Step 17: Off to Joshua Tree

We got back from the Canyon on Wednesday. Did laundry, ate, and went out on the town for 25 cent drinks and to a place called the wine loft to listen to bluegrass music and dance. Thursday I got my climbing stuff ready and went with my co-worker Sabine, her husband Tyler(works with a competing conservation corp doing trail work as well), and a couple of Tyler's co-workers to Joshua for 3 nights and 4 days.
After getting a guide book and doing all our food shopping which took much longer than planned we hit the road around 5:45. We drove through the night and arrived at Indian Cove campground just after midnight. After a quick bite we went to bed under the stars.

Woke up at 630am. Made friends with out neighbors who invited me for coffee and discussed climbing. Then we realized that pretty much the whole campground was booked for the weekend. So from 7:30 to 12:30 we went around the whole park before finally coming back to Indian Cover where two campsites opened up for us. After we finally got our stuff in our campsites we went up Rattlesnake Canyon to a climbing area called Dodge City. It was a 20 minute approach crossing streams and boulder hoping to get to the area. Tyler led a 5.8 to start with to get a top rope set up, and his co-worker Chris rappelled down and set up another rope. We spent all afternoon climbing the routes in that area. However, we got greedy and tried to climb one more route and take a shortcut back to our car. The route took longer than planned and by the time we were packed and ready to take out shortcut it was dark and we had two headlamps for the 5 of us. So we were forced to retrace our steps and what should have been a 20 minute jaunt to our car in the day took and hour to navigate safely at night. About 5 minutes before we got back we saw a search light on the hills looking for us as the place is closed down at sunset. I hurried back and sweet-talked the ranger out of giving us a ticket.
After getting back to camp Becky arrived minutes later after from driving from Ventura. What should have taken her 3-4 hours took 7 unfortunately. We fixed a delicious stir fry dinner, drank some beer and headed to bed to rest for another day of climbing.

We woke early the next morning, made a tasty omelet with veggies, potatoes, cheese and bacon as well as some coffee. Made our lunch and headed for central Joshua tree for another climbing adventure. It took longer than planned to find where we wanted to climb. But at long last we arrived at the Real Hidden Valley and hiked to a place called the Thin Wall where we would spend the rest of the day climbing all the different routes. Most of the day we climbed 5.8-5.9's with a mixture of crack and face climbing. At the end of the day we set up a top rope on a route called Childs play which is a 5.10d. At the time we thought it was a 5.10a though.
After an excellent day of climbing we made it back to camp just after dark. Set up a campfire and made a delicious pasta for dinner. We enjoyed music and beer and relaxed the night away.
The next day we cooked up what was left of our food including chocolate chip banana pancakes, and more eggs and hit the road exploring the rest of Joshua tree including a cool Cholla Cactus garden.
Enough words here are some pictures, but check out the album for all of them.

From Joshua Tree Climbing Trip 3/11-3/14

getting ready to climb on Friday in Rattlesnake Canyon

Tyler leading the first route

Chris setting up another rope

climbing a fun crimpy 5.10a

Dodge City climbing area
http://picasaweb.google.com/pvparsel/JoshuaTreeClimbingTrip311314#5448947846834791778
a saturday crack climb

Becky getting her feet wet

making her way up

Tyler and Chris racing to the top

getting ready for the crux on the days hardest route



dancing around the campfire

our tour guide at the cactus garden

Step 16: Moving On Up In The Canyon

My latest project to the canyon involved a change of camp location. However this was unknown to all of us including our supervisor until we were already halfway down to the bottom of the canyon. Since it is getting warmer the tourist season is really kicking in and all the campsites at the bottom were full leaving no room for us. We were able to spend the first night down there, but the next morning we had to pack up camp again and load the mules and move camp 2.5 miles and 1800ft higher up the canyon to a place called Tipoff. While we didn't have the luxury of running water(all water is now packed in via mule, so we must conserve), or flush toilets like down at Phantom Ranch we had other luxuries which far outweighed running water of nice toilets. The park service trail crew had camped here at the end of 2009 and left most of their supplies there which we were then able to take advantage of. This included a $6000 everest basecamp tent, a gas BBQ grill, and a stove that boiled water crazy fast that they called the Master Blaster and sounded like a rocket each time you fired it up. The best thing of all was the seclusion and lack of tourists around. Here is a picture of our camp: and check out all the pictures at this link

From Grand Canyon March 2-10

as you can see from the picture the camp is quite exposed. The wind rips through this part of the canyon and was often 30-50mph. After our first day of work we came back and one tent had the rain fly ripped off and another was about to sail away but had one stake left holding it down.


The Master Blaster in action

While we camped here the park service trail crew was still down at the bottom and because of liability we cannot work without one of them around to supervise. This meant we had to wait each morning for them to hike an hour up to our camp giving us an extra hour to sleep and also at the end of the day we got off an hour early allowing us time to explore the surrounding areas. As long as the weather wasn't terrible, which it often was during the 9 days we took advantage of all the extra time. Including going for a 60 min run, hiking up to a natural arch overlooking our camp, exploring side canyons, and taking an old miners trail up to our worksite. There was also a California Condor nest just above our camp so we were treated to daily sightings of them circling way overhead. Additionally camping higher up in the canyon afforded us new spectacular sunsets and sunrises each day and because we were not constricted by narrow canyon walls sleeping under the stars was spectacular.

another nice sunrise

hike to work via old miners route. We climbed up the hillside on the right then traversed left once we got to the base of the wall to the gully and came out in the notch

Mule carcass on the miners route. when they die they just roll them over the edge.

Our crew eating lunch in a cave during a rainstorm.

Natural arch above our camp.

on top of the arch

view of our camp from the arch. It's in the bottom left corner.

rainbow on the way down to camp

Our work this time consisted of doing more rip-rap stone construction as well as trail maintenance on the worst section of trail. A couple of days we had to stop early because of hazardous weather, including the last day when a snow storm forced us to stop at noon.

start of the snow storm which canceled our last day of work.

We will be going back tomorrow for another 9 day hitch and after that project we will be changing gears to a new location. While the details of this are unknown rumors are flying around that we will be going to work on the Pacific Crest Trail in southern California, east of Bakersfield.

Step 15: Walnut Canyon Ski Trip

I've had an enjoyable 5 days off and will be going back to the canyon tomorrow for 9 days. Upon my return from that I will be heading to Joshua Tree for a climbing trip. So this may be my last post for a while.
On the 27th I decided to head out in the woods behind my place and explore the area on skis. My destination was Walnut Canyon. Its a prominent 400ft deep canyon about 6 miles south of us. I left around 11am. Here is me leaving:

After 2.5 hours of going in a general south-east direction I made it to Fisher Point at the edge/mouth of the canyon. Here is a view from the point up the canyon and out away from it.


Once on the edge I looked over and saw it would be pretty tight to explore the bottom of the canyon. So I strapped my skis to my pack and scrambled down the 400ft or so to the bottom. Here I am looking back up about 1/2 way down.

Upon getting to the bottom and starting to explore I had no idea what I would find. But I was quite pleased with the results. Many cool rock formations, caves, and animals.

The coolest thing was a cave I found. It had a large entrance room followed by a narrow 20ft corridor and opened up into a huge cavern. In the center was a large ice formation formed by water dripping from the roof. Check it out:

I spent about 2 hours exploring the canyon before it narrowed too much and became overgrown and had to turn back because the sun was setting.

Overall the trip was awesome and I wish I had more time to explore it. There looks to be a lot of climbing possibilities as well as side canyons to explore so I am sure I will go back and camp a few days there in the months to come.