Last weekend of the year – Last opportunity to get out for a hiking and camping trip.
Saturday
Matt and I met at 6am on Saturday at my house and headed for the southern end of Berdoo Canyon on the southern edge of Joshua Tree National Park. When we arrived there we discovered that this area is extremely popular with people shooting guns. There were some stations where people had setup some impressive arsenals. We carefully drove past this area into Joshua Tree National Park to the opening of a good size unnamed wash on the left side of the road (about 5.7 miles from Dillon Rd). There were a couple of spots in the road that demanded some attention, but turned out to be easy for the Tacoma to handle.
I had studied some maps and found a ridge at the top of this wash that should take us up to the ridge east of Little Berdoo Peak. We got our gear ready and headed up the wash. After following the meandering wash for about 2.4miles we got to the base of the ridge. There were ridges to the right and left that I had considered as alternatives, but when we saw all the ridges from close up the middle one looked best to us. So the ~1500ft climb up the ridge began. Initially we encountered a little steep section with loose gravel sized rocks, but then the ground became more stable. There were a few rocky sections to get over towards the top. Overall the route allowed quite good travel. Just before reaching the little knob at the top of the ridge we traversed over to the left aiming for a little saddle. From here we had about 200ft feet to gain along a very walkable ridge before reaching Little Berdoo Peak. Just before the peak we came across a benchmark showing the park boundary. We were surprised by it, because according to the maps we were well inside the park. Maybe there was an expansion since the mark was placed in 1977. We took a nice break on Little Berdoo Peak and then turned out attention to Bernard Peak just to the north. Getting there meant just following some gentle ridge.
After a short stop on Bernard it was time to return. We decided to head down a southeast facing wash/canyon between Little Berdoo and Bernard that would take us to Berdoo Canyon from where we would follow the road/wash back to our starting point. This would add some distance to our total hike, but it would give us some new scenery and take it easy on our knees since we would avoid the down climb of the steep ridge. We arrived back at the truck about a hour before sunset. Since there is no dispersed camping in the park we drove down the canyon to BLM land and found a spot to camp. The temperatures were pleasant and ended a great day with a campfire and some beers.
It is quite common for us to find the Mylar skins of party balloons out on our hikes, but this hike set a new (sad) record: We found a total of 13 balloons (10 sites, at one we found a bundle of 4 balloons) and we weren’t searching for them. On Sunday’s hike we found just one balloon, but even that’s too much.
Stats for the Saturday hike: 11.5 miles, 3170 ft elevation gain, 6h 36min on the trail (about 1h total breaks on the 2 peaks)
Sunday
Sunday morning we had a quick breakfast and drove down to I10, then east to the exit for Cottonwood Springs Road. As we were heading up towards the Joshua Park entrance I noticed the low tire pressure warning on the dashboard. We stopped and discovered that the front passenger tire was at only 22 psi. We inflated it and continued to the Mastodon Peak trail parking area. From there we followed the busy trial to Mastodon Peak. From the peak we surveyed the landscape between us and the Eagle mountains. Our next goal was the highest point in those mountains. We came up with a rough route towards a canyon that people commonly use to get up those mountains. There were a lot of little washes and some cool granite boulder fields to cross before we got close to the canyon. Rather than going all the way to the mouth of the canyon we started our climb angling for the main canyon. There were lots of boulders to scramble over and we quickly gained some elevation. Finally we got to a spot where we could see the main canyon. We had a snack there and contemplated our options for the continuation. The main canyon split into two, we were closer to the southern (right) branch, so we chose it. Once in the canyon we found some cairns and followed them up. This got us up to a saddle at about 5000ft. From here we still had almost a mile of hiking along a ridge with some humps to cross. Eventually we arrived on Eagle Mountain and took a nice long rest. There was no breeze, so even though the ambient temperature was comfortable, sitting in the full sun felt quite warm. Once rested we started our return following the route we had come down to where we had joined the canyon, but there we opted to stay in the canyon rather than retracing our steps. We wanted to follow the main canyon and wash as far out into more open terrain as we could, avoiding too much climbing through the boulder fields at the foot of Eagle mountains. Once it looked clearer we took some bearings and by recognizing some landmarks we came up with the direction that should take us back to our starting point. There was some mild up-down the whole way but overall it was easy walking and we intersected the developed hiking trail close to our parking location. At the truck we cleaned up a little and discussed some dinner choices. Before leaving we checked the tire pressure and to our dismay it was low again. Hoping it would be a slow leak we just added air.
Stats for the Sunday hike: 11.1 miles, 2800 ft elevation gain, 7h 16min on the trail (about 1h on Eagle Mtn)
About 12 miles down the road the low tire signal came on again, not a slow leak after all. We took a nearby exit and I decided to change the tire. As we parked and Matt got out he could hear a hissing sound and then even feel air gushing out of the main tread of the tire. Whatever punctured the tire must have come out driving on the freeway. With both of us working on the different tasks the spare was on in no time and we finally could head to In-n-Out for some well deserved burgers.
The weekend was a perfect way to end the year.
