I had a plan. Maybe not the smartest plan but a plan. I was going to hit the ridge line of the surrounding hills to get an aerial view of the airstrip. No one else had any interest, so this would be a solo run. After climbing the plateau for the view, I worked my way through an arroyo back to a gully that I thought would be climbable. With the threat of rattle snakes I kept my eyes peeled as I climbed the rock wall. The granite rocks were large and solid enough to make for a stair climb without too much concern to falling. Once up the gully I started leaving rock cairns to help guide myself back to the correct descent point.
The path was still up from this point but much more of the effort was finding a path through the patches of cacti and brush trying to spear me with their large spikes. My surprise came in how far it was to the overlook. I kept going, and going, and going thinking it must be close. Clearly the hills curve away from the bay but finally after over an hour I found a decent view point. Snapped a picture and continued on another ten minutes to a better spot.
Now the fun begins, finding my way back… Still keeping an eye for rattlesnakes I failed to think about spiders and holy shit did I go through a massive web. In the process for extracting myself I managed to get speared by some sort of plant and my arm immediately had a reaction. But thankfully no spider bites. Note to self, slow down and be careful. This area has coyotes, whose howling kept Shalise up the previous night, and I stumbled on one. At first he jogged away but then stopped and watched me Yelling and waving my arms did nothing to scare him. So a wide berth was given with a large rock in my hand. Working my way to a view point of the anchorage I had a couple more slip ups where rocks became dislodged and I stumbled. Each time thinking, slow down…
Finally I made it across to see the anchorage and while starting to climb up a large boulder noticed it was home to hundreds of flying ants. Ugh, not going up there. Drifting back to the gully there were a few more spots to check out the anchorage and I was shocked to pretty much walk straight to one of my cairns which gave me more confidence on my decent. Going down was of course more challenging than up but no rocks slipped out from under me and 160 minutes after my hike began I was back on the beach. Ready to wash off all my scrapes and scratches.
No Comments