We received a disappointing phone call late on Friday evening letting us know that one of the planes we were using had been grounded due to mechanical problems (better to find out then and not in the air).  Never giving up,  my wife put her resources to work,  and we were soon on a boat going from Long Beach to Avalon.  The plan from there was nebulous, but we managed to arrange a ride to the airport and begin our hike.

Catalina Island is a fantastic place to hike.  I is one of those rare coastal wildlands, full of interesting creatures and plants.  Within minutes of leaving the airport facility after a lunch at the great little restaurant we ran across a buffalo grazing on the side of the road. These Buffalo, numbering at about 150, were originally brought to the island in the 1920s as props for a silent western film that was produced on the island, and never removed.  The Catalina Island Conservancy now monitors and maintains a herd of about 150 that give the island a unique charm.  These Buffalo are huge, and are worthy destination when visiting the island.

Our first glimpse of Little Harbor, and the campground in the distance made my heart soar.  This beach front camping destination is beautiful,  and was not crowded. We arrived in the late afternoon after a mellow 6-mile hike with enough light to explore the area a bit, and set up camp.  The host in the campground delivered several bundles of wood to our campsite, and we enjoyed an evening around the fire listening to the waves crash on the shore and the bullfrogs croaking in the channel of a small stream that emptied into the harbor.

Morning dawned with perfect weather and prime conditions to take a hike up to a rocky point that promised sweeping views of the western side of the island.  Several of us followed the beach to some narrow drainage channels in the hillside, and picked our way up through the rocky rough terrain to the point.  Along the way we came across a baby rattlesnake sunning itself in the middle of the narrow path we were following.   After some ogling and concern that it may be dangerous to get to close, the snake gave us a disgusted look and disappeared through the bushes.  The views from the top were fantastic, and the buffalo grazing near the point was very entertaining.

We wimped out a little bit by arranging for a shuttle bus to take us back to Avalon, but this did give us more time to explore the area around Little Harbor,  and gave us the opportunity to have a lunch in Avalon, and catch a 2pm boat back to Long Beach where we ended the trip with great memories and plans to make it back soon.

San Mateo Canyon Wilderness area is on of the few big open spaces in Southern California that are close enough to the Pacific Ocean that the habitat is affected by its vast body of water.  The area is lush,  with the canyon bottoms filled with oak and sycamore trees (and tons of poison oak).  Our campground was situated on an old sand bar above a pretty stream tumbling through the rocks, with a small beach where one could relax and listen to the water gurgle if the weather was more cooperative.  While it is still early, the wildflowers in the area are set to explode.  A trip through this area next month should be a very colorful experience.

San Mateo Canyon Wilderness

We car camped in a shallow canyon, that ended up funneling the early morning wind, making for a raucous wake up call for my students.  We hiked into Smugglers Canyon to visit the Pictograph rock, that is an easy very accessible hike for most everyone.  Located a relatively flat mile into the canyon,  this large boulder decorated with red and yellow pictographs makes for a grand lunch stop.  Unfortunately this weekend the rain made it rough to stop for too long.  As I was pondering this boulder and the secrets it contains for the umpteenth time,  I came to a realization.   In my travels to Europe and other places where their long history is recorded in the architecture, I often bemoan the lack of this sort of historical record in my native city of San Diego.  While we do have a past, one that is on display in places such as the Mission, Presidio Park, and Old Town,  it is relatively new; sparse and fragmented. We are often isolated from it in our daily lives.  What I realized when I was looking at this rock,  is the ancient history that I have admired in cities such as Paris is here. It is just not written in building. It is written in the rocks; the places where the people who shaped our region lived breathed and died.  They are not the people from whom I am descended, but they are the people who recorded the past in the place I call my home.

After stopping at the Pictograph rock,  we continued on through Smugglers Canyon to the dry waterfall that provided a spectacular view of the southern portion the Anza Borrego Desert.  We were a bit concerned as to the volume of rain,  and joked as to whether the dry wash we were walking in was going to become a river again.  Fortunately this wash is very wide,  and the walls provide easy escape routes if this were ever a problem. The View as always was fantastic.  We rounded out our Saturday with a trip to a mortero site, and a nice sunset on an overlook just down from these morteros.

After a windy night, we concluded our trip with a hike up Ghost Mountain, and visited the rapidly crumbling remains of the the Marshal South cabin site he dubbed “Yaquitepec“.  Marchall South and his family lived on the isolated, inaccessible Ghost Mountian without the benefit of any modern conveniences from 1932 through the 1940s.  His Thoreau like desert experiment which he documented in a monthly columns in Desert Magazine brings another piece of the rich history of the desert that so many perceive as a barren dead landscape.

The idea of hiking the Grand Canyon with my very young daughter (Eleanor) was sparked couple of years ago, when I was hiking the Grand Canyon for the first time with my father, staring in awe from the SouthKiabab Trail as the sun rose over the canyon walls silhouetting the landscape.  It made me a little sad that I could not burn that image in my brain, and transfer the memory to my children, complete with the state that the sunrise brought to my soul.  The trip came into fruition last summer as she was running circles around me on a short backpack trip to Little Lakes Valley in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Hiking from a trial head that was above 11,000 feet was taking a toll on my body.  I was enjoying the trip, but could feel the effects altitude on my lungs, and the pack on my muscles.  Eleanor was as usual running circle around me. In fact, she hatched an idea as to how to share the trip with her friend and family,  and collected about 5 pounds of the prettiest rocks she could find around our camp site, and stowed them away in her pack for hike out the next day.  I was shocked to lift her pack at the end of the trip and to realize that she was dancing down the trial with an extra 10% of her body weight in rocks pulling down of her pack.  I came to the conclusion that this girl can hike.  Perhaps it is time to share the Canyon with my first-born.

Securing permits for a trip below the rim is not an easy task.  You must plan to fax your application on the first day of the moth 5-months before you plan you trip. I also had to plan carefully as I knew that I would be pushing the limits Eleanor’s physical and emotional capabilities during this trip.  Playing it smart was certainly in the cards.  I put in a request for a permit that would allow for 4-days and 3-nights in the canyon for my daughter my parents and me.  We planned to stick with the well traveled corridor trails (SouthKiabab for the decent and Bright Angel for the accent), and split the the trip out of the Canyon in two by camping at Indian Gardens for the last night.  We spent two nights in the Bright Angel Campground near Phantom Ranch, allowing a day off from major hiking, and allowing us to explore the area a little more thoroughly than I have before .

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The route was ideal to foster the confidence and limitations of the whole group,  enough of a challenge that when Eleanor called Mom after the hike down, she indicated that it was the hardest thing she had ever done.  Despite the challenge she was ready and willing to go after a little rest.  The day off also allowed Eleanor to earn a Junior Ranger patch that is only available to kids who make it down to Phantom Ranch.   Splitting the trip back up was necessary in my opinion, and I think we would have been sunk without the rest day for little legs.  It also gave us a rare opportunity to experience snow in Indian Gardens.   It was a fun trip,  and a wonderful experience.  The route was challenging enough to give us a sense of accomplishment without claiming any victims.

Scratching The SURFace Website

WBC-

The Wilderness Basics class will begin on January 20th.  The class is filling up very fast, and is expected to reach capacity so sign up soon.  There are a number of fantastic trips being planned during all of the outings weekends.   The Snow Camp is on for the Eastern Sierras and looking to be memorable.

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market-

I will be attending the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market that runs from January 21st to January 25th.  I will be twittering it live from the show floor as I visit manufacturers of outdoor gear. I have been furiously setting up my schedule to bring you information from a variety of manufacturers from Merrell to Brookes Range Mountaineering.  I will be writing a number of posts on Outside San Diego covering the happenings at this premier Outdoor Gear Convention.

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The Grand Canyon Gear Shootout 2009-

Starting in February, Outside San Diego will be bringing you the “Grand Canyon Gear Shootout” During the shootout; gear manufacturers will bring their best, battling it out in a variety of categories to earn the right to earn the title of winner of the “Grand Canyon Gear Shootout 2009” and a place on the “Ultimate Grand Canyon Gear List”.  The winners will then be a part of a four-day trip below the rim and each winner will be featured in a test report here on Outside San Diego.  Stay Tuned for more on the Grand Canyon Gear Shootout 2009.

In addition to all the extras that will be a part of Outside San Diego, we will continue to bring you the best of the outdoors in San Diego, Southern California and beyond.

Do you have a hike that you feel should have been added to the list?  Did I leave a hike out?  Is this list totally wrong?  Let everyone know of the hikes your gonna hike in 2009.  A comment here will begin to provide a foundation for a community of hikers and  will become a valuable resource for all hikers in the future.

Let your opinion be known and then get out and hike!

While The Slot is a short hike after a long trip from San Diego, it is just one hike in an interesting area.  While you are in the area, be sure to walk up West Butte to the east, and if you are interested in camping, Hawk Canyon, just a short drive to the east, provides a superb overnight destination.

To get to The Slot, you follow highway 78 to road marker 78.2, which is marked as Buttes Pass Road.  You follow this road north until you come to a dirt parking area, which marks the East end of the slot located directly to the north.  Find a way down into the canyon to the north, and follow it west, and the walls will soon close in around you forming the slot.

I spent Sunday exploring the Mud Caves of Arroyo Tapiado in the Anza Borrego Desert.  We parked our car at the base of the wash and hiked up the wash exploring the the slot canyons and mud caves the dot the landscape on each side of the canyon walls.  Like so many places in the Anza Borrego,  I was amazed at the the diversity landscape I was witnessing.  I could hike this wash for days,  and not discover all it has hidden.  We found a particularly interesting slot canyon about two mile up from our parking spot, and hiked a mile into it,  ducking through rock arches,  and crawling through short caves.  We found a comfortable spot in the shade and had lunch.

After lunch,  we made our way out the canyon,  and found a deep dark mud cave with multiple skylights (I believe it is called Chasm Cave).  We hiked to the end of its 1/4 mile stretch,  and proceeded to get ourselves turned around in the looping tunnels.  We ended up back at the end when we were trying to get out.  After a uncomfortable moment,  we retraced our steps and realized our mistake.  We made it out alive!

As the sun began to drop we headed back to the car,  happy, and looking forward to returning to explore more of this amazing area.

Here is a good link with descriptions of the caves and canyons  Hidden San Diego

•    Means collecting 5 lbs of pretty rocks to bring home to family and friends, and stashing them in your backpack and carrying them home without a peep to your unsuspecting Dad.

•    Means loving Top Ramen like it a a gourmet meal, and asking why we never have such good food at home.
•    Means swiping Dads camera to shoot some photos of your “best friend” Molly posing in the dramatic scenery

•    Means demanding 3 jelly beans at the top of every hill before moving another step
•    Means being excited as to how curly your hair will be after two solid days of it being wrapped in a braid
•    Means shedding a tired tear about missing Mommy and Sissy only a few moments after making Dad promise we will come back to this spot again for a longer backpacking trip.

•    Means insisting you try everything from pouring the alcohol in the stove to opening the bear canister with your brand new swiss army knife.
•    Means being oblivious to the little smiles you bring to everyone you meet on the trail as you walk by with a little skip,  and “Molly” peeking out of your backpack so “she can enjoy the trip too”.

•    Means savoring that popsicle you picked out at the little café down the road from the trailhead.