john - 1-4-2005 at 11:33 PM
After reading the poleline adventure here on the forum, I decided to give it a shot myself. My 13 year old son a friend of his and my wife and I
headed out 6 am. Friday morning. We were driving 2 jeep cherokee XJs both well equiped for long range off road travel. We crossed the border at 11 am.
gassed up and hit the trail to Canyon Guadalupe. We drove up to the springs in Guadalupe cyn. just see what they looked like. We had never been there
before. We found a little side trail below the springs and found a nice spot to camp in the rocks. This was about 4:30 pm. we woke up to a sunny day
and we were back on the trail by 9am Sat. morning. We followed a small trail that stayed close to the rocks along the mountain range and saw a group
of big horn sheep on the rocks not more than 50 yards away. We stopped for lunch just below Agua Caliante. After lunch we decided to drive up the
summit trail to get a birds eye veiw. From there it was easy to see the trail leading south. We reached the wash right before "basketball hill". I can
see why it took awile to find the trail again. it had rained pretty good a few days earlier so most of the tracks from the trip a week or so ago were
washed away, but if you looked hard enough you could find some. We went up basketball hill without any problems and reached Eminido cyn. by 4:30 pm.
where we camped for the night. Sunday was another sunny day we did some hiking in the cyn. in the morning. We were on the trail by 10:30 am. This last
section of the trail comming down the mountain is the most technical. We reached the intersection that you can use to go north or south and decided to
try the southern route. The previous group took the north route. The first wash you come to, the road leading out of the was is completly washed out.
We traveled down the wash for a while and found another bypass trail leading out of the wash. The one jeep with lockers had no problem my other jeep
without lockers needed a little help. We continued to Arroyo Grande and could not find the road on the other side of the wash so we drove down Arroyo
Grande which is part of the race course and came out at a ranch. Here we turned right and took this road to La Ventana. On hwy. 5. we drove to San
Felipe and gassed up. It was now getting dark, but we still wanted to try to find Canyon Diablo across Valle Chico. We found the road leading west. We
set our GPS for an intersection near the canyon across the dry lake bed. As we were flying across the dry lake bed we noticed a set of head lights
coming at us at high speed from the north. Sure enough it was the Mexican Army in their Hummer. They stopped us, asked us a few questions, slightly
searched our vehicles but overall were quite friendly. They clearly thought we were crazy for being out there at night. By 8pm we found a camp spot
next to canyon Diablo. Had a little dinner and turned in for the night after a long day. Wouldn't you know the night I decided not to put the rain
tarp over the tent, it started to rain at 2am. I had to get up and cover the tent. It rained through about 7 am. We hiked up the canyon for a ways
before heading out. Our hike was cut short because I knew the rain was going to have a negative effect on this dry lake bed. Sure enough I was right.
The dry lake bed was now a wet slippery muddy lake bed with a lot of water holes. It was all we could do to keep the vehicles moving in as straight a
direction as we possibly could. We finally made it across with about 50 pounds of mud on each vehicle. We found our way back to San Felipe. Had to
have fish tacos for lunch before heading back across the border. I would like to thank Neal John for taking the time out to call me back on my cell
phone and give me some last minute tips. Thanks Neal
Neal Johns - 1-5-2005 at 12:15 AM
Great job, John. You must have been doing this sort of thing for a while. Do you have any pictures to post?
bajaandy - 1-5-2005 at 08:20 AM
[Wouldn't you know the night I decided not to put the rain tarp over the tent, it started to rain at 2am. I had to get up and cover the tent.]
HA! I swear that is good 'ol Murphy and his twisted law. Happens to me every time. (Usually in the Sierra's)
Nice trip report. Sounds like you had a good time with the family. My 13 year old son decided not to go with me on my last trip. When I got back and
told him about the trip and showed the photos, he was regretting it. Swears he's gonna go next time.
Thanks for the report.
[Edited on 1-5-2005 by bajaandy]
[Edited on 1-5-2005 by bajaandy]
[Edited on 1-5-2005 by bajaandy]
john - 1-5-2005 at 06:22 PM
thanks Grover for the editing. much easier to read. I am going to try and post some pics. tonight