Following up yesterday’s post on 8 young people stuck in the mud up in the Angeles National Forest, I watched a Fox 11 news cast (follow link and click on video) on it last night. Great opening:

“Eating cake frosting out of a can and gummi worms- that is all the food they had- one group of friends thought they were going to be rescued by another group of friends….”

Some how that seems a little over-dramatic….. I mean if you are stuck overnight do you really have to eat that badly? I imagine you’d be kind of hungry, but come on. It reminds me of the South Park episode where several of the town members are stuck inside waiting out a storm for several hours and they resort to cannibalism because they haven’t eaten since lunch.

In all fairness to the seriousness of the event, though, apparently the car became surrounded by bees, the group had no water, and one of the teens was diabetic and had no insulin.

Ultimately the county sent out a chopper for the rescue, although I am not sure whether they were actually evacuated by it. One “survivor” described seeing the helicopter like this.

“Once you see that chopper man, you’re like ‘Thank God!'”

I think there are a couple of lessons to be learned from this, but they are so obvious I will refrain from writing them out.

So when your friend calls up after being stuck in some deep mud up in the Angeles National Forest all night long do you

A) call the Forest Service
B) Call Triple A
or
C) Take your own car into the mud

If you choose C, you might be an unidentified 18-20 year old from somewhere in Los Angeles County. From the L.A Times:

The Times sent a travel writer to Pasadena to suggest how to spend 36 hours in town. From staying at the Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa Pasadena, to eating at fancy Italian restaurants, I think the Times reporter managed to spend more money in a weekend than I have spent in the city since I moved there a year ago.

In all fairness though, the reporter did hit venerable local institutions like Pie N Burger, and of course, the Huntington Gardens (though entry there ain’t cheap either).

Of course, the outdoorsman in me recoiled to not see a nice, cheap hike up to Echo Mountain or to the Arroyo Seco listed on the itinerary, but what the hell…. if everyone wanted to do it, it would be so much more crowded and that much less pleasant to walk.

The Los Angeles Times reports today that an upcoming Congressional bill might leave out a huge swath of land from the Mexico border up through the Mojave from federal protection. The land is currently protected under an executive order, says the Times, which could be rescinded by the White House without Congressional support…. other lands protected under an executive order are moving into formal protection with this bill.

Taking protection away from the Mojave could open up some of the land to mining interests, developers, off-roaders, says the Times:

“Utility companies have proposed hundreds of miles of electrical transmission corridors through California’s deserts, and off-road vehicle enthusiasts oppose further regulation of the area.”

I do identify with some of the off-road enthusiasts concerns: it is nice to have land with less regulation where you can camp and wander around without being told where to sleep and having to pay for it all.

Of course, we all know the downsides to a lack of regulation: scattered beer bottles and broken glass, abandoned cars, wild fires… the list goes on and on.

The picture at the top of this entry is of Surprise Canyon, a ghost town at the end of a 3,500 feet walk-climb through a verdant desert stream bed. It is the best example in the Mojave of what happens when the desire to regulate butts up against people wanting access rights. Basically, what used to be a road up to ghost town, was washed away by the current stream bed, making it drivable only by extremely souped-up jeeps.

Nevertheless, off-roaders want back in. A group I spent some time with at a nearby Panamint mountain spot insisted on referring to the same steep stream bed I climbed up for hours, beating vegetation away with both hands, as a “road.”

Seems like dropping protection for the area, would be opening up even more desert areas to even more intense fights over access and land use.

Will it happen? Maybe, maybe not, but according to the L.A. Times the bill has received support from a “broad coalition of more than 70 outdoor sports, environmental, historical preservation and religious groups.” Getting that kind of coalition together is a pretty big effort…. and since the bill expands protections in many other parts of the country, getting national environmental groups to turn on it may be asking too much.

On the other hand, even with an executive order, the land would still be protected until the president decided it wasn’t worth it. And considering it survived through the environmentally-unfriendly Bush administration, it might well be safe for a long time.

Most people I know have been rejoicing the warm weather for the last two weeks, but I haven’t. I need one more snowshoeing outing with good deep snow to be satisfied. This weekend’s weather forecast might help me out:

A COLD STORM SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO
IMPACT THE AREA OVER THE WEEKEND. THIS STORM SYSTEM COULD BRING A
VARIETY OF WEATHER IMPACTS TO THE AREA INCLUDING SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS…A WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION TO THE MOUNTAINS…AND
GUSTY OFFSHORE WINDS.

Every year around this time (if there is rain) wild flowers bloom in proliferation around Southern California. And every year I forget to go somewhere where I can see them. Most likely, I spent the time slushing around a mountain with melting snow, where the flowers don’t show up until later in the year, if at all.

Not this year. Using the excellent wild flower report on the desertusa.com site I am whittling between destinations. The site has regular updates on the status of flowers at Anza-Borrego SP, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and The Mojave National Preserve, as well as anywhere else they hear about (Lake Elsinore looks amazing right now).

Based on their data, I am thinking Joshua Tree is the place to go right now.

Also, check out the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve web site for updates on when to go see the largest output of California’s state flower. Right now, according to the site, the preserve is just starting to have poppies grow, so the peak of the season is yet to come.

Of course, you could stay close to home, and follow SGVN photographer Raul Roa to Turnbull Canyon, which is having a poppy outbreak of its own right now.

A missing hiker heading up a hike starting through Icehouse Canyon, near Mt. Baldy Village was found dead today. He was trying to climb an “ice wall” according to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department.

He was found in the dangerous-sounding Falling Rock Canyon (shown above), on the way to Ontario Peak, a route I am familiar with… I believe I walked by the steep river bed he was trying to climb up… I considered using it as a short cut to the top of the mountain, but of course at that point, in October, it was dry as a bone.

He did have the right equipment (crampon and ice pick) but still….. wow. I’ve succumbed to temptation to climb up a steep hill through thick brush without knowing where I am going, but I would steer clear of an ice wall.