3 COMPLETE LONG HIKING ADVENTURE; 365-MILE TREK LASTS 34 DAYS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Three Antelope Valley backpackers emerged from the wilderness Monday after a 34-day, 365-mile hike from Death Valley to Salton Sea.

Antelope Valley College photography instructor Lee Bergthold and companions Tina Bowers and Al Caler arrived at 2:30 p.m. Monday at Salton Sea's North Shore, underweight and haggard from the cross-country journey and lack of water.

``Well, we're alive,'' Bergthold said. ``Our feet are badly bruised. We lost a lot of weight.''

The three had a selmposed deadline. Bowers had the first day of a college class Monday night and Bergthold had to teach a class Tuesday morning. Bowers missed her class.

The trio started Dec. 21 from the barren mountains north of Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park. Traveling cross-country, they explored and photographed what Bergthold said is California's last ``frontier'' - its uninhabited desert - across terrain rarely passed by man.

The hikers got three resupply drops of food and water from friends, but their worst problem was lack of water.

Bergthold, a backcountry photographer with more than 40 years experience exploring desert and mountains, said they got most of their water from motorists passing by on back roads. Most people driving in that area carry water with them, he said.

``We would watch with binoculars daily and try to pick out a road and then look for a dust plume,'' Bergthold said.

The trek continued a 350-mile, 35-day expedition that Bergthold and Bowers completed in 1997, hiking from Battle Mountain in North-Central Nevada to the northern boundary of Death Valley. Bergthold said he was trying to determine if pioneer emigrants like the ill-fated Donner party could have turned south rather than try to cross the Sierra Nevada.

Bergthold said the trio's experience over the last month convinced him the emigrants were better off not heading south.