Continued...
Some days aren't so great and this would qualify as one of them. It started the
night before when I had bedded down in Berdoo Canyon NE of Indio & Palm Springs.
Sometime around 11p a car drove by and then set up target practice in the Berdoo
Wash. The pop-pop...pop...pop-pop kept up until midnight at which time they
packed up and drove off. I wondered if they might start using my van for
a target. Would I have any warning before the first slug came through the side
panel? Who does this sort of thing in the middle of the night?
When I awoke in the morning I found
that I had parked in the middle of the largest informal shooting range I have
ever seen. The ground was covered in ,
targets, beer
cans, assorted electrical and mechanical gadgets that made it to the Most
Wanted List, and endless amounts of trash, acres and acres of open desert land
left like this, baking for decades, and piling up for future archeologists to
ponder our existence and lifestyle. Sigh. It had started raining lightly a few
hours before dawn and the sky was heavily overcast when I got up. I had planned
to hike some peaks in Joshua Tree NP by hiking up Berdoo Canyon, but the clouds
obscured the summits and it didn't look all that fun. I needed a new plan.
Indio Hills
Across to
from the Little Berdoo Mtns are the lowly Indio Hills, its
highpoint crowned by a dozen summit towers. Since the clouds were above the
summit, I made this my first stop. I parked in the rural community of
off Dillon Rd, north of the highpoint. There is no way to make this
comunity look good. It's simply row after row of shithole homesteads. It sounds
bad, but our president said it's ok to use that term. I parked in an empty lot
and walked through another empty one between two aforementioned shitholes,
hoping not to get shot. Two ferocious-looking dogs took offense to my presence
and I felt lucky they were behind one of the fenced homes. The wash I walked
through behind the lots were used to dump all manner of trash and debris. Such
an ugly bit of desert. It took about half an hour to hike the mile and a quarter
to
up rock-strewn slopes. I found the North Indio by one of the
towers and took a few a before starting down. The weather was
starting to clear nicely and would have cooperated with the original Berdoo
Canyon plan, but too late now. On my way back through the neighborhood, I was
unhappy to find the two dogs had been let out of their yard and came
running once they spotted me. If ever there was cause to carry a
firearm... They circled behind me and came closer, barking non-stop. No owner
came out to call them off, undoubtedly finding it all humorous. I looked around
for anything to defend myself with - rock, peice of wood, whatever. I picked up
a broken piece of PVC piping that was virtually useless, having rotted so in
the sun. It had an immediate impact on the dogs, though. Tails suddenly between
the legs, they backed off and let out not a peep. Evidently they've been
beaten by their owner enough to know what picking up a rod or stick means. I
carried the thing back to the car before dropping it on the ground. These people
suck.
Mecca Hills
East of Indo and south of Interstate 10 are the Mecca Hills, another low set
of hills overlooking the desert cities and the Salton Sea. The Mecca Hills
Wilderness covers a portion of the range, minus the highpoint which is crowned
by telecom towers. There are two points about a mile apart vying for the
Wilderness HP and I visited both in a six mile loop. Others have done them
much more easily with a bit of driving from the
Cactus City Rest Area. Unfortunately,
the rest area was closed so I
and walked . It
would have fit with the day to have the car ticketed or towed, but I was happy
to find it unmolested upon my return three hours later. I walked much of the
road out to the telecom towers, shortcutting the road in a few places. I found
the Blink
outside one of the fences, but it appears the
benchmark at the range highpoint was covered in concrete.
is one of the Wilderness HP candidates, only a few minutes away. Dan Baxter left
a register there and it already had 5-6 entries.
Getting between the two Wilderness HP candidates is a bit tricky if one is
trying to minimize elevation gain and loss. I simply did the straightline
navigation, dropping into two
intervening between the points. The
total elevation gain for the outing was less than 1,000ft, so I felt like I
could afford a little gain & loss to make it seem worthwhile. The second point
had a John Vitz register .
Only a few names appeared in both registers.
The best view appears to be to
and the Salton Sea. With more time
and motivation, one can pay a visit to Painted Canyon to the west about a mile.
I had the time but not the motivation. Instead, I returned to the rest area
via a pretty good route that had none of the earlier ups and downs.
Point Happy - Peak 638ft
It wasn't yet 1p so I drove back west to do a few easy summits between Palm
Desert and La Quinta, south of Indian Wells. The
was about to get underway with all the surrounding shopping areas putting up
signs for No Tennis Parking. At least they didn't say, No Hiker Parking. There
is a very strange mix of rugged desert and money, lots of it, on display here.
The Santa Rosa Mtns drop down from over 7,000ft to almost sea level. The
foothills end sharply on the ancient sea floor that once filled Coachella
Valley. Golf courses and other upscale developments run right up to the
granite boulder-strewn slopes. Point Happy lies at the very northern tip of
the ridgeline separating Palm Desert and La Quinta. SR111 cuts Happy Point off
from the rest of the ridge, leaving Happy Point sadly squeezed between a
and the La Quinta Cliff House Bar & Grill. The scrambing is on
chossy granite, class 2-3 but very short - about a minute to reach the summit.
One is surrounded by a whole lot of human development and it hardly feels much
like the desert. Peak 638ft is about 3/4mi to
along the connecting ridge, but there are a few obstacles. I got around the
state highway crossing by going under and along the Deep Canyon
(ala the LA River). I had to walk though
before climbing up to the ridge, only to find
tucked in a saddle on the way to Peak 638ft. I went back
down, hiked along the edge of , then up to a
on the other side of the saddle home. More ups and down eventually led me to
of Peak 638ft around 2:15p. By now it was getting pretty warm (about
80F) and the next summit on the zig-zagging ridge, ,
looked like
too much work. I rested on a granite block near the summit and took in the
bizzare views all around me.
with the greenest of greens. Homes with .
All sorts of things one just doesn't associate with
desert. A bit too much, really. I decided to call it a day and head down. I
dropped west onto the exclusive properties found there. A few golfers wondered
what I was doing walking along the cart path. I eventually found my way back to
(my escape route) and my start by Happy Point. Not the best of days...
Continued...