I haven’t posted for a while because I haven’t been out hiking for a while. Normally I would get a couple of fall and winter trips in, but of course nothing about this last year has been normal.
I started working last September for a local biotech company (LightDeck Diagnostics), developing a 5-minute test for Covid.
As you can imagine, the time urgency of this project was high. It involved a lot of late nights and weekends and I had little energy or interest in mounting any trips.
But the project proceeded efficiently and we launched clinical trials mid-March. My role in the project could take a step back and I started planning a desert hike.
One of the benefits of working with coronavirus patient samples is that it qualified me for early vaccination. I could travel with greatly reduced risk of either acquiring or transmitting the virus.
My initial thought was to continue on with hiking the Desert Trail. I left off last year at I-15. A hike to Death Valley from there would be about the right length.
There were two problems with this plan. One is that hiking for a couple of weeks by yourself on a route that is mostly rugged cross country travel is mentally and emotionally taxing. After 10 days of this last year, I developed a bad attitude, and I wanted to avoid that this year.
I would need a break- a zero mile day – to recuperate and relax. On long trails like the PCT you pass through or near small towns every few days where you can stay in a hostel or motel for a day of showers, beer, burgers and resupply.
But the Mojave is barren of such amenities. The nearest town along my route would be Baker – a 30-mile hitch to a place that had a couple of restaurants but no lodging.
The other problem was that someone would need to pick me up in Death Valley. Neither my wife nor brother had been vaccinated and I wasn’t going to ask them to risk coronavirus exposure just so I could enjoy the pleasures of bushwhacking through the desert.
The solution was to come up with a self-supported loop – one that would let me resupply and rest mid way, then hike back to the car under my own power.
A route through the Mojave National Preserve with a detour to resupply in Searchlight NV looked like it would work.
I would start at Kelso Depot and follow the Desert Trail to Hole in the Wall campground. There I would leave the DT and strike east through the Woods and Hackberry Mountains, cross the Lanfair Valley, follow the crest of the Piute Mountains then strike out across the Piute Valley to Searchlight.
After resupplying I would head west through Castle Mountains National Monument, the New York Mountains, Cima Dome, then turn south through some lava badlands and the Kelso Mountains to return to Kelso Depot.
The route totals about 200 miles and would cover a very large chunk of the Preserve. It should take about 12 days of hiking- presuming I can estimate my pace over trailess country by inspection of topo maps.
Water is of course a big concern, especially as the area is experiencing severe to exceptional drought.
The Preserve has a web page characterizing springs. I identified the ones that sounded most reliable and found road crossings where I could cache water to fill in the gaps between. I will usually be carrying 3-5 L of water and as much as 8. At 2.2 lbs per liter, that’s a lot of water weight.
I got in a few training hikes to strengthen my legs, but opportunities were limited by work demands and snowy weather. I’ll just have to hike carefully to avoid injury.
I reserved a room in Searchlight at the BV Motel, left my resupply box with them, got my water (and a few beers) cached and enjoyed an evening in Barstow CA. Although 70 miles distant from Kelso, Barstow is the nearest accommodation. This is a very empty country.