Where did this snow come from?

 
    A friend and myself headed out to do the Skinner Ridge trail starting at Bottchers Gap in the Ventana Wilderness. I called ahead and spoke to the resident ranger which gave us tons of helpful information and there was a slight thought of trying to make it to Double Cone Peak, although we didn't really have time on our side for that venture.

    We arrived at Bottchers campground and met up with the ranger to go over all the mistakes on the Ventana Wilderness map published by "Wilderness Press". Always reassuring :-) It was a great day and we set out to hit "Pat Springs" that night which is basically the only guaranteed water source along the trail. It was pretty overcast as we set out and rain was definitely on the agenda. Good thing we packed for rain!

    The trail steadily climbed for quite some time as we only passed two hikers coming out ... little did we know that's the only human life we'd see along the trail. Most of the campgrounds listed on the map either didn't exist due to a forest fire, were flooded, or didn't have a water source nearby so we decided Pat Springs we be our goal for the day which was a nice 8 miles. Prior to hiking this trail we did the Sykes Hot Springs which was nicknamed "The elevator trail" due to all the ups and downs or PUDS (pointless-ups-and-downs). I'd say this was "The elevator trail reborn"... well, maybe I'm exaggerating but it was somewhat PUD-like. We arrived at Pat Springs and it was everything we hopped for... nice, water nearby, and no-one around!

    At camp I busted out a new setup which was a GoLite poncho tarp and a Z-Packs bivy (links below). Got out the paracord and started rigging up an elevated A-frame since there wasn't any wind to speak of. I figured it'd give nice coverage for rain coming straight down.

    We setup camp, cooked some dinner, and called it an early night due to it getting cold very quickly. Shortly after falling asleep I was awoke by sleet which then turned into snow and would continue throughout the night. This was my the first time in a tarp/bivy and I'll say it was quite cool to so easily look out and see the changing weather. We woke to about 4 or maybe 5 inches of snow.... very unexpected but as Cody Lundin says "Party On!". Along the Skinner Ridge trail there are a lot of magnificent views simply due to it being on a ridge. This would become quite funny to us on the hike out as the only mountain to get snow was "Ours"! Everything else was green!

    Although we planned on camping two nights we didn't expect snow.  With that said we figured staying out another night without snow gear probably wasn't the smartest decision. We broke down camp and headed out.  The trek out was a bit more difficult since 4-5 inches of snow is, apparently, just enough to cover up the path and a good amount rocks which would give our ankles a good workout. The trail out was just covered, I mean covered, in urine from all the wildlife roaming around at night. We couldn't call out that many tracks but I can say there were a decent amount of large paw prints... more than I expected.

    On the hike out the snow started melting, everything turned to slush, and it started raining which made for a pretty large mess. We arrived at the parking lot without issues and headed out.  As we arrived at Hwy 1 it was a nice bright sunny day which made it seem like we just came from an alternate world.  It was really shocking to see the change in climate over a spread of 10 miles or so.

Party On!

Survival in the Mojave Desert

  So a group of us decided to sign-up for a "Survival Class" not really knowing what we'd get ourselves into or how good it would turn out to be.  Such a class is only as good as the instructor and I'm pretty sure all of us would agree that it was time/money well spent.  Checkout the link below to see the instructors credentials.  Here's a pic at the completion of the course as we were ready bolt for the nearest steakhouse and chow down.

Heading out

    We packed our stuff up and... wait... no that's not right.  The point of this class was survival so we couldn't bring anything except for an empty water bottle, knife and clothes.  Alright, so we didn't pack anything up but rather just left, how nice.... no planning.  I guess there's no real way to play out a survival situation since it could happen at anytime/anywhere and this was probably the best fabricated survival situation there is (or so we found out).

Arriving in Tehachapi

    We arrived in Tehachapi (the locals pronounce it like "Take-a-pee", we had our own flavors of this) a day prior to the training and got a hotel room which was probably the most shady place I've ever stayed at.  The back window overlooked a swat of overgrown land littered with the most random stuff one could come up with.  From broken down rusted cars, a large plastic Santa, phone booths, tattered stuffed animals, and so on.  Although, no gravestones to be found :-)  Or maybe there was.  It also looked like the local street sweeper was staying a few rooms down from us (cue creepy jason slasher music).  Now that we had our nighttime accommodations we set out for a local bar, who doesn't want to visit a new bar in a new town?  Pulling in to the parking lot we noticed a truck to our right also arriving at the same time, they guy got out and it continued to roll forward...haha... coming nearly a millimeter away from crashing into a glass storefront.  At this moment we knew the night was off to a great start.  Upon entering the bar the sound/conversations stopped and attention was drawn to us.  Well, it didn't quite happen like that but kinda felt like it.  We got a few drinks and headed to the back (outside) where they had a nice firepit going.  Met some locals including a fully decked out pirate in the desert, I'm not kidding, and had a good time.  One lady was certain that we were burning treated wood and that everyone would get cancer.  Good times.

The Class

  After a bit of confusion on dirt roads we found the class parking lot.  The instructor came out to greet us and we followed him to a classroom where we'd be briefed before heading out.  All but two of us jumped in a van and headed out to where the "start" would be, along the highway, while the others hiked to the start with some unknown reward for hiking.  We began hiking in a dried up riverbed with temps in mid 90s and studying various plants/rocks along the way, eating the plants/seeds we came across and collecting some for later.  Further up the trail we got into deep reeds and discussed bamboo, the good 'ol yucca plant which we'd become very fond of, and methods to spot water sources.  The instruction was very informal, in that, the instructor had a route and knew what was along it but would discuss things as they came up.  In between major points of discussion such as water, food, exposure, etc ... the instructor would re-iterate either past information, touch on stuff we'd be encountering, or give background/technical details on the subject.  At any point questions could be raised and we'd spend more time on a particular topic.
   After a while we came upon "basecamp" or where would be staying for the night with two A-frame shelters already setup.  We'd be making one for a subset of us and thank god it was only one.  I'm gonna call B.S on any survival show that demonstrates making shelters and starting fires in under a 3-4 hour time-frame.

At camp we discussed the various uses of the Yucca plant which include (probably not limited to):

• Food
• Hydration 
• Cordage
• Anti-inflammatory agent
• Shampoo

Although, if you've never had it, beware...:-)  For whole group it made our throats quite itchy, obviously in a true survival situation this doesn't matter.  Yucca probably isn't my first choice but I didn't mind it all that much, very fibrous, and when hiking today I'll always grab some to remember this experience.  We did find one young purple yucca that would be roasted the next morning which actually tasted quite good, others may contest to this.  After cooling down in the shade we headed out to gather bow-drill components!  We're making stuff!  I won't go into all the details of a making or using a bow-drill as you really just have to try it in the field.  Plus, text/photos wouldn't do it justice.... just a bunch of numbers to memorize so sign up for the class!
   Once back at camp we started gathering materials to make an A-Frame structure which would be shelter for 3 people.  In modern tent-size standards we made a 1 1/2 person structure for 3 people...haha.   As you can see in the picture our mansion also included a nice fire wall to reflect heat back into the sleeping area, and a small barrier to keep embers from rolling into the structure.  While it's nearly 100 during the day the temps drop quite low at night. The rest of us slept in structures built by previous groups as you can see in the gallery below.  All-in-all, from yucca plant discussions, bow-drill gathering, and A-Frame building it consumed the entire day.  At night we tried our luck and using our hi-tech fire-starting devices and if I recall correctly 3 of us lit a fire.  Damn, is that hard!  So we crammed into the structures and called it a night.  I actually had a great night sleep believe it our not.
   We were up at sunrise the next day, cooking yucca, observing how to boil water in a plastic container, and talking about first-aid.  While hiking out we stopped to cover primitive trapping methods, and other techniques to kill small animals/reptiles.

Update:
    Since I wrote this I've had a few questions about water purification.  The instructor did indeed have 1 water purifier for the entire group.  We also drank from a source and filtered water through a handkerchief
.

Thoughts

• Loved it!
• Wished it were one day longer so our stomachs could get over the adjustment period and be able to more easily focus on some of the technical stuff such as traps.  
• It really illustrated how much work everything is.  In no way would we have been able to accomplish the tasks at hand after hiking all day as some of these survivor-type TV shows illustrate.
• The information and method of presenting it was invaluable.  A very good and knowledgeable instructor.  Nothing beats hands-on.
• As this was a broad skills course I'm now looking to take some more specific classes.

Gallery

Mojave Desert Links:

• California Survival Training