Mecca Hills & San Jacinto July 22

Sara and I had our good friend Luke visiting us from New Zealand. I hoped to be able to take a bit of time off to give him a proper tour but with only a day available I switched to plan B: we'd give him the one-day variety pack. We started the day out 200ft below sea level at the Salton Sea and drove through the small town of Mecca. We turned onto a washboarded dirt road, crossed the San Andreas Fault onto the North American Plate, and headed up Painted Canyon wash surrounded by fascinatingly faulted, fractured and folded rocks. Luke seemed to be appropriately stimulated by the excellent geology. At the end of the road we piled out of the car, the blast of heat assaulting us (particularly Luke!) as we emerged from the air conditioning and into the furnace.

We walked up the vertical-walled main wash and then turned off onto the unassuming tributary with large collapse blocks at its mouth. It quickly went into deep and sinuous slot canyon-mode, much to the delight of all three of us. We encountered several dryfalls, necessitating the use of the ladders that had been left in place. At the right turns, golden canyon light filtered down into the slot, illuminating the textures alluvial walls. Once out of the slot we cross-countried the badlands over and into the next canyon over. I had planned to use this to loop back down to the main wash, so was rather surprised when we abruptly encountered a chossy, vertical 50ft dryfall- no way down. Taking a slightly different route, we followed trails across some ridges and then over back into the ladder slot canyon. Once back at the car there was only one thing on my mind: date shake! We found a place a little north of Mecca and all had a tasty date shake, followed by an interesting history of the date palm's introduction to the area. I hoped we would have more time to head towards the bottom of Salton Sea for mud volcanoes and the random hippy art of Salvation Mountain, but the day was getting on and we wanted to get Luke up a mountain still.

 

En route we made a quick detour for the Thousand Palm Oasis so we could give Luke a quick stroll through a fascinating palm oasis courtesy of the San Andreas Fault. Being a weekday we had the entire place to ourselves which was excellent.

We drove up the long, steep and rocky alluvial fan to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, something I had not done in over fifteen years. The tram ride was better than I remembered. In 15 short minutes we passed from the low desert of Palm Springs and up to the fresh smelling forests of San Jacinto (from -200ft to over 10000ft!). As we stepped out of the top tram building I think Luke was impressed. Real forest and meadow, a cool 60 degrees to contrast with the 100 degrees below. Not wanting to be limited to the trails, I sought out a point on the topo that seemed to jut out a bit more than anything else and we scrambled our way over the granite out to it. Sara and Luke both seemed skeptical but admitted I found a good spot on arrival: panoramic views of the Salton Sea, San Andreas Fault, San Gorgonio, Palm Springs, etc.

We couldn't resist a beer and sunset at the tram station before heading back down. And once down Sara couldn't resist a detour to Native Foods Cafe in Palm Springs. It was a full day but we were all satisfied! It was good to remember what numerous, diverse and amazing places we have within a short drive of us.

Lake Tahoe July 15-20

This would be my first visit to Lake Tahoe. My whole paternal extended family had rented a cabin on its shore for a five-day reunion. Such a gathering had not happened in about fifteen years and the next one might not be for as long. The drive was exceptionally long, but I appreciated the new territory- once we drove through Bridgeport everything was new to me. The Walker River gorge was particularly interesting with it's near-constant outcrops of landslides. Lake Tahoe was as expected- big, blue, clear, deep, ridiculously over-developed and over-crowded. The mind boggles to consider the billions of dollars in "cabin mansions" that crowd portions of its shores. We stayed on the north shore near Carnelian Bay which had good opportunities for mountain biking and kayaking. My dad and I kayaked about 8 miles round trip from where we were staying to Nevada. I had a few tries with a paddleboard (weird), and some cold swims. I got on my mountain bike every day, exploring the trails on the hills behind the lake until I knew my way around. I biked a portion of the Tahoe Rim Trail with my brother. With my parents I biked the nice paved trail from Tahoe City to Squaw Valley along a very sad, mostly non-flowing Truckee River. Unfortunately the rivers were in poor shape so packkrafting was out. I was also suffering from chechen I picked up in Mexico- essentially poison oak- which seemed to kill my motivation and will be my excuse why I seemed to take almost no photos!

The adventure highlight was a impromptu bike ride from Truckee to Carnelian Bay. I caught a ride to Truckee with some of my family with the plan of going for a bike ride while the strolled the streets and shops. After downing a banana split with my dad, I identified the Sawtooth Trail as the nearest bike trail and worked my way through Truckee to the trailhead. Once there I realized it would be possible to mountain bike on single track and dirt road all the way back to Carnelian Bay- 22 miles! Nevermind I had no sunscreen or water or food or anything other than my phone...the trip ended up being a good butt-kicker with about 2000ft of elevation gain. The Sawtooth Trail was good fun, if a little rocky and over-sinuous. I then took a dirt forest road up and over the saddle near Mt Watson, past Watson Lake, and then some excellent screaming downhill all the way back to Carnelian Bay. I arrived tired and ready for dinner.

We ended the week with a short walk to Eagle Lake near Emerald Bay where I entertained myself scrambling up the peak behind the lake and then finding a delicate route threading me back through the cliff bands on the steeper side. Of course the trip was really about family, and that there was plenty of. Big communal dinners, lawn games, watching the stars, spending quality time with relatives I had hardly seen in about 10 years. That was all excellent. Tahoe? Meh, a big over-exploited puddle. There are much better places half the distance.

Yucatan July 3-10

I was invited by a UCR anthropology colleague to join their central Yucatan Mayan archeology expedition as the token geologist. The hope would be that I could better understand the context and variability of clay materials available to Mayan potters to better understand their sources, techniques and trade patterns. Certainly a daunting task but one that does interest me. As a bonus almost zero work has been done on the topic to date. Due to a change in plans things started slow in Merida the first couple days, giving me time to explore the city's downtown. It seemed a friendly and fascinating place, and very safe. It was a world apart from tourist exploiting near-border Baja, my only previous experience with Mexico. As I arrived, many of the archeology expeditions were wrapping up. All the Americans made the effort to meet at a hotel in Merida (where I stayed) for an ex-pat-style 4th of July party. Everyone was friendly but I was certainly the odd one out of the group and everyone else knew each other well.

The third day we finally got around to doing some work. Travis, Nelda, and I drove out to visit a potter and to look at her clay source, which apparently had been used for countless generations. On the way we also stopped at the first of many "bancos del materiales", recent road quarries that provide one of the few cross sections through the stratigraphy and karst. I efficiently took notes and sampled as I swatted mosquitoes and sweat gallons. The old clay source near Mama was also quite interesting- between the two I had seen about a half dozen distinct clays in colors I'd never seen before.

The fourth day was a delayed and slow drive to the expedition site near the small Mayan town of Yaxunah. Here I met Jonathon who showed me to my shack- thatched roof, stick & mud walls, concrete floor, a fan, a hammock, an electrical outlet, and a primitive attached bathroom- quite civilized really. I found out later these primitive but comfortable accommodations were the swankest in town and the villagers generally lived in much more squalid conditions.

Day 5 I actually got to see some Mayan ruins at the ancient city center of Yaxunah, east of town. I got a good look at several test pits in the process of being dug and logged and got to see the difference between forest claimed monuments and ones that had been "consolidated", effectively excavated, reconstructed and mortared to restore to their original pre-collapse appearances. Also impressive were the sacbes, calcite-paved roads the ancient Mayan used as raised highways to connect cities and landmarks. Yaxunah had one 7m-wide sacbe that extends dead straight over 100 kilometers east to Cobah, truly an impressive feat of engineering for the time!

We then drove towards the tourist center of Piste to see Balankanche Cave near Chichen Itza. This amazing cave was used by Mayans for almost 3000yrs as a water source and place of worship. Halfway through the cave a sealed wall was discovered in 1959. Beyond was a treasure trove for archeologists- incense burners, elaborately carved water vessels, altars, and one incredible column similar in appearance to the Mayan's World Tree (Wacah Chan), central to the Mayan belief system. The cave was incredibly fascinating but did little to improve my understanding of the complex karst history of the region. There was little structural control to the cave passages.

I ended the day with a visit to the cenote in the middle of Yaxunah. Wow what a place! Excellent cliff jumping, perfect temperature blue waters, ancient tree roots twisting their way down to the water. An absolutely beautiful place!

Day 6 was a busy one with Travis and I heading out to visit a modern potter in Muna keen to explore the properties of different types of clay. He took us to the interesting cave right in the middle of Sacalum, which historically had been a very important source of clay. Colonial era stairs led us down into a sunlit chamber with hundreds of swallows spiraling upward and outward. Muddy side passages led off to the clay layer. We also visit some modern quarries with some other interesting material and spent some time with some of the materials back at the potter's workshop.

Day 7 I saw a bit more of the Yaxunah site, including a walk to the north to visit some interesting structures. In the afternoon Travis and I visited another potter in the nearby San Francisco. He too took us out to show us some of his clay sources and some of his finished materials back at his shop. Day 8 was mostly a wrap up day at camp. A notable highlight was finding a large iguana in my hut and carefully catching it. In the evening we drove through heavy rain back to Merida, and the next afternoon I was on a plane back home. It was a really interesting trip and I think I found enough interesting research questions to justify another trip back. All the same after a week of near-constant sweating I was ready to return to the dry heat of southern California.