The Chocolate Mountains Trip

The Chocolate Mountains run along the border of California and Nevada. The name "Chocolate Mountains" invokes thoughts of a magical place like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory filled with wonderful things. It couldn't be more wrong!

Part of the range makes up the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range run by the Navy and Marine Corps for target practice. As far as I'm concerned, the entire range should be bombed. It wouldn't make any difference. If you look up the word desolate in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of this place!

My trip through the Chocolate Mountains was supposed to be a six day trip for me and five companions. Knowing hydration would be an issue, the six of us took more water on this trip than we ever had before or since. We each had five gallons of water at the start of the trip. With each gallon weighing about eight and a quarter pounds, that's around forty-one pounds of water alone. We tried to compensate by reducing the weight of our other gear. We took no tents and used light weight sleeping bags, etc.

We planned our route to pass near three springs to supplement our water supply. In addition, there was a fourth spring about a half day from our route to use in an emergency. Carrying so much water and having four springs within reach, we thought we would be fine. So much for best laid plans.

On the trail, the temperature was higher than we expected and the humidity was right around zero. By the fourth day of the trip, all of us were rationing water. By the end of the fifth day, every canteen was dry! Making matters worse, all three springs along our trail were dry. We diverted to the alternate fourth spring and found it dry also. That diversion also cost us an extra day making things bleak indeed.

The terrain was like a moonscape. The Apollo astronauts trained in Iceland. I don't know why they needed to go so far as the Chocolate Mountains would have made a great representation of the moon. I never saw any skeletons of dead animals along the way but would not have been surprised if I had. We finally made it out on the seventh day and put a severe dent in the inventory of the first liquor store we passed.