Cerro Pescadores, Pico Risco

9-Nov-91

By: Graham Breakwell

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This trip was planned as a fast moving fun hiking trip based around the hot springs. Some of us met Friday night just off the asphalt on the dirt road to the peak. Apart from the warm, muggy weather and constant drone of trucks on Highway 5, we all enjoyed the "Northern Lights", yes really ! Between 8:00-8:15pm there appeared shafts of red and purple moving backwards and forwards like curtains fluttering in the breeze luminescing about 20 degrees horizontally and 20 degrees vertically in the sky.

Cerro Pescadores went just smoothly, very easy map reading, on the peak at noon. The only change of plan was the walk from the asphalt, as contractors have used the dirt road as a sand pit. This extra two miles each way put back our vehicular exit to 4:00pm and our arrival at the Guadalupe hot springs to 7:30-8:30pm. As promised to participants, this was a 15 hour day. Nothing to add about the springs other than they are perfect.

Sunday morning weather was beautiful, with blue skies and a start of 7:00am. Easy navigation up the gully and two hours later and 2000ft of gain produced a spot of rain. Within 10 minutes we were surrounded by lightning, thunder, and sheets of rain. After 20-30 cracks of thunder 90 minutes of down-climbing, a continuous torrential downpour, and worries of flash floods in the canyon, we were safely ensconced back in the hot springs.

A wonderful trip with wonderful people. Thank you to Ron Jones for outlining the weekend's itinerary.


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