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Brian Posts: 236
12/8/2024
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Last weekend after Thanksgiving I did an overnight hike to Agua Alta spring. I was considering spending an extra day and doing a dayhike to Jack Miller cabin, but I would have needed to refill water at the spring for that. There was a small amount of water, but it was green and stagnant and there was no new flow coming in. It would have worked in an emergency, but for my purposes I decided to give it a miss. I had carried 6 liters which ended up being the right amount for my 2 day / one night trip.
I have a map published by the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument which lists the distance to Agua Alta as 8.8 miles, but according to my tracker it was a little over 10 from the Cactus Spring parking area. This map mentions that the trail becomes indistinct and hard to follow past Cactus Spring. It actually was easier than I was imagining. There were many sections that were well marked with cairns, but there were also sections (especially crossing washes) where it was easy to lose the trail and I was glad to have GPS.
I noticed that the trail on the "mapbuilder topo" layer of CalTopo didn't seem to be accurate past the 5168 saddle. There are a lot of straight lines with no regard to the topography. I used the "scanned topo" (USGS) layer which agreed with the cairns I was seeing.
This is near Cactus Spring and reminded me of similar rock piles I've seen in Rockhouse Valley. Burial mound?
Typical scenery along the way
Now that's a cairn!
backside of Toro
Shortly after cresting the 5168 saddle. The Salton Sea is sorta visible through the haze and the Santa Rosa crest is on the right
Agua Alta
A native site near the spring
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+3
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Rocko1 Posts: 602
21 days ago
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Very cool area. Looks like a great place to explore.
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Brian Posts: 236
14 days ago
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Last week I returned to try to finish the Cactus Spring trail by coming up from Martinez Canyon at the bottom end. I was hoping to once again reach Agua Alta spring so that I would have done the whole trail. It almost worked! By the time I set up camp I was only 1.5 miles from the spring, which normally would be a trivial distance to cover.
There were a couple reasons I didn't. The weather was hotter than expected and I had gone through half my water supply by the time I set up camp (I carried 7.5 liters and had used all of it by the time I got back to the car the next day. The car's thermometer said it was 81 degrees). Also, although I made good time going through Martinez canyon (6.7 miles to the turnoff in 3.5 hours), the next mile climbing out of Martinez took me 3 hours. I might not have always been exactly on the trail, but I was close and couldn't see any easier way. The hillside going up was not only steep but crumbly. There were a couple sections where I was on my hands and knees and even then I had trouble not sliding down. Every rock that I tried to grab would come loose and start rolling down. This section was equally difficult to descend the next day.
On the positive side, this was my second time doing Martinez Canyon and I enjoyed it much more than the first time I did it 4 years ago when I went to the Jack Miller cabin. On that occasion it took me quite a bit of time and frustration to get past the choke points of vegetation. Now that I know the route through there it was much easier. And this time the BLM gate was open and I was able to drive all the way to the wilderness boundary. But not without a stop on the way when I got stuck on a rock step (my first time getting seriously stuck with my Crosstrek - luckily the recovery gear I carry worked well).
There are 3 different wrecks just inside the BLM gate. How does one end up flipping a car in soft flat sand?
Someone apparently rode an E-bike at least as far as the reeds section of the canyon
The trail through the choke point
climbing out of Martinez
camp and sunrise the next morning
A distant view of Tahquitz spring. I didn't want to make the detour up the river bed on this occasion. Anyone know if it's active?
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+1
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Rocko1 Posts: 602
12 days ago
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Looked like a fun outing. Great pictures.
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tommy750 Posts: 1058
9 days ago
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Looks like a great trip, Brian. Disappointed to hear Agua Alta was not flowing well. Have been thinking about a loop using that spring and was assuming the flow would be good based on this video showing the spring completely rehabbed compared to the one time I visited years ago. Check it out at 1:29 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZlVN5xiFHI&t=89s Rockhopper also said it was flowing well in the recent past. Guess the Santa Rosas are pretty dry right now. Was in Rockhouse Canyon with Gary and Yoks a month ago and two of the three springs out there were dry (Cowboy was a wet spot but we located good flow about 40 feet uphill so actually 1 spring dry). Gary said for the past thirty years he's been hiking RHC, all three water sources were a sure thing. Not this year.
Am thinking the vehicles may have been stolen and got stripped out out there.
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+1
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Brian Posts: 236
9 days ago
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Yeah, it wasn't like that video. There was no new flow coming in at all. Horsethief creek was dryer than normal too, but did have enough to be a viable source.
That's good to know about RHC. I plan to get out there some time in the next couple months and it's good to know what to expect.
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Brian Posts: 236
9 days ago
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tommy750 wrote:
two of the three springs out there were dry
Am I right in assuming it's the spring at the Cottonwoods which is still reliable?
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tommy750 Posts: 1058
8 days ago
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Brian wrote:
tommy750 wrote:
two of the three springs out there were dry
Am I right in assuming it's the spring at the Cottonwoods which is still reliable?
That's right, Nicholias Canyon above the cottonwoods had good flow.
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+1
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Brian Posts: 236
8 days ago
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tommy750 wrote:
That's right, Nicholias Canyon above the cottonwoods had good flow.
Thanks!
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dtoujours Posts: 21
8 days ago
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That's an impressive cairn in your initial post.
Did you use any recover gear to get unstuck besides recovery boards, like a winch?
You guys have some good spring knowledge!
edited by dtoujours on 12/30/2024
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Brian Posts: 236
8 days ago
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dtoujours wrote:
That's an impressive cairn in your initial post.
Did you use any recover gear to get unstuck besides recovery boards, like a winch?
You guys have some good spring knowledge!
edited by dtoujours on 12/30/2024
I got stuck when my front passenger tire made it over a rock step but the back tire didn't. When the back tire stopped, the front tire dug into the sand, preventing me from backing up. I jacked the car up and put a traction board under both passenger side tires, which allowed me to back off. Besides the traction boards, the only extra piece of gear I used was a small square of aluminum plate that I carry to put under the jack in soft sand.
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