Spring Trip 2019

Monday, May 27th, 2019: 2012 Trips, Mojave Desert, Regions, Road Trips.

A Test

During the past five years, my body seemed to be failing and accumulating injuries and disabilities. I could’ve easily assumed this was irreversible – the new normal.

But I was lucky in that I’d stopped pursuing a career and had few responsibilities except to myself. I had as much time as I needed. I kept experimenting and working harder and harder to stay in shape. I’d spent the past six months in training, working on my strength and flexibility to get around the rotator cuff tears in both shoulders, very gradually increasing my hiking distance and elevation until I even passed the point I was at when things started falling apart. The only question was, could I hike off-trail in the desert mountains I loved, with all the steep slopes of loose rock? I’d already learned that loose rock was the ultimate challenge for my chronically injured foot.

So in addition to the meeting, this trip was a test for my body. And ironically, after more than 15 years, I’d finally acquired a 4wd vehicle, and this would be the first test of that, too.

The first thing I discovered was that I had to re-learn hiking out there. Since my foot injury, I’d lost my confidence and had to regain it, going slower and more deliberately, more mindfully, especially downhill. But I did OK, doing rugged hikes easily and even some construction work that required moves I couldn’t have done a few months ago.

And so did my vehicle. I ended up on old abandoned mine roads, where the Sidekick kept crawling through deep sandy washes, rocking back and forth 60+ degrees between deep ruts on its truck frame, and climbing straight up loose shaley slopes, to many places my 2wd, low-clearance truck would never have reached. The Sidekick never had a problem, nor did my body. We both passed the test.

Hitting the Road

Raining as I left home

In a resort village high in the mountains, a cafe flies a Trump flag. Remember this before you say “We have to solve climate change,” gun violence, immigration, overpopulation, etc. In the real world, there are countless “we’s” and the institutions of our society, from government to media, education, commerce and technology, are not furthering consensus between them

Arrival

The main reason for this trip was a long-planned meeting between those who love our mountains. But the hot days of summer were coming, and since there’s no natural shade at our campsite, I’d designed a shade canopy that I hauled out, in pieces, on top of my new vehicle to assemble onsite.

The waxing moon rises in the east as the sun sets in the west

Second Day

Salvia in bloom

Red racer or coachwhip

Using sage as deodorant!

Western tanager

Father and daughter climb the peak behind camp

Meeting Day

After the many months and numerous communications required to plan and schedule our meeting, it ended up being pushed back to a date that was closer to the heat of summer than some of us were comfortable with. But as the date approached, the forecast was for a cooling trend, and in the event, temperatures were mild for the entire week I camped in the desert. In fact, I was too cold the first night sleeping out, and had to progressively swath myself in all the layers I’d brought, because my warm-season sleeping bag wasn’t enough.

Wind out there can be fierce, but the day of the meeting was calm. And the day after, we even got rained on briefly, which is a very rare treat. We were so blessed by the weather, the rocks, the plants, the animals, and the people!

Flycatcher near camp

Friends meet to protect the mountains

A special treat was the bloom of the desert willow

A sad discovery was the invasion of Sahara mustard. Here we are trying to burn mustard seeds in our fireplace.

The Day After

After most of the others left, a remaining friend and I hiked over to explore a corner of the mountains I’d never seen. We were amazed at the vitality of both flora and fauna after a wet winter. More jackrabbits, cottontails, birds and reptiles than we’d encountered in a long time. And around camp, with the blooming desert willows, there was a constant swarm of hummingbirds.

We could see a storm moving over from the west, and as we crested a ridge, rain began to fall lightly, and strong gusts of wind threatened to blow us down.

An Apache attack helicopter flies over camp. Military aircraft are a frequent disturbance over our wilderness areas.

Large area undermined by burrows

Fruiting yucca

Rodent racetrack

Window rock

Collapsed barrel cactus

Entering a well-watered canyon

Gathering of yuccas

Some kind of wren?

Algae under translucent quartz

Chuckwalla hiding

Rain coming over

Invasive red brome grass on upper slope

I got to see a new perspective on the Lost World!

Canyon wrens sang to us from the surrounding slopes

Amazing fluid patterns frozen in the rock of the canyon

Lone smoke tree or indigo bush, far upstream from its brethren

King snake

A group of Le Conte’s thrashers were active around us

Very tall yucca

Last night in camp

On the Road Again

More military aircraft flying low over camp

Hundreds of hummingbirds swarmed around the blooming desert willows

Invasive Sahara mustard

Wind stirring towers of sand from the dunes

A last look back into the mountains

Panorama to the north, where I first fell in love with this desert

Perhaps the biggest and oldest tortoise I’d ever seen

Sidekick passing the test

Hills tinted red by wild buckwheat

Closeup view of the peak of the range

A cove at the north of the range where several cabins are located

Mexican locomotive leading a train of ore hoppers across the desert

Different Desert

In search of prehistoric rock writings I hadn’t seen before, I headed to a different part of the desert, a part I’d only visited briefly before and wanted to explore thoroughly in future trips.

Las Vegas discharges its waste water into Lake Mead

Cliff swallows hunt insects above the wastewater stream

In the center of the photo, a loggerhead shrike inspecting me from atop a fruiting Joshua tree

Biological soil crusts in red sandstone sediment

As the sun went down and a storm blew over, the road took me away from the trail to the rock writings, and there was no place to turn around

I pushed my Sidekick up this daunting road until I finally found a place to turn around

Heading back down

It began raining while I was seeking a campsite

Dense stand of Joshua trees

Far away in the center, the shrinking, doomed desert reservoir

First campsite

Rain drove me out of my campsite after dark

Climbing

After rain drove me out of my solo campsite after dark, it soon stopped, encouraging me to wait it out. It ended up raining four separate times in six hours, but only for 10-20 minutes at a time. The last time it rained, I simply wrapped my sleeping bag in my plastic tarp. After the rain stopped, I slept well for the rest of the night, and in the morning, started hiking up the mountain behind camp.