2025-01-25, 11:55 AM
(2025-01-25, 09:22 AM)TacoLand Wrote: Digonnet is who completely changed the Park for me. I'd explored DVNP before finding his book, relying on info I'd be absolutely pissed if I lost my copy that has years worth of personal notes in it. Hope your future trips to DVNP have a lot less human drama to them.
Appreciate the condolence and I share your Digonnet POV. Another angle on use of Digonnet I've enjoyed immensely is to randomly park my vehicle and trek off into some SRG (some random geology) spending all day and occasionally into the evening stumbling upon slots, chutes, hoodoos, spires, flats, flowers, big horn sheep, burros, mining debris, etc. (have yet to see a tortoise or chuckwalla).
Upon returning from the trek, I'll pull out Digonnet and figure out where the hell I've been all day. Thus I can fool myself into feeling like I'm the first one to explore the area since the park's inception. The best example of this is March 2023 exploring Contact Canyon in the Owlshead Range. Not wanting to backtrack I headed north over a ridge and descended in what I later learned was Owlshead Canyon. Bypassing major dryfalls downward in an unfamiliar canyon has its challenges but I calculated in the event of a complete stop I could back track with enough. water to return to the vehicle. Referencing Digonnet after the fact helped me edit this video which ended up being a personal top five DEVA adventure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=addZhJ_7a8I
Another remote style surprise was my first venture way out to Trellis Canyon February 2015 on the northeast slope of Tucki Mountain shortly after discovering DEVA. I entered the canyon amazed to find fresh boot prints guiding my upstream hike. Due to the remoteness I was surprised but simultaneously relieved that I may not be alone out in middle of nowhere. Of course those prints were probably much older and remained undisturbed until the next rainstorm washed them away.
BTW, I hope to head out there one more time and find a safe exit out of The Trellis Room (as Steve Hall labels it) because this was a "hard stop" for me because I don't use ropes and canyoneering methods. The Trellis Room is viewed at time stamp 1:42 in this rather poorly edited video. I purchased my first Digonnet book sometime after this hiking season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taNeTGegiJo&t=131s
Life begins in Death Valley