Coachella Valley Hiking Club Blog

We encourage submission to this blog

This blog is for the amusement, amazement, and education of members of the Coachella Valley Hiking Club or anyone else who might be interested in hiking and the outdoors. Anyone can submit text and pictures of anything having to do with hiking, nature, activities of members, links to websites, and links to news having to do with hiking, nature, and activities of members. Contact Eric to find out how to do this.

Remember, It didn't happen if there are no pictures in the blog.

Hikers stranded in Chino Canyon

This happened a few days ago also. Apparently two people tried to hike down Chino Canyon from the Tram Station. They didn't have any equipment, not even water. They got a helicopter ride out.  Here is a link to The Desert Sun article and a link to the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit

Doreen gets mentioned in Desert Sun

I am behind on some posts. This is an effort to catch up. A local hiker, Doreen Sabia, known to several people in the hiking club had an article in the Desert Sun.  She has done the Skyline trail over 250 times.

Link to article

Hike Leader Christmas Party

The annual Hike Leader Christmas Party was held at Tracy's house Last Saturday. There was lots of good food and everyone had a good time. Everybody sure cleans up nice! See what fun you can have if you volunteer to lead a hike for the club!

Pictures by Eric and Suzanne.

   

 

Snow at the Tram

Here are some pictures taken by Astrid up at the Tram a week after the snow fall. The temperature was 40 degrees and the trails were covered with ice. There should be even more snow now so get out your snowshoes.

Ron's hike in the Barker Dam area

Last Saturday, Ron lead a hike to the Barker Dam area in Joshua Tree National Park. Randy was along and he took some great pictures. Here are some of them.

 

   

Just in! Coffee can interfere with your ablility to hike.

It seems that coffee can interfere with our ability to hike, especially at high altitudes.  It might be a bad idea to have a few cups of coffee just before a hike or any other vigorous exercise.

"In healthy volunteers, the equivalent of two cups of coffee reduced the body's ability to boost blood flow to the heart muscle in response to exercise, and the effect was stronger when the participants were in a chamber simulating high altitude, according to a new study in the Jan. 17, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology ."  

Here is a link to the whole article from the website eurekalert

Visit to the Mud Caves and Cave of the Blue Sun

On Saturday, October 31, a group of hiking club members went to Anza Borego State Park to see the Cave of the Blue Sun and the Mud Caves. The Cave of the Blue Sun, also called the Shaman's Cave, is down near the southern most area of the park. There are also a number of morteros and fertility symbols. The mud cave is a natural formation made by the occasional rain.

 

Pictures by Linda

Philip speaks at Cal State campus in Palm Desert

Here is a link to the Desert Sun Article

Link

                   

Official rescue report from the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit

Here is the official rescue report by rmru

http://rmru.org/missions/2009/2009-016.html

Thanks to cy kaicener

I can't make this more clear. DON'T DO THE SKYLINE TRAIL WITHOUT ENOUGH WATER.

Here is a link to a Desert Sun article. Apparently, 26 marines tried to do the Skyline Trail and seven of them had to be rescued because of dehydration. If seven ran low on water, then all of them were low on water. They had to be rescued by the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit.

Link to article

Thanks to Ron's Log

Going to high elevation (even 15,000 feet) kills brains cells

Picture of a guy losing brain cells on White Mountain

Are the Mountains Killing Your Brain? Alarming new science shows that thin air can wreck brain cells—at lower altitudes than you'd think. Here's how to protect yourself.

"YOU HAVE TO BE poco loco to be a climber," says Dr. Nicholás Fayed. A neuroradiologist at the Clinica Quirón de Zaragoza, in northern Spain, Dr. Fayed leads me into his office and pulls out a collection of MRI images. They're brain scans, taken from amateur and professional mountain climbers after they came back from major expeditions, and the results aren't pretty.

"Atrophy of the frontal lobes," Fayed says, pointing to a black-and-white slice of brain on one MRI. The frontal cortex—the region just behind the forehead that handles higher-level mental functions—looks like a piece of dried fruit. This kind of damage can leave patients with an impaired ability to plan, focus, and make complex decisions. And it's permanent.

SCIENTISTS HAVE long known that the brain can be harmed by extreme conditions such as high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), in which blood vessels leak fluid into surrounding tissue, causing the brain to swell and press against the skull wall. But Fayed's scans are the first to indicate that brain damage can show up even in people who displayed no symptoms of altitude sickness during their climbs, or had just the usual nausea and lethargy familiar to any hiker in the mountains. And, disturbingly, it seemed to happen to climbers going not much higher than 15,000 feet.

One trekker had cortical atrophy—a permanent loss of gray matter that can cause "spaciness" and other problems—and one had a subcortical lesion, damage to the network of neural pathways in the white matter, which can cause any number of serious issues.

The amateurs on Aconcagua gave themselves six days of acclimatizing for that 9,000-vertical-foot climb (as opposed to the two to three weeks taken by commercial teams), and every brain scan showed problems. (A second scan three years later showed no improvement.) Overall, five of the 23 amateurs
the Spaniards studied had irreversible subcortical lesions—the most serious brain injury the team found. None of the 12 professionals had them.

What is still unclear is how high you have to go, or how fast, before your neurons start dying en masse. The greatest risk lies above 15,000 feet, but there's no reason to assume it can't happen lower.

Protect Your Brain
Follow these steps to prevent high-altitude trouble in your head.

1. Coming from sea level? Spend night one at about 5,000 feet.
2. Ascend as slowly as possible. Medically speaking, the safest rate is
1,000 feet per day above 9,000 feet.
3. Minimize time above 19,500 feet.
4. Climb high, sleep low. The higher elevation will kick-start the
acclimatization process, while descending at night allows the body to adapt
at a safer elevation. Or build in a rest day every 2-3 days.
5. Listen to your body. Never ascend with obvious symptoms of altitude
sickness; descend if symptoms worsen.
6. Stay hydrated, avoid excess salt, and eat foods rich in carbohydrates.
7. Don't drink alcohol—it's dehydrating and depresses breathing.

http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200910/mountains-thin-air-brain-cells-intro.html?utm_source=Outside&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Dispatch

Thanks to Tom Chester

Hiking Club Member Has a Heart Attack.

What Happened

    Most of what happened in the beginning I heard from other people so this is an account put together from other people's recollections. On Friday, August 28^th, I was at Coachella Valley High School getting ready for the first day of classes on Monday. I had been working in my room most of the day but I wasn't getting much work done because I felt tired and didn't have any energy. I went over the the office with some other teachers to get an answer to a question we had. I don't remember what the question was or if we got an answer. As we were walking back, I felt faint and I remember leaning against the wall. After that, I don't remember anything else until I came to in the ambulance and the EMTs told me I had a heart attack.

    Jim Porras, a health Ed. Teacher, was walking next to me and he said that I fell to my knees and toppled over backward hitting my head on the ground. Jim said that he could feel the impact of my head hitting through his feet. He immediately started CPR. Other people called 911 and someone ran to get Teri Gibson who is a former nurse and CPR instructor. Jim said that my heart had stopped, I wasn't breathing, and was unresponsive. Jim and Teri and I think Teri's husband did CPR until the EMTs came about 12 minutes later. When they got there they told Jim and Teri to continue until they got their defibrillator ready. I am not sure how many tries it took the EMTs, but they got my heart going and got me on the ambulance. I understand the EMTs went back to the school and congratulated Jim and Terry for doing such a great job.

    I had a major heart attach, a complete cardiac arrest. My heart had stopped and I wasn't breathing. Some plaque in my right ventricle broke loose and caused a blood clot to form. The right ventricle leads to the lungs. Blood thinners and, I think, an angioplasty procedure opened the ventricle allowing my heart to beat normally. If I hadn't been walking with some fellow teachers, I might have collapsed in my room and they would have found me on Monday when the kids lined up at the door. Or, I might have been at home in which case probably someone would have checked on Monday to see what happened to me. It might have been days before I would have been discovered. The survival rate for cardiac arrests is 5% or 1 in 20.

    Here is a Desert Sun article about what happened.

Hospital and Rehab

    I was in ICU for several days and in the hospital for a week. After that, I went to a rehab place for six days. Both the hospital and the rehab place were uncomfortable, loud, and intrusive but that's the place to be if anything goes wrong. I had many friends and relatives visit me and I was touched by the concern of all of these people. After that I went home and I was glad to be there. All of my furniture is comfortable and it is so quiet compared to the hospital.

What It Means

This, of course, has changed my whole life. I have to watch my diet and weight, I will have to monitor my blood pressure, and take medicine for the rest of my life.

I guess I died. That has given me something to think about. I didn't see anything, I just went unconscious and came to in the ambulance. So that is what it is like to die!

Nurses are the greatest people in the world. I love nurses. They work hard and do good and they are under appreciated.

I am most likely going back to work after thanksgiving. I have to rest and do physical rehabilitation. I am going to take a nuclear stress test in three weeks to see what the situation is with my heart.

I will be back on the hiking schedule doing short hikes January-March.

Eric

New pictures by Ron.

Ron has been carrying his camera and a telephoto lens around the valley. Here are some of the pictures he has taken. The birds are burrowing owls and a cooper's hawk.

     

    

A tree fell in the forest and CV Hiking Club members were there.

This  story is from Robin who reported what James said at the party.

The day before the party, Craig, Terry, Phyllis and James, in that order, were returning from Wellman's and almost to Round Valley campground when Craig heard scratching noises sort of like a squirrel would make, looked to the side and saw a huge tree giving way and about to fall.  He yelled, "RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN," and the first 3 ran safely ahead just as the tree crashed behind them across the trail! James saw that he could not run fast enough and stepped behind a tree for safety.  When the tree fell about 4-5 feet from him, the bulk of it missed but force of the impact and chaos of the branches knocked over. The others called to him but got no response at first.  Then he responded and his fellow hikers saw that he was a bloody mess!  He had a bloody nose,  a cut right UNDER his eye (whew!), cuts on his chest and leg.  Craig raced down the trail to get help and met a ranger racing up, already alerted by someone else.  James was strapped onto a stretcher and it took 8 rangers, carrying the heavy oxygen bottles, 3 hours to get James down the mountain, often off-trail, to the tram.  At the bottom he was taken by ambulance to Desert Regional and treated there.  He went home, showing up at the party next day with the cut under his eye super-glued (including some eyelashes) and told the incredible story.  He gave a touching tribute and toast to Craig, who had definitely been the hero of the day!   
 
Submitted by Robin Liguori

 

Pictures by Gary

Mid Summer Birthday Party

The annual mid-summer social and Aug. Birthday Bash was held at Robin & Larry's this year instead of CPK.  We celebrated the birthdays of Elmar, Eric, James & Jeff.  James is pictured telling his tale of gratitude for being there that day and giving special thanks to Craig Karsen.  What a story he had to tell!  Just when we hikers thought we were prepared for anything. The story is in the next article.

Submitted by Robin Liguori

Hikes to Hidden Lake given by the Coachella Valley Hiking Club.

In the interests of full disclosure, here is a list of the hikes that the Coachella Valley Hiking Club has done to Hidden Lake. I checked back for the last ten years. It seems I was wrong. We did do a snowshoe hike in January. I don't know if the closed sign was up or not. The June hike listed at the end was just a pass by and not really a hike to Hidden Lake.

See comments in the Blue Curl entry.

2001
Wed May 22 Round Valley Loop to Hidden Lake. Moderate 5 miles. Elevation gain 600 ft. 10:00 am.
2002
Wed Aug 2 Hidden Lake twilight hike. Easy 4 miles. Elevation gain 500 ft. Wine and cheese picnic. 7:00 pm.
2004
Sun Aug 1 Tram to Wellman's Divide/Hidden Lake Loop. Moderate/strenuous 8 miles. elevation gain 1,200 ft. Tram fee.
Sat Jan 15 Hidden Lake, Round Valley Loop: Beginners Snowshoe Trek. Moderate 5 miles and 5 hours. Elevation gain 1,000 ft. Equipment rental available at the Adventure Center. Tram Fee. 7:00 pm.
2005
Wed Sept 14 Hidden Lake Sunset Hike. Moderate 3 miles. Elevation gain 8:00 ft. 3:00 pm.
Sat Jan 10 Snowshoeing at the Top of the Tram: Palm Spring. Hiking in the snow! If you don't have snowshoes, you can rent them at the Tram Station. Snow shoe to Hidden Lake. Easy to moderate 3 miles. Negligible elevation gain. 8:00 am.
2006
Wed Aug 2 Hidden Lake twilight hike. Easy 4 miles 500 ft. elevation gain Wine and cheese picnic 7:00 pm.
2009
Sat Jan 10 Snowshoeing at the Top of the Tram: Palm Spring. Hiking in the snow! If you don't have snowshoes, you can rent them at the Tram Station. Snow shoe to Hidden Lake. Easy to moderate 3 miles. Negligible elevation gain. 8:00 am.
Sat June 27 Wellman's/Saddle Junction/Hidden Lake Loop: Palm Springs. Strenuous 12 miles. Elevation gain 2,00 ft. Tram fee.

Hidden Lake Blue Curls

I am bumping up this post because we have a picture from Astrid of the new sign that has been put up on the trail to Hidden Lake.

 

Hidden Lake Has been closed. Apparently, there are signs up saying the area has been closed to hikers. The main reason is a small flower named: Hidden Lake bluecurls Trichostema austromontanus ssp. compactum.  Family: Lamiaceae

Here are some pictures.

       

Four Pass Loop in the Maroon Bells Wilderness

    Four hikers from CVHC--Nancy Bone, Christine Reily, Kerry Leavitt, Koala the Wonder Dog and I--met in Colorado July 14-21 to see the famous wildflowers in the Maroon Bells Wilderness.  We did a four day backpack aka the Four Pass Loop which is a circuit of the beautiful Bells.  The wildflowers are abundant in a window of about three weeks and we got lucky to hit them in full bloom with warm and dry weather. . .perfect backpacking weather.

    Before we set out for the Four Pass Loop we hiked two days to acclimate to the higher altitudes in the Rockies.  Hanging Lake, right off I-70, was a short and sweet hike to a lovely alpine lake and Cathedral Lake, a steep trail in the M.B.W. was our first eye opener to the prolific ground cover of wildflowers.  The trails wind through beautiful aspen groves and along rushing rivers.

    The Four Pass Loop, as it implies, goes over four 12,500 ft. passes with fourteeners all around.  Even with a period of altitude acclimation, the thin air made the pass ascents and descents difficult.  Most hikers were not backpacking, but doing day hikes from Aspen to Crested Butte, or the Maroon Snowmass Trail in one overnight; but, they didn't see some of the views we did from Frigid Air Pass and Trail Rider Pass.  We worked hard for those views!  As a matter of fact, it's the hardest work I've ever done.  You can see Maroon Lake and Crater Lake and the Maroon Bells very easily, and I highly recommend a visit to the area. . .Snowmass Lake is the largest lake and requires a lot more effort to reach.  Besides that, we had four big stream crossings, some snow traverses and a close encounter with a local porcupine, would you believe the size of a small bear (with his quills extended)?  He enjoyed gnawing on Kerry's backpack and my shoes in the middle of the night.

    If anyone would like the logistical details on the Loop or lodging recommendations in let me know.  It is a place I will definitely return to, WITHOUT a 30 lb. pack.

Suzanne Randell

          

     

How to stay alive when the temperature is over 100.

Link 

Two hikers found dead.

New update: More information from The Desert Sun  identifying one of the hikers.  Link to Desert Sun

Update: here is a link to the San Jacinto Mountain Forum that has a discussion about the two incidents with more information.

Link to Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation Forum

According to the Desert Sun two more hikers were found in the Lyken and Museum Trail area. The article doesn't say but there is a good chance it was caused by the heat. You would have to  be crazy to hike up there in these temperatures. I have a sunrise hike scheduled for Thursday and I probably will cancel it. It is just too hot and too dangerous to hike this time of year. Go up on the tram or go to Idylwilde.

Link to Desert Sun Article

Here are the signs of heat prostration and heat stroke paraphrased from the Merck Manual.

Heat Exhaustion

 Cause: Excessive fluid loss leading to hypovolemic shock

 Warning signs: Gradual weakness, nausea, anxiety, excessive sweating, fainting, sudden loss of consciousness.

 Manifestations: Pale, grayish, clammy skin; weak, slow pulse; low blood pressure

 Management: Patient positioned flat or with the head down; replacement of lost salt and water

 Heatstroke

Cause: Inadequacy or failure of heat loss mechanism

Warning Signs: Headache, weakness, sudden loss of consciousness

Manifestations: Hot, red, dry skin with little sweating; forceful, rapid pulse: very high temperature

Management: Emergency cooling by wrapping or immersing in cold water or Ice; Immediate hospitalization

Both of these can lead to death. Heatstroke is a genuine medical emergency and the victim must be taken to a hospital as soon as possible. This might require a helicopter.  

Link to Merck Manual

Eric