I just joined here as someone from another forum alerted me to this thread. I'm heading up next weekend (5/10-5/13/12). I will bring bleach and decon for the Hilton...as much as I can carry. I'm a bit of a pack mule (60+ lbs usually), so a full gallon of bleach should be do-able.
I'm waiting to hear back from user "stan" on panamintvalley.com, as he was recently up there and said he has a list of needed items. I emailed him but haven't heard back yet. If anyone knows him, have him post on PV.com or here please. Thanks!
Are you the dude I brought up there with the dog that got the IV drip? Sorry, I forgot your name. Was it Chris?
I too was waiting to hear from Stan. I guess his TR pretty much sums up what he saw up there. Waiting on that "list' though
"Well we made it again. Last time up to PC was 2 years ago, we tried last year but gave up when we saw 10+ cas parked at the trailhead - most I had ever seen, yipes!! Me, my daughter and a friend got to Novak Camp (OK, Chris Wicht Camp) about 4:30PM on Friday. This time no other cars were at the trailhead!! We had planned on camping at the roads end but figured we would start the hike since we had a few hours of daylight left. Got to the top of the falls about 7PM, set up camp, had dinner and went to sleep. The stars were bright and the frogs were croaking loudly.
Up at 6AM on Saturday, and on the move by 7AM. Made it to the PC by 11:30AM. The Hilton looked a lot better than it had 2 years ago. It had been cleaned up and looked spiffy. The "Hippie Cabin" was the worst, the front door has come off its hinges, and was really nasty looking inside - lots of junk scattered around, rodent droppings all over etc. We stayed at the Castle. The Castle has been well maintained, water was running and the place was relatively clean. I made a few repairs to some leaking pipes coming from the spring. The last logbook entry had been 2 weeks ago. Some of the bedding (old sleeping bags) on the bed had become rodent infested, so we took them to the dump. Next time up I will bring a cheapie old sleeping bag to replace it.
The fireplace worked fine as did the water heater for the tub. Made some minor repairs to the front door - to keep rodents out. The deadbolt handle to the outside has broken, the door can no longer be latched from the outside.
We spent Saturday exploring the area, went to the lower Wyo Mine, and up to Tompson Camp and the RAWS station. The weather was great, mid 40's at night and high 60's daytime. Only one other group (three folks) were up there with us, nice.
Sunday morning we had breafast, spruced up the place, and hit the trail by 9AM. We took our time on the way out, saw some burros, wildflowers and enjoyed the springs and waterfalls, and got back to the car at 2PM. Even picked up some trash along the trail - come on folks!!! Drove to PS to get cleaned up and met Dave Bricker (hi Dave, met you last year, same time, same place), and we talked a bit about PC and our hike up there.
Got back home at 12:30AM, tired but with wonderful memories. Very happy that my daughter has been able to see PC and get to know this part of history - she was been there before, and likes it as much as I do. It is also nice that the kid still enjoys doing stuff with her old man!!
PC is a cool place, my first time there was in 1972, when I drove a VW van up.
If anyone is heading up tp PC, I have a "list" of a few things that the place could use. I won't list them here, but let me know and I will write an additional post. Take care all...
I just got back from nine days in the valley and spent some time with the guy who re-plumbed the Hilton bathroom a few years ago while my wife and I where up there staying at the Castle. He was planning to head up there for a few days this week and he's prolly back by now. His plan was to bring up a kitchen faucet to replace the old leaker and take care of anything else that he might be capable of.
I'm gonna shoot him an email right now and see if he's back.
Beware that there is a rather large group going up there the same weekend that you are going. It's gonna get pretty cramped in town.
Have a good time up there. Let us know how it goes.