walk out and the fact of possibly loosing my bike made the decision easy to haul it up top. So it got a nice high altitude break on Belknap's summit that September day.