by Lou Brecheen
Well, An interesting thing occurred near Halloween several years ago. We were camped at the mouth of Arroyo Tapiado in the south end of Anza Borrego. Arroyo Tapiado is a "mud" canyon very similar to the terrain at Mecca Hills. We sat around the campfire on Tuesday evening and listened to tales of the old prospectors who wandered into this badland country with their mules and never came out. Many tales make the rounds about this sort of thing. One of the explanations is that in many places, only a thin crust of mud/sandstone covers deep water-carved caverns and the weight of a man/mule breaks through the crust, dropping the creatures into an abyss.
About two miles into the canyon there begins a series of slot canyons off to the sides. Also there are some passageways leading hundreds of yards back into the mud hills. We took one of these. The pitch dark interior of the winding passageway made us use flashlights. In some spots the roof of the tunnel was only inches above our head; in others the ceiling was forty or fifty feet above. In these high ceiling areas were huge clumps of rock or mud, seemingly poised to fall and visit instant destruction upon us.
Two hundred feet into the passageway, we found a spot where the crust had broken and light streamed through but on a slant, illuminating the lower third of a long slanting shelf. We could not see the upper end of the shelf, which was directly beneath the hole in the roof. Using flashlights a couple of us crawled onto the shelf and up it. Suddenly, right in front of us, there appeared an "apparition". It was a thoroughly mummified human, clad in tattered old overalls and disreputable, rotting hat sat atop the skull, which had creeping, crawling things hanging out the nasal aperture. There were about six of us who viewed the remains--and, we left it there and reported it to the Park Ranger at Tamarisk Grove Campground.
It was this "cave" and canyon which we were going to explore last Halloween, which outing was canceled in order to pay proper respect to the "List Finish" climb for Wendy Ruess.
I am looking forward to returning to the Arroyo Tapiado some day, maybe with you and Leora. It would go well with Indianhead on your Halloween trip. Who knows what we may find?????
Send in your "tale From the Trail" today! (This one is true but you can "stretch the truth" for effect.) I'm looking for any interesting story about the desert, the people who visit or live in it, a peak climb, etc. --Editor
Would like to recommend the addition of Troy Pk. (11,298'), high point of the Grant Range in Nevada, to the informal "Desert Explorers" peaks listed in the Sept. 1992 Sage. It is located southwest of Ely and is best approached by driving west from Nevada Hwy. 3l8, passing near Hot Spring Campground with its delightful, swimmable, warm stream. The peak was one of John Muir's early Nevada ascents and is in the new Grant Range Wilderness. The climb is described in "Hiking the Great Basin"; high clearance vehicles are recommended after the road enters Scofield Canyon.
 Barbara Lilley |