There is now a Creg's List for the Palm Springs area (thanks to Ronslog). The address is http://palmsprings.craigslist.org/ What is interesting for the hiking club is they have a hiking forum for the area. Go to "activities" and you should be able to find it. Some interesting coments on the Tram area and the Skyline Trail. Hey, maybe you can find a date while your at it.
In May, 2006, a group of 24 Coachella Valley Hiking Club hikers and a few friends, flew to Cusco, the staging area for the classic Inca Trail trek--a four day, 28 mile walk on a 500 year old path to the sacred ancient site of the Incas, Machu Picchu.
We arrived in Cusco, at an altitude of 11,000 feet, a good place to begin the acclimation for the Andean altitude. Most of us spent three to four days acclimating before the trek. Everyone felt the usual symptoms of headache, nausea, fatigue and disorientation to some degree. Discovering the offerings of the Spanish colonial city of Cusco--the smaller Inca sites nearby, the Sacred Valley, the cathedrals on the Plaza de Armas, the markets, the shops selling the luxurious alpaca wool, and the excellent restaurants--was worth the trip in itself.
On May 9 we began our trek with our hosts, SAS Tours, at Km.82. After separating our day packs from the 9 kg. allowed per person for the porters, we checked through the heavily controlled Camino Inca gate and started an easy first day of about 8 miles, hiking along the beautiful Urubamba River, stopping to admire the splendid views of snowcapped Mt. Veronica and the unmatchable beauty of the green, steep and sheer, Andes Mountains. Our very knowledgeable guide gave us a detailed history of the terraced sites we saw en route to our first night's campsite. He was of mixed Inca and Spanish descent, speaking the native Quechuan to the porters.
The second day we were ready for the big ascent to the pass over the Andes, the daunting Dead Woman's Pass, at 13,780 feet. We felt proud and strong and fit, until the porters RAN passed us carrying their heavy loads. We all made it, but the SAS team had oxygen, just in case. At any rate, we shared a moment of personal accomplishment at the top. It wasn't over, however; we had more trail to do before we finished the 4000 foot plus elevation gain that day. The east side of the Andes was instantly in clouds and began to be more tropical in vegetation. We would enter sub-climates of rain forest and jungle before hitting the campsite on the second night. The coca tea was a perfect antidote for the altitude symptoms.
The third day we descended the famous 2000 steps (I'm certain there are more than that) and ambled along to inspect the varieties of flowers, orchids, mosses and jungle plant life before reaching the Incan site of Winay Wayna, which is situated on a hillside with spectacular views. At this point we had to take a detour from the original trail because of a landslide that blocked the path to Machu Picchu. Instead, we took the porter's trail to Km. 107 and spent the night at an Incan site on the roaring Urubamba River.
Very early the next morning we followed the train tracks, in the dark, stepping off the tracks for passing trains, along the river to the village of Aguas Calientes and then took a bus up the zigzag dirt road to our ultimate destination, the grand finale of the trek, Machu Picchu.
Words cannot describe the beauty of Pachamama, the Quechuan word for Mother Earth, at Machu Picchu and photos do not begin to depict it's magnificent location in the surrounding Andes Mountains. It's very easy to understand why it was such a spiritual place. . . we all felt its spirit, and after exploring the unbelievable-unless-you-see-it-yourself, artistic mortarless walls of enormous stones, many of us just sat and stared at Machu Picchu, imagining it as a thriving ancient city. We had arrived early, before the crowds from the train, and spent the entire day there. We left on the 5:00 p.m. train back to Cusco.
I would highly recommend the trip to anyone, hiker or non-hiker, because Machu Picchu can be reached on foot or by train. We found the climate to be agreeable in May, the Peruvians very welcoming and accommodating even though they deal with tourists every day, and the hotels and restaurants in Cusco excellent. Part of our group continued to the Amazon for a few days and another part did a second hike in the Andes.
Peru offers a lot of choices!
Suzanne Randell
Suggested Reading: "The Inca Trail, Cusco and Machu Picchu", Richard
Danbury, Trailblazer Publications, 2004.
Recommended Tour Group: SAS Travel Peru, www.sastravelperu.com or
e-mail info@sastravelperu.com.
This Friday I got a chance to spend a day away from the classroom by accompanying a field trip of the Scholar’s Club at Coachella Valley High School. These were a group of wonderful and smart kids who have either been accepted at a college or will be when they graduate. The advisor is Miss Wooly and we were accompanied by Carlos Tafoya.
We arrived at the trailhead in the morning and the temperature was over 100. We had plenty of water, though, and everyone did fine. The canyon was scoured by a series of flash floods about three year ago and was much changed from the last time I was there. We saw a nice rattlesnake (cascabel). I don’t have a good picture of it because the ones I took were out of focus. I think I need a new lens. We also saw some interesting flowers, some toads, and a dead mouse.
The most amazing sight was when we were returning to the cars and we ran into two different groups of big horn sheep. I have never seen anything like this. They were grazing in the creek and seem to be unperturbed by our presence. We even saw a lamb. Some one at the visitor center said that they had started coming down after the flash floods. They seem to like the new habitat. All of the brush has been cleared out and they can see all around themselves without any trouble so they feel safe.
After the hike we had lunch and then went to the House of Fudge in town for ice cream. We should go there every time we go to Anza Borrego.
Sorry about the order of the pictures. I don't know how to rearange or label them yet.
Eric
The Desert Sun managed to come out with more information today but it is still mysterious. The two hikers were never more that three or four miles away from the tram station. Apparently, they left their group to go down Taquitz creek and got lost even though they could hear people's voices. The went down the creek until it became impassible and then didn't have enough sense to go back the way they came. What were they doing for 60 hours? They had two choices, go downstream or upstream. They went downstream and that didn't work so they stopped and didn't try upstream. Again, the paper leaves more questions than it answers.
Here is the new link to the article:
LINK
Eric
Here is the link to the story about two missing hikers up at the tram. As usuall for the Desert Sun, there is no information about where the two were and how they got lost. They say there will be more information tomorrow. LINK
Eric
Last Saturday the Coachella Valley Hiking Club did a hike in the Wonderland of Rock in Joshua Tree National Park. This is a trackless area with no regular trails and no way to get through except by rock scrambling. We went in through the Barker Dam area and came out at Queen Mountain. Everyone was tired. Even though we only hiked about five miles, the country is so rough that it felt like we had hiked fifteen miles. At least two of the hikers ripped their pants to the point of indecency and I just threw my pants away when I got home. As usuall, Mingo had everyone work together and got us out more or less safely. I took a lot of flower pictures.
Eric
