No Bad Days - Kyle

While in Escondido we hiked a stunningly beautiful canyon that was a bit famous. It is named Tabor Canyon, but was nicknamed “Steinbeck Canyon,” after John S the famous author. In the 1940s he participated in a scientific naturalist voyage of discovery in the Sea of Cortez , apparently the local lore says he hiked this canyon, and mentioned it in his book “Log from the Sea of Cortez”. (When we hiked it I had not read the book. I just now finished reading the book, and the part where he describes a long hike in the hills is inconclusive as to exactly where he hiked, but it is a great read anyway. He describes in delightful detail the people he travels with and meets along the way, the boat they are on, the gear they use, the scientific methods they are using to collect and document specimens, the land and sea they are traveling through, all with very fun Mark Twainish wit and insight, and the observational and descriptive powers of John Muir. Along with all this detail he falls off into various philosophic discussions of the nature of man and civilizations in light of the larger natural world. I am enjoying it immensely. I have always been a big fan of the author Edward Abby and I think his writings are very similar to Steinbecks and no doubt must have been heavily influenced by Steinbeck. I encourage all of you to read this book. )

Anyway, the canyon cuts deeply into the Sierra Gigante range which juts steeply up right off the shore of the Sea and runs the length of the Baja penninsula. The entire range appears (and indeed is!) very dry and starkly bleak, with very little vegetation. Tabor Canyon is a deeply cut jumble of boulders and cliffs and dry prickly bushes and cactus. There is no trail, but footprints from some former wander leads the way up and around and over. As the canyon deepens it cuts into the bedrock and forms a narrowing slot with cliffs and pour-offs and dry-falls. Many of these have, nestled at the bases of them, small pools of green manky water slowly disappearing with the heat of the season, nourishing what little animal and plant life there is, waiting for the flashfloods of the rainy season next summer to fill them.

At last we came to the end of the trail, a 30 foot high pour-off with no way up or around. Or so it seemed. We searched and crawled and found a passage under a house sized boulder that led under and around and up to a log jammed in a crack upward towards the light above. We did our best Nadia Cominich balance beam routine at a 45 degree upward angle and arrived at another cave at the base of another boulder that allowed us up and past only if we took off our packs and slithered sideways. If we had had an extra helping of pasta last night we would not have made it through!

Once passed the secret tunnel, (which I am sure Steinbeck also found…) the canyon took on a whole new feeling. No more dead pools with green scum, but fresh clean water trickled down and babbled along from boulder to boulder and pool to pool and was the true Shangri-La we sought. These pools form oasis of life with lush palm trees and plants growing right up among the boulders. We noticed living there a few birds, 2 frogs, a tarantual, and a few bones of a desert bighorn sheep indicated that a wolf or coyote or cougar also lurked nearby. Steve mentioned that when all hell breaks loose out in civilization, this is where he will come to weather the storm. (Sorry dude, the secret is out. Now all 3 of the people who read this may also join you. Please don’t drop rocks down on them from the top of the secret tunnel, those interlopers may be my grandkids…)