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| Hiking | 16.53 Miles |
4,372 AEG |
| | Hiking | 16.53 Miles | | | |
| 4,372 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | The word epic is overused but this one was certainly memorable. TA and I prepared for a Bluff Springs Hidden Valley excursion. We were greeted on Peralta by a squadron of paramotor gliders. They were at times hovering just above the cars. I’m pretty sure motorized vehicles are illegal in the Wilderness Area, but it was kind of cool. You could actually really explore the currently unavailable places, do circles around Weavers Needle, etc. Temps were in the 60s and Peralta was about ¾ at 8:00am with two rangers.
We headed off on Bluff 235 up cardiac hill. The wind had been a factor last week but had somewhat subsided. Tim wanted to take another look at the cliff band above Bluff Spring so we headed in that direction. Just off trail we ran right into a new thing, an Alpaca camp! It was unexpected and interesting at the same time. I saw 3 maybe 4 beasts, striking figures really. Nobody was there so we didn’t enter the camp. I got more pics of the modern water setup at the spring. Someone shortened the old metal pipe (again) and refitted it to drain through a rubber hose.
Heading up to the cliff wall, we checked out a few of the alcoves. The closest one has a small setup but none of the others were more than animal dens. After a few hundred feet we lost interest and headed back down past the camp. Next stop, Ely-Anderson up to the plateau. I’ve never been impressed by the “rock wall” or imagined it to be any sort of defensive structure. Both TA and I have been at the summit a number of times so skipped it and chose a path straight (more or less) down the center of Hidden Valley.
Woodbury burned off a lot of the brush but there is still what I call ankle-rakers. This is the really low red colored catclaw that you cannot see but constantly grabs at your lower legs. Of course this was a day for leg protection and not short pants, so no worries. Tim thinks that there are stone markers up there, but that they have been defaced to hide the messages. We bypassed Al Reser’s camp but did look for and find other signs of human activity. We cruised down to the spring. No water in the pool and no apparent flow at the source. It was a slow damp seep perhaps, but that was it. I located the survey stake at the GPS coordinates, but it’s above where any water would be flowing.
We grabbed a bite and joked a bit, which we would later need as the fun began to decline. The channel was a bit choked but passable. Larger deeper pools appeared as we approached the waterfall. Neither of us has been all the way to the fall and down before. Getting down was to be a reality check. Tim thought that the best way would be to skirt the narrow ledge just left of the fall. I trust Tim. We've been friends 40 years and used to run marathons together. I stepped onto the ledge... Looking back, I don’t think I would risk the exposure again. I just don’t need that heart racing realization that sudden death is a foot away. We climbed around and down the left side. There are several completely trashed ropes that nobody in their right mind would use, so we just climbed down without.
It’s a relief but literally a jungle at the base. Lots of vines, trees, bushes and dead debris to block the way. Had to break a lot of dead branches to get through. The entire channel is a big boulder torture chamber. Constant climbing and traps took all the fun out of it. River rocks are slick rocks so extra care was needed to navigate the monster boulders. Eventually the elevation dropped and the drainage cleared. We were soon near Marsh Valley on familiar trails. As last days sunlight shone up Weavers Needle, we whipped out the lamps and then took Terrapin to Bluff Spring and back.
This hike was straight hard. Please feel free to check out the route as we dropped down Bluff Spring Mountain at the fall, however I don’t recommend that anybody use it. There are probably better safer passages through the area. The photoset tells the story. On this day as usual I missed a lot of wildlife. Not fast enough with the camera. I did see several deer, Harris hawks, a field mouse, bees at the spring, albino frogs and dragon flies at the pools, and a whole lot of spiders blocking the channel in the rocks below the fall (tasted a few webs as well). Sometimes I wonder about things like how do water frogs get into isolated pools at the top of a mountain? |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
Moderate wildflowers still although more prolific in drainage channels only now. |
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