the best sandy beaches to camp on
are located between 2,800 ft and 4,500 or 4,600 feet, below the narrow section
in the canyon with the red rocks.
The second day was more of the same,
without as many rocks above the red rock at 4,800 feet but more brush and tree
branches. Just above the red rocks, perhaps because it was spring and there was
lots of new growth, I saw a variety of poison oak which is a little different
than the one we see in California. I knew it was in the canyon somewhere,
because I had gotten a light rash before, but I had never seen it. It is found
only in the next 3 or 400 yards and we never saw any more. We reached Campo
Noche in the afternoon and were the only persons there. I looked forward to
spending the next two nights in this wonderful spot.
The third day was
a routine climb of the peak up the Night Wash, the Slot Wash & Wall Street.
We never used a rope after the first morning. The Baja California Alpinista
climbing club had replaced their register book in July of 1993 and removed
their previous book to Tijuana. We were the first DPSers in the new book. There
were still small patches of snow in Wall Street and near the summit, the
meadows on the western plateau were free of snow but the north side of Blue
Bottle was more than 50% covered with probably thin, soft snow. We spent 45
minutes on top eating lunch and I video taped the views. Upon our return to
camp it was nice to relax instead of packing up to get a head start down the
canyon. That night, as with our first night at Campo Noche, we were visited by
one or two ring tail cats. These animals are cute to watch but will pilfer food
that is left out.
We got a 7 o'clock start the fourth morning and
returned down canyon, avoiding the poison oak again and had a great clean sandy
camp site at about 3,300 feet. The final morning we got a 6 AM start to avoid
the heat in the lower part of the canyon. We had lunch a little ways above the
waterfall and after lunch we pendulumed back down the waterfall, the ladies
without packs, the guys with. The guys did all right and stayed dry but I got a
great video shot of both the ladies slipping off the rock and into the pool. A
short ways below the waterfall we stopped and spent an hour splashing around,
swimming and cleaning up at a really big swimming hole. Temperatures here were
100 degrees.
After finding our cars broken into with our food and clean
clothes stolen, we had to improvise with remnants of food from our backpacks, a
cheese soup, top ramen, crackers and cookies meal. |
The next morning it was up and Out,
a stop for coffee at La Ventana, and a leisurely drive to Mexicali and arriving
at our homes in late afternoon. My thanks to everyone on the trip, but SPECIAL
THANKS to Jim Hinkley who had climbed the peak several times before, and
without whose help this trip would have been a lot harder.
NOPAH-PAHRUMP
APRIL 30-MAY
1
John McCully/
Edna Erspamer, Carol Smetana
by John
McCully |
We met at the turn off to Nopah at 6:30 and after
enough floundering on the part of the leader to give the particpants a proper
sense of chaos we stumbled onto the tree at twelve mile spring. Route C is
touted in the peaks guide as being the longest but easiest way to do the peak
and we began the 3 1/2 mile trudge across the desert floor that this route
entails just before 8. My compass turned Out to be defective but Tom Sumner
generously loaned me his so that I could take a guess at the appropriate ridge.
The route did offer a minimum of boulder hopping, and Edna felt that it was
easier than the route she used several years ago. Everyone was on top by one,
and back to the car before six. Almost everyone headed for the Tecopa Hot
Springs, so we got to the campsite in the cliffs East to Shoshone fairly late,
about 7:30 or so. Carol and I had brought several pounds of fancy meat balls
but I managed to dump the whole caboodle into the sand. Thus our dog Chessie
and a Black Labrador that somehow scratches out a living at the campsite had a
real picnic. I wonder what happened to the sand on the meat balls?
Edna Erspamer handled the assist on Nopah and wanted to take Sunday off so I
got a special one time permission from Bob Hicks for Carol Smetana to assist
Sunday. Carol's "O" rating wouldn't normally cut it on an interesting peak like
Pahrump. Sunday we hit the road at 7 and the last person trudged off Pahrump by
1:45. In a fit of absent mindedness 1 indicated in the schedule that this was a
good trip for beginners. In the future maybe I'll save that designation of
peaks a little easier than these two. Coming home we got stuck in a traffic jam
just this side of Barstow and I cleverly waited until a patrolman was coming
the other way before making my U turn. He wrote me up without further ado.
Participants were Tom Sumner. Edna Erspamer, Tom Erspamer, Paula Peterson,
Dorothy Danziger, John Connelly, Jim Fujimoto, Janet Strom, Doug Jones, John
McCully, Carol Smetana, Jones, and Bob Tomlinson participated. Dorothy and Edna
skipped Pahrump. |