November 10-12, 2006, Panamint Valley, CA

By Chris Geiger

Panamint Valley Days (PVD) is now in it's 21 year. This year Chris Dunbar, John Robertson and I headed down to this years event, held near the Panamint mountain range about a hour north of Ridgecrest, CA. We arrived late Thursday night set up camp and hit the sack. In the morning we woke up early for the safety inspection and 7:30am drivers meeting. Our trail leader was John Hively. This was a relatively easy trail for us but did include a few fun optional lines in and around the rocks on the floor of the canyon.

When not on the trail wheeling, John has been know to engage in the little known sport of Jeep wrestling. The object is to tackle and hog tie the wild Jeep before it is able to impale you on its huge front tusk. At-a-boy John, you almost got that one!

My last visit to Surprise canyon was way back in 2000. The trail has been closed to vehicular traffic for about 6 years now but there are legal efforts underway to reopen this access road leading up to Panamint city. After Fridays run up Isham Canyon we hiked up Surprise Canyon. I really wanted to go up and see what condition the trail was and size up what kind of effort would be needed to reopen the trail if and when the legal issues are resolved.

Arriving at the closure gate I noticed that the Novak family shack has been burned to the ground along with its out-buildings. There was no signs that any one was currently living on the property. 

The seven waterfalls are looking nearly identical to how I remember them from my last run up the trail. The old tractor (ore cart?) that was at the top of waterfall #7 had been washed down to the bottom of the canyon a little ways past the gate. There was also a huge rock at the bottom of waterfall #4 that was missing. This rock used to make #4 a lot harder. Now with the rock gone there looks to be an easier line to the right, without the need to drive up the slab, just left of the stream. Water was still flowing strongly in November without any measurable rain so far this season.

Six years ago this was the most difficult trail I knew of. Times have changed and so have the rigs we use on the trails. I had climbed waterfall numbers 1, 3, 4, and 6 with my 1983 Toyota pickup without the use of a winch. Now I eye the trail with my Samurai buggy in mind and I believe that all but waterfall #5 is climbable without a winch.

The weed and vegetation growth between the entrance and the waterfalls is considerable, but I believe a weekend of clearing by a small teem would be all that is needed to open the bottom of the trail. We did not hike past waterfall #7. I sincerely hope that the legal actions currently under way will be successful in restoring vehicular access to this beautiful trail and the city at the top of the mountain.

On Saturday we signed up for the Defense Mine run and again we had John Hively as our trail leader. After running with us Friday, he was ready for us on Saturday with even more challenging options along the trail. He pointed out several optional lines that pushed us to the limits! Thanks John for a great trip!