Those who know me are aware of the fact that I absolutely love Joshua Tree National Park. I frequent the park during the winter and spring seasons when the snow is too prevalent to do any real hiking in the Sierras.
The most recent SAR mission in Joshua Tree reminded me of my first trip to Joshua Tree with my brother-in-law in 2007. We planned on hiking a 50 mile loop from Juniper Flats over Quail Mountain, out to Black Rock Canyon then through a not so popular area of the park along the west entrance back to Juniper Flats. On paper it was a straight forward hike. We staged water in two different places and we were sticking to the trail on almost the entire trip. Quickly we realized this was not possible. We started on the very popular California Riding and Hiking Trail, we missed a turn off and it was all down hill from there….
Backpacking in the desert can be a hard task. Many of the trails are difficult to find, largely because the NPS doesn’t maintain a lot of the backpacking trails. Trails turn into washes and washes lead to dead ends…. Long story short, we became very lost. Using our skills with the map and compass we were able to move in the right general direction but we just couldn’t find the trail. We were at the point of exhaustion on day two, running low on food as the sun was fading, we had gone 15 miles already. We realized that our trip had to be aborted if we were to make it home safely. We quickly put our heads together and decided that we should find the highest peak and get a vantage point, try to determine our location and select a path. Thankfully while on that peak we spotted the distant flash of the setting sun on a car windshield and realized we were about 5 miles from a road that splits the park…that was our destination. We reached the road with no food or water and over 6 miles to hike back to Juniper Flats and our car. We were able to hitch-hike a ride with a school teacher on a rock climbing trip that was getting into the park late….
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