Cactus Spring Trail to trailhead (8 miles, +2,500/-1,700 feet). Ahhh, the last day of a trip is always so much fun. Beauty in the morning and civilization (ramen and beer!) in the afternoon. It was much warmer last night and calm, and we both slept well after our long cross country adventure yesterday. I awoke…
Tag: MixMaster
Santa Rosa Traverse
Stump Spring to Ebbens Valley to Cactus Spring Trail (12 miles, +2,500/-5,500 feet). Wow today was hard. But also spectacular. I guess that’s the way it usually goes. We awoke to get our first real view of our surroundings since it was well after dark last night when we arrived. We discovered we had narrowly…
Sawmill Trail
Sawmill Trail to Stump Spring (7 miles, +4,000/-300 feet). MixMaster and I set out on an ambitious traverse of the Santa Rosa Mountains today. The goal is to walk the ridge from Santa Rosa Peak all the way down to the Calcite Mine in two and a half days. But the hike today was already…
Borrego Badlands
Inspiration Point to Smoke Tree Wash (6 miles, +600/-800 feet) It was surprisingly calm last night, though it felt a little colder than I expected for high 30s. We decided to avoid the main washes today, and that turned out to be a great choice. Just north of the badlands, the terrain is pretty mellow,…
Vista del Malpais
Coachwhip Canyon to Inspiration Point (12 miles, +1,200/-1,000 feet). We’ve had a crazy cold and wet winter in San Diego. And that means something special in the Anza Borrego Desert: Superbloom! This year there are actually going to be two “pulses” to the superbloom. There is one that just peaked along S-22 due to a…
Rockhouse Canyon
Cottonwood Springs to Rockhouse Canyon Trailhead (8 miles, +300/-2,200 feet). It was colder last night than I expected, though we got absolutely no wind so we were both comfortable in our tents. We awoke to a beautiful conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. In an extremely unusual move for both of us, we decided to wait…
Buck Ridge and Alder Canyon
Rockhouse Canyon Trailhead to Cottonwood Springs (12 miles, +3,700/-1,800 feet). It was time for another winter trip with MixMaster, and the cold temperatures usually mean we stay close here in SoCal. This time we decided to head to Anza-Borrego and explore the region below Toro Peak. We were originally going to head out yesterday, but…
Filling the Gap
Garnet Lake to Agnew Meadows (8 miles, +1,100/-2,500 feet). Our last day on trail was super easy and surprisingly pretty. The main virtue of today’s route for me (other than the burger and beer at its end!) was to see part of the John Muir Trail I had to abandon on an earlier trip where…
Clinch Pass
Lower Twin Island Lake to Garnet Lake (11 miles, +3,200/-3,100 feet). Today was one of those happy accidents. I have frequently found that Plan Bs end up being better than Plan As, maybe not because they are objectively better, but because they often involve surprise. I had no idea how spectacular the upper basin of…
The JimmyJam Hiking Club 