Ladder Canyon Loop

Hiked: 12/29/2020
Distance: 4.9 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 1332' (high point on loop)
Elevation Gain: 908'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.7
Round trip time: 2 hours
Recommended water: 20 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Painted Canyon Road
Difficulty: Easy

Leisa joined me doing a very popular loop through Ladder Canyon. We drove through Coachella to the Mecca Hills and finally 4 miles of dirt road to reach the trailhead on Painted Canyon Road. The dirt road was washboarded, but flat and no major obstacles. Small sedans with low clearance were at the trailhead so any car can make it. Most of the canyon is wide and sandy. About a half mile up the trail, there is a wooden marker on the right side that signals the entrance to the main ladder section on the left. The entrance looks like it might be difficult, but there is a good trail going around and through the boulders. The first ladder is installed under one of the boulders here but we didn't need it. The first ladder we used was a 10' downclimb. The next three were going up dry falls, some as high as 20'. In between was a fun narrow slot section. Leisa thought it was the trail version of Chutes and Ladders. We followed the main channel to the top of the ridge where a well worn trail continued. We passed another party making their way clockwise around the loop.

Entrance to the ladder section

Top of the ridge and the party we passed
When the trail turned, we weren't quite sure whether to drop down into the wide canyon below or stay on the ridge. Leisa noticed the ridge trail had rocks across it, so we dropped into the canyon which turned out to be correct. The next two miles were wide, sandy, and easy going. Then we reached two more ladder downclimbs. In the final mile, we passed dozens of people going counter-clockwise. Several asked our advice on the route and we filled them in as best we could. Driving out, we stopped at a restroom and decided to explore another canyon that might have been Ropes Canyon. Another group had started ahead of us but turned back quickly. We continued up mostly class 2+ terrain without the aid of ladders. At one tricky spot, Leisa waited for me to go ahead a few hundred yards to look for a roped section. The canyon continued with more of the same but no ropes. It was a nice way to cap the day.

Exploring the second canyon

Crux in the second canyon

Some errors in the track from the narrow sections

Sub-Webo

Hiked: 12/18/2020
Distance: 11.6 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 4029'
Elevation Gain: 3500'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.8
Round trip time: 7 hours
Recommended water: 104 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Cherry Canyon Road
Difficulty: Moderate

The plan was to deploy a couple of trailcams in Hellhole Flat where I found a large bone pile in 2015 coming down from San Ysidro East. I lost the GPS on that trip so I didn't have the exact location, but it was in a gully on the way down. I explored 4 gullies at the base of San Ysidro East with no luck. Maybe I was looking in the wrong places or maybe the desert just swallowed it. It was disappointing. When you're on the playground, you may as well play, so I decided to tackle one of the larger boulder piles. I picked the largest pile below Webo, dubbing it Sub-Webo. If this pile has been visited before, the number of people was likely in the single digits. I approached from the north, not by design, but because that's where I was. It looked like class 2 and that's how it turned out. The boulders got larger near the top, but finding a route was not difficult. The large summit boulder hangs over the edge on the south giving it an airy feeling. There were nice views, similar to Lookout Knob. I didn't count Sub-Webo as a real summit. Heading back, I paid more attention to my route, staying in the correct gully for energy efficiency. I spotted half a dozen mule deer on the way out, too fast to get photos. Finding a promising and secure location for a trailcam continues to be elusive.

Exploring gullies

Summit block

Looking at Webo from Sub-Webo

Looking back at San Ysidro and The Thimble

Sub-Webo from the south

Coyote Run

Hiked: 12/13/2020
Distance: 7.5 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: N/A
Elevation Gain: 350'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.3
Round trip time: 45 minutes
Recommended water: 16 oz.
Parking/Fees: $3 OC Parks
Difficulty: Easy

Coyote Run is an easy trail in the Aliso-Wood Canyon County Park. Like most trails in the park, it is used primarily by mountain bikers, but hikers are on the trail, too. I got a Trek 7 bike this year and have been learning how to ride, but I'm still a rank beginner. I try to get a short ride in once a week and plan to eventually do some hybrid bike-hike trips where a bike would eliminate monotonous sections of trail. I'd always wondered how biking compared to hiking as far as difficulty. I would rate it more difficult than walking and less difficult than running.

Pinto Mountain and Mundi Benchmark

Hiked: 12/4/2020
Distance: 12.4 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 3983' (Pinto), 3186' (Mundi)
Prominence: 464' (Pinto)
Elevation Gain: 2737'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.1
Round trip time: 7 hours 15 minutes
Recommended water: 96 oz.
Parking/Fees: $35 National Park Fee (1 car for 1 week)
Difficulty: Moderate

Pinto Mountain was the only DPS peak (#81) in Joshua Tree I had not climbed. It was another cross country trip that I spiced up by adding nearby Mundi Benchmark. There are two main routes to Pinto, the ridge route and the gully route. I planned to attempt Mundi on the way back, so I went up the gully route to assess the terrain. The hike started at a small parking area in Turkey Flats. The approach for both routes is at least 3 miles of open desert. It's a little longer for the gully route since it goes around the foothills up a wide canyon. The first mile is a minefield of animal burrows that collapse when you walk on them. I covered the rest of the open desert quickly, then turned up the second gully on the left toward Pinto.

Animal burrow mine field

The second gully had larger boulders though it was still mostly class 1. The navigation was much easier than Eagle Mountain and Pinto was in view most of the way. Gain was slow and steady. I left the gully at an obvious place to start up the ridge. Looking back, I was higher than expected. Parts of the lower ridge were steep class 2 but nothing tricky. After reaching the upper ridge, there were a couple of false summits to cross before reaching Pinto. Views in all directions were superb. A large cairn was built on the summit with a wire frame saguaro cactus, which doesn't grow in Joshua Tree. Pinto seems popular with multiple register notebooks in an ammo box. I found a reference mark not far away, but could not find the main benchmark. It might be buried under the cairn. The wind was blowing steadily on the open summit making it too cold to linger. I reversed course and continued down until I was out of the wind. I finally stopped to refuel and hydrate.

Starting up second gully

I looked down at four bumps to the east, unsure which was Mundi. Instead of coming down the same ridge, I took the next ridge over. I had a GPS waypoint for Mundi and was able to identify it after descending a little further. It only added 200' of gain to the trip. At the top of Mundi, there were two wooden poles with wire, but I didn't find a register or benchmark. The direct drop off from Mundi looked a little treacherous, so I went back to take the other gully down, with a little more class 2. Back in the wide canyon, it was a tedious 4 mile trudge back to the truck. There were 2 groups of tourists reading the Turkey Flats plaque when I emerged from the desert. They seemed initialy startled, then realized I was just a hiker. One of them even took a photo of the mysterious stranger with a backpack. I got a chuckle out of it.

Looking down from Mundi

Looking back at Pinto

San Marcos Peak and Double Peak

Hiked: 11/27/2020
Distance: 7 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 1220' (San Marcos), 1646' (Double)
Prominence: 464' (Double)
Elevation Gain: 1455'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.1
Round trip time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Recommended water: 32 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free at Lakeview Park
Difficulty: Easy

Leisa and I drove to San Marcos to work off some turkey and apple pie. We followed a peakbagger track from TJ Kodras for a loop picking up San Marcos Peak and Double Peak. We masked up and started west toward San Marcos Peak. The route winds through some residential neighborhoods and I recommend following a GPS track to navigate through the streets in this section. After some paved road hiking, we made a sharp climb up to the towers on San Marcos Peak. The views opened up as we climbed and I was surprised with a clear view of the Pacific Ocean. I thought we were too far inland to see the ocean. The summit of San Marcos is enclosed in a barbed wire fence so we could only get as close as the fence. After a few minutes looking around, we continued along the ridge, then dropped 100' to a saddle. The wide trail follows the road to the top of Double Peak, but we took the steep dirt trail shortcut. On top is a telescope, some tables, and restrooms. A small crowd was milling around. We took a short break, then dropped off the other side, following a dirt single track back to the wide official trail, then back to the truck. It was a nice 7 mile loop with a little more gain than I expected.

San Marcos Peak

Double in the distance

Dirt shortcut to Double

Pacific Ocean

Leisa on Double Peak