EAGLE MOUNTAIN ATTEMPT JOSHUA TREE

A week ago I met some of my hiking buddies in Joshua Tree at the Lost Palms Oasis trailhead. This is a popular spot for the Mastodon Trail loop. However, we were planning on going way beyond that to a peak where seldmom anyone goes. Eagle mountain is listed on the Sierra Club's Desert peak list. 

First we had to cross 3 miles of open desert and navigated through sandy washes, and did some rock bouldering. The Landscape was beautiful. We passed lots of cool rock formations along the way as we had to ditch unforgiving desert plants such as yucca, cacti and cholla. 

After three miles of admring the scenery, we finally arrived at our first steep climb. We had to traverse the rocky ridge to get to our first break spot on some cool rock outcroppings. 

After the break we continued on traversing a few more ridges which seemed to get tougher to hike through. It was a bit of a rollercoaster as we descended and ascended a few ridges. 

Unfortunately, the group was unable to summit. We had a few issues with people in our group and after eight hours we decided to just head back to our cars.

To add, we still had one more huge hurdle before getting down to the desert floor. We had to descend a 3000 ft ridge and pass a dry fall along the way as we tried to avoid the desert plants on steep, sketchy terrain. 

By this point, it was a race for time. The sun was setting and we did our best to get  back to our cars before nightfall. 

We were unsuccessful and arrived back to our cars by 8:30pm. 

I won't get into details but lots of mistakes were made during the course of our trek, even though majority of the group was experienced. We did have some navigation tools but still got off track The group ended up separating. We spent 12.5 hours in the desert that day.

Needless to say, many lessons were learned and I will probably return with a stronger group of hikers and an earlier start time. 

RAZORBACKS

The group I hike with has been exploring a section of the Los Padres mountains for some time now. I will  not disclose this location because it is one of those less traveled aras that should remain that way. Each time we have hiked in this area we have been the only group trekking through this beautiful area. The only tracks we have seen were bear, deer, birds and possible raccoon. 

Anyways, this area which we call the "razorbaaacks" is so large with so many neat slots canyons that each time we return we explore a new section. We still have alot more to check out. The last time we were there, we discovered some amazing colorful rock formmations. 

The colorful formations could be seen from above the bowl from a very steep ridge that we have ascended many times in the past. So, this time we had a goal and searched different routes until we found the bottom of the multi-color razorbacks consisting of orange, grey and white rocks. 

Some of the canyons were so narrow that we left our backpacks at the base of them and would walk through as far as we could until we could go no further. 

On this such occasion, we came across a huge boulder. if we had rope probably everyone could have made it over this huge obstacle. We could see from a distance that we finally found the area below the orange razorbacks. 

My friends decided to give me a boost up the huge boulder so that I could further explore, take pictures and report back what was beyond the huge rock. 

I was in awe! The slot continued for what it seemed like miles. There were so many interesting slots branching off from the main one I had climbed. I was surrounded by the gorgeous razorbacks that we had viewed from above the bowl. I was fortunate enough to actually be the only one who was right in the center of the bowl and admire its beauty. It was AMAZING!!!!

I wished my friends could have accompanied me.

After trekking through some of the canyons and admiring the magnificient array of colors, I took lots of pictures and returned to the big boulder where they were waiting for me. They had to assist me climbing back down this huge rock. 

They were so impressed with my photos that they regretted not trying to climb up. So, we will be returning back to this particular canyon so that the rest of my hiking buddies can experience what I did. 

I will say that the canyons arent easy to get to. It's a long walk through a rocky wash and there are so many turnoffs that one could get lost. I have been tracking them so that we know where've we been. Some of the slot canyons are long and narrow with rocks that can impede the walkwways. Sometimes you just come to a direct halt and can go no further. To add, some areas are more delicate than others. Some of the rocks just crumble to the touch. 

I love this area. It is not only amazing but so colorful and breath taking. Whatsmore, some of the rock formations resemble hoodoos like the ones in Bryce Canyon, Utah.

This is what the Razorback bowl looks like from the ridge above.                                       

      

This is inside and below the bowl.

    

another section we found to explore.