Desert Skills Ultralight Hike

G

Gautier

Joined
Aug 31, 2006
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Well, it was a nice cool day for a change(with 45 MPH winds though) and I decided I just had to get out of the house and "get lost" for a little while.
So, I donned my hiking clothes(with my usual EDC accoutrements pocketed ofcourse), grabbed my 1QT canteen, Fallkniven F1, the camera and set off over the mountains. (As a disclaimer I'd just like to advise anyone who isn't intimately familiar with the desert to never go with so little gear, especially so little water.)
That said, on to the good stuff, the pictures. Started out at about 500ft. and went up to 3k before crossing over into the valley.

A shot of the rock face.
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Finally getting into some gentler slopes, and I find a mine shaft. Didn't venture over the edge to see how far down it was, but it was at least 30 feet or so that I could see from my vantage point.
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Wandering down the hill I spotted a few Yucca(Yucca schidigera) stalks and figured I'd harvest them for hand drill spindles before the winter claimed them.
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Caught some more flashing of green out of the corner of my eye, and thought surely there'd be some water down there. Cottonwoods are a good sign.
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Finally got down there only to find that the creek bed was dry. We haven't had rain in a good while here. Didn't have a digging tool, and didn't feel like making one or expending the energy of digging so I worked on tracking at this point.
No pics of the tracks, sorry. Did see some wild burro tracks and scat, some jack rabbit tracks that led to pellets and a prickly pear he enjoyed, then some rather interesting tracks...
 
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I like the desert and your area has some good spots. Mojave National Preserve is my favorite desert spot.
-RB
 
...Two legged tracks, 2 sets in fact. So, I decided to follow them and see what was up, since being that far out is rare for most folks. After about a half mile I come across 3 women(well 2 girls and a woman, their mother I assume). Coming around the bend in the wash I could smell gasoline and knew something wasn't right. Turns out they'd gone out on their 4 wheelers and couldn't get them started again(so they proceeded to flood them, ofcourse)
After hearing them try to turn them over a couple times, I come around the corner and ask if there was a problem. Smelled like they had plenty of gas, it was turning over so it wasn't the batteries, I said, "Let's start at the beginning, is it on?". Problem fixed, they said they were walking back trying to find a way out of the canyon and lost their trail and so came back to the ATVs. Glad I was out there at that point, those 3 gals would have likely froze tonight as none of them were prepared in the way of clothing or gear, and all for something as simple as pushing a switch.
So, back to my exploring, kept noticing more animal signs after the women rode off and decided I'd follow the creek bed a little and see if it resurfaced.
Noticed a puddle or two here and there and then...BINGO
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Cold, fast moving, running through several layers of rock. Good signs that it was drinkable, I however chose not to partake as that would mean boiling, and I was trying to stay fast and light today.
After some more poking around I found some more abandoned mines. Here's the entrance of one.
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And about 25 feet into another one, later down the line about 2 miles.
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That's about as far as I was comfortable going in alone, so I went back out and decided I'd race the sun home. Took one last shot at the valley I was coming out of before I started to climb the mountain again.

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All told, it was a good day to be outside, I got my good deed out of the way, got some exercise and gathered some plant materials, etc. Ommitted some misc. shots of plain stuff like barrel cactus, cholla, ocotilla, prickly pear etc. I'm sure you folks all know what they look like and their uses are pretty common too. If there's some interest though, I may do another trek focused solely on useful and edible desert plants.


Gautier
 
Interesting and beautiful pictures, Gautier. I'll never be in the desert (hate hot weather) but I love to see your pictures (in my air conditioned living room :rolleyes:)

Doc
 
Yeah, I'm not partial to 130 degree summers that last 8 months myself, but I've gotten used to the area over the last 6 years or so. I look at it as a challenge, if I can survive here, I shouldn't have much of a problem anywhere else :p
The wife and I are planning on moving though(once the financial situation with the economy settles down), and probably the the opposite end of the spectrum, she's starting to like Alaska as much as I do after we took a vacation or two. I miss rain, and forests, but soon, soon I tell ya :thumbup:


Gautier
 
Good for you. You saved somebody's husband/father a lot of worring and the sheriff/SAR team alot of time and effort.
 
We did a combined Trona, Searles Lake Gem-o-rama/Spangler Hills open OHV riding area trip this weekend (also Mojave desert):

http://www1.iwvisp.com/tronagemclub/GEM-O-RAMA.htm

http://www1.iwvisp.com/tronagemclub/Lake-Collecting.htm

http://www1.iwvisp.com/tronagemclub/Pipe-Prep.htm

http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/ridgecrest/spangler.html

Hot weather?? Air conditioned??? It was in the 30's overnight, with 40+ mile an hour winds (can you say wind chill)!!! We were in tents. There was fresh snow on the Slate Range. We didn't freeze, but it sure wasn't exactly shirt sleeve comfortable....and going 60 mph on the motorcycle....

I use to live in SE Alaska. It was nice for a while, but I was eventually glad to get back to drier country, vs 200" of rain!
 
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A Gem-o-rama, huh? Well, if you're a rockhound there's few places better than the Mojave desert. I've done some amateur(very little, and very amateur :p ) lapidary work myself and looked around a little on that hike I took today. Some intersting stuff out there for sure. Only took a quartz crystal formation back today, for the wife though.
Hopefully I can get some more time to wander around soon and do some dry panning/fire agate hunting. :thumbup:


Gautier
 
Great story and pics :thumbup:

I've never been to a desert so its always interesting to see pictures, thanks :)
 
Love the desert my self. I spend about a week every year out in Anza Borrego desert.
Gautier I would love to see what uses you have for the desert plants... Im always up to learning new things. I find the desert to be full of life and so majestic where you can feel renewed after spending some time there. But must agree summer weather could be alittle better lol..

Sasha
 
I love that part of the country! it is so pleasent and your pics really show that! :thumbup:
 
Pretty country, and nice to see photos of it. I'm really a hardwood forest kind of guy though. The desert is pretty but I wouldn't want to live there. We had an opportunity to buy some land in Antelope Valley in '69 but passed on it. I guess that's on the other side of the Mojave from where you are. I'm glad that you posted your pics of the part your in. It's nice to see it again.

Stitchawl
 
Gautier said:
Yeah, I'm not partial to 130 degree summers that last 8 months myself, but I've gotten used to the area over the last 6 years or so. I look at it as a challenge, if I can survive here, I shouldn't have much of a problem anywhere else :p
The wife and I are planning on moving though(once the financial situation with the economy settles down), and probably the the opposite end of the spectrum, she's starting to like Alaska as much as I do after we took a vacation or two. I miss rain, and forests, but soon, soon I tell ya :thumbup:


Gautier
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Funny that you mention moving to Alaska. A good portion of the people moving out of Alaska move to Arizona or Nevada. Talk about extremes.

Beautiful photos. I've never had the oppurtunity to explore in the desert any but would like to.

Charlie
 
Gotta love the Mojave. My family is in that area. BullHead , Kingman , Riviera ,etc.

I get out there whenever I can and my Nephew and I hike all over and check out the abandoned mines and whatnot.
 
People forget that the desert has mountains!!! A typical dirt bike/ATV ride for me, starts in the valley at 4,000', and ends up in the mountains at over 11,000'....all in a couple hours ride!!! And yes...those mountains have streams and lakes, and big trees, and snow that can be 50' deep!

From my house, a 1 hours drive can have me sunning on the beach, in either the high (Mojave) or low (Colorado) desert, or up at high altitude in the mountains. Never a dull moment......
 
wow man, thank you for the pictures, Im very envious.

I wish I had more caves and mines around to explore, nice spot truly.
 
Gautier said:
A Gem-o-rama, huh? Well, if you're a rockhound there's few places better than the Mojave desert. I've done some amateur(very little, and very amateur :p ) lapidary work myself and looked around a little on that hike I took today. Some intersting stuff out there for sure. Only took a quartz crystal formation back today, for the wife though.
Hopefully I can get some more time to wander around soon and do some dry panning/fire agate hunting. :thumbup:


Gautier
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The main attraction of the Gem-o-rama, is that the kids can get totally covered in stinking hydrogen sulfide mud!!!
 
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