Trail Tales

Here’s your chance to tell others your Trail tales - sections you’ve done or advice you may have for others.

“When you see someone putting on big boots, you can be sure adventure is about to happen."
   Winnie the Pooh.

Grapevine Canyon to Borrego Springs
Dana and Brendan Law, Bill Redman, Kristen Greenaway
January 19 & 20th, 2003

This section of the Trail, really a sandy jeep road, leaves Highway 78 across from the northern end of Plum Canyon. It’s a long easy grade all the way to Jasper Trail that follows a telephone line.

The desert is pretty undistinguished in this area. We didn’t look at Angelina Springs but the big surprise was Stuart Springs at about 6 miles. It flows out of a PVC pipe into a concrete tub below two huge trees that seem completely out of place. We stopped for a snack across the road in the shade. This is a great place for a stop. We met two hikers coming up the trail that Kristen had seen the weekend before up Pinyon. We shamelessly plugged the Sea to Sea Trail, which they’d heard of, having read the recent Backpacker article.

We heard, but did not see, a lot of birds. I think more than we had ever heard on the whole Trail. Perhaps it was the rare source of water. We also saw a flattened frog. Hiking brings you closer to nature and teaches you to interpret its signs. You become more aware of things around you. We watch the sky to see the weather ahead. What we hear can mean water. Hiking develops your senses. It improves your urban life too.

We saw another Mortero, a particularly deep one.

The Jasper Trail turns right and goes up a deep canyon. It gets pretty steep in places. The rock formations start to get interesting. We saw a group of bicyclists coming down from Ranchita. They had put a car near the bottom for the return trip. Soon, two motorcyclists passed us. One of which was on a street bike! I hope he made it.

The California Riding and Hiking trail joins Jasper near the top of the mesa. A Pinzgauer truck came by and stopped for a chat. This cute little truck can go just about anywhere. This part of the Trail was a freeway today. We passed several roads and trails on the mesa through the chaparral. We had to be careful not to lose our trail. The California Riding Hiking Trail continues across S-22 a little east of Jasper. Bill had put our cache of water here. It is always a relief to see it isn’t molested. Kristen decided to camp just beside the Trail for the night. This turned out to be a good idea. I had a weird thought we’d be run over in the night. Later I had a nightmare of a wild mask-wearing bicyclist tearing through camp to the sound of a Mountain Lion growling - spooky.

It got chilly fast and we expected to have a cold night. Bill and Kristen pointed out some stars. We had our big dinner, talked a bit, while Brendan turned in early. I wish I slept as easy as a teenager. Both Bill and Kristen have Thermarest mattresses. We had a sad cheap version of that with our rented bags. Still, Kristen’s choice of sandy trail made it pretty comfortable.

I woke up about midnight to water the plants and noticed it was a lot warmer and the sky was full of clouds. A little later it started to rain and I pulled all the gear in I could into the door of the tent. It rained for about three hours pretty steady and stopped by 7am. Bill said “Rain stops by 7 and clears by 11" and that was about right. Brendan brought eight eggs and some bacon for a hearty breakfast that Kristen and I shared. He said, “We have to bring real food next time." It always takes a while to put your house back on your back and we started off just after 9am. The trail runs roughly parallel to S-22 for quite a while. It’s a real trail, being designated Wilderness, and not a dirt road.

Brendan quickly moved ahead of us leaving arrows in the dirt for us to follow. Very nice of him to do so. I think I worry more about him losing us. They quickly became ‘Brendan’s Marks’.

We passed another spring that Kristen and Bill investigated. I ran off the Trail few times in confusion and quickly returned to the correct path. The Trail’s a bit hard to find at times, with the remnants of the Julian Fire of 2002. Fingers of damage traveled lower and longer that I imagined. There are many pink ribbons to help here and there, and we moved a few branches and built a few ducks to help.

The views of the Borrego Valley and Salton Sea are stunning. I don’t like the idea of climbing rocks but there’re some whoppers here. Boulders turned on end with lots of cracks for nimble fingers.

The Trail does not go down much for quite a while. No sooner than I thought we would descend somewhere into the valley it went over a hill again. We finally descended a steep and rocky path that I am sure horses would have a great deal of trouble with. Good for sheep and hikers I guess. We passed beautiful microclimates of cactus. I never though I would see so many Ocotillos, Barrel, Teddy Bear and Cholla cactus in one place so delightfully arranged.

By the time we got to the bottom Brendan was waiting and resting. We crossed the desert, passed through the Anza Borrego State Park without stopping and desert bushwhacked all the way to the Palms at Indian Head, a friend of the Trail. Mandy Oglesby, an even bigger friend of the Trail, who took us back home, met us.

This was a beautiful and dramatic portion of the Sea to Sea Trail. We will complete the last two days of the hike in early March 2003. I hope it isn’t too hot. We are all very polite on the hike. We are all very civil in the wild. We work as a team. I hate reality shows that pit people against each other and bring out the worst in them. We hang together on the Trail and that makes it good.
Tale by Dana Law. 

Lake Cuyamaca to Grapevine Canyon
Dana and Brendan Law, Bill Redman, Kristen Greenaway
October 19 & 20, 2002

My son Brendan and I have been walking the trail, completing a section at a time. We started these seventh and eighth legs of the trip at the northeast side of Cuyamaca Lake at the Pedro Fages Historical marker. We had planned to end the trip on the west side of Cuyamaca Lake, but Kristen Greenaway who is the director of the Sea to Sea Trail Foundation and joined us, said the Trail needs to be temporarily re-routed.  It must be a mile across and is currently in need of habitat re-vegetation. Some day I will walk it. I didn’t feel too guilty though, having made enough mistakes and walked extra miles since leaving Torrey Pines State Beach.

Along with Kristen I had my son and trail partner Brendan, and my new hiking buddy, Bill Redman, who joined us on the last two legs from Featherstone camp.  Frankly, Bill saved us a few times with both his experience and GPS device. 

My wife, Donna, a sensible person who likes restful pursuits, dropped us off.  We stepped over a fence that blocks the trail and walked a level trail in a grassy area with a hill on the left.  We had to take off our jackets soon after as hiking warms you up. My pack felt light but an easy trail will do that. Soon we saw the burned areas. We also noticed areas of orange from the retardant. The battle against this fire must have been fierce. Fine black ash had drifted down the hills to the trail.  I mentioned its serious result to Brendan and he said, “Dad, fire is natural”, which is true and shut me up, for a while... 

After a time we joined the Mason Truck Trail and bore right.  We finally passed the Pacific Crest Trail.  It was exciting to see it. Some day, when the Sea to Sea Trail is done I will take it north from the border.

As we wound our way around the dirt road we started to see mountain meadows change to desert. The exciting thing about San Diego and so obvious on the Sea to Sea are the changes in climate. Sometimes the change is abrupt as it is here, and sometimes slow like Marston Meadow. Entering Oriflamme Canyon via the Mason Truck Trail you start to see a variety of cactus. Much to our surprise, there was a narrow ribbon of water flowing in the canyon. I don’t know where any water could come from at this time of the year, even more surprising is that it had stained the riverbed black from the ash. We took a short side road to the river to see it and have an early lunch. There we ran into two guys who looked a little sheepish and were overfriendly. They had a fire in a bucket, a truck and some paper targets on the ground.  I guess they thought no one would ever come by there. We relaxed under the trees. Some bicyclists came by for a talk.  They must have come a long way but looked like they could do it easily.  I suppose hikers look pretty funny with all their stuff but the serious biker is a riot of colors. It’s easy to tell the hobby by the costume. 

We carried over two liters of water each on the trip. You can never carry enough. Farther along the Trail we walked through some Tamarisk trees and the results of flash floods. The Trail is literally in the river bed at times. 

The Tamarisk is not indigenous to San Diego. It was brought here a century or more ago as a windbreak for the early settlers. Because it sucks up precious ground water and wrecks the local plant environment it’s slowly being removed. 

We finally passed S2 and entered Box Canyon, stopping to see some Mortero’s and marveled at the difficult life of the local Indians. It’s hard to imagine how they survived - even though the canyon runs right along the road it is like being in another world. 

A lot of this trip passes through creek bottoms and it’s like walking on the beach. I always thought it was harder to walk or run in the sand, but it was a welcome change from the hard trail. It made my feet feel good. The canyons are striking from the millennia of erosion. 

The elevation change is gradual getting out of Box Canyon, but it was warm and tiring.  I asked Bill the temperature and he said, “You probably don’t want to know.” Good advice. Better not to think about it. A level plain greeted us and in a few more miles we arrived at our campsite near Blair Valley at the Foot and Walker pass, just north of a small dry lake. Brendan had driven out the day before with a cache of five gallons of water. There were some four wheel drives visiting the area and he was very relieved to see that no one had molested it.  This is a natural campsite. Rings of flat stones made a perfect cooking and sitting area. The pass is a natural eyelet to the higher valley ahead of it and is where the Butterfield Stage went through. It’s obvious at this point the passengers had to get out and push, being more of a narrow stone gap than a road.

Kristen made a communal potato soup for dinner with summer sausage that Bill had brought. It was a fat and calorie bomb and perfect for the hike. Brendan added a large can of beef stew for appetizer. Kristen says you sleep better if you eat a lot before bed on the hike - sounds good to me. Bill, Kristen and I talked for quite awhile in the dark after Brendan went to bed. We’re all big readers and much to our pleasure and amazement have read many of the same books of adventure and history. We’ve read about men and women who accomplished great and exciting things. We have heroes who we want to emulate. Perhaps, in at least my case, the desire to do something that makes life interesting, special and worth living. We all have, more a less, a desire for adventure. 

Kristen loaned a tent for Brendan and I. We don’t have one yet and hers is light, strong, practical, 4-season and a major investment - she never stops telling anyone who’ll listen that it’s a NZ-made Macpac. I’ll buy one when the kids get out of college. We fell asleep quickly and both woke up to see the moon rise. It was a full moon and gave sharp shadows on the desert floor - just beautiful. 

I was up first in the morning. Bill got up, walked around his campsite, and gave me a funny look. “Did you take my food?” he asked. He’d hung his from a rock outcropping, Kristen had hers tucked safely in her (Macpac) tent, and I had hung ours in a tall bush. His was gone. We looked around for a few minutes and then had an exciting surprise, a coyote. This was a beautiful animal that was not too afraid of us. He - Bill thinks She - circled the camp for quite a while. Bill tried to shoo it away realizing who the culprit was. It didn’t take too long to feel warmly towards it, regardless of its crimes. We took pictures and got it to come quite close. I finally took out a half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich from the day before. It acted just like a dog, jumping left and right all excited. I held off a bit to get more of a show and finally fed it. I call it the Friendly Coyote. 

It takes quite a while to put your house back on your back, but we did it as quickly as possible. For some reason Kristen asked me to walk point. I kept a good pace. I pushed myself. I didn’t want to let down the real hikers. Brendan and I have to get gaiters. (Kristen has Macpac ones.) My legs looked like they had been sand blasted. Through the whole hike from the start I could never guess by looking at the map what the terrain would look like. It is always Terra Incognito. It makes the trip more interesting and is an outdoor classroom of flora and fauna. Another revelation is hiking sticks. I now own a pair and would never hike without them. They make the trail safer and distribute the work to the upper body.  I recommend them to all. Of course, Bill and Kristen knew this.

After entering Earthquake Valley we joined the California Riding & Hiking Trail. Horses make a wider sandier trail. We saw some caches of water and food put out for the Illegals who cross the border. It made for a good discussion. Whatever our feelings about the politics or of illegal aliens, we don’t want people dying in the desert.

Down into the valley we saw some houses on the other side of a dry lake. One of the houses was right on the edge and had what looked like a small pier... weird. The trail is very straight and makes for Plum Canyon. I lost the Trail at the beginning of some low hills and wandered into a wash. Kristen got us back on the Trail. As you ascend it’s less traveled by horses. Perhaps it takes a better equestrian to pass through it. The Laguna Escarpment to west is clearly visible from this area and looks solid and unbroken at this point. It is remarkable to see how this range stops the Pacific weather and changes pines to spines in such a dramatic fashion.  I was huffing and puffing at the top before we descended into Plum Canyon. We took a water break and enjoyed the view. Plum Canyon is more beautiful than Box Canyon - it’s deeper, more colorful and wonderfully eroded, opening out to a wide sandy walk with nearly vertical walls. Cactus seems to be in greater numbers here. Large groups of Teddy Bear cactus appear, which look soft and cuddly. There is Ocotillo in the area and Bill says that the branches, not the flowers, undertake photosynthesis. The canyon ends unremarkably and then to the road. The sign across highway 78 marks the beginning of Grapevine Canyon. We’ll finish the hike to Borrego January 19 and 20, 2003.  Today was an easy hike. We were happy to finish and stopped in Julian for the best tasting piece of apple pie ever on the way home.
Tale by Dana Law.

El Cajon Mountain to Cuyamaca Lake
Dana and Brendan Law, 2002

The hike from Featherstone Camp north of El Cajon Mountain to Cuyamaca Lake was hard. It was a total of 28 miles and we got lost twice. Once some friendly ladies on horse back helped us to the right trail down to San Diego River. Thank God for GPS devices because the trail is still spotty in places. At times, it is an endless incline. I had a 30-pound pack, it felt like a bear hug, and I had to carry the bear. I saw a long narrow snake with a stripe, pretty, but not dangerous. The most difficult thing was water. My hiking partner had a filter and with only two sources of water, it was critical.

We saw some cool stuff, went through Marston Meadow, and swam at Cedar Creek Falls that right now is a dribble. Evergreen trees are beautiful but my favorite is the California Oak. Combined with the rolling meadow hills it’s my idea of California. We camped just east of a place called Saddleback above the creek I believe continues on to Cedar Creek Falls. I had a bag and pad to sleep on but I think I would have been more comfortable hanging from a tree. My son and I loved the hike, really. We can’t wait to continue on to Borrego in the fall. We have gone about 80 miles from the Torrey Pines trailhead.
Tale by Dana Law.

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