Here’s a link to the full set of Photos. Sorry for the bad photography, it’s the cameras fault.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andykrumm/ ... 862712821/
We were dropped off at the Cactus Springs trail head, off of the Pines to Palms highway.
Horsetheif Creek was flowing good. We saw a CCC trail crew just past here and no one else for the rest of the trip.
I had read that the trail becomes more and more difficult to find the further into the mountains one hikes, but we soon found out that was a bit of an understatement. I'm not a huge fan of hiking with a GPS, but I'm sure glad I brought it along on this trip. Although, the next time I do this, I'll be sure to plot a full route and not just rely on major landmarks.
We foolishly followed some flagging tape up a "wash to nowhere" and ended up dropping into the cactus springs area from the North.
When we arrived at Cactus Spring I didn't expect any water, but there was a small clear pool of water amongst the grass and bees.
The trail is well marked with cairns in some areas but not so well in others. What I really didn't factor in, was all the time spent on route-finding and cross country travel and how that hampered our progress throughout the day.
Between Cactus Spring and Agua Alta we saw no water and by the time we reached Agua Alta this trace of silty, warm water was a welcomed site! I'd love to set up one of those game trail trip cameras at one of the springs to see what kind of critters visit in the night.
Along the route we saw grinding stones, potsherds and roasting pits. We also saw plenty of jackrabbits, plenty of birds and one angry rattler!
After struggling to follow the route, we inadvertently veered too far to the South/South West and soon found ourselves on the brink of the huge dry waterfall above Jack Miller's cabin! We contemplated climbing down into the canyon, since that was our ultimate goal, but finally came to our senses, corrected our bearings and continued on in a south/southeast direction....it was getting dark.
We meandered our way back towards the eastern edge of Agua Alta Flat through cactus and scrub brush were we decided to call it quits for the night and camp out in a nice sandy wash.
The night was perfect with little to no wind, clear cool air and only the sound of a lone owl to be heard....though we think it was the owl that left the remnants of a kangaroo "type" rat a few feet from our sleeping bags. I felt bad that he dropped his dinner.
On Saturday morning, our plan was to drop down into Martinez Canyon stock up on water and make the big climb over the divide into Nicholias/Rockhouse Valley. We new this would be a huge feat, but we felt good and although we were a few miles behind schedule, we had a lot of daylight left and headlamps if it came to that. Hey, I can dream...
The hike down into Martinez was more of the same, basically cross country travel, though at this point we were able to follow a predominant ridge on the north side of Tahquitz Canyon.
When we reached the canyon floor, we were actually surprised at the amount of flowing water. We filtered our water ate some snacks and took in all the wonderful solitude around us.
The climb we had planned starts at the base of Martinez Canyon at around 2,500' and follows an old Indian trail up along the ridge in a westerly direction to a pass on the Santa Rosas at around 5,500'. At this point it's a steep 2000' foot scramble down into the alluvial fan of upper Rockhouse Canyon.
We started our way up a side canyon full of thickets and boulders before gaining our ridge and tip toeing around cactus, yucca and ocotillo.
This route was even more sparsley marked, maybe every few hundred yards or so, but these ridge routes are usually pretty easy to follow, unlike the ups and down of the canyons and washes.
Off in the distance we could see Jack Miller's cabin and to the right, just outside the picture is the the dry waterfall we had stood atop the evening before.
After we trudged up to about 4,000' I got this queesy uneasy feeling about going all the way over the pass with no trail, our shrinking water supply and the remaining miles we had to cover. Of course I was also going over all of the "lost in the desert' stories I've heard over the years, alot of which were from these very mountains. I proposed the bail-out idea to my sister, who at first scoffed a bit, but seeing that I was the one with all the beta on the route, she conceded that if I felt that way, that we should play it safe and descend back down to Martinez, have all the water we need and hike the 12 miles or so till dark and exit tomorrow morning. It was a hard call after all that work and seeing how high we'd climbed. Ah what the hell, good exercise right?!
The hike down Martinez was fairly uneventful, just your average canyon bottom full of rocks of all sizes and about a mile of this brush and bamboo jungle.
The last 6 miles or so follows a jeep trail down to the valley.
I called my wife for a ride, picked up an ice cold Jamaica at the gas station and laid down in some shade. Of course I regret backing out. But as they say, the mountain will still be there.
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