If you search around for the California Riding and Hiking Trail, it's possible that you would come across completely different trails and different locations throughout California. This is because the trail was originally part of the California Riding and Hiking Trail Act of 1945. In this legislation, the goal was to establish a 3,000 mile loop that stretched from the Mexico border to the Oregon border. Unfortunately, the state ran out of money and came across too much red tape for the project to be completed. So in 1974, the state repealed the CRHT Act and replaced it with the California Recreational Trails Act which focused on maintaining shorter trails throughout the state. There are still over 1,000 miles of trail in California that are dedicated to the CRHT, they are just not all connected. The stretch we decided to complete was the one that crosses Joshua Tree National Park.
This hike starts in the Northwest entrance of Joshua Tree at the Black Rock Canyon campsite. Neil's mom and sister played a crucial role in helping us drop off Neil's car on the east side of the park and then get us to our starting place. We also enjoyed some Indian pizza with them before hitting the trail. It was around noon, and it was windy, luckily our packs were heavy enough to keep us from blowing away. Eager to get started, we didn't pay perfect attention to the signs and ended up taking a mile long detour before getting on the actual California Riding and Hiking Trail.
Despite the wind, it was a beautiful day. We hiked all afternoon, sipping water and enjoying the landscape. We were steadily climbing, but the grade wasn't too bad. Eventually we made it to the Covington Flats trailhead. This is where we started when we summited Quail Mountain last year. That night, we set up camp in a familiar spot after hiking the first ten miles. It was probably the windiest night we've experienced. All night our tent kept flattening on us. The wind, along with the temperature, made setting up and taking down camp difficult.
The next day was a big day, We trekked eighteen miles, passing through washes and spectating the peculiar rocks and trees that live in the park. Every once and a while we'd run into a large rabbit, some quails, or a horny lizard. Around noon we came to our water cache, the halfway point of the hike, and a fairly nasty surprise. One of the 2.5 gallon containers we stashed had teeth marks at the bottom which had emptied almost the entire container. This would have been the end of the trip if we had not stored a separate back up stash. Also, as much as we were excited to have more water, we kind of dreaded adding ten pounds back onto to our packs.
We powered through the afternoon and made it all the way past geology tour road before setting up camp. Although we didn't have much elevation change that day, walking on the soft sand was its own challenge. While the sun was setting, the wind had finally settled down and we were enjoying the beautiful weather that is spring time in Joshua Tree.
We woke up in a very secluded part of the park with an amazing view. We could see the valley clearly. Our legs were a bit sore, but manageable so we hiked the last ten miles to the car that morning. The mile markers were exciting as we got closer and closer to the end of the hike. Ultimately, we were surprised that we didn't see more people on the trails since it was such a great hike.
