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This trip came about because Carolyn West and I were not able to get on any trip going to Big Picacho. Everybody wanted to keep his group small. We decided we didn't need to go with anyone that had been there before; we would just get all the maps and information and go. We asked several other people that we thought might be interested. Before we knew it, we had 7 people anxious to go and several that wanted to go but couldn't. Our group consisted of we two instigators, Bob Ferguson (good with ropes), George Tucker (strong hiker and 'I' rated), Steve Crooks (strong hiker and good with ropes.), Bob Sumner (strong hiker) and Dick Agnos (experienced hiker). As time went by, the group started getting smaller. The first dropout was Bob Ferguson who fell off his bike and goofed up a knee, eventually needing surgery. The second one to bow out was Bob Sumner, who had his vacation cancelled because of heavy work load. Next was Agnos, unspecified reason, but I suspect it was lack of confidence in organizers!? Well, we still had four, we didn't need any more, 2 to a 4 WD vehicle (mine and George's). We had a rope man, an 'I' rated leader, a good navigator (Carolyn) and me. Less than a week before we were to leave, Carolyn decided it would be foolhardy to go since her back was bothering her from an accident she had experienced. At this point, I must admit I was having some doubts. However, George and Steve were still anxious to go. At about 7:00 p.m. Friday, May 6, 1988, we left Steve's house in Huntington Beach. We arranged to get together with George by the side of the road going into Calexico. We waited two hours in Calexico and could not find him. We even checked with the highway patrol to see if there had been any accidents. We finally left; George had maps and writeups and all the information. About 3 a.m. we stopped and slept at the turnoff of Highway 3 and dirt road to dry lake bed. At 7 a.m. we left and for a couple of hours wandered back and forth on the west side of the lake looking for the road to the Santa Clara ranch. Eventually we blundered into a side road that led to the road and through the herd of cattle to the house. The road was further south than we could make out from the sketch in Gene 0lsen's writeup. The man who owns the ranch was very nice. I told him what we were planning and asked him if the truck was going to be o.k. He said yes, - just lock it, and asked how long we would be gone. He was appreciative that we let him know, since he owns all the land right up to the canyon mouth. I told him George may be coming, that we had lost him, and described his vehicle. We gave him a lot of stuff we'd brought: beer, fresh corn, etc. and he seemed happy about that since it was very hot and I'm sure they don't get to town often. We left the truck at noon at parking area and got to the trailhead and after a while to the lousy 4' waterfall. Since there were only 2 of us now, we had to figure out how to handle It. Steve had his long rope, short rope, biners and slings. There was a 1" post and some other artificial aid on the sloping rock on the left side about 15 ft up. He managed to loop the rope on the 1" post. With me standing on one end of it he climbed the rope he had knotted. He then pulled the 2 packs up and anchored them. I went up next with Steve anchored with slings and belaying me. I descended the same way above the waterfall, changed to tennis shoes, stood in the water and Steve lowered the packs to me. He then walked down, pulled the rope free and we were on our way without getting wet. At 3 p.m. we stopped for about an hour by a pool and got in the water and rested since we hadn't had very much sleep the night before. At 6 p.m. we found a nice sandy protected area for camping. Steve went to look for firewood and there was George (passing us by!). We were happy to see him and he was happy to find us. |
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