Tom Schweich  

1980s

1980

Visit to Ester, Alaska

1980 Desert Studies Field Trip

Day 0

Day 1 -- Barber Mountain

Linda Houser looking at the Woods Mountains from Barber Mountain.	Table Top as seen from Barber Mountain.	Lobo Point Camp as seen from the top of Barber Mountain.	Matt and Kate check out some tafoni at Hole-in-the-Wall.	Pause at the southwest side of Hole-in-the-Wall
Petroglyphs near Hole-in-the-Wall.	Viewing petroglyphs near Hole-in-the-Wall	South side of Barber Mountain.	South side of Barber Mountain.

Day 2 -- Wild Horse Mesa

Hike to Wild Horse Mesa.

Our route was from Lobo Point camp west across Wild Horse Canyon, up the north face of the mesa, southwards to a rock shelter, then south and east to descend into Saddle Horse Canyon. After a stop at the Ceremonial Site, then we crossed northeast and up the wash back into camp.

Providence Mountains from north rim of Wild Horse Mesa.	North rim of Wild Horse Mesa.	Rock shelter on Wild Horse Mesa.	Me on Wild Horse Mesa	Hiking on top of Wild Horse Mesa.
Massive and columnar jointed welded tuff on the rim of Wild Horse Mesa.

Day 3 -- Mitchell Caverns

A little snow at Mitchell Caverns	The entrance to Mitchell Caverns.	Mitchell Caverns headquarters at the end of Essex Road.

Day 4 -- Hart and Vontrigger Hills

The Castle Peaks north of Hart.	Mine dump at Hart.	Looking over a mine at Hart	Lanfair Valley south of Hart	New York Mountains west of Hart
Mining area at Hart	Open pit at Hart.

Day 5 -- Lobo Point

Thunderstorm with virga.	Matt and Lobo Point in the morning.	Faulted ash bed on Lobo Point.	Lobo Point Camp from Lobo Point.	Fault on the northwest face of Lobo Point
Ash bed used to correlate rock units on Lobo Point	Lunch group.	Table Top from the small cliffs on the north side of Lobo Point	Lobo Point from the slopes of Barber Mountain	Cliff at base of Barber Mountain
Ash bed used to correlate rock units on Barber Mountain

Day 6 -- Going Home

1980 Lassen Field Trip

Chaos Crags at Emigrant Pass.	Warning sign at Bumpass Hell.	Orientation stop at Emigrant Pass.	Lassen Peak.	View of Bumpass Hell.
Chaos Crags from Emigrant Pass.	Lassen Peak (?) from … … where?	Field trip to Lassen National Park.

Hike to top of Cinder Cone.

Hike to the top of Cinder Cone.	Cooking dinner at the Butte Lake Campground.	Lassen Peak from Cinder Cone.

Field trip stop at Subway Cave, near Old Station.

Inside Subway Caves.

Thanksgiving, 1980

Merritt College field trip to Death Valley. Also known as the “Barf-Mobile” trip.

George Hilton and several students at Devils Golf Course.	George Hilton consults the map in Trail Canyon.	Ron Felzer (right) leads field trip stop at Wildrose Charcoal Kilns.	Sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells in the afternoon.	On the ridge at Dante's View.
Death Valley salt pan from Dante's View.	View from Trail Canyon fan into Death Valley.	Trail Canyon in the late afternoon.	Salt formation at Badwater.	View northwest from Dante's View.
Looking down Wildrose Canyon from near the charcoal kilns.	Cheryl at the charcoal kilns.	Charcoal kilns and Wildrose Canyon.	Wildrose Charcoal Kilns.	Emigrant Canyon.
Faulting in Emigrant Canyon.	Cheryl at Salt Creek.	Waking up on the Trail Canyon fan.	Exhumed mud cracks in Trail Canyon.

Point Reyes

I'm pretty sure this was Kehoe Beach.

Sand dune deposits at Kehoe Beach.	Matt on granite overlain by Francisco Formation.

1981

January, 1981

April, 1981

1981 Desert Studies Field Trip

Stop at the Desert Tortoise Natural Area.

Rock Springs and Caruthers Canyon

Hikers in the wash of Rock Spring.	Matt just below the Giant Ledge Mine.	Matt, et a., at the entrance to the Giant Ledge Mine.	The Giant Ledge, a prominent quartz dike.	Matt in the Giant Ledge Mine.
Mouth of Caruthers Canyon (1981).	Plaque for Camp Rock Spring.	Watson Wash at Camp Rock Spring.	My house is your house

Barber Mountain: At some point in the week, maybe the first day, we climbed to the top of Barber Mountain. This might also be the day I visited the Gold Valley Mine.

Tafoni on Barber Mountain.	Lobo Point and Wild Horse Mesa seen from Barber Mountain.	Rhyolitic dome on the south end of Lobo Point, seen from Barber Mountain.	Granite Well in 1981.	Shaft at Gold Valley Mine.
Barber Mountain as seen from Granite Well.	View north northwest from Barber Mountain towards the Little Thorn Mountains and Granite Well.

Field trip stop at Kelso Dunes.

Running down the dunes.	View northwest from top of the Kelso Dunes.	Running down the dunes.

Woods Mountains: field trip.

West Burro Canyon in the Woods Mountains.	Scott Clarke at the Woods Wash Guzzler.	Group hiking out of West Burro Canyon.

August 1981

1981 Death Valley Field Trip

I think this was one on Roland Gangloff's trips. The first night was at Rhyolite, where we pitched camp in the oncoming rain, and went into Beatty for dinner. At the time, there was only the Exchange Club, that was casino, restaurant, bar, and Greyhound bus stop. There were packages piled up around the front door that had just come in on the bus. I remember having Thanksgiving dinner here, but not whether it was Wednesday or Thursday night. We took this station wagon through Titus Canyon, ripping a hole in the muffler at one point. Then camped in the rain at Mesquite Spring Campground. That day or the next day we visited Ubehebe Crater and Scotty's Castle. We also had a flat tire and discovered that we only had one of those new little donuts with a 35 mph speed restriction. The garage at Furnace Creek was open on Sunday, but we had to wait quite a while while they struggled to inflate some giant 4WD tires for the person ahead of us. With out tire fixed, we exited through Death Valley Junction and Baker for the drive home.

1982

January

1982 Desert Studies

Matt and Kate in Cima Volcanic Field, Cone No. 22.	Cinder cone in Cima Volcanic Field.

Trip to the fossil beds of Hackberry Mountain. These were on the north size of Hackberry Mountain in, what I now assume were, beds of the Winkler Formation.

Fossiliferous Winkler(?) Formation in the north side of Hackberry Mountain.	Plant fossils, perhaps root casts, found in the Winkler (?) Formation of Hackberry Mountain.

The camp at Lobo Point.

Hole-in-the-Wall from the ridge of Lobo Point.	The camp at Lobo Point in 1982

New York Mountains, Keystone Canyon.

Bill Keeler in door of cabin in Keystone Canyon.	At a mine in Keystone Canyon.

Wild Horse Mesa:

Jim Lons holds up a stalk fo Agave desertii on top of Wild Horse Mesa.	Beecher Canyon, on the west side of Wild Horse Mesa.

Hike to Gold Valley Spring.

July 1982

Paul & Lydia visit Martha & Richard in Alaska.

August 14th

December 23rd

December 24th

December 25th

1983

1983 Desert Studies Field Trip

May 30, 1983

1984

1984 Desert Studies Field Trip

Jennifer, Ron, & Gray at the kitchen truck.	Post-hike rehydration.	Waiting for dinner.

Globe Canyon / Summit Spring

Head of Globe Canyon.	Roland Gangloff at Summit Spring	Scott, Linda, and Julie look for trilobite fossils in the Latham Shale.	Looking for trilobites in the Latham Shale	Group in front of a powder magazine.

Bonanza King

Linda and Julie looking for fossils in Bonanza King Canyon.	Solitary horn coral in Bonanza King Canyon

Piute Cyn / Fort Piute

Faulting in Piute Canyon	Looking down Piute Canyon at Fort Piute.

Woods Mountains

Rock shelter on the south slopes of Woods Mountains.	Woods Mountains above the rock shelter.

May 1984

Photo of Lydia and Paul taken for church directory.

May 1984

Paul & Lydia camping at Chimney Peak Campground. There does not seem to be a campground by this name in 2020. There is a Chimney Creek campground in Tulare County at the head of Nine Mile Canyon.

June 3, 1984

Some sort of event at the Laguna Hills Baptist Church. Uncle Ivan Bell was pastor there for a time, perhaps this was his retirement party.

July

1984 Saline Valley Field Trip

Cascades in Surprise Canyon.	Tom by a Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia Engelm.)	Merritt College van in the snow.	Snow scene along Saline Valley Road.	Townes Pass in the snow.
Panamint Range and Surprise Canyon from our camp.	Chris Wicht Camp in Surprise Canyon.	Camp site at or near Warm Sulphur Springs	Group picture before leaving Death Valley	Sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells.
Sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells in the early morning.

We planned to make one stop in Bakersfield at a grocery store, just because people might need to stock up. This was a good plan because person did not bring any food at all. Let's call him Ron. I think his explanation was that he had asked his roommate to get him some food, but his roommate did not go to the market, or something like that.

Olancha would have been our place to turn off of US Highway 395 in the direction of Saline Valley. As we approached Olancha, it was starting to snow. We had dinner in Olancha, at the Ranch House Cafe. It continued to snow heavily while we ate dinner. We decided we would not try to drive into Saline Valley that night. There were a couple of motels in Olancha, but they were both totally dark, either full or not operating. We could not tell. We drove on to Lone Pine, where we stayed in the Lone Pine hotel. I think the women got the hotel rooms with a bath. Ron and I roomed together with a shower and bath down the hall.

Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning we left for Saline Valley. The road good through Lee Flat, with the snow either melted or packed down. However, as the road got steeper, we started losing control of the van when the snow was about 6 inches deep. Of course, because it was a rental van, we did not have chain. We did not make it to the pass above Grapevine Canyon.

As a group, we thought maybe we could go into Death Valley. So we drove back down to Highway 190. Ron was driving, and a little crazed because he needed credit from the class to ... ... do something ... maybe, graduate. He was going way too fast down Darwin Grade, So I had to tell him to slow down. He didn't take it well, and decided to drive 20 mph; kind of like an ass.

So we went into and across Panamint Valley. It was cloudy but no rain. We drove past the past the Road Closed sign. It was starting to rain at Towne Pass. We started down the grade and it was raining really hard by the time we got to Emigrant Wash. I don't think there was any running water in Emigrant Wash. But then the road turns east across numerous washes. The first a little water, then the next wash a little more water, then a wash lot of water. Looking at the map now, we must have been really close to Stovepipe Wells. But we didn't know that then, and decided to turn back. There was a 5th wheel behind us who could not turn around at that spot. I have no idea what they ultimately did.

Now what to do? Somehow, we decided to get gas and supplies and camp in Panamint Valley. So we drove to Trona. It was breezy, but otherwise sunny and bright. We bought gas and water and then headed back for Panamint Valley.

We found a place to camp in Panamint Valley on Indian Ranch Road near Warm Sulphur Spring. This is where we spent Thursday night.

Friday morning, it was still cloudy, especially to the north and east. So, we decided to stay here. I don't remember the process, but it seems that we made the decision as a group. Ron was desperate to go into Saline Valley, I think because he needed class credits. We had a discussion about keeping a journal and turning it in to get credit.

We Walked up Surprise Canyon fan and saw there was a road from the south end of the fan. Then past Chris Wicht Camp, we hiked a mile or so up the canyon, past the narrow place where the road was washed out.

Saturday, decided to try Death Valley. We packed up and got in the van. I'm not sure how we got there, because it was afternoon when we arrived at Stovepipe Wells. Perhaps we went up Wildrose Canyon to the charcoal ovens. Regardless, there were a lot of vacant campsites in the campground at Stovepipe Wells. The two black women and I decided we would go to the restaurant for dinner. I wish I could remember their names. They were both delightful company. One of them had just picked up the phrase "no problem." She was a City of Oakland social worker. But I learned it from her, and from then on, pretty much everything was no problem.

An old guy was playing pedal steel guitar and singing really old time western songs, with two young guys for backup. He took quite an interest in us, as I expect we might have been an interesting sight. We talked about our trip, failure to get into Saline Valley, and what we did instead. His pedal steel playing and singing was really good, and he made repeated snide comments about his backups having no clue.

A couple of us had the idea to sleep out in the sand dunes. It must be a popular thing for people to try, because there was a ranger waiting for us, who sent us back into the campground.

Sunday morning, we went back to the restaurant for breakfast. After packing up, we drove home. I assume we went out of the south end of the valley, through Baker to Bakersfield and then up the San Joaquin Valley.

As we neared Oakland, several passengers were asking to be dropped off at their house on the way into town. But we didn't do that. We went to my house first. Then we cleaned the van. People who left their car at my house were able to go home. Then I drove around Oakland taking people home. That way, I didn't get stuck cleaning out a dirty van on Monday morning.

Christmas, 1984

1985

“Paul & Bob Shaw. I read a book on photography which said it is better in a photo to have people doing something, rather than having them lined up as a firing squad. So that is why these are looking at the book. Granada Hills, CA. January, 1985.” &ndash Lydia Schweich

1985 Desert Studies Field Trip

Otto taking a drink.	Kitchen crew on the 1985 field trip.	Society of Friends of Jose Cuervo.	George and Anne.	Afternoon in camp.
Ed ('nuff said)

(Barber Mtn)

Woods Mountains

Very tall Yucca baccata in the woods Mountains.	Hiking in the Woods Mountains

Table Mountain

George Hilton points to Hackberry Mountain from Table Top.	View off the east side of Table Mountain.

Rock Spr? New York Mtns?

Mouth of Caruthers Canyon.	View south out of Caruthers Canyon.	Roy getting ready to photograph a fractured quartz dike in Caruthers Canyon.

Winklers Cabin / Wild Horse Mesa

Bonanza King Canyon

Arch in Bonanza King Canyon.	Petroglyphs in Bonanza King Canyon.

Group photo before leaving.

Goodbye, Lobo Point! (Group photo when we are all packed up and ready to leave, 1985)

May 24, 1985

Lydia and Paul visit to the eastern Mojave.

Lydia Schweich (my mother) at some petroglyphs near the south end of Wild Horse Mesa.	Lydia Schweich (my mother) at Winkler's Cabin.	Paul Schweich (my father) inside Winkler's Cabin.

Rock Springs.

Christmas 1985

14-Feb-1986

1986 Desert Studies Field Trip

Goodbye Lobo Point! (1986).	Kirstin digging the hole for the outhouse.	Dan Rosen tries to cook a cold.	Me, Scott, and Julie at breakfast.

Barber ?

Winklers

Field trip stop at Winklers Cabin.

South Woods Mountains

Group on Rosen's Roost	Ed Schaup at Woods Wash.

Northeast Woods Mountains

Canyon in northeast Woods Mountains.	Road into the northeast corner of the Woods Mountains.	Table Top from the northeast Woods Mountains.	Gopher Snake in the Woods Mountains.

Columbia Mountain

Piute Canyon

Mother's Day, May 11, 1986

We went for a nice walk on the handicapped accessible trail near the top of Mount Diablo.

August, 1986

I have a whole series of these photos dated August 1986, taken at the Flint Center of De Anza College. Perhaps Rachel and I were waiting to pick Jacob up from his camp at Camp Costanoan.

Lydia's Birthday at Lyon Avenue House in Oakland.

15 November 1986

Visit to Lobo Point

"Lydia & Tom at the cocktail hour at Point Lobo, November 15, 1986" in Lydia's handwriting.	Lydia and Paul Schweich (my parents) on top of Barber Mountain.	Tom by the Medicine Wheel	General aspect of Yucca schidigera in Wild Horse Canyon.	Lydia and Paul in Wild Horse Canyon.
Lydia and Paul Schweich (my parents) climbing to the top of Barber Mountain.	Lobo Point and Medicine Wheel (1986).	The Medicine Wheel at Lobo Point.

1987

1987 Desert Studies Field Trip

April, 1987, Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon in the evening.	Rachel hangs on the fence at Grand Canyon.	Grand Canyon in the evening.	Jacob, Cheryl, and Rachel on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

A stop at the Wupatki National Monument Pueblo ruin

May, 1987, Girl Scout Trip to Sunol Park

Rachel and Cameron in camp.	Rachel and Cameron on a rock outcrop.	On the trail …	Camp in the early morning.

October, 1987

Field trip to the eastern Mojave with my dad.

Lunch in Wild Horse Canyon.	Petroglyph near Archeological Site SBr-291.	Stuart, 4th Infantry, May 16, 1864.	Paul Schweich (my father) at the Olympus Mine.	Archeological Site SBr-291
Hollowed-out rock (tafoni) at archeological site SBr-291.	Petroglyphs at archeological site SBr-291.	View of lowest Wild Horse Canyon from SBr-291.	Honeycomb at Archeological Site SBr-291	Caruthers Canyon (1987).

Drove up Afton Canyon with my dad.

Unnamed hill in the lower part of Afton Canyon.

1988

1988 Desert Studies Field Trip

Stopped at the Kelso Dunes on our way in.

An oath I took after doing some plumbing.

October 24, 1988

Camping at Lobo Point camp.