panamint city dec 2008

It has been over ten years now since I first set foot in Surprise Canyon. My first trip was during the El Nino season of 1998. Panamint City was covered in a fresh blanket of snow that year and the trip left me with a deep love for the area.

Fast forward to the present. I had been watching the paths of recent weather systems crossing over the Panamints and knew Surprise Canyon must have been hit pretty good by the snow that had fallen in the surrounding deserts. Sounds like a perfect opportunity to return to the snow covered city that I recall from those memories of so long ago.

With so much going on at home and Christmas approaching, I would only be able to allow myself a short trip. The itinerary consisted of driving out to Ballarat on Friday night, hiking the canyon as early on Saturday as possible, spending a minimal amount of time in the city and hitting the highway for home, so that I would arrive before the family awoke on Sunday morning.

The drive out was fast and uneventful. I could tell that the high desert had received quite a dusting of snow, however, it was so dark out that all I had the privledge of seeing was the plow berms on the sides of the highway.

I arrived in the Panamint Valley shortly after midnight and ran into one of the members of PanamintValley.com message board as he was preparing his Jeep for a trip up into South Park Canyon. He would later be joined by a few of my buddies from the web site. I was tempted to join them, but I knew my solo trip would be a rewarding experience that I may not be able to enjoy at a later time.

I slept really good in the back of the FJC thanks to a propane heater that kept most of the desert chill at bay. I awoke around nine in the morning and was ready to hit the trail by ten.

It was about 32 degrees when I started the hike and my watch never recorded a temperature above 36 degrees during the ten hours that I spent in the canyon. It was cold!

I knew I'd been in for a snowy hike when I began to see lite patches of snow half-way up the water-falls. The trail beyond the falls was pretty well impacted by snow. Some of the wider areas of the canyon that still receives sunlight had less snow.

One problem that the snow and cold conditions created was the weight of the snow collapsed much of the already dense foliage and made what was already a tough hike all that much harder. In some areas the bushes were entwined and frozen together. I would have to take a few lunges at these areas before finally breaking through. In other areas like the Tunnel-of-love area near Brewery Springs, The growth was completely collapsed and I had to crawl on my hands and knees to gain access.

I stayed warm due to the layers of cloths and the rain pants that I wore, however, I did recognize the fact that my feet were beginning to freeze. I was wearing the usual waterproof Red-Wing boots with a single pair of wool socks. This had always worked in the past, but walking so many miles in snow that averaged a foot deep was beginning to take it's toll.

I arrived at the City at 3PM. That was an hour later than I had wanted. I had only taken one snack break to save time, yet pushing through all that snow just made the going slow.

After spending about an hour in the city, I was back on the trail and headed out of the canyon. I had hoped to make it out before the Sun went down, but I knew I was only trying to fool myself that would happen.

I lost all traces of daylight around 5:30 and spent the rest of the trip following my boot prints in the snow with a mini mag-lite. I'm glad I had just upgraded the flash-lite with an LED bulb array. Otherwise I'd surly use up my batteries before making it out of the canyon.

It was near 8pm when I finally approached the Cruiser. I changed my clothes and took a look at my feet. They looked fine, but I had lost most sensations in the toes of my left foot hours ago. I never really thought about them while on the trail because I was too busy just trying to keep moving and since the rest of my body was warm, that seemed to offset the fact that my feet were not. As I write this, now a week after the trip, The big piggy of my left foot still has no feeling on it's tip. The color looks good and it doesn't stink any worse than normal, so it must be fine. It will heal with time.

I'm already making plans for the next Panamint City hike. hopefully I'll stay up there a few days next time.

Happy Trails,

Charles Wade