Monday the hike out was hot. Finding the cars was made easy by Henry's mile long trail of prominent ducks. On moving out cars mired down in the soft sand, but DPS experts wrestled them out without ado. On going home we were sand blasted in the Indio area. The mile-long stretches of tamarisk trees provided intermittent haven. It was a very interesting trip.
Tren Bartlett
Our group consisted of four eager climbers, Dick Banner and Doris Golden in addition to the leaders, on a beautiful spring day in the desert; the weather was ideal. I was surprised at the lack of response to the trip. The prickly pears were in bloom and the delicate flower made a sharp contrast to the rest of the green prickly cactus. We hiked the nature trail into Palm Canyon and started up for the peak in the inner canyon. The climb presented no problem except near the top where Doris found the route a little exposed. However, a little route-finding by Tren and we were soon out of difficulty and on the peak. A leisurely lunch was had on the peak with a beautiful view of the desert. On the way up we had made many stops to check for ticks -- not the small variety either but measuring about 1/4" across. They seemed to he in greater abundance as we went higher. So even though a late arrival, Gerald Shuster, joined us on the peak, celebrating here his desert emblem, we checked out in order to get down lower where ticks weren't so tick (sic). Goodbye Gerald and goodbye ticks, we left to return by a different route, the canyon east of the peak. Here we passed a second knob, with papers in a glass-jar register, which we climbed and signed. The route out brought us to Banner's car at the entrance to the camp. On the way home we found a tick on the head liner of the car, and I am still wondering where some of his relatives may be hiding. Call this Tickhead!
| CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL NEW MEMBERS GEORGE SMITH KEATS HAYDEN WILLIAM FAULKNER ALAN SAMUELS RONALD BARTELL DAVID STEPSAY GRANT DE GOEDE ART DE GOEDE,JR. |
NEW EMBLEMS SIMONE deMIGUEL |