28-Oct-2005 -- First I want to thank Shawn; this was the first time in years I did a hike with Levi's and I'm sure glad I did, also long shirt, gloves, and eye protection makes a big difference. I don't think a saw would help, maybe a DR Brush Hog.
Christine and I hiked up the creek bed to the canyon entrance at the big old dead tree, N36°59.732-W117°59.254.
Christine stayed here while I went up the canyon. She collected just over 3lbs. of really tasty pine nuts in this area.
About half way into the canyon (N36°59.916-W117°59.724) I found a popped balloon on the canyon floor with the ribbon still attached - where did that come from?
This hike was like a hard rock climb, the closer to the finish, the harder the moves, then the last few moves are the crux.
I tried avoiding one of the crux moves, the jungle, by going up high on the north side of the canyon. It worked but I did a lot more up and down on really loose stuff way above the canyon floor. On the way out I just pushed my way through and stayed mostly on the North edge of the canyon, which ended up being much better than my way in.
There must be a lot of gold back in there, veins of quartz all around up there. I guess it was even too hard for the miners to get back there.
I know if this was a Geo-Cache the difficulty rating would be off the chart, no driving to within 30feet of this one.
Pic 1 is where I got my best reading near the tree.