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Anyone here be interested in doing a 3-4 day, 2-3 night extended backpacking trip in Joshua Tree National Park? There are several options of what we could do here, one is the 35 mile CA Riding and Hiking trail that runs through the park. Other options include linking together 4x4 roads, and long trails that run through canyons and washes to make a 30-40 mile route, there are several ways to do this one. The CA Hiking and Riding trail would most likely be a shuttle, unless we wanted to turn around and make it 70 miles total, or try and hitch a ride back. It just depends, there may be a way to hook together trails and make a long loop, I will try and check that out and see if this is a possibility.

The dates for this would most likely be March 8-15, if we did get something together, this is when ASU is on spring break.

Unfortunately my spring break is either late March or early April so I can't make this one......and I've really been wanting to head over to CA for a while too.....so far AZ is the furthest West I've been in my entire life

Another option I just thought of tonight, do some research and put together clues, and take 3-4 days and try to locate the little known and seldom seen "Carey's Castle" which was home to a reclusive miner, in the end Im sure the "castle" is cool, but the search will be the best part, I might start trying to piece together information of general location and clues to find the castle if anyone is interested. This will take a little bit more than the standard google search Im afraid.

rally_toad wrote:Another option I just thought of tonight, do some research and put together clues, and take 3-4 days and try to locate the little known and seldom seen "Carey's Castle" which was home to a reclusive miner, in the end Im sure the "castle" is cool, but the search will be the best part, I might start trying to piece together information of general location and clues to find the castle if anyone is interested. This will take a little bit more than the standard google search Im afraid.

Here is is
http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?L ... 15.684333‎

Crocodile Ryan wrote:Here is is

That was easy! A few washes get pretty close to it, looks like we might be able to follow those. Rush it doesnt have to be over spring break, we could plan it for a long weekend in March or April, do a Friday, saturday, sunday type thing, or a Saturday, sunday, monday trip.
If we do the CA Riding and hiking trail as a shuttle its about 11-12 miles per day, so we could leave friday, finish sunday and be back in time for school or work on monday(its only about a 4 hour drive). Right now the California Riding and hiking trail looks like the option that interests me the most, alot of ground there that I havent covered in Joshua Tree.

Friday-Sunday trip would be perfect for me since I only goto school Mon-Thurs. Definitely something I'm interested in.

Ya I would still like to get over to Joshua Tree, and its opened to anyone who has the desire to come. Possibly for a Friday/Saturday/Sunday at the beginning of May, right after Im out of school. It would most likely be a CA Riding and Hiking Trail shuttle, and most likely we would be carrying alot of water.

Take lots of pics!!

For anyone who cares. A friend and I finished a shuttle hike on the CA riding and hiking trail through J-Tree this morning. Wrote a triplog for it. Great time. 37 miles and other than the people who were at the campsites we stayed in, we saw 3 people total on the trail, 1 man on the 2nd day, and 2 girls on the final day who were nice enough to offer us stinky guys a ride back to our ride at Black Rock. :bigth:

Hey that's neat! I've hiked a little on that trail, but further to the south, back in the 70's in San Diego County when that trail was part of the then-brand-new PCT. The PCT has been re-routed, however, and I have read it was because a lot of the CA Riding and Hiking Trail crossed private lands. Do you know anything about that, about the history of that trail and how much of it still remains? I hiked the part from Descanso through the Cuyamacas and across to the Lagunas and down (I think it was) Oriflamme Canyon.

I was just re-visiting some of that area this winter. Sure brought back memories. The San Diego backcountry mountains are still "home" at some subliminal level of my consciousness.

Glad to hear about your hike.

Don't know much about the CA Riding and hiking trail outside of Joshua Tree, while I was researching this trip I found that there are sections of it that are in other parks, like Anza Borrego, but though it was envisioned in 1945 it still is not finished (which leads me to believe it never will be). I dont know what the original route and mileage of the trail was supposed to be.
But the section of it that passes throught Joshua Tree provided the closest thing to a trans Joshua Tree route, so we hiked it, and it was well maintained throughout the park, but made me wonder where the trail was supposed to go from there.
A google search of the California Riding and hiking trail will get you information pretty much only on the J-Tree section, not the trail in its entirety.

I guess that trail was originally supposed to go from one end of Calif to the other, at least that's my understanding of it. And then the PCT caught on, they did use some of that old trail to hem together the newer one.

I have a friend who might know more, she's a horsewoman. Maybe I should ask her about it.