From: mark@csi.jpl.nasa.gov (Mark Webster)
Subject: Mojave Desert trip report
Followup-To: rec.backcountry
Originator: mark@morningstar
Keywords: desert, botany, history
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 16:33:05 GMT



I tried sending this once and I didn't see it.  I apologize if you've already seen it.

I just got back from a trip to the East Mojave Scenic Area with the
Sierra Club and since my favorite part of this group is the trip
reports, I thought I'd post one.

I had Friday off (for reasons beyond my control) and I spent all day
getting ready for the trip.  It rained all day and my wife kept
calling and asking if the trip was cancelled.  She's not a big camping
fan and camping in the rain is not an option.  But the sky was
clearing as I headed out to pick up our carpool guests and then my
wife and we hit the road.  Getting out of LA is a major pain on a
Friday afternoon so we took an alternate route over the San Gabriels
to Palmdale and east from there.  It is extremely winding and twisty
and probably didn't really save us any time but at least we were
always moving.  The sky was totally clear almost the whole way there
through the LA urban overflow of Victorville and Barstow where the
desert looks even more populated than during the daytime because of
all the lights.  As we got close to the turn off I-40 into the Scenic
Area where the lights disappear and all you can see out the side is
vague dark mountainous shapes, the sky to the north started to cloud
up.  We turned off and headed north and passed a sign that said, "Road
subject to flash flooding" and my wife shot me one of those looks that
would scare a hungry mountain lion.  We headed up a paved and then
dirt road to Mid-Hills campground.  The road was good and no problem.
Just before we reached the campground, we hit the thickest fog I have
ever seen.  I thought about climbing out on the hood and leaning down
to touch the road and shout instructions to my wife but 5 miles an
hour seemed adequate.  We found the campground and part of the group
we were supposed to meet.  We pulled into a campsite with another
member of the group and started to set up camp.  My wife and I set up
our tent in the shelter of a small grove of pinyon and juniper trees
to protect us from the wind.  The trees caught the moisture from the
fog and it basically rained on the tent all night.  We stayed mostly
dry.

The next day we find out that the trip leaders didn't show up and we
were going to wait to see if they did.  The fog didn't burn off
completely until about 10 am.  We hiked around the campground to check
things out.  The campground is at about 5000 ft elevation and was
suprisingly lush for the Mojave.  There were lots of tall, healthy
pinyon and juniper.  There were botanists along so I learned (and
promptly forgot) lots of plant names.  Some that I remember from the
campsite are mormon tea (contains a form of amphetamine so makes a
great pick-me-up in the morning), great basin sage and lots of
different grasses.  

At 11 a.m., we decided to go for a hike along the Mid-Hills to
Hole-in-the-Wall trail that is maintained by the group that was
sponsoring the trip.  It's a nice trail with great views and a wide
variety of terrain and plants.  We didn't hike the whole trail but
looped back on an old ranch road to the campsite.  We found out that
the trip leader had shown up and gone off to hike up to Wild Horse
mesa which was the original goal of the trip.  So we piled in our cars
and went to Council Rock, a petroglyph site.  The site was also
apparently used for ceremonies with speculation by experts that a
large rock with a hole eroded through was used for fertility rites.
The figures were very similar to ones found all over the country from
Utah to the Mojave.  Nearby was an overhanging rock cave that had some
painted figures on the roof.  These use pigment on rock whereas the
petroglyphs are carved directly into the rock exposing the surface
under the patina.  These painted images were right next to a small
20's era dam (silted up with a large tamarisk bush<?> right in the
middle of the silt) and the remains of an old horse camp below.  The
mix of history was almost dizzying.  

The next day we packed up and headed for Carruthers Canyon to meet a
botanist whos was going to give us a tour of the flora of this area.
We traveled along the Old Mojave Road (the non-4wd part) and over some
rather tough two tracks.  We had a Lincoln and a Honda Civic with and
it was interesting speculating what their owners were thinking as they
negotiated some rather hairy bits.  I was in a Jeep Cherokee and
chuckling contentedly.  We arrived and once again Latin was flying
fast and furious since there were 4 botanists with by then.  I
remember coffee berry, some kind of buckwheat, shrub live oak, canyon
live oak, and willow.  There was also a deer wrapped in plastic
hanging by the neck from a tree in a hunters camp.  I wondered aloud
whether it had swiped someone's horse and been lynched.  My wife was
not amused.  The trail up the canyon ended at an old mine called the
Great Ledge mine.  It was pretty extensive as desert mines go and
still had small gauge rails for ore carts in place.  It was shut down
in the '40s.  

We hiked back and headed for an area called Landsfar and some more
petroglyphs near another section of the old Mojave Road.  This set of
carvings was near a water hole at the end of a butte.  The water
seemed cut out of solid rock with a laser.  The edges were incredibly
smooth.  It looked as if it was man-made but had to be natural.  There
were 'glyphs all over the place.  The old botanist said that glyphs
are often associated with water.  As scarce as water is in the Mojave,
it's not suprising that the ancient ones would consider such a place
sacred, especially as unique as this place was.  

Finally we headed for Goffs and an old schoolhouse there that is being
renovated by the Friends of the Mojave Road into a museum.  The owner
of the place is an historian and an excellent speaker and storyteller.
He is incredibly knowledgeable about the Mojave.  If you get out that
way, its definitely worth a visit. 

That's it. Sorry so long and long-winded.  This was proofed as it was
written so any mistakes are due to debris on dirty screens.  So keep
those CRT's clean people.

Mark Webster

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