Coachella Valley Hiking Club Blog

The purpose of this Blog

This is a blog for the education and amusement of members of the Coachella Valley Hiking Club and anyone else interested in hiking in and around the Coachella Valley. We will publish anything that has to do with hiking, nature, club social events, and activities, adventures, and events involving individual members. Send pictures and text to cvhikingclub@gmail.com if you would like to publish in the blog.

Many of our members spend the summer in the North: Minisota, Washington, Canada for example. It would be nice if we received some pictures and text about what they are doing up there.

Link to main website

Keenwild Ranger Station Hike

           

       

       

New hiking possibilities at the Wildwood Canyon State Park.

The Wildwood Canyon State Park is on Wildwood Canyon Road in Yucaipa. It borders on the Oak Glen Preserve and consists of two old ranches that were acquired by the Wildlands Conservancy and the State of California. It is now owned and operated by the State. Here is their website address. http://wildwoodcanyonstatepark.com/ and a map.

I went on a hike at the Park with the Sandy Souls hiking group. The hike was about 8 miles with a 1,700 ft elevation gain. Here are some pictures showing the park and some of the flowers we saw.

            

            

       

       

       

       

 

 

 

 

New Trail at the Whitewater Preserve

A group of us explored a new trail in the Whitewater Preserve. The trail is behind the H&H Ranch and is about 4 miles round trip. Here is a map.

The canyon is named after a man who lived at the location of the present day ranch and who was said to have taken part in the search for Willy Boy. Ask at the preserve for directions.

            

Hiker Responsibility Code from the White Mountain National Forest and New Hampshire Fish and Game.

The Hiker Responsibility Code is a set of principles that all hikers can look to before they hit the trail. Similar to the Skier's Responsibility Code endorsed by the National Ski Areas Association, the Hiker Responsibility Code was created to help hikers become more self aware about their responsibility for their own safety every time they are on a hike. It also acknowledges the inherent danger of hiking in the backcountry, and encourages hikers to be better prepared every time they are on the trail.

Hiker Responsibility Code

You are responsible for yourself, so be prepared:

1. With knowledge and gear. Become self reliant by learning about the terrain, conditions, local weather and your equipment before you start.

2. To leave your plans. Tell someone where you are going, the trails you are hiking, when you will return and your emergency plans.

3. To stay together. When you start as a group, hike as a group, end as a group. Pace your hike to the slowest person.

4. To turn back. Weather changes quickly in the mountains. Fatigue and unexpected conditions can also affect your hike. Know your limitations and when to postpone your hike. The mountains will be there another day.

5. For emergencies. Even if you are headed out for just an hour, an injury, severe weather or a wrong turn could become life threatening. Don’t assume you will be rescued; know how to rescue yourself.

6. To share the hiker code with others.

hikeSafe: It’s Your Responsibility.
The Hiker Responsibility Code was developed and is endorsed by the White Mountain National Forest and New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Informational Email from Frazier at The Whitewater Preserve

Whitewater Preserve to host third annual art festival and benefit

“A Matter of Taste” April 13 - 14

 

The Wildlands Conservancy’s Whitewater Preserve will host its third annual benefit weekend, “A Matter of Taste,” on April 13^th and 14^th, 2013.  Come enjoy an art festival from 9 AM to 4:30 PM both Saturday and Sunday, featuring local artists, raffles, outdoor activities for kids, live music, and the stunning scenery of Whitewater Canyon.  

On Saturday afternoon at 4:30 pm, the preserve will host a benefit auction and artists’ reception.  By purchasing a ticket for $30.00, guests can enjoy refreshments, live jazz music with the Palm Springs High School Jazz Band, and bid on artwork from favorite local artists, including Stephen L. Rieman, Michael Smiley, David Salk, David Jesse McChesney, and Elizabeth Green.  For a complete list of artists, please visitwww.wildlandsconservancy.org and click “A Matter of Taste.”  Tickets for this event go on sale March 1^st, 2013. 

All proceeds from the event will help support conservation and education at The Wildlands Conservancy’s three desert preserves - Whitewater, Mission Creek, and Pioneertown Mountains.  The Preserves welcome more than 120,000 guests each year to hike, picnic, camp, and participate in outdoor education programs.  All of our services are offered at no cost through private donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations.  This event is sponsored in part by the Ferranti Foundation.

The Wildlands Conservancy owns and operates California's largest nonprofit nature preserve system. This preserve system includes 12 magnificent landscapes spanning over 145,000 acres of diverse mountain, valley, desert, river and ocean front properties. The Wildlands Conservancy also funded the largest conservation land gift to the American people in U.S. history - over 560,000 acres.

 

Operating exclusively with private funding, TWC purchases and restores landscapes and builds national park quality visitor facilities that are open to the public at no cost. Over the past ten years, TWC has been California's nonprofit leader in providing free outdoor education programs for school children.

Please support our work by joining us for what is sure to be a beautiful weekend!

Important Dates Coming up. Email from Christy.

Christy Anderson	9:01 AM (5 hours ago)
to me

Hello Fellow EC Members ~

Please mark your calendars for the busy second half of March:

Sunday, March 17  4-6pm at the offices of Loving All Animals, 73-550 Alessandro in Palm Desert near San Pablo and Hwy 111.  

This is the annual Hike Leader Training.  If you have already RSVPed, no need to do so again.  There is a max seating capacity of 50.  The first wave of invitations went to CVHC and DTHC hike leaders and 35 have said they will attend.  Now we would like to open the event to all EC members (non hike leaders).  It should be a great learning session.  Dr. Mark Benson, local physician and avid rock climber, will speak on first aid issues and Rich Peregrin will talk about rattle snakes and other critters on the trail.   Pls rely to this email (christyanderson48@gmail.com) if you want one of the few remaining seats.  Pls come!

Sunday, March 24  5:30 at Kerry's home.  Details are included in an invite sent last night using our new email-all-members blast tool.   Pls RSVP soon for this great party marking the end of the busiest ever hiking season.

Tuesday, March 26  4:30 at the Portola Community Center in Palm Desert.   Executive Council meeting.  If you have any issues you would like to put on the agenda, pls email me.  If you would like to recommend someone to fill a vacancy on the EC, pls email me about that too.   The "final" Agenda will be emailed to you a week before the 26th.

Latest Edition of the Newsletter.

            

COACHELLA VALLEY HIKING CLUB NEWSLETTER - SPRING 2013 HIKING SCHEDULE Click for the Current Hike Schedule! The schedule is packed with diverse adventures, ranging from easy walks of a couple of miles with almost no elevation gains to strenuous jaunts almost every Wednesday and Saturday with gains of up to 6500 feet over the course of up to 17 miles. Members are using the convenient Palm Springs Tram to snowshoe on the high Mt. Jacinto slopes. There are options such as Bird Photography, rock-climbing in grottos, and learning compass, GPS, and map reading skills. Recently there was a fabulous full moon hike, complete with a candle lit trail and warm stew for the trailgate after the hike. Club hikes and other activities continue at a less frequent pace during the hot summer season for our hardy full year desert resident members. SOCIALS AND EVENTS Since early December the club has hosted: The CVHC 20th Anniversary Party, an elegant affair with 130 attendees. Monthly Monday mingles the third week of each month at varying restaurants starting at 4:30 pm. Recent venues were Las Casuelas Nuevas, the Spaghetti Factory and Cuistot. Gab with fellow hikers who look so different when dressed in “normal” attire! An early AM bus trip to the Rose Parade Check the Socials and Events link in the right column of the website for upcoming fun events. New events are added often. MEMBERSHIP Membership in January 2013 totaled 570 hearty souls. In calendar year 2012, we added 219 new members. Welcome to you all. Consider attending one of the New Member Orientations offered by club founder, Philip Ferranti. Dates and times appear on the website: Click for Social Schedule. CLUB LEADERSHIP In January 2013, President Larry Liguori and his vitally important partner Robin ended their outstanding two years of club leadership. New President Christy Anderson took the helm, with continuing support from VP Rich Peregrin, Secretary Terry Karsen, and Treasurer Patti Jones. Our website includes Officers and Committee Chairs where there is a list of many of the club’s energetic volunteer leaders, along with how to contact them. There are vacancies on the Executive Council. Any member interested in serving on the EC should contact Christy Anderson. The EC has regular meetings three times per year – November, January and March – and very occasionally special meetings. We welcome new blood and new ideas. Please consider applying for a position on the EC. Communicate your ideas for improving the club to Christy or any other club officer, committee chair or hike leader. DONATIONS TO GOOD CAUSES Club volunteers are a big part of the annual Hike for Hope event, held the first Sunday of every March. This year the date is March 3. In 2012, this event raised over $100,000 for cancer research and provided hours of hiking for hundreds of participants in the Indian Canyons. www.hike4hope.com. The club established a Mission Statement Fund in November 2011. A Projects Committee was appointed to recommend to the EC how the Fund should be spent over time. Projects eligible for funding include trail preservation, trail maintenance and enhancement, trail signage, co-operative trail projects with other organizations, and other non-budgeted expenses consistent with the CVHC Mission Statement. The website link titled Governing Documents includes the Mission Statement Fund Policies. If any member has a proposal for funding, please contact Projects Committee Chair at craig.karsen@gmail.com. MERCHANDISE Want a T-shirt, pin, or sew-on patch with the CVHC logo? Or club founder Philip Ferranti’s epic book, 140 Hikes In and Near Palm Springs? Click here to purchase club merchandise. HOW TO JOIN OR RENEW Becoming a new member is easy: complete a registration form on our website by clicking the big, blue JOINbutton. Click here! Make sure to click Submit at the bottom of the page. To renew a current membership, look for Renew Membership on the right menu of our website Home Page orClick Here. To change your contact information or ask a question about membership, send an email to cvhiking@gmail.com. Click here for the complete archive of newsletters. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK Privacy at the Coachella Valley Hiking Club - we are committed to protecting the privacy of our members and users of our website. Please review our Privacy Policy. This email was sent by cvhikingclub.net. If you no longer wish to receive our email advertisements/newsletter - you can unsubscribe. Products limited and may sell out at any time. Prices are subject to change at any time. Copyright 2013 Coachella Valley Hiking Club - All rights reserved. - Contact Us.

 

Paulette's Hike to Rainbow Rock Canyon, February 17, 2013

Paulette led a hike on Sunday to Rainbow Rock Canyon at the Whitewater Preserve. In the past the trail to the canyon has been hard to find and follow but a crew from Desert Trails Hiking Club and people from the preserve did some wonderful trail work and the trail is now easy to follow.

Pictures by Sylvia and Liza.

Painted Canyon Vandalism. Email from Philip.

a hiker from a local country club e-mailed me that several cars had been vandalized at Painted Cyn. Saturday. She and her other lady hiker friends were both frightened and concerned.
We talked about it and I suggested survelliance camers/solar powered, to scan the entire parking area.She agreed, citing that surfing beaches in LA were now protected the same way and no break-ins had occurred since.
Might our club support such a possibility, with BLM support?

                                                           Philip

Another idea might be to have one or two people volunteer to stay with the cars at a trailhead. They can bring something to read and comfortable chairs. That would make everyone on the hike more comfortable and likely discourage and vandalizm or theft.

                                                                        Eric

Suzanne's hike to Idyllwild Park

IDYLLWILD PARK

I've just discovered Idyllwild Park, and the lovely trails among the manzanitas and live oaks. Since Idyllwild is above 5,000 feet, the weather is cooler than the Coachella Valley and yesterday we hiked in some snow! Fortunately, the sky became blue and we were warmed by the sun in 35 degrees. If you'd like to enjoy some easy/moderate hiking, the Hillside and Summit Trails provide some beautiful views of Tahquitz Rock and surrounding mountains among the thick groves of manzanitas. Here are some intrepid hikers who were not deterred by the weather.

Suzanne Randell 

      

Family work day at the Whitewater Preserve

Pictures from the 20th Anniversary Party.

Pictures by Nicolette and Phylis

      

        

   

  

Magnesia Falls Hike

Ed and Eric combined their hikes on Tuesday. We all did the Magnisia Falls hike.

We saw five bighorn sheep!

   

   

   

Carizzo Canyon Hike

This hike, led by Eric, is only open three months out of the year so we took the opportunity. The canyon will be closed after December 30th. We found some bags of invasive plants that had been left in the canyon and following the instructions on some notes on the bags, we dragged them to the parking lot.

    

   

   

Nature camera Videos from The White Water Preserve

These videos speak for themselves!

Download MDGC0006

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Download MVIV0095

Most incoherent missing hiker story ever published in the Desert Sun!

Link to Desert Sun article

Hike to Hayfield Canyon

On 10/28/2012 a group of hiking club members visited Hayfield Canyon in Joshua Tree National Park. They had a good time rock scrambling and saw a few petroglyphs.

 

        


      

Robin and Larry led the Skyline hike. Here are some notes and pictures from Robin.

It was a great day in all ways. Perfect weather - nice and cool - and a jolly, hardy group. We had 11 people of whom 5 were newbies. Congratuations to first time Skyliners Terry Karsen, Misty Carlson, Clark Reims, Don Markey and Howard Densley!

           

   

    

    

Wednesday Morning hike to the Salton Sea Overlook

Eight of us climbed up to the Salton Sea Overlook in La Quinta this morning. Great views and we saw three bighorn sheep. Here are the pictures and a map. Remember to click on the pictures for a larger image.

        

       

    

Club social at the Cliff House Restaurant

Monday evening was the club social at the Cliff House Restaurant. Quite a few people showed up and here are some pictures taken by Pat.

      

Our new social social commitee member, Michelle.