Monday, March 28, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
2016 Eastern Mojave Scenic
Monday February 15 2016
The main thing you need to know abut the Eastern Mojave Scenic endurance ride is that Joshua trees are not your friends. To be sure, they are fascinating, bizarre, intriguing; but a Joshua tree is like a steel pole with sharp fangs. Or a medieval mace with wicked spikes. (In Spanish it is zote de desierto, or "desert dagger".) You don't want to get clubbed by one nor grazed by one when you ride by. You certainly don't want to hug one. They are to be admired from afar, far enough that your body doesn't come into unwanted proximity.
And you have plenty of chances to make contact with these mighty beasts, as the Joshua tree forest on Cima Dome - part of the Eastern Mojave endurance trails - is one of two the largest and most dense anywhere on earth.
The Yucca brevifolia belongs to the genus Yucca. The name Joshua tree came from Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave desert in the 1800s, since the tree's shape reminded them of the Bible story where Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer. If Joshua was ever riding in the Mojave desert, he was certainly praying that his horse didn't duck into one.
The other thing main thing to remember is that the Duck and Annie and gang have been putting on this ride in the Eastern Mojave National Preserve for 14 years. The 1.6 million-acre Mojave National Preserve is managed by the National Park System, so between the NPS, BLM, and some private land, the Duck has to jump through quite a few hoops to continue putting this ride on.
Continuing on Steph's #WinterWimp road trip, we headed west from Scottsdale for this ride on the California/Arizona border with Smokey and Jose.
We reunited with Gretchen, the third member of our Unofficial Unauthorized Uninvited Bluegrass band - "U3". At least our horses didn't break away from the trailer and run off.
It's been 8 years since I rode the Eastern Mojave. The trails are still as awesome, the unique desert flora still fascinating, the history of the area still intriguing to ride through. The interstate near which we camped was the only thing that had changed - it's even more full of humanity racing between Los Angeles and Las Vegas 24 hours a day, zipping obliviously by this desert jewel.
There's evidence in some areas of this vast Mojave desert of inhabitants from 12,000 years ago in the form of petroglyphs, but our trail on Day 1 took us past more recent historical visitors and inhabitants.
Old mines dot the landscape, and the historical trash the miners left behind lined the Tin Can Alley trail along the foot of the Mescal range. As the Duck puts it, Tin Can Alley is "an important culture site, where early California Rednecks disposed of their unneeded cans. Dumping cans and trash in remote desert washes was an established practice of earlier desert dwellers and is one of those fast disappearing customs of the old west. Fortunately for us, previous Desert Rednecks thoughtfully left us something to remember them by…"
Certainly some of these old Desert Rednecks have been searching for the legendary lost River of Gold, where in the 1930's E.P. Dorr discovered an underground river and canyon 2000 to 5400 feet deep, with "many grotesque and fantastic shapes" of stalagmites and -tites that ran for 8 miles - all underground. The black sand river beaches were very rich in gold, but alas, the entrance to the cave was dynamited to keep its secrets safe… and safe they still are, though people still search for this River of Gold.
A stretch of a Cactus Patch framed our trail on loop 1, a spectacular array of varied cactuses - looking very healthy and colorful and prickly from winter rains. Turning off from Chevy Canyon (marked by a very old rusted Chevy sprouting from the sand), we headed along two-track roads and winding single tracks through Joshua tree forests, stopping to water at big old water troughs in old cattle ranch pens. One of the troughs was full of moss, and all the horses guzzled this sweet water.
Vet check was at the Valley View Ranch, which, after changing hands several times early in the 1900's, was bought by "Slim" Skinner and his father-in-law, Fred Twisselman in the 1940's and worked as a steer operation (as opposed to the common cow and calf operations).
Loop 2 took us up and around Cima Dome, which rises 1500 feet above the desert floor and covers 70 square miles. The dome is an erosional remnant of granite plutons (rock crystallized from magma slowly cooling deep below the surface of the earth) that formed 180 to 80 million years ago.
Along the scenic skyline are the New York Mountains and the Mid Hills. And old windmill or two still stand, a salute to the old ranching days, when year-round water was hard to come by for the cattle that eked out an existence here.
We ran into 3 friendly people hiking on the Teutonia Peak trail. They got a kick out of watching us trot by them down the trail. The nearby Teutonia mine was first worked for silver in 1896, but was quickly abandoned. In 1906, Charles Togel discovered the old mine, snagged investors, and built roads and a small camp called Togel City. The mine was soon abandoned again - just like the Evening Star mine that we passed (which started in 1935 as a copper claim, and ended up producing tin and tungsten in the 1940's), and so many others in the desert.
There's a fair amount of sand to traverse in the Eastern Mojave Preserve, and we took it easy through these deep trails in places, but with a decent breeze, and temperatures in the 70's, it was a great way to pass an afternoon on horseback, endurance riding in the Eastern Mojave Desert and National Preserve.
More ride photos at:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2016EMS/
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Tonto National Forest: Riding Camp Creek
Tuesday February 9 2016
Ride along the myriad Camp Creek horse and hiking trails in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona's Sonoran Desert, and you might feel like you're being watched by ghosts of the past.
If you look to the hilltops, you might catch a glimpse of remnants of the Sears-Kay Ruin of a Hohokam village from 900 years ago. The Hohokam were ancestors of today's Pima Indians.
The Sears-Kay Ruin (named, ironically, after the white settlers who came in 1887) is just one of a series of hilltop villages built of wood and stone and occupied between 1050AD and 1200 AD in the Phoenix basin, with multiple rooms, courtyards, and defensive walls.
The ruin sits above and between a spring-fed wash to the east and Camp Creek - a permanent stream - to the west.
Corn, squash, and beans were grown on flood plains along these creeks. Agave was grown on the slopes. The Hohokam diet was supplemented by the cactus we rode through: saguaro, cholla, prickly pear, and mesquite.
Deer, rabbits, and mountain sheep also provided variety.
Jose loved to stop on the high points and look at the scenery I'm sure he could sense the ghosts of the Ancient Ones.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Tritty Trot Tuddle Dunking in Maricopa
Tuesday January 26 2016
Maricopa county (encompassing the Phoenix/Scottsdale area in Arizona) made it a priority to preserve a portion of its natural desert as open space.
With this in mind, planning began in 2000 on an ambitious project of connecting the 10 regional parks with a non-motorized trail system.
Once completed (in cooperation with Federal, State and local agencies), this Maricopa Regional Trail System will be one big loop around the County, encompassing approximately 250 miles of trails for hikers, bikers, and horseback riders.
On a northwest corner of these trails, for 7 miles we went Tritty Trot Tuddle Dunking (Clydea's term for a trotting training ride!) through the Sonoran Desert amongst the saguaro and cholla, rabbits and Phainopeplas and a coyote, sharing the trail with hikers and a biker on this cool winter day.
If we wanted to, we could have ridden all the way to McDowell Mountain Park, where one of the Lead Follow Or Get Out Of My Way endurance rides is held. Maybe one day, some adventurous ride manager will put together a 100-mile point-to-point endurance ride on this trail system, which should, of course, be called the Maricopa Tritty Trot Tuttle Dunk.
Monday, January 4, 2016
2015 Death Valley Encounter: Isolation and Desolation
You're flirting with disaster when, if you're a #WinterWimp, you migrate south with two horses and me, the Ice Princess, hoping for a warm winter in Arizona and California.
And so it was somewhat disastrous when #WinterWimp Steph pulled into Ridecamp at the Trona Country Club with 2 horses for the Death Valley Encounter endurance ride, and the sunrise temperatures hovered between 21* and 31* the next 5 mornings, temperatures that nobody ever recalls being so low during the ride. I was of course given credit for bringing the cold with me. :)
"Trona is known for its isolation and desolation," says Wikipedia, and that about sums it up. Either blinding white (even in winter!) from the borax crystals mined in the dry alkaline Searles Lake bed, or Desolation Gray (a crayon color yet to be invented) from the severe and sparse mountains and desert, and freaking hot in the summer (think 105* average for July), regular godawful wind, and chronic stink from the "hellish stench of sulfur" (said the L.A Times in this dismal 2006 article), Trona appears to leave much to be desired.
It's slightly famous for the nearby Trona Pinnacles, where, among others, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek V movies were filmed.
And on a less grand scale, but nonetheless famous among endurance riders, it's now basecamp for the Death Valley Encounter endurance ride. Basecamp has moved around over the 30 years of this 4-day ride between Christmas and New Year's, including moving basecamps during the ride itself; this year's Ridecamp at the Trona Country Club (it's not what you're all thinking)
for all 4 days gave us a grand view and sniff to the east of the Searles Valley, Trona, and the borax plants.
While in previous years the DVE would traverse some trails of the actual Death Valley National park, now because of logistics, permits, and a morphing endurance riding population that isn't as gung ho as they were in the old days and which prefers not having to pack up and move camp every night after each day of riding 50 miles a day, the DVE ride is still pretty darn close enough to Death Valley, and still has some of the most scenic trails I've ever ridden on an endurance ride.
To the West lies the Slate Range, Panamint Valley, Panamint Mountains, and Death Valley, in that rugged order. The area is rife with history: of the Timbisha Shoshone, Western Shoshone, and Paiute Native Americans around before the gold and silver miners who attracted the pioneers (memorably the Lost Fortyniners) who came to look for more gold. Old mines and equipment still litter the landscape over the trails we trod during the endurance ride.
And they are rugged trails, isolated and desolate, and just exponentially multiply those thoughts if you dare visit in the summer. Desperately lacking in water and shade, diabolically hard on animal life, and oh those pioneers who had to traverse the valleys and mountains with oxen and wagons or, worse, on foot because they ate their oxen and burned their wagons for fuel. Every time your horse climbs over the Slate Range, every trail over which he has to carefully pick his way through the rocks, you are reminded of how difficult it was for the miners and pioneers, and how tough they were to choose that life. I was particularly grateful to be riding in a cold winter, and not in a hot summer! (Well, you won't get me into Death Valley in the summer, nowhere nohow noway anyway.)
Steph and I rode Smokey and Jose on the 50-mile rides on Days 1 and 3. We had inch-thick ice on the water buckets in the mornings; we wore layers of clothing (Steph 6 layers, me, The Ice Princess, 3 layers, and the horses their thick Idaho winter coats) to start out. Not much got peeled off during the days!
Day 1 followed two-track desert roads, washes, burro trails (we didn't see any burros, but they were around, but what the heck they ate to survive I couldn't imagine), climbing up and over the Slate Range and down into the Panamint Valley, before following miles of the dry Lake Panamint bed, then climbing back up and over the Slate Range again to basecamp.
Most of the trails were rocky. But we expected that, having padded our horses' feet. Climbing up and over the Slate Range got our winter-hairy ponies quite sweaty despite the awesome temperature (says the Ice Princess) of high 30's in the morning sun. The view of the Panamint Range across the Panamint Valley far below is staggering. In the winter sun, the rippled washes grooving the mountains in tans and grays and purples are magnetic and mysterious to the eye and soul.
Lunch was a pleasant stop in the middle of the Panamint Valley. I had the best cup of soup I've ever had in my life which I slurped and crunched down even before the noodles softened.
In this country, you trot when you can when the footing's good, and you walk when you have to when it's rocky. We had good footing along the dry Panamint Lake bed heading back after the lunch stop, and we trotted, non-stop for 1 hour and 20 minutes. The playa is a dry mud flat covered with water in the wet season - if there is a wet season. We had a slight head breeze and the horses cruised along this soft, rock-less footing.
Once we turned back toward the Slate Range, the horses got back to picking their footing through rock, rock, and more rock. The trails we climbed back up were built by a dirt bike group - 4 miles of it, at least. Tremendous effort they put in, and they must have been some C-R-A-Z-Y riders. Yeah, I'd ride a sure-footed horse over these trails, but a dirt bike!? Those people are nuts. But we appreciated the trails, with yet another spectacular view of the Panamint Valley and Range behind us that widened into a spectacular panorama far below us.
The trails and two-track roads down the east side weren't as steep nor as rocky. I got off to walk/run some downhill, guaranteeing I'd be wiped out by the end of the day. While still up high, (un-forecast) clouds began moving in and the temperature dropped to the low 30's, and danged if we didn't get a few itty bitty snowflakes on us as we were riding into the finish. The Ice Princess' power extends even to the southern reaches of Death Valley!
We'd planned on riding our horses only 2 days, so we decided to ride Day 3 (up the Slate Range again), and sleep in on Day 2!
Day 3's loop 1 took us back up into the Slate Range on a different trail - and up and up, climbing to radio towers on one of the peaks. We had yet another view of the Panamint Range and Valley as we headed up.
Descent back to the Searles Valley was a long, steep, gnarly, very cool old trail that must have first been created by burros. Everybody was off leading on foot on that one. That is a trail you would not want to ride up!
After an hour lunch break back in camp, the going got tough - but in a different way. We looped around the Searles Valley, up against the Slate foothills through some old mines,
then across the highway to the Argus Range foothills - but no matter which way we rode, we always had a clear view of Ridecamp far away. The horses sure kept their eyes on it the whole afternoon! Every time we seemed to be getting closer to it, we'd keep traveling in the same direction way past it. We rode up to a water-less waterfall in the Argus foothills and made some more wide detours in numerous directions before finally finishing, just as the sun sank behind the Argus range and the temperature began dropping again.
Several milestones were reached at this year's Death Valley Encounter. Among others:
Cindy Bradley and her Morgan, Bogar Tucker, (aka "Bo", with over 5000 miles) accomplished Decade Team status after Day 1's 50 mile ride.
Becky Lange's Kentucky Mountain horse, Mocha Jack, (aka "M"), reached his 5000 miles plateau.
Attendance was again lower than the year before… we sure hope The Duck keeps this ride (and the rest of his XP rides) going.
We made some new friends, reconnected with old friends, played some old tyme Bluegrass music at the New Year's Eve party with Gretchen (and on an earlier day, Simon), and loaded up and said, (as did one of the Lost Fortyniners, as the story goes), "Goodbye, Death Valley."
Till we meet again. (In winter!)
See more photos from the ride here:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2015DVE/
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