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Friends
“Always treasure your friends, because you get to pick your friends.” our buddies in Montana counsel us. We treasure our friends as they always look out for us. Here are examples of the messages we receive from friends via our InReach device. “Stay in the Toquima Range and DO NOT look at any recent news.” “Add another gas can to the back of your camper and keep going! The news will make you sick. Do not look.”
We arrived at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park early afternoon on October 31st. Our friend, Deb, was involved with the annual Death Valley 49ers Encampment. She was giving several talks and was also a vendor selling her book, zines, greeting cards, and stickers. Her husband, Steve, was an able assistant, both with technical and logistical support. We were joining up with Deb & Steve for adventures when their Encampment duties were finished. An extra special addition to the group was our friend, Donna. She was already set up in a corner of the campground and we joined her.
We miss the Coyote vs. Pets scoreboard that was once displayed at the entrance.
The subject of Deb’s talk that afternoon - Halloween - was “Death in Death Valley.” We learned that, although Death Valley has Death in its name, North Cascades National Park is a deadlier place.
The next day Steve joined us for a hike up nearby Mosaic Canyon. Deb was busy with her booth and Donna was preparing to head out and continue with her trip. It had been several years since we’d hiked up Mosaic Canyon, so it was a delight to return.
We reached the first major pour over.
We backtracked and climbed the bypass around the pour over.
We continued up the canyon to the next major pour over that has no bypass.
Returning down canyon, we stopped for the view down the first pour over.
We continued down.
The first narrows with its polished marble is the highlight of Mosaic Canyon.
The event was finished in the late afternoon. After helping pack up Deb’s booth, books, and such, we drove up onto the Darwin Plateau and camped on the edge of the Coso Range Wilderness. The next morning we began our hike up canyon with a stop at the old cabin.
I was pleased to find Roger Mitchell’s card he left 24 years ago. Roger was a prolific author of backcountry road guides. Our destination was up canyon.
We climbed down to and past the lower spring.This is another fun canyon to explore.
It’s a few miles up to the upper spring. We’ve visited this special place twice before -
We continued up to the end of the canyon after visiting the upper spring. Searching the basalt cliff bands, we found several nice petroglyph panels.
We also found a work station with a metate.
We came to the boundary fence of NAWS China Lake. And we suspected photos were taken of Deb as she photographed the sign.
Our route was a 11.5 mile loop around the ridge and back north down the canyon to the east.
We had enough daylight remaining to climb up out of the canyon on a different kind of search.
On June 26, 1972, two US Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II jets collided over the Coso Range while on a training flight. The Lady and I have visited the scattered debris before. The four crewmen (two in each F-4) ejected but one was killed. When visiting a crashsite, please do so with the utmost respect for those lost.
Steve is a retired aircraft engineer with Boeing. It was an education hearing his assessment of the fighter jet and its construction.
It's an interesting footnote that F-4J #158379 was the last F-4 Phantom built.
The sun had set as we arrived back at camp. This was the first day of the return to standard time. We would be getting use to the earlier end of daylight.
We moved east the next morning to another canyon. We wanted to explore around a large spring up that canyon. We drove as far up the primitive 4x4 road as we could.
The spring area was extensive.
The spring had, at one time in the past, been developed as a water supply. An old trail with stacked rock retaining walls came in along the canyon side.
Although we were hoping for more, we did find a workstation with bedrock mortars.
We hiked back down the canyon but decided to climb out to the top of the ridge to take in the views and orient ourselves.
Dropping into a connecting drainage, we returned to our trucks. That is Owens Lake in the far distance.
Our attempt to reach China Garden in Darwin Canyon was turned around by impossible road conditions after flooding. We quickly came up with an alternate plan.
Although it was windy and cold at our high camp in the Joshua trees of Lee Flat, we were treated to the most colorful sunset of this trip.
We had an exciting adventure planned for the following day. Our adventure continues in the upcoming Part Two.
