EISPIRATEN

Keith invited me to hike Middle Ysidro (5855') in the San Ysidro Mountains of Anza-Borrego. He made it sound difficult, and I was craving a difficult desert adventure, so off we went. We parked at a random spot along Montezuma-Borrego Highway and started making tracks by 7:30am. Keith had created a GPS route and seemed to know where he was going, so I followed faithfully. The entire eleven-mile route would be XC, in potentially confusing terrain. But the weather was clear, the sun was out, we were making footprints, and I was studying the landmarks, so I felt confident we'd survive a GPS/tech disaster should something happen.

We crossed slightly brushy terrain with cholla bombs to avoid. The soft sand held many rodent holes which we trod upon carefully. You don't want to sink into a hole and twist or break your ankle out here. Keith pointed out the landmarks, Bonny BM and Chimney Rock.

After climbing a bit, we sidehilled, then dropped into a gully, then climbed again. There was a lot of this sort of thing, as we negotiated the upper reaches of the Hellhole Canyon watershed. Keith pointed out more landmarks, The Thimble and Hob BM. Apparently our route would take us over Hob. But first Keith wanted to bag a couple points which he called the Hob Knobs (4960' and 5000'). They looked fun, but I preferred to relax in the shade of a small tree and enjoy the beautiful clear sky and mild breeze. I watched as Keith expertly climbed the impressive formations.

We then dropped about 650' in search of our final ascent ridge. Let's call it Hob Ridge, since it's host to Hob BM. Here we had fun gaining 1480' on steep, brushy, rocky terrain. Keith and I took turns navigating. We made a couple small mistakes and had to backtrack to more open areas. Thankfully heavy brush could mostly be avoided by scrambling up and over giant rock piles.

The ascent proved tiring. We took breaks in the cool shade and assessed our water situation. With rationing we should be fine, we figured, but then I noticed a little puddle on top of a boulder. Why ration when you can drink dirty puddle water and stay fully hydrated? We also found a miniscule amount of snow, and of course I shoved that into a bottle on the way back. Altogether I made an extra three liters of drinking water from puddles and snow along the route.

Finally we reached the main ridge and a false summit (5840'). We carried on and pushed through a particularly brushy area with the real summit (5855') in sight.

Middle Ysidro requires a fun class 3 move to stand on the summit block, from which the views are clear and spectacular in every direction. We took turns on the top and ate lunch in the sun. The rest of San Ysidro Ridge looked very brushy and intimidating. I was glad we took the path we took.

On the descent Keith found a gully route which proved easier to descend than the Hob Ridge. However, we did get attacked a couple times by the Cat's Claw plants. And Keith started rationing food and water, not wanting to partake very much in the bottled puddles. I had filtered them through a bandana, and treated them with Potable Aqua tablets. Then I improved the taste with berry-flavored electrolyte tablets. Despite looking like diarrhea water, it did the trick and kept me feeling solid.

We took several breaks on the return. Even though we finished the summit push, we still had about 1000' of gain to enjoy on the way back. I could tell Keith was running on empty when he lost his GPS device and didn't want to backtrack for it. So I dropped my pack and retrieved it. (The machine claims we did eleven miles with over 4200' gain, which seems close enough based on my analysis of the cleaned-up track. I suspect the gain was more like 3800-3900 feet, but considering how much sidehilling we did, I'm perfectly happy to defer to the machine this time.) After being out for eleven hours, we finally reached the truck an hour before sunset.

Nauseous, Keith refused to vomit as we drove to Pala Casino for some refreshments. By the time we reached Jack in the Box, he was healthy enough for a shake and chicken nuggets. I tried the new Smash burger, which tasted pretty good.
More photos by Keith...

What a day! The miles of side-hilling was so tedious. The least enjoyable part of the hike. The San Ysidro mountains are a special high desert area of Anza-Borrego with maybe the most scramble attractions per square mile outside of Joshua Tree. Temps on our trip ranged from 36F to 65F. I was prepared for an 8 hour trip, but the extra miles and hours wore me down. I probably needed an extra 48 oz of water and while I did drink some snow melt, the boulder water was not very appealing. In hindsight, I probably should have drank some boulder water. Sean's route finding was critical in certain areas and I am grateful he had the energy to retrieve the GPS. I was pleased the ankle never gave me any problems. It was sore, but I was sore everywhere by the time we got back. I think it's safe to declare it back in working order.


Sean on Middle Ysidro


San Ysidro ridge line

Three liters of water from snow and puddles is pretty impressive! No snow in any of the pics so it must have been well-hidden.
Keith, if the ankle is just as sore as the rest of the body I think that's a good indicator of its' health.

Jeff,

We found two small patches of snow in the shade under brush on the north side of the ridge. Sean made the most of it. The ankle is healed enough that it doesn't factor into my plans now. I am still doing PT on it, but it's 90-95%. It doesn't bend as far as it used to, but works. Just glad I didn't need surgery.