A TREK BACK IN HISTORY : TWO GROUPS WILL RETRACE FOOTSTEPS OF PIONEERS INTO DEATH VALLEY.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Two groups of Antelope Valley hikers will make 300-mile plus treks across hostile desert into Death Valley, retracing paths taken by pioneers and gold seekers in the 1800s.

In late November, two men and two women will attempt to hike from Mount Misery, Utah, to Badwater in Death Valley, tracing the path taken by Death Valley's discovers - impatient Forty-Niners trying to find a shortcut to the gold country of Northern California.

That trek will be attempted by Allan Smith, 34, of Palmdale; Jerry Freeman, 54, of Pearblossom, and Freeman's daughters - Holly, 26, and Jennifer, 24.

``No one has ever tried to retrace the steps before,'' said Allan Smith. ``I think it's a chance to retrace history.''

A separate expedition, from Battle Mountain, Nev., near Winnemucca, to Badwater, will be begin in late December. The 350-mile trek will be attempted by two Palmdale men - Lee Bergthold, 61, a survival instructor and photojournalist, and Clay Campbell, 30, a cinematographer.

``There is a long stretch of desert from Walker Lake to Badwater that is virtually unexplored,'' Bergthold said. ``It's the last remnants of the last frontier.''

Campbell also plans to accompany the Freeman-Smith group for part of its trek, in hopes of doing a documentary on it.

The two hikes are separate efforts, but they sprang from a common source. In 1989, Bergthold and Freeman hiked together from Badwater, the lowest point in the United States at 282 feet below sea level, to 14,492-foot Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada, the highest point in the United States, not including Alaska.

While searching for another challenge for the two hikers, Freeman became fascinated with the Forty-Niners. Bergthold was planning to join Freeman in retracing the Forty-Niners' steps, but dropped out over concerns the U.S. Department of Energy would not allow them to cross a portion of federal land.

The Freeman-Smith route brings the hikers near a place known as Area 51, a location UFO believers say the Air Force uses to examine alien spacecraft and which aviation aficionados believe is used for testing secret aircraft.

Smith and Freeman are optimistic the government will allow them across. If not, the party will make a 70-mile detour and rejoin the trail.

Like the pioneers of the 1800s, the Bergthold-Campbell trek will go from Battle Mountain in north-central Nevada to the Walker Lake Basin east of Lake Tahoe.

Unlike the pioneers, however, at Walker Lake Basin Bergthold and Campbell will continue south.

Pioneers, including the ill-fated Donner party and explorer John Fremont's fourth expedition, went west to the Sierras. There both parties met with tragedy from early snowstorms.

``My contention is many of these groups could have gotten out,'' Bergthold said of the southern route.

Starting from southwest Utah, the Freeman-Smith trek will retrace the steps of the Forty-Niners that split off from a wagon train taking a southerly route to avoid the Sierra Nevada winter snows.

The Forty-Niners, anxious to get to the gold fields in Northern California, had seen a map showing a western shortcut.

The leader of the wagon train, Capt. Jefferson Hunt, warned against attempting the route. ``You will be going into the jaws of hell,'' he said, but to little avail. Most of the wagon train broke off and went west, only to return back to Hunt after finding their path blocked by a narrow canyon.

Two groups pressed on in search of a western route - a group of about 30 men from Illinois that were joined by a family by the name of Brier and the Bennett-Arcane party, comprised of 13 men, two women, and four children.

Although the two parties traveled separately, they frequently encountered each other and ended up entering Death Valley at the same place near Furnance Creek.

``The trip will correspond with the same time of year as when the pioneers went through,'' Freeman said. ``We will leave on Nov. 25 and follow their route day by day and enter Death Valley on Christmas Day.''

In researching the trek, Freeman located evidence of the Forty-Niners, including a wagon wheel and an inscription on a rock dated Nov. 10, 1849.

Both expeditions are anticipating severe elements - snowstorms and temperatures ranging from the teens to well below zero. Both groups will have support crews that will drop off food at points along the trails.

``He (Freeman) might find a lost wagon or two out there,'' Bergthold said. ``Who knows what I might find?''