Cahuilla Mountain Trail

I have to admit, this is a hike that wasn't my idea. Not only that, but it has already been featured in another blog, Hike Every Day by my good friend Hal Summers. I really enjoy reading his daily blog and I recommend it. I normally post photos, but since Hal had the still camera and I had a pocket video camera, I've posted a video instead of stills.

My weekend plans had been to climb at Suicide Rock, but due to the high heat and humidity, everyone that I was talking to about climbing ended up making other plans. Since I'm on call every third weekend, I started to panic towards the end of the week. It didn't help matters a whole lot when the weather reports said that the humidity would start to break on Sunday. I started to think about who I could get to go climbing and then I thought of my friend Hal. He is often lamenting the lack of options that he has for his daily hikes and one of the drawbacks is a lack of partners. So I fired off a message and waited for a reply. Then I sent an e-mail and after a while he wrote back, yes he would like the company, but he had to work and would meet me in Palm Desert after he got off at 3pm. Well, that threw rock climbing out the window, but I was willing to hike, as long as I could do something outdoors.

We arranged meet by the intersection of Highways 111 and 74. I didn't bother to ask Hal what he had in mind, so I brought lots of liquids, just in case we were doing a desert hike. A little after 3 I see a white jeep pull into the parking lot and I figure it must be Hal. I get out of my car and sure enough it's him. We start talking and since it's been so long since we've seen each other, we almost forgot to get going. It's great getting together with a friend like Hal and we had a lot of catching up to do. Fortunately with his blog I'm very up to date on his life since the first of the year. As we head up Highway 74 Hal tells me that we are going up to Anza and hike Cahuilla Mountain. I'm pleased since I've never done anything but drive through the area and I like the idea of doing something new. It seems like we are in Anza in no time, because of the lively conversation and because Hal doesn't waste time with his driving. We stopped at a convenience store for some last minute necessities and then on to the trailhead.

As we drive by the sign, we could barely read it and that was because we stopped. I guess the recession has been going on longer than I thought. We take a picture and then we roar on up the road. I have to say that Hal really enjoys his jeep. We soon arrive at the trailhead and make our preparations for the hike. Our hike is in the San Bernardino National Forest, trail 2E45 and the starting elevation is 4480 feet. As we start I try to video a introduction, Hal's a good sport, but he's anxious to get going and so we start hiking.

The trail starts in a small saddle and heads south up into the chaparral brush, classic rattlesnake country in my mind. Hal has a ski pole with him, for snakes he says. I decide to let him go first, especially since he'd run me over with his faster pace. We find the trail is in good condition and we soon are subjected to some nice views. We are on the east side of Cahuilla Mountain and we can see Mt. San Jacinto to the north, Anza to the south and east. We soon see a doe and it's fawn, we are amazed at how high they can jump as they climb the side of the hill. I figure that jumping over the brush is the only way for them to get around, since you can't walk through it.

As we follow the trail it maintains a nice steady grade along the side of the mountain and we begin to come across some groups of trees and open areas. We are making a transition from the chaparral into oak an Jeffery pine. The trail steepens and we suddenly find ourselves going up some stairs made out of sections of log and up into a grassy area. Off the side of the trail the ground looks disturbed and we head over and find an old mine. Not much left, just some filled in holes and tailings. This mine was at a saddle and we were wondering which way the trail was going to go, since we couldn't tell where the actual peak was when we were hiking below. We soon find out as the trail starts traversing along the west side of the mountain. Now we are out of the brush and in oak woodland.

We come to a fork in the trail, with a unique sign. It is a steel fence post with an old car spring welded to the top and inside the spring is a wood arrow. The "head" is broken off and stuck in the spring and we wonder what it means, then we notice that the arrowhead says "spring" on it. We catch on that the sign is a clever way of pointing the way to a natural spring and so we follow that trail. Just a few hundred feet later we find the spring, it's not very deep, but it appears to be enough for the deer, since the ground is covered with fresh tracks. We look around and then rejoin the trail to the top.

As start back up for the top we notice that the woodpeckers have been drilling holes in the trees and putting acorns in them. We see hundreds of holes and many are filled with acorns. We take a few pictures and then head up the last few hundred yards to the top.

As we near the summit Hal goes into overdrive and I struggle to keep up. I just manage to film him as he steps up on the summit rock pile, an elevation of 5604 feet. I had joked at the start of the hike that I was taking the place of Kahlua, his dog. Kahlua often goes on the shorter hikes Hal does close to home. I decide that I am not in as good of shape as Hal, but by being the dog, I claim I was off chasing rabbits. Of course if you believe that one, you should entrust me with all your savings, I know of a can't miss investment opportunity, trust me. At the top we enjoy the views, drink gatorade, sign the summit register and record the scene for posterity. All to soon it's time to head back down. We contemplate going cross country, but looking at the brush we think better of it.

On the way back down we stop and check out some flowers. I've never seen some of them before. We make good time and arrive back at the jeep just before dark. Almost exactly three hours since we left the car. Not bad for five miles round trip with several stops along the way.

As we load our gear in the car I notice that the rear passenger side tire on Hal's jeep has some cracks in the sidewall. He says yes, he knows and hopes to find the time to have it replaced soon. I suggest that maybe we should make a more relaxed trip back to the desert floor. Well, that's not in Hal's nature, but we made it back safely anyway.

I've included a link to the video that I made, I'm still experimenting so I hope you enjoy it. It's on You Tube, Cahuilla Mountain Trail. For photos of the trip, please go to Hal's blog, Hike Every Day.

WHITE MAIDEN'S WALKAWAY

PART TWO

Well, we had the opportunity to try our plan from our last trip up the Maiden. A friend of mine said she wanted to go climbing. She has climbed with me a few times over the years, I think she averages once every four years or so. Well, with the very hot weather that we've been having in southern California, it wasn't too difficult to decide that we wanted to climb up by Idyllwild. I also suspected that we would be hard pressed to find climbs on Suicide Rock, so I decided to climb at Tahquitz Rock. Even at 7,000 feet in elevation the forecast was for 92 degrees F.

We met at a breakfast/lunch place not too far from home and had breakfast. The cuban coffee was maybe a little stronger than I had counted on. We then parked Nancy's car at my work and took off up the hill. We made a quick pit stop at the ranger station in town. I had hoped that their little book store would have a climber's guide for sale, but it was not to be. I wanted to check out one of the easy routes we haven't done this season. But without the "beta", I decided to stick to something that we were familiar with. Exactly the sort of thing we had planned on when we last climbed the White Maiden. Nancy made sure that we understood that she hasn't been climbing much, since most of her climbing has been with me. She also pointed out that she considers herself height challenged and out of shape. I thought to myself, she's using all of my excuses and then some. I was impressed.

So far so good, we're about to leave the car

We parked at the trailhead for the Devil's Slide trail, I don't know why they always save us that spot, but we're not complaining. We put on sunscreen, insect repellent and loaded our gear. Then off we went up to the base of the rock. As we hiked along I noticed parties climbing WHODUNNIT, SAHARA TERROR, THE LONG CLIMB and last but not least, a group on THE ILLEGITIMATE. At the base of our climb we noticed a party on the very difficult route called THE FLAKES, which is on the other side of the buttress that the WHITE MAIDEN is on. This was the most crowded we have seen Tahquitz this season, but we still were able to climb our route of choice.

Looking up the White Maiden's Walkaway

Climbers on the Flakes route

As we positioned ourselves at the start of the climb, Roy turned to me and asked me if I had brought a second rope. I looked him directly in the eye and said, "No, I thought you brought it". Then he asked me what are we going to do? When you rock climb, it is normal practice to bring a rope for each climber, minus one. So for the three of us, we should have had two ropes. If there were five of us, we would need four ropes and so on. I told him, not to worry, since our rope is almost 200 feet long, and our route was so old, we would just have Nancy tie into the middle. My reasoning here was that when the route was first climbed, the original party would have used ropes about 120 feet long, so each pitch would have been close to 100 feet long when you subtract out the knots and leave a little extra for good measure. I have done this climb enough times to know that the good belay ledges are about 100 feet apart. Of course my calculations didn't give us any rope to tie in with, but I figured we'd make it work.

Nancy at the start of the climb

The first pitch went without a hitch. The climbing presented no difficulties, the angle of the rock is low to moderate and the exposure is minimal. Soon I was at the belay and bringing up Nancy and Roy.

Looking down the first pitch

We started up the second pitch, the climbing was easy, the views beautiful and aircraft low. Yes, I said the aircraft low. I think that maybe our friend in the glider upgraded his license to twin engine and he was buzzing the rock. He made about three passes that I thought looked fun, but questionable from the FAA's height regulations. Of course, I don't know what those regulations might be, so he could have been just fine. Another factor I took into consideration was the fact that the aircraft looked like it may have been military. I've seen some similar to it at the airport. Well,  I tried to get a picture and then went on up to the second belay. Here was the first challenge of short roping. I just got up onto a steep section and ran out of rope. I set up a semi hanging belay. When Nancy arrived, I stuck her in a chimney crack on a small ledge. She was a good sport about it, or so it seemed. Then Roy came up and I was off on the third pitch.

I'm at the second belay

Roy on the second pitch

The third pitch for us was the "walkaway" section of the climb. I'm wasn't sure what a "walkaway" is, so I looked it up. The definition is "easy victory" or "runaway". Sounds like a horse racing term to me. There is some justification to the name, this pitch is easy climbing with good positive holds, something I'd say that you could "run" up. Too bad it's just over 100 feet long, the good news was that I was able to find a fair ledge to stop on, just below the big ledge where everyone normally belays. As Nancy came up this pitch, she somehow managed to unclip the video camera from her harness and it fell into a large crack. The bottom of the crack was full of dirt and level, so Roy was able to retrieve it without any difficulty. Of course that also meant that we didn't get any climbing pictures on that pitch, since Roy's still camera battery had died on the second pitch. He won't let that happen again when he sees how many fewer photos he's featured in. Oh, wait, he uses that camera to take pictures of me, maybe he let the batteries die on purpose, I wonder... .

Sorting out the rope

By this time Nancy was doing a pretty good job of convincing me that her first multi pitch climb was making her nervous. I thought about it for a minute and then reconsidered. Most people that I take climbing start laughing and joking when they get nervous, Roy in particular. Nancy is that way all the time, even when she's not climbing, she always is smiling and has a joke. I decided to ignore her comments about being nervous.

Roy on the fourth pitch

The fifth pitch was a challenge for Nancy. There is one move where you have to reach far out to the right and grab a hold that you then use to pull yourself up onto a block and easier climbing. Height, or lack of it came to the forefront on this move and Nancy took a little slip. Nothing serious, but it did put some reality into the situation. It meant that I had to pay attention to my belaying, no free ride. She was able to make the rest of the way to the belay without incident, but I noticed that she was a little quieter and not so out going. I didn't think too much of it. I was more enthralled with the overall experience. The predicted 92 degrees didn't materialize, we had scattered clouds giving us shade from time to time and a nice breeze. You couldn't ask for much nicer weather. At this belay I spoke to one of the party that climbed the Illegitimate. He thought the climb was the most difficult 5.9 at Tahquitz. I was glad to hear that, since I had refused to climb it and did a more difficult variation years before. Soon Roy was up and we moved the belay. Our belay had ended on a large ledge, so in order to be able to utilize as much rope as possible, we moved over about thirty feet. Nancy had some comments about the trees we moved the belay into, but I'm polite and won't repeat them.

Roy on the fifth pitch

The next pitch goes up to the infamous "doubtful corner". We had just enough rope to make the belay ledge/tree. When Nancy came up to the corner, I told her to stop, catch her breath, take in the view and relax. Of course the ledge she stopped on is above a large overhanging section of rock. When it seemed that she wasn't moving (I won't say frozen with fear because that wouldn't be polite), I suggested that she step down around the corner, reach low for a small crack and pull the rest of her body around the corner. As she was gingerly making the move, I exclaimed how pleased I was to see that the move was doable, that I had never done it before and was wondering if it was possible to do. Nancy looked at me like I was crazy, there was a certain wild animal look deep down in her eyes. I felt like I was looking into her soul and I didn't like what I was seeing. At this point I noticed that she was not uttering a single word. I've never known Nancy to be quiet for more than about ten seconds. I began to panic. I quickly explained to Nancy that I had to make the move, since there was no other way for me to have gotten to the belay and that I had been joking. The primeval look started to go away and I was able to breathe again. I had Roy climb as quickly as possible, he didn't even have to stop and pose for the video, since the batteries died. Once he was at the belay, we quickly changed the batteries and off I went.

Roy just below doubtful corner

I like the next pitch because it is steep, of course I seem to like all of the pitches, it also has big holds. That makes for very fun climbing in my opinion. We then climbed another easy pitch and I was able to stretch out the rope to the traditional ledge where we belayed on our last climb of the Maiden. I don't know what Roy and Nancy talked about while I was climbing, but Nancy seemed to be getting back to her normal self. 

Roy smiling, don't believe it

The belay ledge is behind a large flake, so it is very secure mentally and physically. I let her know that we had one, or one and a half pitches to go to reach the top. I almost thought I detected a look or relief. 

Looking down the White Maiden

The last pitch, our ninth with our rope constraints, went just fine, except for the large step across a large crack, Nancy said something about being short. Then she also said something about the small roof we had to go over, she told me that she had to go all the way to the right end before she could step up high enough to go over, I told her that's the way I always do it. As soon as Roy arrived at the belay he took off towards the top. He kept Nancy on the rope just to be safe, it's a long first step over the edge. 

I'm leading the final pitch

Roy finishing the last pitch

In a few minutes we were on the true summit. There was a hiker enjoying the view, the wind started to come up and Nancy got to sign her first summit register. I thought it odd that she signed it, then closed the lid and then asked if Roy or I were planning on signing in. We both said "no" and she opened it us and started writing what a appeared to be a novella, all the while muttering our names and other things we didn't quite understand. Now that I think back about it, I think perhaps we should have checked to see what she wrote about us.

Nancy writing her novella

After signing the register we finished our water, packed up our gear and headed down from the summit. When we reached the saddle at the top of the east gully, we changed our shoes and then hiked down. While changing shoes we found out that Nancy is really Smurfette, she has blue feet, just like the color of her climbing shoes.

Nancy's/Smurfette's blue foot

Near the base of the gully we noticed the flake that had fallen against the tree, I asked Roy if he thought it had moved since the last time we saw it and he said he was fairly certain that it had. Compare the picture to photos in my previous Tahquitz blog entries and decide for yourself.

Has it moved?

We stumbled back to the car and decided that we needed to have a celebratory meal, by now it was 4:30 in the afternoon and 7:30 breakfast was a long time ago. Before we had a chance to leave, we ran into an old climbing buddy, Craig. Roy and I seem to run into him every few years at one climbing location or another. I think one of the last times we saw him was in Yosemite. We then also spotted Nancy's former boss, Gary Jeandron. He was up riding around with his wife and some friends and they just happened to recognize Nancy as they were driving by. We had a nice little visit with them. They were very impressed that Nancy had climbed the giant rock and wanted to know all about it. I suggested that they go out to Joshua Tree when the weather cools down and watch up close and personal. Gary asked me to send him some video instead. I don't think he wants to get too close to the rocks.

Stumbling back to the car

After all the visiting we went to what many consider the finest restaurant in Idyllwild, The Gastrognome. We were surprised they let us in the door, since we hadn't been able to do much in the way of cleaning up from the climb. We had a superb meal, Roy and I almost went into shock, it was much nicer than we are used to, they didn't even have paper plates. Nancy was in a celebratory mood, after completing her first multi pitch climb and treated herself to the Filet and Half Lobster Tail. She deserved a special treat after her first multi pitch climb. Roy had the Grilled Pork and I had Asparagus & Portabella Mushroom Pasta. The food was wonderful and we had a happy smile on our faces as we left the mountain and headed down to the desert below.

The Gastrognome

Filet & Lobster Tail

Grilled Pork

Asparagus & Portabella Mushroom Pasta

White Maiden's Walkaway

Sometimes a name can be deceiving. Such is the case for the climb we call the White Maiden. The true name is the White Maiden's Walkaway, but that's kinda long, so it's the White Maiden for normal conversation. The deception is that I almost never do the walkaway. This climb is a special for me, it was my first climb at Tahquitz Rock(on the maps known as Lily Rock). This is one of the longest climbs on the rock, going up the northwest buttress of the rock. It has great views by virtue of being out on the buttress proper, beautiful rock and great climbing.

Roy and I made our normal approach, from the Devils Slide trailhead, across the creek, up the talus slopes and then along the base of the north face to the buttress. Once at the buttress, I've seldom followed the original route, instead I take a variation that provides a direct route up to the top of the prominent gendarme on the buttress. This is slightly more difficult than the 5.1 version of the climb, but it's great crack climbing and truthfully, for many years I didn't know that this was a variation, I didn't know there was another way to go. In order to do this start we had to do some scrambling, in fact at the belay ledge Roy asked me if we could use the rope yet. We started off and the climbing was good. A little higher I continued climbing cracks off to the left of the regular route, more difficult, more better. I ran the rope out almost the full 200 feet and set up the belay. Roy came up and made some comments about the party climbing the Long Climb, which almost shares the same start. I assured him that they were no doubt better climbers than us and not to worry about them.

Moving up the first pitch

The next pitch was on easier ground up to the top of the gendarme and then up to some beautiful fine grained white rock. By this time we had bypassed the walkaway portion of the climb. The walkaway is some very fun and easy climbing, almost like a staircase. That's the way we take beginners. The white rock has some large flakes and blocks that seem to be loose, so climbing in this area takes a little more thought. One thing that I noticed was that there were several newer fixed pitons. This area can be a little tricky to protect with normal pro, so the fixed pins are a nice touch. Too bad you always have to question if the fixed pins have worked their way loose. So much for mental calming. Thank goodness the moves are easy, fun and have some nice exposure. I was soon up on the belay ledge, a big one, and had my belay anchors set with some bomber nut placements. Roy climbed up and I noticed that he was laughing. I asked him why he was laughing, had he thought of a good joke and he said something about being afraid. It's terrible to watch a mind fail before your eyes.

On top of the gendarme

The next pitch is one of the most famous on the climb. The route traverses the ledge and then heads up a large crack, that gets progressively narrower until it reaches a ledge, where it becomes a seam. The rock outside of the crack is good quality and has lots of features for feet and handholds. Once you reach this ledge, you can make a great nut placement on the right hand side, cross over about 8 feet to the left and then look around the corner. This is doubtful corner. At this point the rock is overhanging below you, the outside edge of the corner is trying to push you off the rock and there are no good handholds as you make the step around to the inside of the corner. When I first did this climb, almost 35 years ago, you could reach out and grab the branch of a large Mountain Mahogany and pull yourself around the corner. Now that I have more experience, it's probably good you can't reach the branch, since so many accidents over the years, many with fatal results, have been due to the failure of vegetation when used as holds and anchors.

Looking down doubtful corner

I have learned the trick of stepping down low around the corner and one can reach a finger sized crack behind a small flake that makes it quite secure. Once around the corner, it's up on the tree and set up the belay. Then up came Roy, who was kind enough to pose for a video shot at the corner.

Looking down the north face

The next pitch was another 200 footer. The climbing was easy and the location fantastic, it's hard not to have a good time when conditions are like this. I only put in 2 pieces of protection, but had a lot of rope drag towards the end of the pitch. On one ledge there was a columbine with two pretty flowers on it. Other than penstemons in abundance on the hike in, there weren't very many other flowers to be seen.

Columbine on a high ledge

The end of the fourth pitch brought us to the same belay that we used for our last pitch of the Long Climb. Since the climbing had been fun and not very difficult, I decided to finish the climb with the 5.7 overhang variation. I hadn't done the variation in a number of years and I found out why. The protection was adequate, which was fine for me years ago, but now that I have to put forth more effort, I like to be able to add excessive amounts of protection when my reserves run low. In this case, that was a luxury that I wasn't afforded. I hemmed and hawed and finally stalled long enough to hear Roy muttering something about how it doesn't look that bad and I made the moves. I think I turned a 5.7 into a 5.9, but maybe I flatter myself.

Once over the roof, it was some delicate climbing across some broken ledges till the next belay. The broken ledges had a lot of loose rock which was a concern, since the party on the Long Climb were below us at that point. We didn't want to knock any rocks down on them. From the belay we had one more short pitch, about 30 feet and then we were on the top.

We hiked up to the actual top of the rock, changed our shoes, drank our water and split a power bar. We also watched a glider that was soaring above the peaks. I mentioned to Roy how the pilot is no doubt the same one we saw a few weeks ago and how special it is that he is so interested in us that he comes out to watch us when we climb.

Checking us out

As we prepared to start down we noticed a long line of debris in one of the gullies coming down of Tahquitz peak. This debris is from a recent avalanche, it had been more or less green earlier in the season, but now it has turned brown, we took a picture and commented on how much force there must have been to create so much of a debris path. Nature certainly is non-stoppable. Then, it was back to the car.

Notice swath of debris running through the middle of the photo

On the way down we stopped to look at a rock that had fallen off the rock formation behind Tahquitz a few years ago. We had our usual conversation regarding wether or not the rock had moved since our last visit, including documenting the rock with photos. Then on down the trail. Once again another good day on the rock. To view some video we took go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxGEQmGBf28

Has it moved?

Beat the Heat

I decided that I wanted to do something with my daughter on the Fourth of July. Normally I have to work most of the day, but this year I didn't have to work until 4 pm. My daughter returned from a trip to South Africa with the Palm Springs High School band last week and we hadn't spent much time together since then. She liked the idea and asked me what I wanted to do. I told her I'd like to take a hike, but wasn't too sure about it, since the weather has been hot and humid, for us. She suggested an early start, I said sure but when she said 4:30 am, I was back pedaling very quickly. She then asked if I really wanted to go, so I reluctantly agreed to the early morning start.

Morning came all too soon and at 4:15 she asked if I still was planning on going. I said yes and staggered out of bed and by 4:40 we were on the road. As we headed down the road in the dark, I kept wonder how warm the high desert would be. Charlene asked me if I still was planning on hiking out to 49 Palms Oasis and I said yes. I picked this hike because I thought that trying to hike locally in the low desert would be too hot. I liked the idea of going up on the mountain, but I didn't have time to pick up an Adventure Pass. Fourth of July crowds on the tram would be unpleasant. That left Joshua Tree National Park, I thought about going to Ryan Mountain, but decided that again, I wouldn't have time to pick up a park pass. That left me with two options, hiking one of my favorite hikes in Joshua Tree, Rattlesnake Canyon, or 49 Palms. We have done Rattlesnake Canyon several times, so I thought she might like to go someplace different. As we drove through Yucca Valley we noticed some clouds in the east with alpenglow on them, very pretty.

Shortly after 6 am we arrived at the locked gate. 49 Palms is a day use area and they lock the gate at dusk and reopen sometime in the morning. We parked by the side of the road, got our gear together and started hiking up the road. We hadn't gone very far when Charlene let out an excited whisper "Bunny rabbit". Well, sure enough we saw a rabbit and took a picture. Then we went on up the road. Two minutes later we met a retired couple out for their morning walk, we said hi and wished each other a Happy 4th of July. In no time we reached the trailhead and left the pavement. I was surprised at the number of stair steps that had been installed, someone had gone to a lot of work. After about a quarter of a mile I noticed the stairs stopped and the trail became more of what I'm used to in the wilderness.

Bunny Rabbit

Trail Head

We were glad that we had left early, because even at this hour the temperature was starting to heat up and there was some humidity in the air. We had a pretty good climb to begin with and then the trail kind of leveled out and then started going downhill. I had last done this hike at least 15 years ago and my memory wasn't too good. I didn't recognize any part of the hike, other than I remember going downhill to the oasis. I thought the trail had been different, came in from the other direction and ended in a box canyon. Boy was I off. But that's OK, because it made the hike seem that much more worthwhile to me, plus the excitement of something new is always good.

On the trail

Trail starting to go downhill

The oasis coming into view

Once we arrived at the oasis we took a look around. Someone had been doing some trail maintenance and clean-up around the palms. We watched the birds, bugs and checked out the pools. After a quick snack and some rehydration it was time to go. While the oasis was still in shadow, the trail on the hike out wouldn't be.

The oasis

Wildlife in the oasis

Checking out one of the pools

Snack time

We had been hiking back towards the car for only a few minutes when we stopped to check out the view down canyon. Charlene asked me if I could see it. See what I replied. She said that she could see a Bighorn Sheep on the hillside across the canyon from us. I still couldn't see it and she pointed it out till it moved and then I saw it. We took pictures and watched it for several minutes, it was amazing how fast it could move on the steep and rugged terrain. Our video just didn't do it justice, but does give an idea of how fast it was. Then, with the temperature never far from my thoughts we started hiking again.

Can you spot the bighorn on the ledge?

Again we had only hiked a few minutes when we came around a corner and saw two more bighorns. These were a ram and ewe and the ram had a tremendous curl. Again we stopped and took pictures and watched for several minutes. I was surprised that they didn't run away, since most of the times I seen bighorn in the wild they are very skittish. These were only about 100 feet from us and just went about their business, almost as if we weren't there.

The ram is looking towards us, the ewe facing away

The ewe looking at us

We then continued on back along the trail, we saw what may have been a geocache in the the distance and more small creatures like lizards and rabbits.

Velvet ant

Lizard

Checking the web back home told me that I probably just saw a mylar balloon in the distance. When we were almost back to the parking lot we passed a group of three hikers who were on their way in. They said hello and complimented us on getting our exercise. They looked like they were in good shape, which is important when hiking in the heat.

Back at the parking lot

We were back at our car about ten minutes later, almost exactly two hours to the minute from when we left. While it was a great hike, I don't think I would have wanted to be out hiking in the heat any later in the day. Charlene, thanks for picking the early hour to leave.

Back at the car

To view some video from our hike,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_TliGONMG4