Van Camp and Hike
11/04/06
My annual birthday get-a-way. This weekend corresponded with Gary J. and Joel
F. going to Carrizo Canyon for hiking so I arranged to meet them Saturday at the
East Fork. They had already left on their Saturday day hike by the time I got out there
so I took some mini-hikes first up the East Fork and then across the wash around
the Four Frogs Canyon entrance. There were many mountain lion tracks (and some
scat) in East Fork and I was getting spooked so I cut that canyon hike short.
There were some amazing tire tracks in the sand climbing 5 foot steps and
clambering over 2 foot diameter rocks. Someone had a very capable, extreme articulation off-road vehicle
in this canyon sometime in the last month. That would have been a good show!
Later I hiked a bit above the campsite and across the wash from the campsite but
these were little wussy walks compared to the next days hike. Little did I
know!. Gary and Joel returned in the late afternoon and we ate, drank some beers
and caught up a bit. Notable Quote: I've been feeling guilty that driving
my van somewhere remote and having all these comforts isn't really camping like
my first 15 years of desert visits. I asked Joel what the definition of camping
was? He asked me if I had paper towels which I replied that I did. He said then
you are not camping! I'm glad that's cleared up now. After the full moon
came up we hiked up the canyon and found a nice sit down spot to relax and watch
TV. It was a very pleasant night, no wind, and no
guttural growls from the cliffs looming above us. An easy walk back and we
turned in. They were camping but apparently I was just remote sleeping! Early
the next morning a coyote walked right through the camp site. Joel was reading
in his chair and it didn't notice him. Gary & Joel wanted to hike up Four Frogs
canyon directly across from us. I threw my camera, some emergency gear, 3.5
liters of water and a couple of power bars in my pack and was ready to go. I
thought it would be like a 1/2 day hike. We returned 8 hours later and had
climbed over 2000 feet over increasingly more difficult rock jumbles and steep
slopes. We took a saddle up and out of Four Frogs and returned down the ridges
to the south. For me it was a difficult hike. I ran out of water on the way down
and Gary shared some of his. Once we made it back to camp we left immediately to
beat the dark. I drank a liter of water on the 5 mile sandy washboard road to
get to black top and a liter of water on the 16 mile drive to Ocotillo where I
stopped at the Old Hiway 80 Cafe where I drank 3 big ice teas and ate an Ortega
burger and a giant helping of onion rings. I almost felt normal again. From
there it was 90 miles back to home. I was too tired to have a beer!
Carrizo Canyon separates the Jacumba mountains on the east and the In-Ko-Pah
mountains on the west. Both are barren, fractured and rock strewn. Everything
was dried up and brittle.
I uploaded my full size pictures by mistake. They are only 400-600K so no problem
unless you are dial up. Hopefully the thumbnail will suffice for those modem
users.
:)
East Fork Carrizo Canyon camp site. The
Sunday hike
descended the hills in the
upper right hand corner.
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Typical East Fork view.
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This is a shrine for someone's Mother.
It was dated 02/2006 but the plastic
bag
with the note was already disintegrating.
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Mountain Lion paw print on a tire track.
BTW - I have big feet!
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Down in the Carrizo Cyn wash looking south.
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Looking up Four Frogs Canyon.
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Looking at the East Fork wash.
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Mountain Lion scat. Flashlight is 5.75" long
and large end diameter is 1"
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Looking down into East Fork.
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Looking down at camp site.
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Saturday night full moon walk.
Joel found a recliner.
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Gary found an easy chair
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Someone has to take the pictures.
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On the Sunday hike.
Early in the wash is a lone palm tree.
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I thought this looked like a frog rear end!
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A gnarly rock outcropping
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Tamarisk control. Tamarisk is an invasive
tree that crowds out native plants. This
canyon had been cleared but some were
coming back so we cut what we could back.
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The first palm tree grove. Some on a diagonal
out of the wash and quite a few in the wash.
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Nice pock marked boulder!
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Way above the first grove now.
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Second grove high in the wash. Note the few
palms clustered even higher on the hillside.
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Heading up to the saddle. Quite the view!
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In the saddle, our high point of 3100' elevation.
Those two mounds are two of the frogs.
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View to the northwest. Sombrero Peak.
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The In-Ko-Pah Mountains. The famous
Goat Canyon trestle is in the center. That
is the railroad winding its
way up. |
The easy part of the
return route.
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A good vantage spot of were we started.
East Fork is the hook shaped wash in the
center of the picture. |
