{"id":23929,"date":"2024-05-14T10:43:27","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T16:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=23929"},"modified":"2024-05-20T21:59:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T03:59:13","slug":"desert-ceremonial-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=23929","title":{"rendered":"Desert Ceremonial: Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Previous: Part One<\/a><\/p>\n

Day Four: Hike<\/h1>\n

Today was forecast to be hot, and despite the high wind forecast, the air was still and already warm in camp as I started the day. Tomorrow I needed to make contact with the folks who were traveling to the ceremony, and that would mean driving outside the mountains for a cell signal. But today was my free day, and I planned to hike.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the flies and gnats were just as bad as last night.<\/p>\n

\"Flies <\/a>
Flies return in morning <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Where should I go? On my last visit, almost 18 months ago, I’d done all the iconic hikes. There was one canyon I’d been wanting to explore, but the mouth of it was almost three miles away across gently undulating open desert with no chance of shade.<\/p>\n

I finally decided to head up our main canyon, with the tentative goal of reaching its head on the crest, with a view east. I’d tried that once, 32 years ago, but had been stymied by a confusing maze of stone fins and pinnacles.<\/p>\n

For the first mile and a half, my gaze was rooted to the sand of the big wash, where I was delighted at the bloom of wildflowers and puzzled by the vehicle tracks of trespassers during recent months. A big truck, some kind of UTV or ATV, and two or three dirt bikes. These people treat the whole desert as their God-given playground and can’t be bothered to walk anywhere; they consider it a failure if they have to get off their butts.<\/p>\n

Before the trip, a friend had suggested I might find a decent bloom around the cave, but the flowers here in my home range were far more spectacular \u2013 and this was not even close to the best bloom I’d seen here. And that’s just the flowers \u2013 the rocks in this range are also more diverse and beautiful than those elsewhere in the desert. It’s wilder, richer, and more forbidding than other ranges I know.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2153\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2154\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Tracks <\/a>
Tracks of trespassers up the big wash <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2159\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2162\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Creosote <\/a>
Creosote bush brilliant in bloom <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2166\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_2169\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2170\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2171\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2172\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2173\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Canyon <\/a>
Canyon getting rugged <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2175\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2176\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2177\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Coyote <\/a>
Coyote melon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2179\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Desert <\/a>
Desert lavender <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Subtle <\/a>
Subtle blooms of desert lavender <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2185\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Wild <\/a>
Wild tobacco <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Phacelia\" <\/a>
Phacelia <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Beavertail <\/a>
Beavertail cactus in bloom <\/div> <\/div>
\"Desert <\/a>
Desert willow will bloom in coming weeks <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A few flowers left on this chia seedhead <\/div> <\/div>
\"Truck <\/a>
Truck had to turn back at the point where the invasive tamarisk begins <\/div> <\/div>
\"Prince's <\/a>
Prince’s plume flower stalks taste like broccoli <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2198\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dirt <\/a>
Dirt bikes and ATV forged ahead <\/div> <\/div>
\"And <\/a>
And invasive burros have been here <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The spectacular Dudleya <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Prince's <\/a>
Prince’s plume clustering behind native baccaris on the bank, while invasive tamarisk covers the sand of the wash <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Psychedic <\/a>
Psychedic metamorphic rock <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This chia is still green <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Globemallow\" <\/a>
Globemallow <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dry <\/a>
Dry waterfall, hiding a spectacular side canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Past the dry waterfall, I was approaching the old miner’s cabin, which used to be maintained by a family of gun nuts from Huntington Beach. The truck had to turn back early, but the dirt bikers and ATV rider drove up the banks to avoid boulders in the wash, trampling vegetation, until they reached the base of the old, deeply eroded road to the cabin. And that turned out to be just too rugged for them.<\/p>\n

Fortunately the cabin is falling apart, the junk around it slowly rusting away.<\/p>\n

\"Evening <\/a>
Evening primrose <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2221\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The narrows of the canyon, which we’d love to block <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"But <\/a>
But the tracks keep going <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2230\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Tracks <\/a>
Tracks leave the wash and climb the bank <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"But <\/a>
But the old road is too deeply eroded for the off-roaders <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2244\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Up <\/a>
Up there somewhere is the crest I was hoping to reach <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Miner's <\/a>
Miner’s cabin on left <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Roof <\/a>
Roof is about gone <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2254\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2255\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"At <\/a>
At least the builders braced it against wind <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Having reached the cabin, I remembered that an old, now-impassable road climbs behind it to mine works and a roofless drystone cabin farther up the canyon. I went a short way up that and discovered a developed mule trail with stone retaining walls branching off, appearing to lead into the next canyon south. This is a canyon I backpacked into and partially explored more than thirty years ago, but I remember nothing of its upper reaches. It’s hidden from below, which makes it doubly intriguing, so I made a snap decision to follow the old trail.<\/p>\n

It was blocked in several places by big chollas, but it eventually led to a saddle overlooking the hidden canyon, and from there down into a side gully, where I stumbled upon a mine, almost completely hidden behind a thicket of catclaw acacia.<\/p>\n

\"Rock <\/a>
Rock formation above cabin <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"More <\/a>
More blooming hedgehog cactus <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2264\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
<\/a>
Mule trail leading to hidden canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Another <\/a>
Another cool flowering shrub I’ve forgotten the name of <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
<\/a>
View into hidden canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Wait <\/a>
Wait – is that a mine? <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

It turned out to be an unusually long tunnel for this range. It went almost straight back for more than 150 feet, and another man had explored it recently \u2013 I could tell because he’d broken a living branch of catclaw to reach it. Any tracks in this protected environment would last forever, and his were the only human tracks before I arrived.<\/p>\n

I dug out and turned on my headlamp, and nearing the back, found bones, and then parts of animal skeletons \u2013 a spinal column, a collapsed rib cage, and what appeared to be a couple of skulls. And at the very end was a patch of damp mud.<\/p>\n

\"Mine <\/a>
Mine entrance <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Previous, <\/a>
Previous, recent, explorer’s footprints <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2290\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"End <\/a>
End of tunnel <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bones\" <\/a>
Bones <\/div> <\/div>
\"Skeletal <\/a>
Skeletal parts <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Wet <\/a>
Wet mud at end <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking back out <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The old trail had washed out around the mine entrance, but I could see some sort of manmade ledge farther down the gully toward the hidden canyon, so I climbed over the washout and kept going. A bend of the hidden canyon lay below me, and I thought I could discern a continuation of the trail across the slope above the bend, so I used that to reach a narrow stretch of canyon upstream. This canyon is exceptionally beautiful and decorated with spectacular rock, but it’s also full of long-established invasive tamarisk, in apparent equilibrium with native riparian vegetation.<\/p>\n

Including honey mesquite! This is one of only two canyons in the range where I’ve found big stands, probably cultivated prehistorically by Native Americans. The other mesquite canyon also has spectacular rocks. I’d made the right choice in detouring over here.<\/p>\n

I was amused to encounter a shrike who stood on a yucca blade only ten feet away from me, making continuous agitated calls while holding an insect in its beak.<\/p>\n

I began encountering what would turn out to be a series of natural rock dams across the canyon bottom, some requiring technical bouldering moves to climb over. And suddenly I found myself at a fork in the canyon, where two branches of seemingly equal size converged. One featured a towering cliff and a narrows that looked potentially impassable, so that’s the one I tried.<\/p>\n

\"Retaining <\/a>
Retaining wall for old ledge <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Following <\/a>
Following what might be a trail upstream <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dropping <\/a>
Dropping into the wash, just where it’s blocked by boulders <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Invasive <\/a>
Invasive tamarisk coexisting with native vegetation <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mixed <\/a>
Mixed pollinators on a big thistle <\/div> <\/div>
\"Loggerhead <\/a>
Loggerhead shrike managing to make a lot of noise with an insect in its beak <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Canyon <\/a>
Canyon getting prettier and prettier <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"And <\/a>
And tamarisk getting thicker <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Natural <\/a>
Natural rock dam I need to climb around <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2332\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Big <\/a>
Big beautiful stand of honey mesquite <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_2335\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_2337\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Healthy-looking <\/a>
Healthy-looking juniper here, unlike in the area around the cave <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Junction <\/a>
Junction of tributary canyons <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n