The next day we retraced our earlier hike back the long hard way" along well ducked trails to Los Llanitos. The day after that we proceeded up the creek at Los Llanitos, leaving it about half way to the plateau and heading east toward the escarpment. Near the escarpment we turned north and joined the Los Llanitos creek about 500 ft. below the escarpment, and followed a ducked trail to the notch just north of Blue Bottle. At this point (9200 ft.) there was foot deep snow. The ridge up to the summit of Blue Bottle was entirely snow-covered, as was the traverse on the eastern face of Blue Bottle and Gorin's gully too. We decided that, because we lacked both ice axes and good snow-capable footwear that we would not attempt to descend into Canyon Del Diablo. We were concerned both about possible slides down the steep east face of Blue Bottle and about the probable difficulty in ascending Gorin's Gully in its upper, snow-filled reaches on our return should we have successfully made the descent. Before turning back, I took a few pictures of the again elusive summits of Picacho Del Diablo just as some mists were coming in to conceal them. We returned to our camp at Los Llanitos by following the ducked trail that lead down the Los Llanitos creek. This creek was quite swollen with water, and what had in past times been trivial crossings often presented some mild to moderate problems. The waterfalls at about 8600 ft in the creek were quite a sight (we avoided them by climbing around the north east side of the creek). Next day we hiked out to our car and drove to the Meling Ranch, were we spent the night as Aida's only guests, and enjoyed the luxury of Aida's sumptuous dinner and breakfast, as well as a warm shower and a comfortable bed. Next morning we drove out to Highway 1, north to Ensenada, then east along Baja 3 past Ochos Negros then north onto the dirt Sierra Juarez road and into Parque National de Constitution de 1857, camping by the shores of Laguna Hanson. The road in would have presented severe (and probably impassible) obstacle to any but a high clearance vehicle, and our 4WD helped us considerably in some muddy parts. Laguna Hanson was probably at its maximum size. Its shore extended literally ON to part of the main Juarez road at one point. There were a couple of Mexican park employees at the park to take our $3.00 US per person entrance fee and hand us a pamphlet written in Spanish and English showing where to camp and what the rules were. We camped out under the stars, and in the morning just before sunrise were treated to the spectacularly beautiful sight of morning mists ("white horses") playing over the lake and gradually dissipating as the sun came up. That morning our car would not start (Dick had incautiously used the dome light in the car the night before, unaware that our battery had marginal capacity because it was four years old). Happily, the Mexican park chaps were nearby, and quite happy to give us a jump start. We proceeded north past the Canyon Tajo turnoff, past Chichi De La India, and finally joining the paved Baja hwy 2 a mile or two west of La Rumorosa. We then drove to Tecate, paused for a few tacos at my favorite taquiria in the square, then (without incident or pause) across the boarder and back into the USA and on to San Diego. Although we failed to complete two of our three objectives, we had a WONDERFUL Sierra San Pedro Martir trip, Dick and I were especially thankful to Dave for his aid in getting us up to Middle Palomas summit which we had sought for so long. Of course, South Summit Picacho Del Diablo still awaits us, as does Cerro Venado

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