by LOUISE WERNER
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The San Pedro Martyr Range, hiqhest on the peninsula of Baja California, is a majestic pine-clad landmark-but with neither trails nor habitations and only limited water. It is a place to be explored only by skilled mountaineers. This story reveals the penalty that may be paid when inexperienced hikers select this place for a holiday. |
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By LOUISE
WERNER THOSE MOUNTAINEERS who have enjoyed the exhilerating experience of climbing in the rugged San Pedro Martyr range 125 miles south of the California border in Baja California, will be pleased to learn that the Mexican government has established the crest of this range- above the 5000-foot level, as a National Park - Parque Nacional de Mexico. The park extends 60 miles north and south along the ridge and includes the precipitous high point on the peninsula, Picacho del Diablo. Actually the park was tentatively established six years ago when lumbering interests threatened to move in and denude the high slopes, but according to Alberta and Salvador Meling, whose San Jose ranch is on the western slope of the range, the official announcement of the park reservation has now been made. The San Pedro Martyrs are only for experienced and well-equipped mountaineers because of their isolation, and their precipitous character. This fact was emphasized recently when an instructor and two students from a boy's school in San Diego became lost in the range, and at least one of them would have perished had it not been for timely rescue by Mountaineer Edward Bernhard, Sierra Club member of Coronado who happened to be climbing in the region at the time. The misadventure occurred during Easter week this year when Roy Downs, 55, Richard McBean, 18, and Stephen Courtney, 16, of the Brown Military Academy hired a pack mule at the Meling Ranch for a 4-day outing in the San Pedro Martyrs. When the Downs party, due back at the ranch Thursday, April 18, had not returned by Friday, Milt Farney, who had flown in to spend Easter with the Melings, circled the forest above and to the east of the ranch in his plane, in an effort to spot smoke signals or other evidence of the whereabouts of the missing party, but without success. The pine forest, extending for sixty miles roughly north and south between elevations of 6000 and 9000 feet (west to east) is about 25 miles wide as a |
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| horse travels. A
jeep road from the Meling ranch extends to the edge of the forest, but beyond
that point the area is accessible only to horse and foot travel. There are no
habitations, and few live streams or springs. When the mule came limping back to the ranch April 21, Milt Farney flew out to the nearest phone, 40 miles away, and alerted the coast guard. The school was notified and within a few hours planes arrived at the ranch bringing relatives and a doctor, and a widespread search was started. In the meantime Edward Bernhard, who with a companion had been climbing in the range that week, started out with Andy Meling, the ranch owners' son, and six Mexican vaqueros, to follow the tracks of the lost party. Two and a half days later the searchers reached the crest of the range at a point where the mule had turned back and the three climbers had started down Copal Canyon toward the San Felipe desert which lies between the San Pedro Martyrs and the Gulf of California on the east. |
None of the rescue
party had ever been in Copal Canyon, but Bernhard knew what to expect-a steep
twisting granite-walled gorge where slick-rock waterfalls would require either
roping or exhausting and dangerous detours. It was perhaps 10 or 12 miles to
the floor of the desert with a drop of 6000 feet. The tracks of the lost men
could be seen where they had slid down the talus slope at the head of the
canyon. The route called for skilled mountaineering. "I'll go down," said Bernhard, "but not alone. Give me one good man." The vaqueros protested. "Muy pellegro," one of them muttered. Andy Meling spoke to them briefly in Spanish, and then tossed them a coin and they began flipping it. Marcario, the youngest of the group, was the loser. Bernhard took a 50-foot rope from the gear, two kapok sleeping bags, and what food could be spared from the meager supply-a can of soup and four potatoes. Also two quart canteens. Before parting Bernhard asked that a helicopter be sent to the desert below |
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