welcome change from the loose
up/down/up/down hike of Dry. The previous party had left a man-made,
biodegradable duck crowned with toilet paper-pretty tacky. Passing occasional
patches of scattered snow among the pines, we summited at 8:00 to clearing
skies. We found the DPS team approaching ridgetop as we descended rapidly. A
brief tourist stop at the Ubehebe Crater, and to its scenic bottom (real fast
down) less Bob, was timed with a warm thundershower that sent us on our way
home to the Southland.
BIG PICACHO REVISITED
April
17-21, 1994
Ron Jones climbs 13th time in 30 years
Private Trip
by
Ron Jones |
I wanted to re-climb my favorite peak on the Desert
Peaks list by the Diablo Canyon route. I had first climbed it in February 1964
and have climbed it 11 more times from both the east and the west since then.
Eight people were invited to join me on a "leisurely" climb taking one day more
than the usual 4 days. Jim Hinkley, Evelyn Reher, Dean and Pat Acheson were
able to find the time. I carried a camcorder on the climb and shot a total of
two hours of video tape of the trip to edit for a future DPS program, and I
will sell copies of this video for my cost to anyone who contacts me.
We drove down in two vehicles and parked about a quarter of a mile from the
waterfall at the northern most roadhead shown on Jerry Schad's map (rather than
the old hunting camp located near the mouth of Diablito Canyon). All the dirt
road driving, down to Laguna Diablo (used to be known as Laguna Santa Clara),
across the dry lake, up past Ranch Santa Clara and to the roadhead, was great,
and any passenger car could have done it.
I suggest the following
changes to the Desert Peaks driving route for this peak: At the intersection of
Mexico Highways 3 and 5 there is a large new pink colored restaurant/truck stop
which should open soon. Turn west on Highway 3 and drive 20.4 miles to a major
dirt road leading south. The intersection is marked by two rusty, barely
readable signs, one which reads in part SARH and the other. Rancho Villa del
Sol. Drive about 4 miles to a fork, the right fork signed "Meno". Take the left
fork for 2.6 miles (no longer any evidence of an abandoned rancho) on a major
dirt road to the edge of Laguna Picacho. From this point there is a faint sandy
road heading 160 degrees to your left, almost due north. Do not take this road
when you come off the dry lake on your |
way home, as it is sandy and has
little traffic (it is the very old road leading back to the Pemex station just
south of the Mexico 3-5 intersection). Turn onto the laguna and drive 8.8 miles
on the lake bed, staying more or less in the major track. Near the apparent end
of the lake follow the major road turning right and drive about 0.2 miles to
the upper end of the old lake shore. Follow the road another 1 mile to Rancho
Santa Clara. Follow the fence line on your right, stay to the right and at 4
miles beyond the Ranch entrance the road forks. The left road leads to the
Diablito roadhead, the right fork leads 2 miles to the roadhead closer to the
mouth of Diablo Canyon, with solid parking for 6 or 8 cars.
To get
ahead of my story a bit, it appears that perhaps half of the U.S. cars parked
at the roadhead nowadays are broken into. The car parked here previous to us
was broken into. Our cars were broken into. Theft was minor and consisted of
food, clothing, ice chests and cooking utensils. Radios, water purifier pumps,
tires and more valuable things were not taken. Another couple who returned
while we were at the roadhead from climbing up Providencia Canyon had kayaks on
their van. They paid the folks at the ranch a little money ($10-20) to watch
their van and gear at the ranch and hiked from there. We gave them a lift 6.4
miles back to their van. I suggest that with several cars, all but one car be
left at the ranch, the packs and participants be ferried to the roadhead and
the one car returned to the Ranch. Make sure that someone at the Ranch will be
there during the time you're gone. Maybe somebody at the ranch could be paid to
return the one driver to the group. This does mean that at the end of your
climb someone must walk an extra 6.4 miles to bring back a car.
The
next morning we hauled our heavy 5-day packs up over the waterfall, and
pendulumed ourselves up to the top of the falls using the metal cable
permanently in place. Immediately above the falls, a previous pebbly sand bar
which you could usually walk on, has been washed away and replaced by a large
five foot deep pool. This pool can be by-passed by climbing along a 30 foot
crack on the steeply sloping rock wall to the right. A fixed line at this point
helps install confidence and balance to the hiker with a heavy backpack.
We then followed the usual, difficult to follow route up Canyon Diablo to
our first night's camp at about 3,000 feet. Many old stream terraces, which I
used to hike on to avoid the rocks along the stream bottom, are gone, washed
away, and there is more rock walking than the used to be. The day was hot, with
afternoon temperature in the 90's. We did see several rattlesnakes in the
lower, warmer parts of the canyon. At the present time most of |