We started our trek at the Lost Palms Oasis trail. The forecast was 80-degrees but it was overcast and cool until noon. My friend Matthew led this hike. He said he had hiked this trail three times but each time he took a slightly different route. I've hiked with him for a few years now, so I had complete faith in him. However, this time was different.
The first three miles were beautiful, hiking through the valley The rock formations are massive and cool. The main attraction is the short trail to the Mastodon rock. Our itinerary was to go beyond that off trail.
We saw quite a few desert lizards, Ocotillo plants, cacti blooms, cholla and yucca. Unfortunately, I was impaled by a cholla thorn and it had to be removed with pliers.
After the easy three miles we began the off-trail trek. We traversed the ridge with lots of rock scrambling while trying to avoid the unforgiving desert plants. It was a bit tiresome and we took our first real break on a cool rock outcropping. We had views of the Salton Sea.
I should have mentioned earlier that there was a guy new to our group. He said he was an experienced hiker. He volunteered to be the sweep. It was obvious he was inexperienced with off-trail rock scrambling. This was one of the reasons why it took us so long because we had to keep waiting for him to catch up. By this point it was too late to turn back and we could only move forward.
We continued on a couple of grueling ridges as we descended and ascended a few more times. But the rock formations were more interesting and colorful.
We arrived at another resting point and it was almost 4 pm. We still had to drop down once more, then climb up the final ridge to the summit. By this time, I was exhausted. I decided not to summit. I knew that if they continued on they would be hiking after the sun set. Not to be selfish but I wanted to make sure my ass was back on the valley floor before nightfall. One of the guys, Wendall, agreed with me. I believe that our leader and the rest of the group were desperate to summit.
Anyways, we went our separate ways after deciding on a meeting point. I was in good hands. Wendall had a GPS and was a strong hiker. I am sure he could have continued on but he stayed with me. The two of us ascended a short distance to the top of another ridge to get back to the trail leading to the canyon that would lead us to the valley below.
We had to descend a treacherous 2,880 feet, trying to avoid getting impaled but failing, this time it was a yucca plant.
We found a resting place by a dry waterfall but still had quite a ways to go down the canyon. I started to get worried because it was now 5:30 pm. I told Wendall we should not wait any longer. We waited a little bit more and by 5:45 pm we could see the group scrambling down to our location so we waited.
Matthew told us he couldn't find the route to the peak and they all turned back. By this point the rest of the group was not too happy. The new guy looked pretty beat up and everyone offered to carry his backpack so he could hike faster. On a positive note he still had lots of water and gave some to a few hikers who ran out.
We scurried down the last 250 feet of the canyon trying to beat sundown. At this point it was obvious we were going to be hiking in the dark, and the group had mixed emotions.
Matthew made a poor judgement and was unsure of which direction to take back to the cars because there was a couple of routes. He said to the group, "I'll go this way and if you think you can find a better route then go that way." He did not have a tracking device and was doing this all by memory.
We ended up separating again. How? I am unclear. With my group of four, two of us were tracking the hike. We decided not to take the same route back and found a shorter, direct route to the cars. We ended up hiking the last three miles in complete darkness but had flashlights.
Unfortunately, our leader was with the slow guy and three others. They ended up taking the longer route. We waited an hour for them to return safely to the cars. I am not sure why or how Matthew got off track. He had always been a good leader, he hikes with the Sierra Club and had never gotten us lost.
Well, this is the second experience I will never forget. The first one was when Sean and I hiked for 19 hours and struggled to get out of a canyon in the dark. Haha!
I would love to go back and summit but start at 6 am because now I have the track.
Never again with Matthew.
Stats: 11 miles, 3000+ feet of gain and a grueling 12 1/2 hour hike in the desert.
I will post some of the cool rock formations in a separate post. If you want to see all the cool pics you can check out my blog in a few days.
The descent.
