the Survivor

The quarterly journal of Desert Survivors • Experience, Share, Protect • Spring 2007, 26, 1

Desert Survivors Fall Events

Back on the Desert Trail
Black Rock Mountains
 Benton Bash II bring non-member guests
S H O RT TA K E S

Desert Survivors 2nd Annual End-Of- ($35 each); if interested,

Summer Party and Annual Meeting,
Thursday, September 20 to Sunday, Sep-
tember 23, 2007, Benton Hot Springs
As summer camping draws to a close and
cooler autumn winds shoo us down off the
high peaks, we slump a little in anticipation
of the cold short winter days ahead. We
pull musty sweaters and old umbrellas from
guests can become members
of DS at the party. We
expect around one hundred
attendees, so sign up early!.
Location: Benton Hot
Springs is located on State
Route 120, southeast of
Mono Lake, 42 rollicking

the depths of our closets and sadly watch
as our calenders plump up with meetings
and must-dos. Grimly we pack up the rip-
stops, S.P.F.s and Tevas. But before the
kayak is stored, the carabiners are sorted,
and the fleece is de-loused, squeeze in one
more great summer trip and say goodbye
to “Summer Camping ‘07” with a bang.
Desert Survivors has rented the entire Ben-
ton Hot Springs Resort from Noon 9/20
to Noon 9/23. Members and guests are
invited to reserve camping space. It will be
a fun event for all!
Cost: $35 per adult (children 12 and under
are free). Members are encouraged to
Desert Survivors
Annual Meeting At
Benton
The Desert Survivors Annual Member-
ship meeting will be held on Sunday, Sep-
tember 23, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. As last year,
it will be on the morning of the last day
of our gathering at Benton Hot Springs.
See the accompanying article for details.
The Annual Meeting is the one time each
year that Survivor members gather to elect
Directors and make (possible) changes to
the groups bylaws. The Annual Meeting
also serves as a review of what the group
has been doing the year before and as a
forum for what can and should be done
in the future. It’s an excellent opportunity
to volunteer and get involved in the orga-
nization’s educational and political efforts.
All members are invited.
Members will receive a packet of informa-
tion before the meeting. Set aside the
Benton weekend for both fun and work as
Desert Survivors faces 2008.
Cover: View of the Carrizo Plain National Monument; see page 14. Photograph by Craig Deutsche.
miles east of U.S. Route 395.
(Be aware that Yosemite
National Park charges $20
per car to get over Tioga
Montgomery Peak from Benton Hot Springs
Pass on Route 120; you may
buy an annual pass from the Park
Service for $50.)
Activities: There will be many activities
scheduled throughout the three days,
including: hikes (long and short), visits to
historical sites (both indigenous and not),
star and moon gazing, geology and plant
hikes, an art demonstration, campfire sing-
alongs, yoga, a desert hat fashion show, a
book exchange, kid’s games and lots more.
Feel free to add an activity to our roster.
End each event with a glorious soak in one
of the nine tubs of natural hot water from
the springs. Relax as you watch the late
summer sun reflecting off the 14,000-foot
spine of the White Mountains, sentinels of
the sky above Owens Valley, gateway to the
Great Basin. All tubs are clothing-optional,
but please consult with the parents at #1
Family Camp.
Food: Three pot luck meals are planned:
Breakfast on Friday (8:00-9:30 a.m.), Din-
ner on Friday (6:30 p.m.), and Dinner on
Saturday (6:30 p.m.). Plus a Happy Hour
on Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
Miscellaneous Information: Pleasant
weather is expected: 70s-80s F. in the day,
40s or low 50s F. at night, but it could be
colder and stormy. The Desert Survivors
Annual Membership meeting will be held
on Sunday at 9:00 a.m.
To Sign Up: Please send a $35 check
payable to Desert Survivors for each adult
participant. Send to Steve Tabor, Attn.
Benton Event, PO Box 20991, Oakland,
CA 94620-0991. Include your name,
phone, home address, and how many (and
who) will be attending. Include your e-mail
address if you have one. A packet with all
Judy Kendall
the details will be sent to you via postal
mail. Please note that Bed and Breakfast
lodging is available at Benton Hot Springs
for those who desire not to camp. Call the
Resort Office at (760) 933-2507 or (760)
933-2287 for information and reservations.
Desert Conference
Desert Survivors Presents A Conference
On Current Desert Preservation
Issues, Saturday, November 3, 2007, 10
a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Social Hall in the
Recreation Center at Live Oak Park, 1301
Shattuck Avenue (cross-street Berryman),
Berkeley, CA.
Speakers will include environmental
activists from the Center for Biological
Diversity, California Wilderness Coalition,
the Desert Protective Council, U.S. Geo-
logical Survey and the Sierra Club Desert
Committee.
Presentation topics will include present
and pending legislation on desert protec-
tion, impact of global warming on
deserts, animal grazing and land manage-
ment, impact of international border and
immigration enforcement on US deserts,
off-road vehicle’s impact on desert soils,
air, plants, animals and people, Surprise
Canyon protection, Carrizo Plain protec-
tion, and legislative issues. Several other
topics will be added upon confirmation of
the speakers. Lunch will be provided.
For more information, please contact:
Elena Gogoleva via telephone at
(415) 307-8324.

2 The Survivor Spring 2007

 How to Reach Us Contribute to T h e Mission Statement for

S H O RT TA K E S
(Elections for all offices will be held
September 23, 2007) S u r v i v o r –T his is the Desert Survivors
[See website for curent information] last time I’m going Desert Survivors is a nonprofit organiza-
tion dedicated to desert conservation and
Editor to ask you! exploration. Our members enjoy hiking in
Paul Brickett Deadline for the Fall issue is September and learning about America’s desert lands,
(408) 279-3129 23, 2007. Submissions (with maximum and seek to protect those areas for future
word length) may include letters-to-the-edi- generations.
tor (200), feature articles (4000), trip
Membership Information reports (2000), desert conservation issues,
Steve Tabor
(510) 769-1706
articles on desert natural history, book Sign up for Desert
reviews, backpacking/camping recipes,
member announcements and original art. Survivor E-Mail
Desert Survivor Website All submissions which relate to the mission Notices and On-Line
www.desert-survivors.org of Desert Survivors will be considered for
publication. All text must be submitted Forum
Board of Directors electronically. Please send text longer than Desert Survivors has two e-mail lists for
a paragraph as an attached file. Formats members, DSEM (DS Electronic Mail )
President currently accepted (in order of preference) Notices and DSOL (DS On Line) interac-
Steve Tabor
are: Word (.doc), WordPerfect (.wpd), Rich tive Forum. DSEM Notices allows mem-
Text Format (.rtf) and text (.txt). Please bers to receive most regular mailings from
Activities include your full name, city and state of the Board of Directors by e-mail rather
Bob Lyon residence and phone number with the sub- than paper. Trip schedules, party and meet-
mission. For photographs, please identify ing announcements, alerts – everything
the people and locations shown. Digital except renewal notices and The Sur vi vor
Communications
Paul Brickett photos need to be approximately 1600 pix- arrive in your inbox, often days before
els resolution to be printed the full width other members receive theirs in the mail.
of a page (8.5 inches). Please do not sub- You receive 100% of the text contents of
Managing mit digital photos with only 640x480 pixels the regular mailings (and nothing else).
Loretta Bauer resolution as they are impossible to print Desert Survivors protects the e-mail
with adequate size. addresses of its members fully, never lend-
Secretary ing, selling or giving them away to others.
Deborah Schreiber
DSOL is our interactive Forum,
which allows members who sign up
Volunteer to broadcast e-mail to everyone else
Lynne Buckner signed up for DSOL Forum.
Recent topics included floods, desert
At Large Directors: wildflowers, road conditions, and DS
service trips. Be careful, though, to
Jannet Schraer
not inadvertently send personal e-
mail to everyone on DSOL Forum.
Judy Kendall
Desert Survivor members may sub-
Patrick Dunn scribe to either DSEM Notices or
DSOL Forum by e-mailing tor-
Dan Seneres toise, desert-survivors.org. For the
subject use “subscribe regular mail-
ings” for DSEM Notices, and
Nick Jedenoff “subscribe listserv” for DSOL
Forum. Don’t include the quotation
General Counsel marks and do include in the body of
Alan Siraco the message your name and address
so that we can verify your member-
ship. Unfortunately, we don’t yet
Judy Kendall

The Sur vi vor is printed by have a completely automated system,

My Printer, Berkeley, CA, and Tortoise can be a little slow, so it
www.emyprinter.com. might take several days.
Hike at Benton Bash I (see previous page)

The Survivor Spring 2007 3

 Letter
S H O RT TA K E S

Sempra Ends Black Rock Coal

Plant Project

July 27, 2007

You may have seen these two notices

of the final withdrawal of Sempra’s
Granite Fox Power Plant applications
to the BLM and the Nevada Public
Utilities Commission, but in case you
did not, they represent the formal end-
ing of the coal power plant project in
Gerlach Nevada by Sempra. In early
Notice of cancelation
2006 Sempra
announced that it
would not build the
plant, but would try
to sell the project to
another power devel-
oper. With these
withdrawals, Sempra
appears to have aban-
doned their attempt
to sell the project.

Michael S. Moore
David Rumsey,
Gerlach, NV
Artist’s conception of proposed power plant in Black Rock Desert, NV

Desert Survivors
Goes To The Green
Festival
Join us in celebrating the desert and its
“green” treasures by coming by and
schmoozing with all those watery green
folks who have no clue how to find the
dessert in the desert. Festival is November
9, 10 and 11, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and
Saturday, and 11 to 6 Sunday. The location
is the Concourse Exhibition Center, Booth
#365, in the Eco-Travel Section, 635 8th
Street (at Brannan), San Francisco, CA
94103. See the Green Festival website at
www.greenfestivals.com for details. Partici-
pate in desert education, activism, fun, and
socializing. Wear your DS T-shirt or buy a
new hottie DS T-shirt (now in women’s
styles) and cap.
Want to help out? We need DS members
to staff the booth (about 5 per shift) and
talk to folks about protecting our desert
wilds from off-road vehicles, toxic wastes
and exotic water-sappers, and joining our
fantastically diverse, talented, thrilling, and
beautiful (ok, handsome) group of desert
hikers and backpackers. Please call Judy
Kendall at (510) 612-1124 to sign up for
one or two half-day shifts (before or after 3
p.m.), or to help with the Thursday night
set-up (approximately 6 to 10 p.m.) Help
us take advantage of this national event
and put the desert “on the map” at the
Green Festival. Desert Survivors needs the
exposure, and environmentalists need to
know that our brown desert land deserves
help. Call now!
Call For Artists
Inspired by the Desert Art Show Spon-
sored by Desert Survivors
Darrell Hunger, a long-time Desert Sur-
vivors member and San Francisco Bay Area
artist, will be putting together a series of
art shows in the Fall of 2007. The venues
and times are not yet finalized, but we
anticipate two, three or four shows lasting
one or two months each in Bay Area loca-
tions: cafes, libraries, REI, or community
art centers. Some work may appear on the
DS website with announcements of open-
ings, etc. Exhibits will include a framed
information board with the Desert Sur-
vivors Statement, how to become a mem-
ber of Desert Survivors, artist statements,
and, if the work is for sale, contact infor-
mation.
The show will include original paintings,
prints, photography, collage, sculpture that
can be hung, and short written pieces. All
works should be “desert-inspired”. A
$5.00 per piece fee will be collected for
each piece chosen to defray handling costs.
If you are interested in showing some of
your work, contact Darrell Hunger at (510)
649-1923, and send four or five images to
Darrell Hunger in jpg format, along with
a brief artist statement.
Help make the Desert Survivors 2007 Art
Show a success!

4 The Survivor Spring 2007

Desert Survivors at Corrine helped in the afternoon and we cessful from the standpoint of raising

had a return visit from Jack Ottosen. We
2007 Whole Earth had a lot of traffic from people with gener-
Festival al interest in the desert as well as from
many children and young people interested
By Chuck McGinn, Davis, CA
in the box of desert artifacts that was pro-
vided by Steve. The big draws were the
F E AT U R E
awareness and introducing people to the
idea that the deserts are places of beauty
and that they can be a travel destination
rather than an area to hurry through.
The original idea of the booth was to bring

F
ollowing up on an idea for recruiting bleached skulls of desert sheep and coyote in a few of the environmentally conscious
new members, Desert Survivors along with interesting minerals and fossils college students at UCD and I’m not sure
applied to the annual Davis Whole and, yes, sand. the booth was best put together for that. I
Earth Festival for an education booth. The think the desert treasures were effective in
festival celebrates alternative energy, envi- Sunday, I think, was the best day. People pulling in kids and their parents but I’m
ronment, sustainability and health. It has often like to do a quick scan of the festival not sure that is going to produce many
been doing so for the last 30 years that this on Saturday and then come back on Sun- immediate new members. For the amount
writer has attended, and finally, the country day to focus on what caught their interest. of effort spent staffing a booth for the
is catching up. There is a big focus on zero I had planned to close down shortly after weekend, I think we should contemplate
waste with all refuse from the festival being noon but more people came in for extend- what it is that interests younger people.
sorted for recycling or composting. ed conversation and I ended up staying on
until about 3 p.m.. In the morning I had One idea that strikes me is that there is no
The festival is traditionally held on Moth- help with the booth from Jim Moroney. common transportation. This came from
er’s Day weekend and the weather this year comments from several visitors to the
was the very best of mild spring weather During the three days we passed out about booth who didn’t have cars. I think that is
that Davis has to offer. The faire started 75 brochures on Desert Survivors, trip an obstacle to a lot of students. What if
about noon on Friday. Vehicles are strictly schedules and desert camping trips. Over- we rented a commuter van and worked
limited on the core campus and the festival all, we had about forty volunteer hours in with a college group to deliver people to a
days are no exception. After waiting off the booth. I have yet to hear whether there trip site? Well, I’m open to suggestions
campus for about an hour, I was given the are any new members from our efforts so I from all our members in advertising and
OK to drive up to the central quad and can’t yet say if the effort was an effective marketing. But it was fun and I would cer-
unload. Between my first and second trips membership tool. I do know it was suc- tainly hope that we do it again next year.
to the truck, Fern Goodman and Jack
Ottosen were
found relaxing in
the camp chairs
ready to work the
crowd. We set up
the new Desert
Survivors tent
canopy and hung
up the desert
poster boards that
were made by
Dan Seneres and
opened for busi-
ness. Shortly after
setting up we
were joined by
Bob Flett and
Rick Juricich who
helped staff the
booth through the
afternoon.

On Saturday,
Steve Tabor was
there for nearly
the whole day and
Chuck McGinn

fielded many
questions from
the visitors. Mike
Laing and his wife Fern Goodman and Jack Ottosen at the DS booth ready to great visitors on Friday

The Survivor Spring 2007 5

 Anza- Christmas trip, joined us later that
TRIP REPORTS

evening. Many of us took advantage of

the campground’s shower facilities, nor-
Borrego mally so scarce on DS trips.

The next morning we hiked the well-con-

Carcamp structed California Riding and Hiking
Trail, which begins a few miles west of

Lucy DuPertuis
Borrego Springs. I enjoyed the desert
December 29, 2006 - surroundings and increasingly impressive
January 2, 2007 views of the valley below, but soon
lagged behind with two others who pre-
By Patrick Dunn, Elko, NV Bighorn ewe near Borrego Palm Canyon ferred a more leisurely pace. Around
Campground noon, our little split-off group met Joan-

D
esert Survivor carcamps in South- na coming back down the trail. She
ern California or Death Valley during winter months showed us a flapping boot sole, which had impeded walking so
have become my welcome escape from Elko’s northern much she had to turn around.
Nevada winter cold. So I was happy for the chance to explore
Anza-Borrego State Park for the first time, on a New Year’s trip. Our little group continued quite a bit further up the trail, though
The group, led by Lucy DuPertuis, met Friday morning (Decem- we never caught up with the others. (They lunched at the top,
ber 29), at the Anza Borrego State Park Visitor Center. The about 2,300 vertical feet from the trailhead, where they claimed
weather looked promising: sunny and mild. After our ritual meet- the best views were.) Wanting to conserve energy for the rest of
ing, we reconvened beyond the campground at the nearby Bor- the trip, we agreed on a more reasonable turnaround point. Back
rego Palm Canyon trailhead. The eight of us headed up the sur- at the cars, we discovered a note from Joanna saying she’d headed
prisingly crowded, popular, tourist-friendly trail. home because of her boot problem. We would miss her spunky
presence and famed camp cooking. Several more participants
On the very first section of the trail, two bighorn sheep ewes decided to bow out after that day’s hike, including the two women
wandered by in easy camera range-they appeared unafraid, evi- I’d hiked with most of the day. Now only five remained for the
dently used to entertaining tourists. We worked our way up to an trip’s continuation in the park’s southern area.
oasis of native California Palms at a small waterfall and pool,
which most “tourist” hikers stop to admire and rest at before A couple of hours’ winding drive past confusing crossroads
turning back. This palm oasis, a typical feature of Anza-Borrego brought us to Mountain Palm Springs “primitive” campground,
canyon hikes, featured a particularly thick stand of palms amidst our home for the next three nights, with just enough light left to
large rocks. We had to clamber over the rocks as this was the off- set up camp. “Primitive” meant only a cement-block outhouse,
trail route to the canyon beyond the tourist trail. around which a gaggle of RV’s clustered, and no shower facilities.
We camped further up-canyon by the wash which led to the palm
Farther up the deserted upper canyon we appreciated the broken groves.
beauty of each successive palm oasis. A significant
flood a few years ago had piled many broken
trunks and fronds, boulders and other debris
against each stand of trees. Even worse, many of
the palms showed scorched trunks from vandals’
setting fires-very disheartening. Unenlightened
folks apparently get an idiotic thrill from setting
alight the trees’ thick skirting of dead palm fronds.
We saw this sad sight of burned-but not dead-trees
at other palm oases throughout our trip.

The canyon offers a seven-mile tricky scramble to

its top, which we didn’t have nearly the time to
attempt before darkness fell at five p.m.. Instead,
we had lunch and turned around. After descend-
ing as far as the tourist-infested first palm grove,
we took an alternate trail back, which allowed dra-
matic views of the flood’s boulder-strewing devas-
Lucy DuPertuis

tation of Borrego Palm Canyon.

We camped in the campground and enjoyed each

other’s company around the luxury of picnic
Elaine Schwimmer, Tanya Tschesnok and Craig Deidrick ford the creek in
tables. Joanna, a survivor of Lucy’s Mecca Hills
Borrego Palm Canyon

6 The Survivor Spring 2007

We took two hikes on Sunday, New

TRIP REPORTS
Year’s Eve, which offered us the same
sunny, mild weather we enjoyed
throughout the trip. The first hike was
an easy jaunt up canyon from the camp,
past several (alas, also vandalized) palm
oases, to a larger stand at a spring.
From there we scrambled up a rocky
side trail to the rim of a little valley fea-
turing widely-scattered Torotes, or Ele-
phant Trees. The grayish Torote trunks,
which store water, look swollen like the
legs of elephants. Few grow north of
Baja California. Some trees had been
tagged, evidently for botanical study.
Depending on their aspect, some trees
swelled more with moisture then others,
and only some were about to bud.

Descending back to the palm oasis at

the spring, we spied a young couple sit-
ting yogi-style in the center of the clear-
ing, apparently deep in a meditative
(and, so it smelled, herbal) trance. Not On the California Riding and Hiking Trail, overlooking the town of Borrego Springs
wishing to disturb them, we skirted the
grove and ascended the slope on the other side, past many barrel
cacti, all bowing to the south, none yet ready to bloom. The next
canyon over, by which we returned to our camp, had yet more
palm oases. Despite the vandalism by fire of most, a few retained
their beautiful protective skirting of dead fronds.
After lunching back at camp, one of the group, Tanya, suddenly
decided to hot-foot it back to the Bay Area, where she hoped to
reach a New Year’s Eve party before midnight. The remaining
“final four,” Lucy, Tom, Peter, and I, then piled into a single vehi- but to head back up Moonlit Canyon, to either locate the use-trail I
cle and drove a short way north to Agua Caliente Park, which has a had missed or meet up with the others.
campground, store, indoor hot pool, and
an intriguing 2 ½ mile loop hike trail.
Our attempt to find Moonlit Canyon,
which branches off from the loop trail,
proved challenging because of twists and
turns, rocky washes, and blocked paths,
one of which was actually marked with a
street-type “Do Not Enter” sign because
of an impassable rock wall about two
hundred feet up the trail. After reaching
dead ends up several more little side
canyons, we found a faint use trail which
led over a ridge to Moonlit Canyon.
Clambering my way over boulder after
boulder up this wide, rocky canyon, I felt
played out and began lagging behind the
others, who wanted to hike up to a view
point and return via the same route. I
soon headed back down Moonlit
Patrick Dunn
Patrick Dunn
Somehow I missed the use-trail and kept heading downhill, expect-
ing still to find it with no problem. I did see a place which looked
like it might be the junction with the use-trail, but I didn’t recog-
nize the spot for sure because I’d not been attentive enough to my
surroundings on my way up. So I kept going straight down Moon-
lit Canyon and soon came to an impassable drop-off. (This, it
turned out, was the sheer rock wall where the short canyon beyond
the “Do Not Enter” sign had so abruptly ended!) I then realized
I’d missed the use-trail, which was the path back. I had no option
I began to worry that the others might
have already headed off on the use-trail
by the time I got to where it turned off.
How would they know where I was?
Sensing the real possibility that I could
be in serious trouble, I felt the begin-
nings of panic. I did my best to quell
this feeling and to focus on my one, best
option: to follow the canyon back up
until I met my fellow hikers. Sure
enough, after a few anxious minutes of
determined, focused walking, I was much
relieved to see the others clambering
down the canyon. And they seemed
relieved to see me.
Once back on the park’s loop trail, we
followed it back to the campground
through a narrow, unexpectedly woody,

Canyon, planning to stop at the junction swamp-like area. Then at last we got to
of the use-trail we’d taken to access this indulge in the park’s hot pool.
canyon.
Back at camp, we celebrated New Year’s
Bow Willow Canyon, ocotillo and cholla

The Survivor Spring 2007 7

 Eve around my handy folding camp table Could it be? I took the bowl back to
TRIP REPORTS

by sharing a nice dinner and – after some camp, but kept it out of sight until the
cheap champagne – great stories about our appropriate moment. When, over dinner,
worst jobs and stimulating discussions of the subject of the thieving kit foxes came
our favorite literature. As a bright moon up, I asked Peter to describe the lost bowl.
rose, we noticed several bright-eyed kit “Green plastic,” he said. “Did it look like
foxes circling us. Wanting to share our this?” I asked, pulling the bowl from
revelry with his furry kin, Peter set out under my jacket with a flourish. It did.
some champagne in his green plastic din- We all had a good laugh over the complet-
ner bowl for the skulking creatures. The ed exchange with the local wildlife. That
next morning, Peter checked his bowl to evening only one kit fox joined us; like the
see if the kit foxes had imbibed the cham- previous night’s visitors, it darted about in
pagne. The bowl was gone! near-constant motion, at a wary distance
as it developed another thieving strategy.
It was another good day, sunny but neither Lucy desperately wanted to photograph it,
hot nor windy. We drove to nearby Bow but after she dug out her camera and fig-
Willow Canyon to begin a loop hike. I ured out how to work the flash, the fox
found the primitive, iconic desert topogra- vanished.
phy and vegetation on this day’s hike quite
captivating. Cactus, ocotillo, large rocks For the fifth and final day, we carpooled
and boulders abounded, and good use south to look for slot canyons in the Car-
trails led through much of it. From Bow rizo Badlands, a maze of mudhills and
Willow Canyon we followed a wash and canyons which extend for miles across the
traversed over a broad ridge and down park’s broad central valley. After a few
another wash into wide Rock House false leads, we found a decent slot with
Canyon, a few miles up which we lunched some tight squeezes which topped out at a
at the Rock House. More of a line shack great view point. Quite different from the

Patrick Dunn
for cattle rustlers, the house was built previous days’ hikes, this one was not too
mostly of rocks into the side of a hill. I strenuous and a lot of fun.
was content in this rustic setting, casually
observing an ant working hard to get a Threading the needle, slot canyon (Carrizo After breaking camp the next morning I
load of food out of my lunch bag. badlands) said good-bye and headed home. I had
taxed myself enough, and a day and a half
A short but steep climb over a low pass led back to Bow Willow of driving awaited me, so I elected not to join the others for a hike
Canyon. I started to lag behind once again in this canyon, but this in Blair Valley. They wanted to hike up a steep trail to the lone-
time I was not concerned. We were going downhill on a flat, wide some remains of a home where Marshal South and his wife had
sandy wash full of smoke and palo verde trees on an obvious route tried to live like natives and raise their family for many years in the
back to the trailhead with no confusing junction choices. When 1930’s.
getting lost is not an issue, walking through the desert by yourself,
engulfed in silence and solitude, is a very therapeutic and enjoyable Though I felt rushed at times (I maintain that hurrying through the
exercise. desert does not increase the enjoyment of it), I was very glad I
stayed nearly the whole trip. I loved the region, we had great
Back at camp in the waning day- weather and no major injuries,
light I took a muscle-stretching and I came away with something
pre-dinner stroll up a closed road entirely unexpected from a desert
to a previously allowed but now adventure -a renewed enthusiasm
forbidden camping area, which I for great world literature. Thanks
was curious to explore. This largely to Peter, I am now part of
area had a better view and was a reading challenge at the library
more secluded than where we had where I work: sometime during
to camp, and there was no appar- the year, we will read The Broth-
ent reason to prohibit its use. ers Karamozov. I’ve already
But some park official had obvi- warmed up with Crime and Pun-
ously decided to close it. On my ishment.
way down from the forbidden
Lucy DuPertuis

camp I came upon a large bur- So, here are my lessons from this
row-belonging to kit foxes, per- trip: don’t wander off; kit foxes
haps? Near the burrow I spied are thieves; and reading the clas-
something conspicuous: a green sics can actually be fun!
plastic bowl! Native California Palm Leaf

8 The Survivor Spring 2007

 Wind Wolves Preserve Service Trip

TRIP REPORTS
January 20-21, 2007

By Craig Deutsche, Los Angeles

It is hard to imagine that a private wildlife preserve can be

bigger than all but a very few of the wilderness areas in Cali-
fornia, but it is true. The Wind Wolves preserve, located at
the very southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, includes
100,000 acres. It is owned and run by the Wildlands Conser-
vancy, a non-profit group with a two-fold mission: preserva-
tion of a transitional habitat, and education of the public
about wildlands, their value, and their beauty. While the pre-
serve is reasonably well funded, volunteers do a great deal of
the restoration that occurs on the property, and that is why
this Desert Survivor service trip went there.

Craig Deutsche
Some of our group camped at the preserve Friday evening,
the night before the actual project. This requires that either
the entrance gate be unlocked, or else visitors must be given
the combination in advance, as the land is not only preserved View north to the San Joaquin valley
but also protected. Groups are welcomed, but they must make
from a bush. Speculations ran to rattlesnakes, mammals, and
arrangements in advance. The remainder of our group arrived on
ghosts. Further investigation resolved the question with the dis-
Saturday morning, and at 9:00 a.m. David Clendenen, director, met
covery of a leaky irrigation pipe.
the group and gave the initial instructions. Although previous
groups have removed tamarisk, planted oak trees, or modified The preserve ranges from an elevation of perhaps 1500 feet up to
barbed wire, the assignment on this occasion was planting 6000 feet immediately below the Los Padres Forest and Mt. Pinos.
mesquite at the lower elevations below the campsite. This is not a On the tour, we encountered at least 50 elk, several deer, several
technical job, but still it is important to have a hole of proper size, coyotes, a golden eagle, and olfactory evidence of skunk, as well as
to use enough mulch, to bury the seedling roots to the proper smaller birds and a collection of rodents. One of the treats was a
depth, and to install the drip irrigation system upon completion. visit to a Chumash rock art site. This is one of the premier sites in
For a year water will be provided, and after that the roots will be southern California and is only available to groups guided by a
deep enough that the plants can manage on their own. The pur- member of the preserve staff.
pose of the planting ultimately was to provide cover and habitat
for birds and small mammals where former grazing had stripped The third weekend of every month (summer excluded by heat) is a
the ground. work party at the preserve. There is no need to participate as an
organized group–individuals are welcome, although it is wise to
One of the unex- make advance
pected pleasures of arrangements by
working at this pre- calling the phone
serve is that volun- number listed on
teers are given a their website
barbeque dinner on (www.wildlandscon-
Saturday evening servancy.org) for
and then taken on a Wind Wolves pre-
tour of the preserve serve.
the following morn-
ing. Perhaps the And the name?
highlight of the When winds blow
evening occurred across prairie grass-
when two of the lands, it is said that
group took a walk wolves are running
up the road in the out of sight and
dark and then
Craig Deutsche

Craig Deutsche

moving the grass.

rushed back to These are the
camp with reports wolves for which
of a spooky gur- the preserve is
gling noise coming named.
David Clendenen, Preserve Director Mortar

The Survivor Spring 2007 9

 Halloran Summit to Miller Spring
TRIP REPORTS

Backpack; Segments P, Q and R of the

California Desert Trail
February 4-9, 2007 We got on the “trail” about noon on February 4, leaving on
foot from Halloran Summit on Interstate 15, about 18 miles
By George “Grubstake” Huxtable, east of Baker. Of course, the Desert Trail is only a trail in the
San Mateo, CA mind’s eye, a pencil line drawn on folded topo maps. Howev-
er, it is thoroughly documented in a series of well-written
guidebooks by Steve Tabor covering the Desert Trail of Cali-

I
t was 5 years ago that we started fornia and Nevada. They are what bring the “trail” to life.
the Desert Trail at Jacumba, at
the Mexican border. This year From Halloran Summit, the route quickly
we would cross into Death Valley moves away from the pounding interstate free-
National Park, arriving at Miller way, into low-lying hills laced with old 4X4
Spring in Greenwater Valley, a dis- roads. The vegetation is classic Mojave; lots of
tance of 468 miles. We planned to creosote, Joshua trees, blackbrush and bur-
cover the last 85 of those 468 miles roweed. We came to the base of Solomon’s
by completing the Shadow Mountains, Valjean- Knob, a prominent lava outcropping, and
Amargosa and Ibex Hills segments of the Desert dropped over a minor plateau
Trail. into Bull Spring Wash. We
camped in the hills that
Pete “Cactus” Campbell, Don “Dusty” Brown evening beyond the wash.
and myself met at Miller Spring in the southern
end of Greenwater Valley on Saturday, February Continuing north the next
3. I was the last to arrive, via Shoshone, pulling day, we moved quickly over
in at night. Dusty already had a grill sizzling away agreeable terrain and into the
with teriyaki chicken, roast potatoes and salad which we thorough- western part of Shadow Val-
ly enjoyed, knowing it would be our last “real” meal for many days. ley. We crossed under several
massive transmission lines
We were up the next day, Sunday, before daylight, and began orga- that ran between Las Vegas
nizing our equipment. It always amazes me how much equipment and Los Angeles. The high
detail is involved in such a simple endeavor as backpacking. Then tension wires looked like spi-
as the sun was rising, we left my Jeep and began our caching rou- der webs shimmering in the
tine with the two other vehicles. One cache was left at Tecopa in sunlight draped from tower
one of our vehicles behind a trailer park and the other buried Location of segments P, Q, R to tower for miles, and utterly
about 10 miles east of Highway 127, along Kingston Road. dwarfed by the even more
massive scale of a blank desert. Two helicopters swooped over-
head, apparently inspecting the lines or thinking twice about our
large backpacks. The route turned west, following a more narrow
wash before coming to heavily choked and waterless Kingston
Spring. We camped a few miles west of the spring, late in the day
on February 5. Cactus had announced earlier that he had brought
a cribbage board, with which he would refresh Dusty and my rec-
ollections of the game to play after dinner. Expecting a small,
lightweight plastic board, we were surprised to watch Cactus pull
an oversize, solid wood cribbage board from his pack! We enjoyed
George “Grubstake” Huxtable

a couple of games by headlamp before turning in for the night.

The next morning, after two days and 32 miles, we arrived at our
cache along Kingston Road in the morning. We reloaded food and
water and spirited north across Valjean Valley at a quick pace.
After crossing Kingston Wash, we wrapped around the Valjean
Hills to the east side of the Dumont Dunes. The terrain clearly
showed the vicinity of the dunes with sand blown loosely all
North over Bull Spring Wash

10 The Survivor Spring 2007

 around. We camped in the outer reaches of the dunes on Febru-

TRIP REPORTS
ary 6, very near the site of the Dumont station of the Tonopah
and Tidewater (T&T) Railroad, now obliterated by sand and time.

The next morning, Dusty found a small, but lethal scorpion tucked
away under his pack. The scorpion seemed to be sleeping due to
the cool temperatures, but when disturbed, he quickly came to life
and was in no mood for our company. Having missed the last
train leaving Dumont station, we finished getting our packs on and
hiked on the railroad bed toward Amargosa Canyon with beautiful

George “Grubstake” Huxtable

views of the Dumont Dunes to our left.

The railroad bed is largely intact from the T&T’s original operation
between 1907 and 1940. It was built by borax magnate Francis
Marion Smith mainly for borax transport. The old rail bed, well
engineered above intermittent side washes, soon turned north and
entered the Amargosa River drainage. The river was running
about 6 to 8 inches deep and 10 to 15 feet across, dried salts on
Don on the Amargosa
the river banks looked like an odd dusting of snow in the winter.
We followed the railroad bed the entire way, at times along the That night we ate dinner and looked down on the “city lights” of
river and at other times well above it along the steep rocky slopes. Tecopa, about 1,200 feet below us.
As the terrain changed, engineers had built culverts and bridges to
The next morning we were back into canyon country working our
way up an easy, yet twisting and colorful wash toward Sheephead
Pass. Once at the pass, there are long northwest views toward
Death Valley and Telescope Peak. Our route turned north from
the pass “across the grain” of awkwardly angled contours, so we
decided to change our route to the west and exit the Ibex Hills
well south of Salsberry Pass. We approached Salsberry Pass from
the southwest and then continued north down the long, gentle
slope into Greenwater Valley.
George “Grubstake” Huxtable

We arrived at the vehicle just after sunset, where we had enjoyed a

grilled chicken dinner almost a week earlier. After several days of
hiking, the body gets used to having things go by at 2 to 3 miles an
hour. Now, sitting in a speeding car, the creosote bushes were
swept aside as our senses quickly adjusted. It was a great trip and
each of us were anxious to get home. But food was on our minds,
and the next stop was to be The Greek in Baker where desert rats
Shadows on Dumont Dunes like us fit right in with tourists, long haul truckers and flashy Vegas
gamblers.
move the train route along the river drainage. There were frequent
places where the rail bed was completely washed away requiring us
to drop down to the river, remove our boots and push through
reeds and thorned vegetation to the other side and back again.
Parts of the river, particularly the confluence of the Amargosa and
the China Ranch drainage, are quite dramatic with Utah-like carved
river banks and colored hills. We camped along the Amargosa on
February 7, played some cribbage after dinner, and listened to coy-
ote calls echoing up the canyon.
George “Grubstake” Huxtable

On February 8 we arrived in Tecopa, known for mineral springs

and trailer parks. Here we again replenished the food and water
from our second cache just in time to catch the outbound T&T
from the Tecopa station. The railroad bed is well preserved just to
the west of Tecopa amidst Amargosa River wetlands. We left the
railroad bed at Tecopa Hot Springs Road, briefly followed the
road, crossed over Highway 127, and entered the lower end of
Greenwater Valley. Our westerly route went directly toward a low
point in the Ibex Hills where we later found a good campsite. Enroute to Miller Spring
The Survivor Spring 2007 11
 Black Rock Mountains and Beyond
TRIP REPORTS
Black Rock High Points Backpack, May 10-14, Northwestern NV
By Cathy Luchetti, Oakland, CA
W
e had two choices: to reach the meeting place on Don-
nelly Creek road by driving Nevada’s Black Rock Desert
playa, or by rattling along Soldier Meadows road, just
west of Gerlach, for thirty miles or more. The playa, a great
inland desert lakebed, stretched more than 160,000-acres ahead,
beckoning in the dusk, white and misty, each lonely mile echoing
with the seasonal shouts of the Burning Man revelers. Wondering
whether to drive it or not, we worried about wet playa turning into
quicksand. In the fading light, who knew if it were wet or dry?
We opted for the road instead, and after missing the meeting place
several times, finally spotted a car headlight flashing, far away on
the mesa.
This is lonesome country. You can travel for hours along the
playa’s ancient shoreline, an area so barren and flat that on a clear
day, you can see the curvature of the earth. Hiking up the Calico
Mountains toward Donnelly Peak, the wilderness turns even more
remote. We started out early: 15-miles with a 4,000-foot elevation
gain would take all day. We fought our way uphill, scrunching
through sticky monkeypod, bitterroot, and fragrant sage, finding
along the rocky way hunks of turquoise, finely carved arrowheads,
glistening obsidian shards, and a dimpled, metallic-looking rock,
about 3 feet high, a possible meteorite found by Stan. The dark,
spiky tufa seemed ordinary enough until Lynne Brei found tiny
crystals, buried deep in the innermost crevices, sparkling in the
light.
As the group struggled upward – leader John Wilkinson, Lynne
Brei, Mike Tadeschi, Bruce Loeb, Michael Sorenson, Stan Huncil-
man, Cathy Luchetti – we pushed our way through sharp crevices
in the towering rock faces and around high cliff walls, the view
expanding with every step. The Calico mountains are home to a
population of 150 California bighorn sheep, yet a hundred years
ago, the mountains also sheltered roving bands of Paiute Indians.
“My people were scattered over nearly all of the territory now
known as Nevada” wrote Paiute Sarah Winnemuca, granddaughter
Cathy Luchetti
Donnelly Peak
12
Rock near summit
of Chief Truckee. “I was a very small child when the first white
people came into our country. They came like a lion, yes, like a
roaring lion, and have continued so ever since.”
Settlers must have “roared” right through the Calico wilderness,
because hardly a trace of anyone remains today. Yet wherever the
view turned wonderful, or a tiny seep of water invited flowers-sun-
cups, lupine, wooly yellow daisy or Spanish clover-shards littered
the ground, evidence that the bygone tribes, like us, wanted to rest
in a lovely spot and watch the sunset.
Exhausted from the peak’s 8,539-foot elevation and the hours of
constant bushwhacking, we crawled into camp at dusk, shaking
ticks from our shirts like a hail of watermelon seeds. The next
day’s adventure was a backpack into the Pahute Peak Wilderness to
climb Big Mountain, starting at the trailhead, an arid, abandoned
mining site at Copper Canyon. The trail led us quickly into the
Nevada Serengheti, a lush, spring-dotted area filled with antelope,
golden eagles, and nonstop wild horses. The day before, we’d seen
shy horses in groups of three-a stallion and two mares who danced
away from us, skittish and aloof. The paints and palominos of the
Calico Range, on the other hand, were born entertainers, starved
for an audience, with wavy manes and snappy hooves, who cavort-
ed up and down the hillside, making mock war on one another,
then regrouping before picking another horse to nip and harass.
Minutes later, the ousted horse would roar back, nipping and frol-
icking in return, forcing himself back into the herd. Friends again,
the nippers would gallop side by side, the wind fanning out their
long tails–exuberant, wild, free roaming horses, several of the
thousand in Nevada protected by federal law and managed by the
BLM.
The vista point we occupied was perfect. Despite the cold wind,
we could watch the horses while gazing out over the mountains,
long meadows and faraway desert, misty purple in the gathering
dusk, hiding the secret of the nearby Lassen-Clapper murder site,
which John promised to tell us about. To the east lay Big Moun-
tain, the next day’s destination. Yet as we sipped Bruce Loeb’s gin
and tonics, shivering in the cold, the charm of our site grew. Did
The Survivor Spring 2007
 anyone really
want to leave?
After all, Stan,
accompanied
by Mike T.,
had driven off
the cows and
appropriated
their watering
Cathy Luchetti
hole. Instead
of cow muck,
we now had a
Water supply pvc pipe stuck
directly into
the hillside spring and could refill with sparkling water at will. We
also had ringside seats for the Wild Horse Rodeo and an enticing
rocky outcrop nearby to climb. Why not stay?
Fired by the idea of radical leisure, one by one we made other
plans for the day, deciding to hike back in the early afternoon after
Mike S. climbed a far peak, and the rest of us launched our own
explorations. The wind had died, the sunlit landscape shone like
gold. The steep hill, its rocky crest serrated as a Spanish castle,
was a madness of dark, crusted, rhyolite magma, erupted up from
lava flows, frozen by time into flinty gargoyles-bent, pulled, bro-
ken, twisted, perfect for climbing. The top, flat and windswept, led
to an overlook of many hundreds of feet straight down, down,
down until - what? Stan pulled back excitedly from the edge, ges-
turing to us to be quiet, he’d found an eagle. We crept silently,
pulling ourselves Marine style along the ground, trying not to make
a ruckus as we looked down on the head of a perfectly coiffed
Eagle Sighting in Black Rock
Range
By Stan Huncilman, Berkeley, CA
M
idmorning Sunday Cathy Luchetti and I scrambled to
the top of an unnamed bump north of Big Mountain
affording an excellent view of the sage carpeted lavic
tablelands and King Lear Peak. As it was flat on top I took
advantage of the north face of the bump to satisfy my desire for a
bit of exposure. There one finds a shear face of at least 300 feet,
basaltic in composition, with enough fragments and cracks to be a
breathtaking compliment to the tranquil sea of sage below. All
was in balance. Emotive tranquility expressed in an endless vista
whilst me the physical acknowledged corporeal modesty.
Swallows were enjoying the air’s eddies courtesy of the escarp-
ment. It is one of nature’s keenest moments to stand above the
birds and see as I did that day the swallows dart and fetch. No
mountain view affords such juxtaposition of the senses as does
the avian from atop and here I stood as nature’s most joyous-of-
creatures, birds, engaged in matters of import known only to
them. That birds may one day care! Oh weigh not but wings in
heaven’s breathe. -Titus Meius
The Survivor Spring 2007
golden eagle, the size of a small wildcat. An eagle can have up to
TRIP REPORTS
7,000 light, strong, stylishly interlocked feathers set in ruffled, con-
centric swirls-as this one did. It lives in rugged, high terrain,
where it scans the ground for prey and waits for a lively updraft to
carry its slightly hefty (this one was about 15 pounds) body into
the air. Eagles generally live for fifteen to twenty years, although
the shock of looking up and seeing three faces staring down at it
could have shortened this one’s life considerably. With a snap and
a flap of five-foot wings, the eagle soared away, highly annoyed.
We sat there, dazed. No one had ever been this close to a Golden
eagle before, an exciting moment, one of many on this beautiful
exploration.
As we left the mountains, a single delight remained: Soldier Mead-
ows Hot Springs, an oasis of tule reeds, verdant marsh grass, tiny
flowers and birds surrounding a chin-deep pool of warm water,
nearly the size of a small swimming pool. As our toes sank into
the soft, hot mud, we
sighed, floated, stayed until
the sun sank, the constella-
tions whirled overhead, and
the night birds sounded.
Coyotes howled from the
desert, and still, we lingered
in the warm water, trying to
imagine the Paiutes who had
probably bathed and sighed
Cathy Luchetti
in this same delightful water,
sinking their toes into the
same deep mud. A wonder-
ful trip, enjoyed by all.
Soldier Meadows Hot Springs
Yet soon my ego sobered me, for there at land’s end was by but a
few feet a higher point! Keys of boulders and lavic extrusions,
feeble redoubts fell. There I stood at points end an arc of
precipice to my side as if cape in wind. There my invigoration cli-
maxed as I braced against the strong breeze that swept the point.
At this moment I decided to give a quick inspection to the ram-
part at toe’s edge in order that I discern a nest or some other con-
struct of the swallows. As I peered over the edge, there not three
feet from my shoe perched a golden eagle. He was upon a small
rock ledge. Such was its size that in order to land or exit he would
have to enable a fall or drop. The wind had deafened him to my
presence. This bird, lord of these skies, what reason had he to
look upward? What a voyeur’s delight that he so keen of sight
should be now so blind! Ever vigilant he methodically scanned
the horizon; only the occasional roar of the darting swallow gave
him start. Had I but been the Aztec I would have stood at Heav-
en’s Gate.
I slowly retreated. I wanted Cathy and Bruce, who had recently
come up to the escarpment, to see the raptor. I made my way
back and informed them and together we returned. We all
approached on hands and knees. Our king still held court. As I
prepared to take a photograph, a pause in wind or lens’ reflection
gave him notice of our presence. Not startled, but annoyed, he
stepped and dropped to open wings and soon was beyond our
sight.
13
 Temblor Range Rescue
F E AT U R E
By Craig Deutsche, Los Angeles
T
he Carrizo Plain National Monument is in the process of
preparing a comprehensive management plan. In anticipa-
tion of this, I’ve been driving all the back roads in the area
so that when their route designation map is published for com-
ment, I will be able to speak with some knowledge. In fact I’ve
spent at least twelve days driving, taking pictures, taking GPS way-
points, keeping notes, and getting lost. By now I probably know
these roads better than any of the government employees who will
be making the plan. So it was a month ago that I set out for my
last two days of exploring in the Temblor Range there, a group of
hills on the north and east side of the monument.
After spending a good part of the morning finding my way along
tiny dirt roads going nowhere in these mountains, I started down-
hill on another road. It was a bit steep but did not look bad –
until I was half way down and began to slip sideways. It was all
loose shale and fine sand. At the bottom of the hill I took some
more pictures, looked around, and then started driving up the hill.
There was no other way out. I was slipping almost immediately,
and then one of the front wheels went off the road. When I tried
to back out (in 4WD) the other front wheel went off the road.
After a little more effort, I was in pretty bad shape.
This was a narrow ridge just wide enough for the road. It dropped
steeply down at least 40 meters on either side. I was aimed
straight down one of these slopes with front wheels way down and
the back wheels just barely on the road. If I had somehow turned
sideways on the hill I would certainly have rolled to the bottom,
and the car would be toast. It was miles to the nearest road where
I could even hope to find help, and at least nine or ten miles to
someplace that might have a phone. There was nothing to do but
try to dig out myself.
Craig Deutsche
Long way up – long way down.
14
So for the next se ven hours I worked at it. First I put a tough tow
strap over the ridge to a tree on the other side to hold the car from
going any farther. I had a hand-winch to try and pull it back up to
the road, but no luck. I dug out under the wheels. I dug out
under the car. I used the jack to lift the front wheels (to get them
almost as high as the back wheels) and then put rocks under them.
I put some carpet under the spinning tires. As the sun set I was
just as far off the road as ever, and the tires were even deeper in
the sand. So I slept there and figured to go for help in the morn-
ing.
Next morning I took some pictures of the mess so that when, and
if, I found someone that might help, I could show them what to
expect. I spent four hours walking out until I finally found some-
one with a phone. I called Mary (my wife). She said, “Get a tow
truck.” I said that I probably needed a sky-hook, but anyway no
one could ever find the car unless I rode along with them. It took
Mary about two-and-a-half hours to drive up from Los Angeles,
and then we went into the nearby town of Fellows to see what
could be done. This area is all oil fields, and the town is strictly
working-class, but at least they don’t mind dirt. Neither of the
towing companies in town had a 4WD truck. They thought there
might be one in Bakersfield, 50 miles away. I could hear cash reg-
isters playing like pianos. But then one of the mechanics said that
he had a friend, Dave, who might be able to help. Dave lived in
the plywood house across from the fire station at the road junction
called Fellows. He knew the roads pretty well; he had a jeep; and
he enjoyed rough country. If his house had a jeep and a truck in
front, then he was home. There was no other choice.
When I got to the house Dave was in the back yard drinking beer
with some buddies, good-old-boys to be sure. It was now four in
the afternoon. I told them the story, showed them the pictures,
and described the location of my car. The older of the friends
knew the roads well, and when I said I went
downhill onto the ridge he said, “God, that is a
shit-hole of a hill.” This was rather unnecessary.
I already knew that.
The result was that Mary and I got into Dave’s
jeep; two more (Mike and Rick) got into a huge
diesel pickup; and we all drove out of town into
the hills. Along the way we passed a truck going
the other way. Dave said, “BLM, Humph!” I
said, “Is deer hunting good up here?” I’m not a
complete fool – nothing about Sierra Club. We
discussed the gear ratio in his transmission and
the viscosity of the crude in the oil field. When
they saw my car, there was no way they wanted to
drive down to it – they didn’t think they would
ever get back up. So we walked down and started
digging. All of us worked like demons: digging,
moving the ropes, cranking on the winch; push-
ing; spinning the tires. After one and a half hours
it was back on the road, but then there was a hill
to get back up. During this time, Dave had called
his brother-in-law, and by the time my car was
The Survivor Spring 2007
upright, the third jeep had arrived at the top of the hill with a
mechanical winch. Too bad that the cable on the winch only
reached a little way down the slope.
We drove my car as far up the hill as possible until it was spinning
wheels again. We used four short tow straps to extend the cable
and then started driving and towing. It took fifteen minutes to
move the car 200 feet to the top, moving it an inch at a time.
When it arrived, the four of them broke out the beer to celebrate.
By the time we got back to their house in town it was 7:30 p.m.
and they had missed dinner. One of the fellows admitted that he
never expected that my car would ever get on the road again. It
was clear that no tow truck could ever reach it or help. Money
was out of the question, so I offered to take them out for the din-
Gentle Predator Of
The Southern
Desert: The
Tarantula
By Steve Tabor
I
n the fall season and early winter the desert visitor will often
see what look like large hairy spiders walking the southern
desert floor both night and day. These are tarantulas, predato-
ry arthropods (spiders) several inches long, genus Aphonopelma.
Though many people fear them, their deliberate gait and gentle
demeanor have touched my heart more than once. I’ve grown to
love these fearsome-looking creatures.
Tarantulas are seen most often during mating season when the
black-colored males roam in search of females. In the Northern
Hemisphere this translates to November and December. They are
most conspicuous on the broad sandy plains of the southern
deserts but can also be found in the rocky country around Death
Valley. The rest of the year they spend in their holes, web-lined
openings about an inch in diameter and four inches deep. The spi-
der will make a little lair for itself at the lowest level where it can
lay down facing the opening. Silk threads running up to the top of
the hole and out along the ground are tripped by potential prey,
inducing the tarantula to leap out and snag its prey. In most of the
desert, there are tarantulas all around you, waiting in their silky
burrows. Unless you know what to look for, you won’t know that,
unless it’s mating season when they’re out and about.
Though it looks scary with its long hairy legs and large sharp fangs,
the tarantula has a peculiar way of eating. Once it captures its
prey, usually a beetle or grasshopper, it grasps it with the two pedi-
palps in front, hairy appendages that look like short legs. The
tarantula will then vomit a copious amount of digestive fluid onto
the victim’s body. This nasty substance will dissolve the victim’s
innards, enabling the tarantula to suck out its bodily fluids, its main
The Survivor Spring 2007
ner they had missed. Their answer: “We’ve all been in tough
spots. When you meet someone else in trouble, pass the help
along. And if anyone asks, tell them that the guys living at Fel-
lows are okay.”
A week later Mary was in San Francisco, and I went back to finish
the road survey that had been interrupted. When we got back
home, I told her where I had been.
She asked, “How did it go?”
I said, “I didn’t get stuck this time.”
She said, “That’s nice.”
I said, “I think so too.”
It is good to have a wife who understands.
food. The spi-
NAT U R A L H I S TO RY
der may have to
do this several
times before it
can consume all
of the victim’s
soft parts, leav-
ing behind only
its hollow
exoskeleton.
Mating practices
are performed
carefully, since Steve Tabor
both genders are
known to be
cannibalistic.
Males have Tarantula
hooks on their front legs that allow them to lock onto the female’s
fangs while mating to immobilize them and render them harmless.
The male will approach the female’s hole and tap lightly, waiting
for her to come out. When she does, he prepares a batch of semi-
nal fluid on a pedipalp, “locks on”, and then deposits the fluid “by
hand” in the place where it is intended to go. He then carefully
extricates himself from the situation and runs away, fast! Many
less careful male spiders have been eaten by “their” females after
mating. Males don’t live long as a result. Females may live 25-30
years, a long time for an arthropod.
Eggs are laid in a burrow on a soft bed of silk, then covered over
with more silk. The female watches over the mass of eggs, usually
500 or 1000, until they hatch. As with many insects and arthro-
pods, many young ones start out but few reach maturity.
You may find the exoskeleton of a tarantula out in the desert.
This may look like the skeleton of one of the tarantula’s prey,
except the cephalothorax is split open on its top side. If you see
the split, the exoskeleton is a molt left behind by a tarantula that
has shed its skin. A tarantula will shed every year so it can grow
into a fresh, new, larger exoskeleton that will allow it to grow.
Molting is a painful process for the spider that can take quite
awhile. People who keep tarantulas as pets are often shocked
when they first watch the molt and may mourn their animal pre-
maturely as it writhes and twists, then spends prolonged periods on
15
 its back, appearing to be dying or dead. What a relief when the
NAT U R A L H I S TO RY
tarantula molts completely and recovers!
A tarantula’s bite can feel harsh, like a pinprick, but the venom isn’t
much to speak of. The tarantula has many enemies, and for these
it has developed barbed hairs on the abdomen that can produce an
irritation to anything (or anyone) trying to molest it. These hairs,
in fact its generally hairy appearance, provide a visual deterrent,
but can also badly damage the eyes as well as the general skin sur-
face of a potential predator. If you take a tarantula as a pet,
remember this. Try not to handle the creature, though it is OK to
allow it to walk across one’s outstretched hand, as I am fond of
doing when I lead trips for naive and impressionable desert visi-
tors. Actually picking the animal up may injure it, since it is very
fragile. Be careful not to hurt any tarantula you come in contact
with.
One of the tarantula’s biggest enemies is a wasp known as the
tarantula hawk (Pepsis sp.). This wasp is a large one, colored
metallic blue, green and red. When it meets up with a tarantula, it
will sting and paralyze it, then drag it to a burrow where it will
deposit eggs in the abdomen, then cover up the hole. When the
eggs hatch, the larvae that emerge will enjoy a feast of fresh taran-
tula meat and eat the paralyzed but not yet dead spider until it is
consumed.
Now that you know more about tarantulas, perhaps you’ll appreci-
Rolling Down The
Wash: The Smoke
Tree
By Steve Tabor
I
n the California’s low deserts, the Colorado subsection of the
Sonoran and the lower parts of the Mojave, you will often see
slight wispy trees three or four or six feet high extending
across an otherwise barren sandy wash. These will be blue-
twigged and have no leaves. Branches end in a point. From a dis-
tance they look like light blue wisps of smoke. These are smoke
trees.
The smoke tree, Psorothamnus spinosus, is a member of the pea
family. It is in the same genus as the indigo bush, its sticky-gland-
ed relative from nearby desert hills and canyons. Both have deep
blue flowers that are striking during the blooming season of April
and May. The smoke tree is much more noticeable then.
The smoke tree has a peculiar habitat, wide sandy washes of desert
plains and low hills that are occasionally swept clean by flash
floods. The fact that smoke trees often grow in even-aged stands
is no accident. The plants evolved that way. They evolved with
flashfloods and in fact depend on them for reproduction as well as
sustenance.
16
ate them more the next time you see one. For me there is nothing
more elegant than this creature’s graceful movements, measured
and regular, across the desert’s sandy/pebbly surface. The spider
feels its way with the tips of its sensitive feet, all eight of them. A
good thing they are sensitive, because the tarantula’s eyes are prac-
tically useless. Four pairs of eyes are located on top of the
cephalothorax, but they don’t see much. The tarantula feels its way
through its world, which is just as well, since it’s rarely above
ground or out in the daytime, except during mating season.
Watch for tarantulas this November and December. Let one crawl
across your hand to get the feel of the creature. But don’t yank
your hand away! You don’t want to startle the tarantula or give it
cause for alarm. Just
let it walk across and
go on its graceful
way. And try to
imagine what it
would feel like to
amble across the
desert on all eight
legs, touching each
rock and bush and
Paul Brickett
cactus. It’s a weird
feeling isn’t it? Get
in touch with nature.
Tarantula in Palo Verde Mts., Nov., 2005
The smoke tree, like all peas, forms its seeds in a pod. The seeds
are hard and nut-like, like kitchen peas allowed to dry in the sun.
Smoke tree seeds have a hard rind that withstands abrasion well, all
the better to roll down the wash in a flashflood unharmed. The
rind is thick enough to withstand minor floods, but thin enough to
wear down in a large flood. Small floods will push it downstream
some but not break through the coating, but a really large flood
will abrade it through, and that is the flood that will allow water to
get to the live part of the seed inside to germinate it. A flood like
that will usually soak the sand enough to keep the sprout alive until
its roots become established in the soil, a matter of a few days or a
week at most. If there’s not enough moisture to last the sprout, or
if hot sun comes out and bakes the earth the day after, the sprout
will die. It’s a fine balance. The smoke tree takes a chance that its
sprouts will make it through, past the first rainstorm.
It is not unusual to see a whole lot of smoke trees all the same
size, growing all across and up and down a wash. These all sprout-
ed after the same flashflood. There used to be a large thicket of
them in the lower part of Carrizo Gorge before they were all
knocked down by an even larger flood sometime in the 1990s. It
is also common to see a mass of sprouts a few inches high, not
green and lively but brown and dead. These all sprouted at the
same time after a flood but were baked dry in the heat wave that
followed. It could be 10-15 years before the next flood will sprout
a new crop. Smoke tree seeds, with their hard rind, can afford to
wait.
This is a remarkable means of reproduction, but not that unusual.
Trees in forested country prone to fire, the Sierra Nevada for
example, have a similar practice. They’ve developed seeds that will
The Survivor Spring 2007
 thin, mostly vertical,

NAT U R A L H I S TO RY
branches, smoke trees
don’t provide much
shade, but they may do
in a pinch. In their hot,
sunny environment, you
have to admire them for
being alive at all. It is
not unusual to see these
trees turning brown and
dying back. They will
readily sacrifice whole
branches, even half the
tree, to keep the other
half alive, but given
some moisture from a
few regular rains, the
tree will shoot up new
branches to replace the
old. Smoke trees are
Steve Tabor

survivors.

only sprout on mineral soil laid bare by a forest fire. Giant
Sequoias, knobcone pines and Bishop pines depend on fires for
sprouting. Their seeds do not sprout well in leaf litter. They are
also frequently found in even-aged stands. Other plants have
developed seeds within fruits that are eaten by birds or animals.
Only when the seed passes through a bird or animal digestive tract
will the seed sprout, and then it benefits from the nutrients in
whatever fecal matter is left around it whenever it is returned to
the soil. These mechanisms of nature are an unending fascination
to those of us who seek
out knowledge of them.
In the springtime of a
Wash with smoke trees good rain year you may
be fortunate to see these
leafless trees growing up
to six feet tall with masses of dark blue flowers at the end of every
twig. It’s a beautiful sight. But even if you can’t see them in
bloom, contemplate them for what they are, another desert phe-
nomenon, another remarkable desert plant that looks unremark-
able. Once you know the smoke tree, and have observed it in its
harsh habitat, and contemplated how amazing its lifestyle really is,
you’ll be seeing the tree with new eyes, the eyes of desert knowl-
edge. Keep investigating the desert. It’s a fascinating place.

I’ve seen excellent exam-

ples of this smoke tree
reproduction phenome-
non in action, from allu-
vial fans and broad
washes in southern and
eastern Joshua Tree
National Park, to the
Bristol Mountains and
Old Woman Mountains
of the Southern Mojave,
to Sheephole Valley.
The trees seem to love
washes derived from
granite sand, which is
particularly well-drained.
The northernmost stand
is reported from the low
foothills of the Owl-
Steve Tabor

shead Mountains
fronting Death Valley.

With no leaves and only Hiking past smoke trees

The Survivor Spring 2007 17

 Game Guzzlers
DESERT ISSUES
Proposed For The
Indian Pass
Wilderness: An
Edifice Complex?
By Steve Tabor
T
he re-introduction of bighorn sheep to California Desert
Wilderness Areas since the 1940s has been a great success.
Legal protection of habitat from vehicular trespass and idle
poaching through the 1994 California Desert Protection Act
(CDPA) has definitely been a factor. Though the animals keep
themselves well-hidden and are hard to see, hikers in Wilderness
find bighorn tracks, trails and sleeping beds all the time nowadays.
More than forty mountain ranges now protect bighorn. Now that
they are well-established, the sheep pretty much fend for them-
selves, as they should in Wilderness.
In recent years, the California Department of Fish and Game
(CDFG) has embarked on a new program of building more “game
guzzlers” in the desert. These “guzzlers”, or water catchments, are
designed to capture the desert’s sparse runoff from infrequent rain
storms and direct it into water tanks that are designed to hold
thousands of gallons over long periods of time. The intention is
to provide water for sheep during the long hot rainless summer
months.
Many of these catchments were built in the early years of sheep
introduction. Some of them work, some don’t. The California
Desert lacks the summer thunderstorms of the Sonoran Monsoon
with its sudden heavy flashfloods which pour water down canyons
and across desert valleys. Such storms are rare in the state. Most
guzzlers in California run dry before the summer is out and have
to be refilled with water from urban areas, delivered by truck into
the Wilderness from outside or else dropped into the tank by heli-
copter. Both methods are illegal under the 1964 Wilderness Act,
which forbids the use of mechanized equipment in Wilderness.
The construction of new guzzlers is also illegal. The CDPA pro-
vided for the maintenance of existing guzzlers, the fifty-five of
them already constructed in desert Wilderness, but not for new
construction. The existing guzzlers have, arguably, been helpful to
the sheep in summer, though their drying out from time to time
must not have affected the sheep much, judging from the expand-
ed population. One wonders what the bighorn did for all those
millennia in the desert when there was no guzzler water to drink.
It’s likely that the animals are a good deal hardier than CDFG
functionaries assume.
Three times since 2000, CDFG, through the federal Bureau of
Land Management (BLM), has proposed new guzzlers in the
18
www.blm.gov
Indian Pass Wilderness Area in southeastern CA
Sheephole Valley Wilderness. After an appeal by activists to the
U.S. Interior Board of Land Appeals, the BLM withdrew its sec-
ond proposal, citing the need for CDFG to do a Programmatic
Population Analysis of bighorn numbers throughout the desert to
judge both real need for an expansion of guzzlers and to assess
cumulative impacts of such construction. This was never done,
but CDFG has now proposed guzzlers there again, with the BLM
carrying its ball. Desert protection activists have again appealed.
Now there are new guzzlers proposed for the Indian Pass Wilder-
ness, which is bordered by the Colorado River, hardly a dry area in
need of more water. This latest proposal is especially problematic
because hikers have visited this Wilderness on several occasions in
recent years. Each time they have found both the Wilderness and
its bighorn functioning well. Each time they have found water.
In December 2005 a hiking party from the conservation group
Desert Survivors spent three days backpacking across the Wilder-
ness. The group descended Julian Wash, a major drainage bisect-
ing the Wilderness from west to east, then returned via an
unnamed canyon farther north. Bighorn scat and tracks were
found in many places, along the south border and also in the inte-
rior.
The Fish & Game Department’s Horseshoe Guzzler is proposed
to be built in Julian. It would be accessed by a jeep trail running
right up the wash from the Colorado River. Eight miles of this
jeep trail would be in Wilderness. Aside from being a major intru-
sion into the Wilderness, a glaring eyesore and a reminder of
industrial civilization that will disgust any visitor sensitive to
Wilderness values, this road would invite vehicular trespassers into
the Wilderness who will wreak havoc on the fragile desert by dri-
The Survivor Spring 2007
ving there. Julian Wash is the Wilderness’ major drainage, loaded
with large ironwood and palo verde trees kept alive by subsurface
moisture.
The group’s return was upstream via an unnamed canyon through
the center of the Wilderness. So much water was found that this
came to be known as Spring Canyon. Water welled up from
stream gravels about a mile from the Colorado River. A half-mile
farther, a large rock pool hidden in a slot, shaded from the sun,
held hundreds of gallons of water. In other places farther
upstream, other springs trickled in the wash bottom. Four miles
from the river, another spring was found in an open part of the
canyon, emitting from bedrock. It was refreshing to find so much
water here. These springs and pools make the Indian Pass Wilder-
ness a special place.
The last spring described was one mile south of Fish and Game’s
proposed Sheep Track Guzzler. The irony and tragedy of these
guzzler placements is that the guzzlers themselves will destroy
ecosystems in the canyons below them. The guzzlers are catch-
ments, check dams designed to divert rain water from flashfloods
and secure it in a tank for the bighorn. The Sheep Track dam will
interrupt drainage downstream, causing the springs and pools
found in Spring Canyon to dry up. The Horseshoe dam will cut off
much of the subsurface flow that feeds the huge ironwood and
palo verde trees in Julian Wash, starving them of the water that
they need to prosper. Both of these impacts are unacceptable in
Wilderness. They are also illegal, for they represent a definite
modification of the Wilderness ecosystem by man’s industrial
activity. There is no way to mitigate these bad effects. The natural
flow of water in each instance is irreplaceable.
These impacts, like many in guzzler territory, are not even contem-
plated by those seeking to do the constructions. Their focus is on
one thing: an increase in bighorn numbers, most notably in hunt-
able heads. In the 1980s bighorn hunting was allowed in only two
mountain ranges in the California Desert. That has now been
expanded to six, and CDFG’s goal is further increase. Though
overall numbers are important to the agency since it is mandated
to protect wildlife, huntable heads - males with large horns - are
the bread and butter. The first hunting tag of each season is auc-
tioned off for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Subse-
quent tags are also sold for hefty amounts. The agency’s main con-
stituency is hunters and the outfitters that feed off them. That is
why conservationists’ efforts to combat the agency’s proposals are
repeatedly ignored and discounted. CDFG’s main goal is still to
“get the kill”. Wilderness, the land itself, the plants in the ecosys-
tem, even any other form of wildlife that isn’t a huntable ungulate,
none of these are important compared to that overriding objective.
When the Survivors visited, they found wheel tracks in many parts
of the Wilderness, all of which were illegal. The jeep trails used to
access these guzzlers will invite trespassers in to do damage, and
they will be even less controlled than now. The CDFG’s con-
tention that water in the tanks is supposed to last 2 ½ years is a
pipe dream. CDFG has to drive into the Wilderness again and
again to fill the tanks, once bighorn have become dependent on
them. Thus their wheel tracks become a de facto road that is fol-
lowed by others who want to trespass. Neither the CDFG nor
BLM will be around to make sure trespass does not take place after
The Survivor Spring 2007
they leave. The BLM has done nothing to prevent this trespass
DESERT ISSUES
from occurring. This will have a detrimental effect on the Wilder-
ness.
There are other considerations. As permanent water, guzzlers
invite in predators who otherwise would impact the Wilderness
only sporadically: coyotes, bobcats, ravens. Desert wildlife who do
not need to drink water will be under threat: the lizards, jackrab-
bits, ground squirrels and desert tortoise. Ravens will be specially
harmful, for they have been known to eat baby tortoise, whose
shells have not hardened enough to provide protection from the
birds’ sharp beaks.
Construction of these guzzlers also ignores the problem of wild
burros. The BLM has expended a great deal of time, energy and
money in trying to reduce numbers of burros throughout the
desert, including in the territory west of the Colorado River. By
building guzzlers, CDFG will invite burros into the interior of the
Wilderness where they currently do not go. Burros will use the
water at these guzzlers to leave their usual haunts along the river to
the east, where they hide out all summer in dense riparian vegeta-
tion. The BLM’s Notice of Proposed Action for the guzzler con-
struction mentions no effort to protect against burros.
Building guzzlers for bighorn is just one particular use of the
Wilderness that should not be allowed to have detrimental effects
on everything else in the Wilderness. There is no evidence that
bighorn sheep are in danger. CDFG will not do a metapopulation
study on bighorn, because if they do they will find that there are
plenty of bighorn in every mountain range. Once that information
becomes public, there will be no need for more guzzlers. Such
knowledge may also threaten funding for those still studying the
bighorn after all these years. The bighorn repopulation of the
desert since the 1940s has been a tremendous success. CDFG
should move on to other tasks, like attacking ORV abuse of
wildlife habitat and combating poachers, tasks that everybody can
get behind.
I see this whole guzzler campaign as a massive “edifice complex”.
CDFG and the BLM have found a bunch of interested volunteers
with time on their hands to “do good works” in the desert. The
guys volunteering to build these guzzlers really believe that they are
saving wildlife, but at this point their efforts are largely redundant.
The bighorn have been saved. The main function of guzzlers
nowadays is to enable those building them to feel good about
themselves. But the Wilderness does not exist for their therapy
alone. If they want to do some good, they could put their consid-
erable skills and their monetary donations toward an outfit like
Habitat for Humanity, or they should go to Iraq and build civilian
infrastructure.
Building edifices in Wilderness may make volunteers feel good
about themselves, but it’s an illegal as well as an unnecessary intru-
sion that we don’t want or need. The bighorn don’t need this con-
struction, and neither do Wilderness users, who prefer a real,
unadulterated Wilderness experience on land that is untrammeled
by man’s industrial fixtures.
19

DESERT SURVIVORS
P.O. Box 20991 • Oakland, CA 94620-0991
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Join Desert Survivors Today!
Members of Desert Survivors become part of a nation-wide
network of savvy desert hikers and activists. Benefits include:
• Four more-or-less quarterly issues of The Survivor .
• Over 40 free trips per year to explore desert locations. Trips
range in difficulty and include backpacking and dayhik-
ing/carcamping. For a copy of our current trip schedule,
call (510) 769-1706 or go to www.desert-survivors.org.
• Social events including potluck parties, picnics and slideshows.
• Opportunity to participate in all aspects of Desert Survivors,
including preservation campaigns, hands-on desert conser-
vation projects, and directing the organization.
Name____________________________________
Address__________________________________
City_____________________State____Zip______
Phone/E-mail_____________________________
Membership Fee/Donation Enclosed:
$20 $30 $50 $100 Other $___________
Make checks payable to Desert Survivors. Desert Survivors is a
501©3 organization; dues and donations are fully tax-deductible.
I can help with: PR newsletter website events
other:__________________________________________
Mail this form to: Desert Survivors, P.O. Box 20991,
Oakland, CA 94620-0991
Experiencing, sharing and protecting the desert since 1978
20
Non-Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Berkeley, CA
Permit 648
In This Issue
Benton Bash II....................................................................2
Desert Survivors Annual Meeting.......................................2
Desert Conference .............................................................2
How to Reach Us...............................................................................3
Contribute to The Survivor..............................................................3
Mission Statement for Desert Survivors.........................................3
E-Mail Notices and On-Line Forum..............................................3
Letter: Sempra Ends Black Rock Coal Plant Project..................4
Desert Survivors Goes To The Green Festival!...................4
Art Show; Call For Artists....................................................4
DS at 2007 Whole Earth Festival.....................................................5
Anza-Borrego Carcamp....................................................................6
Wind Wolves Preserve Service Trips...............................................9
Halloran Summit to Miller Spring on CA Desert Trail......10
Black Rock Mountains and Beyond..................................12
Eagle Sighting in Black Rock Range................................13
Temblor Range Rescue...................................................................14
Gentle Predator Of The Southern Desert: The Tarantula........15
Rolling Down The Wash: The Smoke Tree..................................16
Game Guzzlers Proposed For Indian Pass Wilderness..............18
The Survivor Spring 2007