|
| | | |
| |
|
| Canyoneering | 21.20 Miles |
5,582 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 21.20 Miles | 12 Hrs 15 Mns | | 1.73 mph |
| 5,582 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| | Canyon Hiking - Non-technical; no rope; easy scrambling; occasional hand use | | A - Dry or little water; shallow or avoidable water; no wet/dry suit |
| |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | This sounded so nice on paper, and looked pretty good on the map... oh, well.
I've waited for the snow to clear around the 7,000' level, but running out of time on my schedule, I finally decided to head out and finish this exploratory hike. The first section is the basic Dog Canyon hike, beautiful and steadily up. The next section is dull, trudging forest service roads for six or seven miles, and this is where the hike took a down turn... the snow was only partially gone, and where it was missing it had been replaced by either mud or ice! It took over 3 hours to get past all of that... not easy hours.
Once over and on the new trail and heading down into one of the side drainages of Escondido Canyon it got better once again... it even got nice... until the trail died out... just like the map said it would. It had seemed odd to have a nice trail headed down, and then another terminating that had risen from the bottom... and not very far apart (...on the map). But then as I began down climbing ever larger dry falls it occurred to me that there might be a really simple reason why they'd never been connected... and, sure enough... 20'...40'... rocky, tumbling falls with no easy accesses. I think I may have chosen the worse possible path to try to connect, and I have to think that there is a better way, and there may be, but given that I was nine hours into this hike and had yet to enter the main canyon section, of which I then had to hike down and out of, I did not feel like retracing my steps to try to discover the better path.
I made it to the upper meadow in Escondido, and because I had downloaded the potential trail to my GPS unit I was able to make good time finding the old track leading around and out and down... and I thought my day was moving in a good direction. I had done a number of things right: conservative, slow pace to allow me to make it through all the snow/ice/mud/ debris/falls... with a ready reserve. I'd brought an adequate amount of food and water, though for some reason I'd only drunk 20 oz over the first 6 hours (went on to drink nearly the entire 1.5 gallons). And, I had my GPS route.
I did not know then, but learned soon, that the worst part of the day was yet to come, and it was all about staying on that old trail. Overgrown!! Cacti, Daggers, Sotol... and a variety of spiny shrubs, sort of like catclaw, but over head high... I was sliced and diced... finally, put on some gloves just to be able to control some of the nicking... and, it did not end until I was nearly all the way back down and in the desert. Sort of rounded out the day.
Fortunately, caught a great sunset as I made my way back across to Oliver Lee State Park... I now know a trail that no one else need bother with until it has received some major trail maintenance!! |
| _____________________
| Ageless Mind... Timeless Body... No Way! Use It and Lose It. Just the way it is... |
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
