Moments in Dirt and Ink

Finishing the year with a couple sketches. Found a couple short caves while searching for a stony gorilla . Fire may have recently scoured the land, but the plants return from the roots.

Los Padres National Forest Just enough time for some real hiking in the form of an afternoon hike out to the first waterfall in Potrero John. Hopefully. With a couple pauses, we launch ourselves into the narrow canyon that starts off the hike. The crossings are not running very high and there are bits of frozen ground rather than mud still. There is a little mud, too, but there are ways around it. The initial opening into the canyon of Potrero John Creek. One shinny new wilderness sign to mark the boundary of the Sespe Wilderness. A little bit of icy snow remaining in the more northern portions of the narrow canyon. The canyon opens up again just after we have some difficulty getting over some trail that seems in great need of work with a bunch of trees stretching across it. When I did this one cool morning, there was a stark difference in the temperature as the canyon widens. This afternoon, there is no distinct delineation. It is an odd sensation of a m...

Los Padres National Forest There was an invite on to go up CA-33 and find the caches for a piece of "geoart" placed between Potrero John and Chorro Grande Trails. These were all set as "mystery" caches, so the locations are not really at the places required by the art, but mostly along the road. Driving along, stopping, jumping out, and finding a geocache does seem to be the most popular way to do this, but definitely not my favorite. This one also has a few walking excursions and should leave enough time to go on a hike it would be fun to do again. I expected one of the excursions was one I had done before and would be nice to wander up again, too. So I joined up. Frosty in the morning shade and snowy in the generally shady as well as high enough up on Reyes Peak. The first excursion we do is the one I was expecting between Burro and Munson Creeks. It is crisp in the shade and frosted over in the night. It snowed a few days ago and a little of ...

Los Padres National Forest I headed out to the trailhead behind Sage Hill Campground to hike around Aliso Canyon and then around Nineteen Oaks. These two areas were the victims of two recent fires that started very near to the same place. For Aliso Canyon, it was the White Fire in May 2013. For Oso Canyon and Nineteen Oaks, it was the recent Rey Fire. The morning air is quite chill and it is easy to get started and try to warm up. Starting into the canyon in a little sun before it gets particularly shady. A little fall color remaining deep in the shadows of the canyon. There is a little fall color remaining in that deep and cold canyon. The walk is flat and does not warm quickly. At the junction for the loop, I elect to climb up into the sunshine. Both it and the climb will warm me up. At the top, there are clues of the older burn. The new burn shows in the distance. Aliso Canyon from above.

Los Padres National Forest This time it is for real. Gorilla Rock is the premier off trail destination from Cold Spring Trail unless the fabled hot spring is real. Since my first attempt to get there got turned around, I asked a few people for help. They turned out to be unhelpful. However, a geocacher saw my note about attempting the trip to a cache out there and he sent along the track from his return trip. That could be very helpful. It still took a very long time to get to trying it again. Getting a late start on a very short day probably will not help. It is already 9:30. I yank on my bike sleeves anyway because going downhill on the north side of the mountain could be a little chilly. Top of Cold Spring Trail on the city side. It looks like a nice day out there. Cold Spring Trail as it continues into the backcountry. It looks like an even nicer day out over the mountains. The sleeves felt nice in the shade at the start, but they are actually a bit mu...

Joshua Tree National Park Back at Black Rock Campground, we are ready to start what was the main event for me. I have already collected one very reasonable but delisted peak and I was hoping to add a second. Bill, the leader, had been hoping to get it relisted so it is just another peak on the much more than Hundred Peaks list . Bill won and the peak is relisted. There are at least a couple more delisted peaks around for me to collect still. This was delisted for being a "long drive up", but that seems silly when we are about to hike up it entirely on trail from a spot a few minutes from the highway. There is a way to drive up, but there is certainly no requirement to go up that way. Setting off across the campground to find the actual trail. Stepping onto a segment of the California Riding and Hiking Trail, a long trail through California that never quite was.

Joshua Tree National Park We were left with most of the afternoon to get to camp and set up before the party would start around dark. That is more than enough and there was an offer to pop up Malapai Hill, so I jumped on it. This is a little bump in the middle of a plain the Geology Tour Road goes through and is strikingly different from the other little bumps in the area. It was pointed out to me when I did Bernard and Little Berdoo during a previous Holiday Hooplah and looked like a reasonable and easy thing to climb. We are warned that the footing can be iffy before heading off and told that there is supposed to be a benchmark on the lower peak as we arrive. Malapai Hill is a lump of small, dark rocks in the middle of a desert flat where most the lumps are large light rocks.

Joshua Tree National Park We finished our Arizona trip in time to stop by Joshua Tree National Park for the annual Holiday Hooplah put on by the Hundred Peaks Section . Of course, there are peaks to climb. I signed up for some lower peaks, which are on a different list and watched over by a different group, but then had to find another hike due to a leader getting injured. The only one on offer that I had not done was a little hike to Warren Point. This starts from the same location as the hike I signed up for for Sunday and the future will likely have both hikes combined into a single elaborate peak bagging extravaganza. For now, we gather at an easy hour on a mild day to start off into the desert. Starting off into the desert and the sun from the visitor center in Black Rock Campground. We are in Joshua Tree, so there are the requisite Joshua trees nearby.

Tonto National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5 We are wet again in the morning, but we will not have to worry about that anymore. It is just a few miles to complete the loop. Phoenix was not so much an eternal sunset without any clouds for the lights to shine on. Fewer things are frosty. Swinging my wet bag through the air can make it frosty and help shake off the water, though. I make breakfast watching the light hit Weavers Needle and the rock pillars all around me. They take on the character of a stadium of people, especially with the sun hitting their "faces". Weavers Needle bathes in the morning sun. Looking up at some of the pillars around the valley. One of the high pinon pines sits atop the nearby rocks. We pack up and head out. Both the Beartooth Publishing and the 1966 USGS maps show a big switchback after the camp, although the first does not actually show the camp, that was goi...

Tonto National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5 We wake soggy again, as feared, and spend way too much time waiting for the sun in the deep canyon before I promise we can stop at the top of Black Mesa to dry things out. There should be some quality sun up there, especially if it lives up to its name. We head across the wash to the junction sign, which is resplendent in a bit of ribbon to help people spot it from afar. Maybe a quarter mile up the trail, there are pools of water. A thin trail seems to climb up the hill, but does not go much of anywhere. The trail crosses the creek and there is an accessible pool below it, but the water just above the trail looks oily. We look for access above this, but there really is nothing. Somehow the lower pool looks nice enough in spite of the higher pool. And it has a tamarisk. We settle for it and grab water for the day. Second Water Spring, the last of the relia...

Tonto National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5 Phoenix was an eternal sunset in the southeast even from down in this valley. I was so hungry in the night, I ate half the chia seed pudding that was supposed to be breakfast. I did this while pondering the frozen drops of water on my food bag and the layer of wet all over my quilt. People keep saying Arizona is a dry heat, but it sure looks like a wet cold from here. It is still just barely freezing as I eat the other half of my breakfast. I am still a little bit hungry. I plot away in the first light, changing the trip a bit. It looks like we might be stuck doing a short day or going out early. I could still climb Black Mountain off off Peters Mesa like I had originally planned. A wave of dread passes over me at the thought of actually going up the mountain. That is odd. Like I have been traumatized by the cross country escapade yesterday when the unmaint...

Tonto National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5 The night sure is long this time of year. Orion marches the entire length from east to west as the night goes on. Phoenix is like some sort of eternal sunset on the edge of the sky. Eventually the brightness in the southeast overpowers the brightness in the southwest and it is morning. A sky textured by clouds brightens in the dawn light. As we left, there was a 20% chance of rain for this morning. We expect nothing to come of it, but the cloud cover is nice. It helped keep us a little cooler yesterday and is doing a better job of that today. Not that the day has had much of a chance to warm up anyway. We get ourselves packed and start for the top, which is really just a few turns away. There are more and bigger spaces up there and the air has been very calm. Winds are always a worry at saddles, but last night would have been nice. The divide rolls...