Coches

Coches Prietos Canyon, known as just Coches, is our plot on the south side of the Island and the furthest plot from the cabins. Usually, Coches is a 10-15 minute truck ride up and over the south ridge but since the big rain on the 20th we've had to hike it. It is intensely steep and strenuous, but exhilarating at the same time. Thirty-five minutes of hiking straight uphill to the top, then thirty minutes back down to the bottom of the canyon, and then you begin to nest search. I used my GPS to determine how far I hiked four days ago: approximately 12.6 kilometers, which equates to about 7.5 miles. The GPS track also plots the elevation on a graph and I wish I could have posted a picture of that on here. It zigzagged up and down like a polygraph printout. Coches is by far the most topographically challenging plot. There are many steep drainages, and ridges upon ridges to scramble over. My favorite part about Coches is that I can see the glittering blue Pacific (if I am high enough up). It instantly reminds me that I am living on an island and I have the coolest job ever.

From Los Torres, looking North over the Coches plot. The little windy white road in the center of the photo is the road we hike up. See if you can follow it to the top (it turns red). That is where we hike to get back to the Cabins after a long day of hiking to find nests. Thankfully, we do not have to hike over the ridge in the far background...that is on the North side of the Central Valley of the island, where the Cabins are.

One day at Coches, I hiked to the top of Los Torres, a rocky ridge south of the canyon, to take some photos. It looks like a Dr. Seuss book up there: weird rocky teeth and an assortment of odd succulents and Giant Coreopsis. The top gave a great view down over Coches to the north and of the ocean to the south. It felt amazing to be so high up and to not see a single man made thing around me other than a barge in the shimmering distance, which I pretended was a whale sunning itself on the warm ocean surface.

Looking up at Los Torres

The road to Coches has only recently dried, so on Saturday we will get to drive the windy, steep road instead of hike it. It is a relief but I also enjoyed the hike, and the fact that my body was fit enough to propel itself up with little argument. In other news, the Lagunitas pair's first nest did in fact fail, but I found them building a new nest today in a Scrub Oak some 50 meters from their old nest. Hopefully, they will have better luck with this nest.