Joshua Tree, Jan. 17-20

[BlackHatGuy]

Joined four folks from my old backpacking group back east for a nice 3.5 day trip in Joshua Tree. Started late in the afternoon on the 17th, hiked in about four miles and set up camp, then three days of hiking, finishing up Sunday early afternoon. Maybe that’s more like three days of hiking, whatever. A bit of rain on our hike in, then beautiful weather for the rest of the trip. Cool days (low 50s I think) were quite enjoyable, though the quite chilly nights drove us into our shelters a bit earlier than we had anticipated. A few pics.

[Kevin Babione]

Beautiful – Thanks for posting.  Initially I thought the hiker in the first photo was riding a unicycle!

[Erica R]

Thanks, inspiring to see a January backpack. Are there any springs, or did you have to carry all your water?

[BlackHatGuy]

There was no water out there (that we ever saw anyway, beyond mud puddles) so we carried what we needed daily. We cached water in three different places. Two, not hidden, were near trailheads, none of the caches was disturbed.

[Jerry Adams]

Nice.  I love the desert.

Any effect of government shutdown?

[BlackHatGuy]

None that I could see. There was a restroom at one of the water cache spots, which was open, clean and well stocked.

[BlackHatGuy]

Our route: We started at the Indian Cove trailhead. Took the Boyscout Trail to the Big Pine Trail, to the North View Trail, to the Bigfoot Trail, to Samuelson’s Rocks, to Quail Springs, cross country to Smith Water Canyon, to California Hiking and Riding Trail, Stubbe Springs Loop Trail, out thru Juniper Flats to the water cache and back to Johnnie Connector Trail, thru Johnny Lang Canyon, back over to the Boy Scout Trail back to the cars.

[W I S N E R !]

Good stuff Doug.

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