Rick Wang's Weblog

Today, I joined a meetup.com group hike at Devil's Punchbowl, near Palmdale in the high desert. While initially cranky at having to get up so early, I was grateful for getting a ride over from Jamian. It was nice meeting Jerry again, who had introduced me to the Baldy Ski Hut trail last year. Other than Nathan and Jerry, I met everyone else for the first time. As always, meetup.com groups are quite friendly and informal. As a group, we covered the short loop trail (1 mi) and the longer route trail to Devil's Chair (2x 3.7 mi) (trail map).

The loop trail goes into a small canyon with rocky formations that are popular with rock climbers. I'm guessing they were sandstone rocks. We had to scramble at a few points, and but with the help of fellow hikers I was able to overcome some initial hesitation. The group leader, Nathan, wanted to jump off a waterfall on the way back, and I really could not tell if he was serious or joking since it looked feasible. After hanging out a bit on the loop trail, we went on to the main trail.

The main trail was also full of many wonderful views of nearby rock formations and the further open expanse of high desert. There were some volunteers installing distance markers every half mile. The trail was very well maintained except for a few minor collapses, and I thought it was it was rather flat despite curving along the side of a mountain at a higher elevation. I was impressed by the triple color (green, white, red) rock on the trail over, but it was nothing compared to the incredible view at the Devil's Chair. A photograph simply cannot do it justice because the view is simultaneously panoramic and vertical. I was very grateful someone had bothered to install metal safety rails along the protrusion leading to the main view point.

We rested a bit and ate before setting back. The way back was less exciting because it was a second viewing. The only eventful thing was I took a minor wrong turn near the end but got corrected before long by a fellow hiker. Despite thinking the trail was easy, my ankles were in light pain and I had a lingering headache afterwards. Once I got home, I followed Jamian's suggestion to add eucalyptus drops to my warm water salt soak to unwind. It works wonderfully.