There were four of us parked in the Borrego Visitor Center in the wee hours, some of us getting a good nine hours of sleep, others getting as little as two. Karl had driven from his home in Santa Cruz through the night and had not had much chance to rest before the 5a wake up call. While perhaps not bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, he was enthusiastic for his first climbing experience in the Anza-Borrego desert. We took a bit of time to get our gear prepared and to eat breakfast, then left two cars where they were and drove the other two out to Coyote Valley north of Borrego Springs.
Our peaks were located in the adjacent Collins Valley, and in times past one could drive out to one of several trailheads there. Now only the hardiest of 4x4 vehicles could manage the road where it has been washed out by flooding of Coyote Creek. Though Google maps shows several ways to reach our starting point, there's only one way to get there, via DiGiorgio Rd and the dirt road that heads into the state park from its northern end (we investigated the other option at the start of the Anza Trail, but those aren't driveable). Our two 4WD vehicles managed the sandy conditions and the first two creek crossings without trouble, but we balked at the third crossing where we found ominous signs warning of increased difficulties and a deep-looking pool to ford at this third crossing.
We parked our cars next to two others that were also there, setting out on foot
with headlamps ablaze. It was 5:45a when we 
started off, first
following the wrong creek branch, but
correcting this within a few minutes when the path we
were following disappeared into a thicket. We did not need our headlamps long.
We followed the road where it was rerouted south of Lower Willows, going over a
saddle and 
into Collins Valley.
We spent about an hour crossing east to west
through the wide valley on first the road, then the
Sheep Canyon Trail, then a
bit of cross-country to the foot of the eastern base of Palms, our first peak.
The five peaks on the day's agenda were taken from the San Diego Sierra Club's peak list, a dubious but fun collection of summits and benchmarks heavily weighted in the eastern half of the county and the Anza-Borrego desert. From past experience I know that some of these "peaks" have little prominence and were picked for the benchmarks located there, so I had the coordinates of all five peaks loaded into my GPS which we would use for reference throughout the day.
The sun 
had risen about 
halfway across
Collins Valley, and as we 
started the ascent
up to Palms it was already getting warm. We would find pleasant enough
conditions on the summits, but the ascents of the various peaks seemed to be
breezeless, warm affairs that had us glad for the large quantities of liquids
that made up the bulk of the packs we carried. The scrambling up to Palms was
easy enough class 2, but steep and unrelenting as we climbed more than 1,500ft
up boulder-strewn desert slopes, careful to avoid the cacti spread over the
slopes amongst the less harmful scrub.
A rejuvenated Adam was out in front heading up this first peak, Tom and Karl
taking more time in the rear as I held the middle ground and tried to keep Adam
in sight. We 
crested
a false summit, which at first seemed discouraging, but we
were only 15 minutes away at that point. The views
looking back to Collins
Valley were impressive. Here was a vast stretch of desert lands that had little
evidence of human impact, just a few dusty roads and no development for as
far as the eye could see. A few flowers were starting to bloom on the slopes
following the large amounts of rain that had fallen only a few weeks earlier. A
few 
juniper trees
dotted the landscape to provide color, but mostly it was the
whites and rusty browns of the abundant granite rocks that we saw along with
the darker green color of the desert plants.
It was not long after 8a when we reached the summit of Palms. The
highest rock was an easy scramble and we found a
1982 MacLeod/Lilley register at its base. Another summit block,
slightly lower, lay just to the west enticing Adam and I to climb this tougher,
class 4 pinnacle while the others rested, choosing to watch instead.
The second, SDC register was located at a yet lower,
third location to 
the northeast
where the benchmark had been located. It looked to have been removed from the
large, flattish boulder it had been cemented into, and the only remaining
evidence was the wire and wooden stakes that had been set up by the surveyors
for their triangulation measurements. We signed both registers and hung about
the summit for 20 minutes before starting off to the second summit.
About 3/4 mile north is Elder BM, requiring a 400ft drop before climbing back
up some 600ft to its summit. At first it looked like rough intervening country,
but once we started down from Palms it became evident that there is a nice,
easily traversed flats 
between them. We dropped off the
northwest side of Palms
to the south end of the flats below, then traversed north the half mile across
to the base of Elder. The route up the south side of Elder was characterized by
some large blocks and modest brush in 
the lower half,
changing to less brushy
talus higher up. When we reached the crest of the summit ridge it was not
obvious whether the highpoint was to the left or right, but we guessed right and
were rewarded with the summit a minute later, about 50 minutes after leaving
Palms.
The MacLeod and Lilley party had left 
a register
here on the same day in 1982 as
the one we'd found on Palms. Though we were undoubtedly at the highpoint, my
GPS said we were still more than 300ft from the benchmark. Looking east, I
guessed a lower bump in that direction held the benchmark and went off to
investigate while the others sat about the highpoint, happy to let me go over
there on my own. It took all of five minutes to cover the intervening ground
where I found 
the benchmark
and another register to boot (that Shane's name
hadn't been in the first one suggested to me that I'd find another register
over here on the eastern summit). I signaled to the others of my find by waving
one of the wooden stakes I found over my head. Adam was the only one of the
three curious enough to come over from the 
higher summit for a look.
The other two didn't care to play the game by the same silly rules as myself -
if the SDC says the benchmark is the summit, that's the one I should tag...
Back at the highpoint to join the others, I took further interest in a slightly lower summit block to the west of the saddle we'd climbed to initially. I went over to investigate, finding it unclimbable on the east and south sides. Tom called over to say it looked like it might be climbable from the north, and in fact that was the only reasonable approach I found to it. I had to drop down some 50ft or more on that side before I could find access heading up the north and northwest side. A small bit of class 4 friction got me to the tiny summit block. The others were content to let me prove the feasibility of it and were already starting off towards our next peak when I got myself back down.
The highest peak of the day was Collins, a bit more than a mile to the west. We
had first to drop 700ft before reclimbing almost 2,000ft back up to Collins.
This next leg took us more than an hour and a half. All the while we
were descending to the South Fork of 
Salvador Canyon,
the steep east face of Collins loomed 
in front of us,
growing higher and more tiring-looking the further we
descended. Once again it was Adam and I out in front leading the charge (that
would be a gross overstatement of our actual pace) up to Collins. A false
summit on this side caught us off guard, and when we thought we had reached
the top we quickly found we had another 25 minutes 
further to go.
Once again we found 
the register
had been placed by a MacLeod/Lilley party, but
this time it was 3 weeks after their visit to Palms and Elder. At least we had
this over them - combining these all in one long day. There was a short entry
from Shane
describing his route to the four closest peaks in this area, taking
a somewhat different course around them. His route avoided the use of Sheep
Canyon to the south that we planned to use for our descent. Only later did we
find this was a considerable time-saver for Shane.
Karl was the last of our group to reach Collins, coming up over the lower
east summit block at about a quarter to noon. Though the register was located
at the higher 
western block the three of us were parked on, Karl
discovered the benchmark just below where he 
was sitting.
Of course I went over to
investigate and snap a picture of it for posterity. I had once joked to Steve
Eckert that I didn't want to be known as the guy who took pictures of all the
benchmarks, but here I was, doing 
just that.
Our fourth summit, Knob BM, was a small bump located low on a subsidiary ridge
of Collins 
to the south.
It was only about 400ft up from our route down to
Sheep Canyon, and almost trivial-looking for where we sat. The bigger nut would
be Square Top, several miles to the south, nearly as high as Collins, with a
big drop to Sheep Canyon between them. Further, the routes up to Square Top
looked unusually brushy for a desert peak. We had a brief pow-wow to decide
whether to continue to it. We took stock of the water we had remaining,
finding we had less than we might have hoped - the warm sun had forced us to
drink a good deal of what we'd brought with us.
Karl was only interested in heading back. Tom had
more energy, but not enough desire to go to Square Top. Adam and I were still
interested, but not highly so. We decided to descend to Sheep Canyon and give
it more thought at that time. Tom decided to head west to a higher
unnamed summit
about a mile in that direction before heading back down (he later
reported finding a register going back 21 years with only a few signatures).
It did not take long for Adam and I to lose Karl on
our descent down the south
side of Collins. It was steep, blocky, and mildly tricky, making for a rather
fun tad of 
downhill scrambling.
We didn't worry about losing Karl since he
wasn't heading to Square Top - he'd likely finish descending the canyon well
ahead of us. We popped out of the shallow canyon we were descending when in the
vicinity of Knob,
making a traversing ascent to the saddle on its north side.
Though brushy near the top, Adam did a fine job of finding an easy route
through it and spiraling up from the saddle around to our left.
It was 12:50p when we found ourselves on the sunny, unobstructed
summit rocks. There was 
another register
as expected, but no visit by MacLeod/Lilley - even
they didn't find this little bump worthy, and they seem to have standards
nearly as low as my own. Somewhat surprisingly, this was the oldest of the
registers we found on this trip, dating to December of 1979. Oh, and
another benchmark, of course.
In the fifteen or so minutes we spent at the summit, we kept an eye out towards
Collins, looking for signs of Karl making his way towards us. Nothing stirred
in that direction.
We left the summit, heading down the west side from the saddle, towards the
north-south gully we had followed earlier. Unexpectedly, we found a
trickle of water
where it seemingly should have been dry. And just has unexpectedly we
found Karl huddled in the shade 
just below. 
Karl
had been nearly out of water
but had not really let us know how pressing it had become. He had forgone the
extra climb to Knob primarily for this reason, though he said he probably
wouldn't have climbed it anyway. Adam, too, was happy to have the water and
went about recharging several quarts into his empty containers. I drank about
a pint myself - not bad for rusty-colored water. We would not
have the excuse of too little water for not climbing Square Top now. After
about five minutes we left Karl who was still resting, enjoying the water and
washing the salt and sweat from his head. Adam and I continued down the gully,
growing 
ever brushier,
eventually leaving it as it neared Sheep Canyon. We traversed over several
smaller gullies on our way to the base of Square Top, finding more water and
lusher conditions than we'd found elsewhere during the day.
It was 2p when we reached 
the base
at Sheep Canyon, pausing to consider our
efforts further. The north side of Square Top looked painfully brushy, but
from a distance it looked like the east side would be the way to approach it
via a gully leading up to that side from Sheep Canyon. Now that we were looking
at it close up, it too looked brushy. It might easily take us two hours to
ascend the 2,000ft to the summit, maybe more. Could we get back to Sheep
Canyon before dark? Would that be sufficient to find our way back to the car?
Like the day before we were having serious doubts now that we were faced with
the decision to push on for the Full Monty. This time Adam was less wavering
than myself, but we struggled all the same to make a decision one way or the
other. In the end Adam out-waited me and gave me the honor of wimping out. He
smiled at that, and then we turned east towards Collins Valley.
Sheep Canyon had a 
good amount of water
in it when we found ourselves in the
main channel, below the convergence of the various small upstream gullies. The
canyon was far more primitive than the Borrego Palm Canyon we had descended the
previous day though it was not nearly the length or depth. The going was
definitely slower. There was quite a bit 
of brush
and overhanging trees and thickets pressing in on the river and
very little evidence of others having traveled up or down it. The recent
deluge had washed down any evidence of human travel, piling sand and debris
haphazardly to slow our progress. After about 20
minutes of making our way down we quite suddenly came upon Karl resting in a
sandy embankment, his back and head leaning against a fallen trunk. He had all
the casualness of Stanley's meeting with Dr. Livingston in the african interior.
After a brief pause, the three of us continued together down Sheep Canyon. More
surprising than running into Karl, we 
found Tom
around 3p, having just dunked
his head in the creek after arriving in the canyon from a higher route. He had
managed to reach the unnamed Peak 4,695ft easily enough, but had made up time
by not dropping into Sheep Canyon until forced to do so. Reunited, we traveled
the remainder of the day as a group of four.
The narrower, brushier upstream portion of Sheep Canyon gave way to the wider,
steeper, and rockier 
lower portion of the canyon,
reminiscent of Borrego Palm
Canyon. There were several drops along the way that caused pause. One had a
large, 
20-foot chockstone
that we eventually descended by sliding and 
jumping off of,
into the sandy streambed below. In the lead, Adam provided the most
humorous moment by stepping squarely into an unconsolidated pile of wet sand
that he thought would be more solid. At his scream I turned to see him pulling
one drenched boot after the other out of the wet depression his feet had
created when he'd jumped down into it. 
Another drop in the canyon
was wet and slippery and
involved an even bigger jump onto wet sand (thankfully not the quicksand
variety). I had gone down first from this last section, only to see the others
first hesitate, then look for alternate ways around. They
traversed high around
on the right side, while I struggled through the thickets in the creekbed,
trying to keep them in sight.
A few minutes later I came to a huge drop in the canyon that would be impossible
to downclimb. Thinking the others had gotten lucky in traversing around the
previous obstacle, I scrambled out of the canyon, trying to catch up to them
ahead of me. Some fifty feet higher, I turned to find the others had descended
back to the canyon behind me and were looking up at me. I got another laugh in
telling them they'd have to climb back out again. There was
a last waterfall
in the canyon, easily bypassed on the right, that we encountered around 3:30p.
We took a short break below this to regroup and drink up before continuing on.
Below this point we began to find portions of trail on one side or the other,
eventually a 
pretty good trail
that led back and forth across the creek as
needed, speeding up our progress three-fold. Where the trail lead through a
rocky section 
high on the north side
of the canyon, we spotted a party of
two ahead of us, down in the canyon. Less than ten minutes later we emerged from
the mouth of the canyon to find several vehicles and parties encamped at the
old trailhead, still accessible by the more ambitious four-wheelers.
It would take another hour and fifteen minutes to traverse back
across Collins
Valley and return to our less manly trailhead. It was 5:30p and not long before
dark by the time we had
gotten back. Adam and I realized we'd have been in for
an epic with the descent of Sheep Canyon at least partially in the dark had we
continued to Square Top, so we were quite happy with our decision to abort that
effort. It would wait for another day. Showers at the campground were followed
by dinner at Pablito's, one of the two mexican restaurants in town. Not a bad
way to end a 
fun day.
Continued...