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Another Journey Up Fish Creek with a Backpack trip

anutami

Posts: 491

4/1/2014

anutami

Posts: 491

A small Valley East of Harper Flat has been on my hit list for quite some time, If Starfish Cove/alma wash is one of the more remote washes in the park this Valley east of Harper flat has to be one of the more remote valleys.

We headed up to Dave Mcain Spring on Friday

the Ocotillo are in full bloom, and we had the place to ourselves. It was so nice to get away as I have been crazy busy at work!

We set up camp at Dave Mcain Spring and enjoyed the tranquil setting. The weather was perfect. It was nice to get back in nature and out of an RV. (although I miss the Truck Camper pretty bad as It makes it so much easier to camp with kids)

Where's Brett?

We had some fun with the morteros

and the edible blossoms of the Ocotillo

they actually don't taste very good smile

We had a nice fire and roasted some hot dogs and pounded some water.

Saturday we headed out for the back country. The weather was pretty warm which made it slow going but nice

Heading up the wash got choked with large boulders we had to scramble up and over.

At the top of the wash looking west toward whale peak

to our surprise the rangers have installed a water catch system with two 3,000 gallon tanks

both tanks were completely full with water!

The bees were taking advantage of this

a small plane flew pretty low through the valley. It was cool at first, but he kept circling the valley at least 10 -15 times! I started to get nervous that someone was missing! Luckily this valley gets cell phone service, so I called my wife, but she did not know of anything happening.

We continued exploring the amazing valley with many signs of Indian camps.

Here is a view from the North end of the valley looking south.

Pretty cool granite slab/Kitchen

we found a cool Indian cave. Luckily I had cell coverage because the weather outlook called for a wind advisory. We decided to make up camp in the shelter of the cave.

Just as we started making up camp the wind started to pick up a bit

another section of the cave

the wind blew hard all night and into the next day. Brett being only about 40 lbs and feeling 60mph gusts was a little crazy

We decided to make a loop of the trip so we headed west out of the valley and to the top of this ridge. The wind felt like it was going about 100mph we reached the top

We made our way down slowly interlocking arms. My main concern was the wind blowing one of the kids into the cholla

some blooms

Although we none of us were blown over we did all get our share of cholla bombs

when we arrive back at Dave Mcain Spring we were greeted with about 15 Sheriff Vehicles! This is where my heart sank and I though someone was in serious trouble. As it turns out there was never any closure on the 16 year old kid that took his moms jeep and vanished in the area about 4 years ago. They were still following up and searching for him. The spot plane we saw the previous day was also searching the area. I left out a kids camp chair and they expressed concern after seeing a kids chair and us never returning that night. They were happy to see we were okay and that we had enough water. They were pretty amazed to see 2 kids that far out in the back country.

We headed out and had to stop by the Shell beds and hunt for shark teeth.

It is nice to see people not taking the cool shells and leaving them for others to find and explore. We added a few to the collection

As luck would have it we also had great experience of spotting some big horn sheep with 3 ewes smile

I raced up the wash to get a bit closer and got a nice shot smile

All in all it was an epic trip with a little of everything! Fish Creek Wash is an amazing area and I never get tired of its hidden treasures.

hope you enjoyed the trip smile

Total Mylar Balloons: 5

edited by anutami on 4/1/2014

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Anza Borrego Desert

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Another Journey Up Fish Creek with a Backpack trip