Joshua Tree 2003

Detail
Friday Jan 31st, 2003—Day 1
I met Tim at his place at 6pm; he was just eating dinner. We were on the road by about 6:30pm taking Tim's car. Our route was 126 to 14 to 138 to 18 to 273, then to 62. Around 11pm we reached Twenty-nine Palms, and we nearly clipped a guy on a bike who was weaving into traffic from the bike lane on the wrong side of the road.

We filled up our water at the Mara headquarters, then at Midnight or so we entered the park; there was no attendant on duty.

Try as we might, all campsites were full—Tim was not pleased. We tried Belle, White Tank, Ryan, Jumbo Rocks, and finally decided that it was probably in our best interest to endeavor into the backcountry. There is a backcountry board between Belle and White Tank with a convenient parking lot, but no amenities. There were a few other cars already there, and one that arrived as Tim and I were gathering our gear. The car that arrived seemed intent on staying in their car which I suspect is an infraction of the rules. Shortly before reaching the mile mark—GPS dictated—I stumbled and fell on granite rock. I bloodied my knee and hand a bit, but after the surprise and initial pain subsided, I considered the state of the GPS that was in my hand. Smashing it on the none-too-soft granite had turned the unit off; fortunately, however, the GPS was ok. We reached a fairly level spot, pitched the tent, then Tim tried his hand at photographing the stars. The weather was exemplary—clear sky, little wind, record high temperature. It was about 2 a.m. when we finally crashed.

Saturday Feb 1st, 2003—Day 2
The first consideration of the day was to get a campsite. Belle campground still had the "Campsite Full" sign up, but Tim and I ventured in on the assumption that people had left yet no one had changed the sign; this proved to be correct. We pitched the tent in site #11.

Our hike of choice for the day was Pinto Mountain because the map suggested it went through sand dunes—this intrigued me. Unfortunately, the sand dunes were not too impressive. The starting point of the hike was at a backcountry board parking lot. There were already four people preparing for the same hike. I discussed routes with a woman who I later found out to be Kathy, a.k.a. WingDing. The four of them decided to go a longer but easier route, and soon they were off.

Tim and I took the direct route which required much boulder climbing up a significant wash. It was a lot of fun. We saw an owl along the way. The end of the trek required climbing a significant elevation gain over a short distance. A bit precarious, but worse should we be required to descend the same way. Reaching the summit, we found a rock pile marker and a metal box with the sign-in book. I phoned Dad who told me that the space shuttle had blown up over Texas—holy cow!

After a bit of lunch, photos, signing in, phone calls, etc., Tim and I were ready to head down. As we started thinking about our route, I saw a lone hiker approaching. Turns out this was one of the original four hikers we saw in the parking lot by the name of Bill, a.k.a. WLD. The other three hikers had headed back to Sheep Group campsite to set up dinner. Tim and I decided to wait for Bill to have a sandwich, then the three of us descended together. Bill is an avid hiker who does some 800 or 900 miles a year! The loose rock on the slopes made the descent rather treacherous, but Bill flew down with amazing agility. I suspect it was a combination of experience and hiking poles. We took ridges down to an enormous wash, then made it back to the vehicles about one hour later. We did saw a snake that slithered backwards into its hole. Both Bill and Tim got pictures; I did not.

Driving into our campsite at Belle campground, we saw that our neighbor had set up an enormous telescope. His name was Gary; his wife's name was Allison, and they were from the Riverside area. The sky wasn't exactly conducive for astronomy at that time due to clouds and wind, but conditions improved, and after Tim and I had dinner we joined our neighbors for an astronomy session. Gary showed us some of the constellations and we saw Jupiter & four of its satellites. I was exhausted from the hike, so I left them early; Tim followed shortly thereafter.

The wind was not favorable for tenting initially, then turned for the worse. I heard Gary and Allison crash around 11pm, and I heard a can moving around in the wind behind the tent. From around 4am until I finally got up, I only slept in snatches.

Sunday Feb 2nd, 2003—Day 3
The wind was still blowing when we got up. Tim suggested heading to Cottonwood Springs headquarters to get water and ask a ranger for suggestions on less windy camping. Tim found the answer to be no. I suggested the Salton Sea area having driven that way once before. Along the way, we stopped at Sheep Hole Oasis for a hike into the Orocopia Mountain Wilderness.

We were mostly shielded from the wind in these Mecca Hills, except when reaching the tops of ridges. Reaching the Oasis, there were a few fan palms—two were rather crispy. Continuing our journey, we followed an enormous wash pointing to the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea became increasingly more visible as the day progressed. There were many smaller washes heading upward. Tim and I explored several of these maze-like chasms trying to head upward to the top of the mud cliffs. This was actually a lot of fun—Tim said that he preferred this type of hiking to what we did the day before on Mt. Pinto. Finally reaching the top of a ridge, we realized that there was no direct route back to the vehicle and that backtracking may be our only method of return. Also, the mud cliffs were tricky to climb, especially in the high winds. But Tim scouted ahead and found cairns, so we continued our journey rather than head back. This turned out to be an excellent choice because we were led into a grand high-walled wash that was perhaps 20 to 30 feet high in places with 6 to 8 foot jumps. It was evident that other humans had come this way, so we felt convinced that this path would lead us somewhere—if not back to the car.

3pm we finally reached the parking lot. An old guy stopped to ask us questions and showed us another possible hike about five miles south of where we were, but we decided to drive to the Salton Sea instead.

Our Salton Sea destination was the Salton Sea Recreation Site, which cost $4 to spend the day. We stopped for a spell of sea, sunshine, and relaxation. A sign on the visitor center said that we were at -228 feet. We set out our chairs and Tim read while I closed my eyes. Still too windy for our tastes, we decided not to camp out at the Recreation Site and headed back home.

See some images of the trip.