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Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego

Sunset Mountain / Pinyon Wash / Harper Flat Messages in this topic - RSS

ziphius
ziphius
Posts: 911


12/1/2013
ziphius
ziphius
Posts: 911
Alex and I backpacked into the Sunset Mountain area for a one-nighter and also introduced my buddy Ramsey to camping. Ramsey has hiked everywhere, but had never tent-camped before. (Alex here: Jim suggested a collaborative post, which I suspect is his way of coaxing me to finally join the forum. I’ve certainly been enjoying your trips reports from the sidelines!)

Due to post-flood conditions, we had to leave the Rubiconda at the highway and hike in from there. That soon worked to our advantage. We followed the hillside instead of the road, and, not too far into Pinyon Wash, we came across a bunch of tracks, like a railroad crossing in the sand. We were looking down at the tracks when I happened to glance uphill to the south and saw a bunch of sheep, including one large ram. Thirteen sheep, just staring at us. We stared back and didn’t grab our cameras until we had soaked in the great views and by that time, the sheep had become concerned about our loitering and we got some photos of sheep butts.


After setting up our camp in a tributary canyon to Pinyon Wash, we hiked to a spot Alex had found part way up Sunset Mountain the week before. She wanted to bring me back to check out what she had found:


Alex did a broader sweep of the area to find legs, which were missing from the main carcass, while I continued to photograph. She found a leg bone about 20 yards away…


Ramsey had stayed behind in camp during this time, doing a good job of guarding everybody’s stuff (he wasn't allowed to come along on the ram carcass visit).


Our trip coincided with the full moon, rising just after sunset in a notch to our east and setting just before sunrise down the drainage from our camp. We had a great view of the moon setting when we woke up:
It looked even better in D-Stretch:

After breakfast, we decided to check out another spot Alex had found the week before, a wildlife guzzler, complete with catchment basin and wildlife camera:



We were careful to creep up there slowly, not wanting to spook any sheep that might be around....none sighted. We had a nice view up-drainage from our camp from the guzzler, where we had walked under the full moon the night before. We walked further in that direction later in the morning for a loop hike out to Harper Flat and back down Pinyon Wash.


We found some really cool pottery fragments along the loop hike.



Alex almost stepped on a horned lizard – our other main wildlife sighting besides the usual jackrabbits. See it?


On the hike back to the car, the afternoon sun brought out in sharp relief the recently etched flood channels and post-rain flowers:


My favorite moment of the trip, besides the sheep (both alive and dead), was at the very end. It was a moment that Alex had to tell me about though, because I didn’t fully experience it. We arrived at the car at the end of the day Sunday, parked just off 78. A steady stream of off-roaders was zipping by on their way home, big trucks with dirt bike trailers. I was standing at the car, next to the packs, while Alex was off looking for enough privacy to wee. A big truck with ORVs came zipping by and somebody yelled something at us from the cab. I could tell it wasn’t meant as a compliment, but didn’t catch the words. Alex walked up, annoyed but laughing: she had heard them yell TREEEEEHUUUGGGGERS! I couldn’t stop laughing. They definitely figured us out!
edited by ziphius on 12/1/2013

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