Hike in San Pedro Martir Plateau and Climb of Middle Palomas
April 1 - April 8 1992
Dick Cordone, Dave Poulliet, and I (Marty Goodman) drove from the San Francisco Bay Area to San Diego, and thence across the border at Tijuana and south on Baja highway 1 to a point just a little south of the town of Colonet (last available reliable gas was in the town of San Vincente). We then turned east on the 60 mile long dirt "Observatorio Road" that passes the town of San Telmo at about 10 miles, the Meling Ranch (2200 ft) at about 32 miles, and winds up at an international observatory on the San Pedro Martir Plateau (8600 ft) after a total of about 60 miles. I've driven this road a half dozen times between 1976 and the present. On ALL past occasions (including, two April trips 2 and 4 years ago) this road was in good enough condition that I had little trouble getting my 1972 Datsun 510 compact wagon. THIS time, however, the heavy winter snows and rains had taken a heavy toll on the road. It was washed out in several places (a few miles past San Telmo and just beyond the Meling Ranch) and, in its upper portions (which normally are in better condition than the lower ones) DEEPLY rutted and somewhat muddy in spots. Our 1988 Jeep Cherokee, 4.0 liter, had little difficulty fording the rivers and handling the ruts and rocks, but had we not had a high clearance 4WD vehicle there would have been NO WAY we could possible have made it to the San Pedro Martir Plateau. Normally this road is graded yearly, if not more often, for the international observatory at its end depends on it being in decent condition. Aida Meling was expecting the washed out bridge near San Telmo to be repaired "eventually". Many roadside flowers (Ceanothus, Lobelia, Joshua's Candle) were in bloom along the lower reaches of the Road. The meadows of the Meling Ranch were brilliant, lush green in color.
Our objectives for this trip were to, climb Middle Palomas, return to Los Llanitos, hike to Campo Noche in Canyon Diablo via Gorin's Gully, then ascent the "easy" Bud Bernard route up Picacho Del Diablo (I've been up it three times before and Dick had been up it once before) but this time we wanted to seek the direct ascent to the South summit (instead of the higher North Summit).
We parked a few miles from the end of the Observatorio Road. We originally had planned on driving to Los Llanitos on the new road that was put in there. But at Vallecitos Meadow, where the Los Llanitos road leaves the Observatorio Road, the ground was about 50% covered with snow in drifts up to 2 feet deep (8200 feet), and even the shorter and better road to Vallecitos Spring was covered with enough snow that we decided not to take it. We ended up parking about a mile into the meadow and hiking along the remainder of that road (about a mile or two) to Vallecitos Spring, and from there over the route that intersects the Los Llanitos road a few miles from Los Llanitos.
It had snowed the night before we drove to the plateau, but we enjoyed excellent weather all the time we were on the plateau. Days were warm and dry (in the low '70's... perfect hiking and climbing weather) and nights got down to as low as 22 degrees F at our higher camps (8200 ft). There was abundant water all over the plateau. Indeed, streams that had been trickles two Aprils ago now were full enough to present some difficulty in crossing this season. Almost every little gully and wash was passed (that had all been totally dry on previous spring trips we had made) had running streams in them. We found NO evidence of ANY previous