Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego
24 hour traverse of ABSP
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DHeuschele Posts: 87
1/30/2017
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My 14 year old son led a 24 hour traverse of ABSP this weekend. There were 7 people who had planned to do the entire route and all 7 finished (one person had planned to do the first 10 miles then hike out the 10 miles solo). There were some route issues. We missed the 2nd water drop (second of only two) all together. We also did maybe 5 additional miles due to the route issues. But no serious injuries (some cactus wounds) and,even with the route issues, the hike finished in under 24 hours.
I may post more details later.
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DHeuschele Posts: 87
1/30/2017
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Next up my child is leading a slightly easier 2 day backpack in Joshua Tree next month (low 20 miles if we can make it down rattle snake canyon - around 30 miles if we cannot). In May he wants to lead an attempt at the A16 3 Peak challenge weekend version (actually he wants the single day version but but I do not want to try the day version (I'm 53 years old and a little beaten (legs a little and feet a little but nothing major) from the ABSP 24 hour traverse).
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ziphius Posts: 911
1/30/2017
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That sounds like a great trip, hope you can provide additional details on the route. DHeuschele wrote:
My 14 year old son led a 24 hour traverse of ABSP this weekend. There were 7 people who had planned to do the entire route and all 7 finished (one person had planned to do the first 10 miles then hike out the 10 miles solo). There were some route issues. We missed the 2nd water drop (second of only two) all together. We also did maybe 5 additional miles due to the route issues. But no serious injuries (some cactus wounds) and,even with the route issues, the hike finished in under 24 hours.
I may post more details later.
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http://www.coyotelearning.org
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
1/31/2017
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Some details about this traverse would be great......
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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DHeuschele Posts: 87
1/31/2017
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Route: We started at pinyon canyon trail just off highway. Our first water stash was just past the squeeze. Maybe 1 to 2 miles after hapaha flats we went up an east trending ridge I would guess 300' gain. This was the first ridge on left that was attainable after hitting the canyon. We followed the ridge a short ways, maybe 0.5 miles. This is where our route differed from the plan. We intended to get in an East trending wash after a duration of ups and downs and hook into north fork fish creek where our second water stash was. This planned route would have been ~30 miles with ~2 miles off trail. Instead we got a south East wash that we climbed out of for scouting a few times but the route to where we wanted to be was badland like (full of deep washes to cross - would have resulted in many ups and downs). The south east trending wash merged with a north south wash. We were now significantly south or where we wanted to be. We sent scouts north and south. The north wash quickly petered out. The south wash would hit the main fork of fish creek wash road. So we decided to go further South. We hit the road 1.5 miles due south of our second water stash. We calculated about 6 miles to water stash following the road (requiring backtrack going west on north fork of fish creek) or 8 miles to vehicles parked at the start of fish creek road. We did a water survey. 1 person was short, 5 were about ideal for the finish and two had basically 2 quarts having started with 3 quarts at the squeeze (so they had way more water than they would need). We distributed water to the person short. We decided to skip the water drop and go to car. Wrong route I suspect was ~35 miles with maybe 5 miles off trails but some of that was in good wash.
After the trip I looked at the pictures my son had and know that if I was navigating I would not have stayed in the south east trending wash. During the trip I had not looked at those pictures and was hoping for an easier route than what we kept finding when we climbed out of a wash for a look. The issue was by the time we did this scoutingvwe were already too far south. The east traverse is to happen as soon as you come down the ridge. Once you go a little ways south you are in badlands.
We slept at cars and the next morning fetched our water stash.
As is typical on these types of trips there are some side stories that are interesting.
Summary: planned route ~30 miles with 2 miles off trail. Actual route used ~35 miles with ~5 miles off trail but these 5 in general were not as rough as the two planned).
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+1
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DHeuschele Posts: 87
1/7/2020
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Considering doing this traverse "correctly" this time. Same person (my son) will be the navigator so never know. Actually he is a fairly good navigator, this is the only outing that I can think of that he messed up the navigation. We are not planning on doing this in 24 hours this time (not even close). We plan to start Friday night and hike to a little past the Squeeze then sleep. Next day hike to the next water stash and sleep/play there. Then short hike to vehicles the next day (Sunday) and drive home early enough to get lunch on the road (maybe Miners Diner in Julian). ~30 miles with ~2 miles off trail.
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Rocko1 Posts: 597
1/7/2020
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Interesting. Any gpx for the proposed route?
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deborah Posts: 115
1/7/2020
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That does sound like a good adventure!
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