Saturday morning looked good, dark clouds filled the sky and it was just barely into the 80s by the time we headed out. I was hoping for a good rain on our hike, since there is no shade to be found in the local hills. I’d never checked out Camp Beale before so we headed up to the loop trail.

We only made it about 20 minutes in before we realized we’d been had. A gang of bandits had stolen our rain! We retreated to the air conditioned safety of the Loanerlander, grateful to have escaped the 115° heat and 90% humidity with our lives, and watched in horror as our beloved storm headed south…

Plan B

My favorite type of exploration starts something like this: “Well, we have a full tank of gas… let’s go that way!”

Armed with ice cold mango smoothies we headed northeast, determined to stop at every single historical marker along the side of Highway 93 (there are lots of ‘em). On arrival at the third one we decided to check out the tiny community of Chloride, AZ. We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon looking at all the old buildings, interesting yard art, odd fences, and learning a bit about the history of the town from the general store’s owner over a cold root beer.

We took an easy track the long way home for a dinner of uberthin seared steak and a bottle of red vino.

We also made a stop by Kelso Depot to visit The Beanery, and a short visit at the still-missing Mojave Cross. The Beanery, once the lunch room at the Kelso Depot, is once again serving food to hungry travelers. The smoothies alone are worth a detour. The food is ok… not great, but it beats a sack lunch.

After lunch, we headed up to-and-around Clark Mountain, the small island of the preserve located north of Interstate 15. I had never visited this area before, and had no idea just how high this mountain rises above the surrounding desert. After a long, steep climb we were rewarded with these views:

We then visited the Colosseum Mine, a large flooded pit mine just east of the mountain. It is the pictures of this mine I stumbled across a couple years ago that first tipped me off to this forgotten segment of the preserve. On arrival at the mine, we were pleasantly surprised to find the gate wide open, a welcome relief as I was not looking forward to the long hike to the bottom in the heat.

Here’s a picture of Dani I took from the bottom in a vain attempted to capture the scale of this giant hole in the ground…

The trek around the northern edge of the mountain was no less rewarding, treating us with a beautiful sunset and glowing rain showers. We were also able to note the locations of several campsites for future travels. We did come prepared to camp on this trip, but with temperatures at or above 100° at night I tend to avoid camping if I can help it.

Day Two

Two great things about hoteling it in Baker: you get to go on night runs without fear of losing your camp, you get to have iHop in the morning.

It was already well over 100° by the time we finished breakfast, so we quickly fueled up and got underway. Just south of the border we picked up an eastward-bound dirt track and headed in the general direction of Las Vegas. This was another of those few small areas I’d not yet explored in the preserve, and before an hour had passed we stumbled upon the remains of a dugout, several corrals and a loading ramp.

As I was taking the picture of the dugout, several dozen very fat quail were startled out and flew off. I can’t wait until October.

We continued east, with the roads gradually growing fainter and fainter – no one had been out here in a very long time. If I had to guess, this area probably gets overlooked because of how close to the interstate it appears to be on the map. On the ground, however, this area is far enough out that you can’t even hear the highway. On it’s way to Cima Road, this route winds around a high plateau, up a canyon, and through one of the healthiest Joshua tree groves I’ve seen.

Eventually we reached Aiken Mine Road at the site of an old ranch – two windmills, several corrals and an assortment of buildings bake under the hot sun here. As with the earlier site, it appears no one has visited this area in a long time.

Off to Vegas

The city hasn’t changed much since the last time I was here. They’ve torn down some buildings, built some new ones, closed some shops and opened others… it is still a crowded, noisy, modern city with little culture or history. In spite of my admittedly biased view of the place, we had a great time celebrating the big 3-0 with Kay, visiting with my friend Drawk, and learning how the game of Blackjack is played with real live people.

Day Three

For the ride home we cut south through the New York Mountains via Ivanpah Road and the small town of Goffs. The MDHCA has done a fine job of restoring the town and placing markers at the surrounding historical sites.

The rest of the pictures, as always, are on Flickr.

The mansion itself was quite impressive for it’s age – it is hard to imagine the amount of work involved getting this much concrete up here back in the ’20s. Thankfully, the hornets I was warned about have long-since moved on, so we were free to explore the ruin in peace.

After a brief search we found an easy route down the mountain, so we’ll only have a short hike to reach the mansion on the upcoming trip. Wildflowers are still out in many parts of the Hualapais.

After returning from the mountains, we spent the weekend relaxing and test-driving a different sort of “overlander” we’re thinking about picking up in lieu of dual-sport bikes: a Yamaha Rhino.

Here are the pros and cons we came up with…

Pros: it’ll fit down most (if not all) of the trails we’ve been waiting on bikes to explore, it carries a little more gear (and fuel) than the bikes we were considering (and is more comfortable), driven responsibly it has very little impact on the trails or the surrounding environment despite moving more quickly through them, the open air feeling reminds us of the topless/doorless Jeep I used to have, it is street legal in the states we were planning to use bikes, low maintenance, it’ll fit in the bed of a pickup truck.

Cons: it eats gas almost as bad as a Discovery, it tops out at about 35-mph (so we’d have to haul it to the trailhead on some trips), it is not 50-state street legal (though we both agreed we wouldn’t want to use it those unfriendly states anyhow).

On the advice of a friend, we also took a trip up into the Black Mountains to watch Laughlin’s fireworks show for the 4th.

Dani finally got a chance to tinker with HF, and managed to log a few contacts herself (including Guam). She has been bugging me for new radios and equipment ever since. I’ll have to admit, while I’ve appreciated the capabilities of HAM radio for some time now, I never fully understood it’s potential for practical application until we used the repeater to co-ordinate dinner plans between 4 different groups on the road with 35-miles of mountains between us on Saturday night. Doing so was actually easier to accomplish under those conditions than it would have been with all of us sitting at home on a conference call.

While our primary purpose on the mountain this weekend was participation in ARRL’s Field Day, several groups did get out for some wheeling. On Saturday morning we headed over by Arrowhead Lake to run Willow Creek trail, a scenic route I’ve never been on before.

After Willow Creek, we continued up Dishpan Springs, a trail I haven’t seen in 10 years. The fire a few years back has left the place in a barren, almost desert-like state. The forestry service has also removed the best part of the trail, the T-6 water crossing, and replaced it with a concrete bridge and a parking lot. The first picture is pre-fire and pre-bridge back in 2001…

Despite being short a water crossing and a rock garden, Dishpan is easily twice as difficult as it was 10 years ago. About half way up the trail we ran into a six-foot-tall wall of rock where once there had been fire road (courtesy of fire damage and a harsh winter). We considered our options while watching the Jeeps tackle the newly improved “waterfall”, and bumped into a couple fellow ExPo‘ers visiting California to pick up a Flip-Pac. Ultimately, our new friends and us decided we were better off heading back to camp for chili and cornbread. Maybe next time… after I get my rock sliders installed.

Back at camp and resupplied with firewood we enjoyed a small potluck of chili, steak, cornbread, various wines, and of course… cake! I also had a chance to try out some low-light, long-exposure photography with the tiny Canon SD940is.

On Sunday a few of us ran up Gold Mountain before Dani and I headed back to the desert. It has also been torn up pretty bad since I was last here (a mere 3 weeks ago). The trail looks as if someone sat in all the difficult spots and spun their tires for a few hours, and many of the bypasses have been blocked off. Still, we all made it through and even managed to bring a stock Xterra with us unharmed.

As always, the rest of the pics are in the Flickr set…

Maps just aren’t what they used to be, partly it seems because of the efforts of misguided “environmentalists” to discourage all vehicle-based travel in the back-country. The 2009 edition of the official USFS maps are missing half of the trails, particularly the less well-known routes to the more isolated (and more desirable) areas, and I cannot find a decent trail guide for this area anywhere. Instead, the entire map section of the Discovery Center is filled with beginner’s hiking books and titles like Sex in a Tent. I suppose this is both good and bad: good because it will keep those less well-known areas less well-known, bad because history shows us that is the first step toward sealing such areas off behind a federal Wilderness boundary permanently.

First on our agenda Saturday was the pre-run up Gold Mountain (3N69), which was torn up so bad by The Great Snow Storm of 2008 I had to turn back the last time I tried to run it (in a stock vehicle). Entire sections that used to be semi-smooth dirt road are now boulders and rock ledges to be climbed, making this beautifully scenic trail a fun challenge once again. With the aid of a friend’s GPS we were able to find the loop through the talus slope I’ve been trying to find (score one for that modern gadgetry I hate so much) – also more difficult that the last time I visited.

We finished up Gold Mountain with a lunch stop on Jacoby Canyon (3N61) before heading back south. Jacoby hasn’t changed much since last year. There are a few new rough spots, but nothing a stock vehicle can’t negotiate with a little finesse. Perhaps more challenging is finding a comfortable spot to eat lunch with the massive swarms of ladybugs flying every which way… it is their mating season, after all. Purple, yellow, white and red wildflowers still cling to the slopes here, taking advantage of the shelter and water offered by the canyon.

With full stomachs and the pre-run complete we headed south towards camp, opting to take the scenic route up to an unnamed peak above Wildhorse Meadows. This is the highest point in the San Bernardinos that can be reached by vehicle, and offers panoramic views of the mountains and valleys in every direction. I really want to make a trip up here for sunrise or sunset. The trail heading up to the summit is even narrower now, it almost seems like no one has driven it since I was last here (not surprising, as it is not on the map anymore). After running these 3 trails today I think we’re going to combine them into an all-day “Peaks Tour” for SummerFest.

We camped at Coon Creek Cabin on Saturday night so we could get a first-hand look at the place before SummerFest. The “cabin” is HUGE, and the campsite is right next to a high drop-off (known as Coon Creek Jumpoff) overlooking Palm Springs and, on a clear day, the Salton Sea. Highway 38 is far away on the other side of a ridge, so the only sounds here are nature and yourself. Reservations are required for this group campsite, but if you get them through the Recreation.gov site make sure you also call the ranger station at San Bernardino NF and let them know you’re coming (you’ll want to call them anyhow to see if campfires are really permitted). It seems Big Brother is not in the habit of notifying their men in the field, and as a result both the trash and the toilet were practically overflowing. The poor guy they sent up to check on the “possible trespassers” had only been on the job for a week.

Sunday morning we took a narrow, long-forgotten road (1N30) behind the cabin that leads directly over the ridge to Highway 38. The route is a narrow, twisting maze likely better suited to ATV/bike travel, but it offers some spectacular views of San Gorgonio, the Santa Ana River Valley, and even Mount Baldy. The last part of the track takes you through what appears to be an abandoned trailer park.

Next we headed out to Heartbreak Ridge via 2N01 for a little fun on the rocks before taking Burns Canyon home. I’d forgotten how much fun this kind of trail can be…

Up at the top it actually snowed a little, but it melted the instant it touched anything. The rest of the pics are in the Flickr set.

The opportunities for wildlife, and particularly reptile viewing were excellent. Lizards and snakes were in a lazy mood this weekend and stuck around long enough for us to get close-up pictures of several different species. We were also able to explore a new (to us) mine area in Carbonate Gulch – a canyon I’ve driven partially in the past, but never quite went far enough to discover the mine before. Old engines, massive pulleys, cables, crumbling foundations, scattered debris and a dripping spring all bake in the sun a the top of this hidden canyon. We’re planning to head back when it gets cooler for the hike up to the main shaft.

All of our pictures from this trip can be found in the Flickr set. Many thanks to everyone that made the long trek out to the desert and made this a wonderful weekend.

Many thanks to Dave of OAUSA for setting this up, the Navajo and our guides for their hospitality, and everyone else who participated in making this a wonderful trip. I would have to say the highlights for me were a 3-way tie between the Poncho House ruins on day 6, the snow/rain in Monument Valley on day 8, and Tom’s peach cobbler… all of these would be hard to beat.

All of the pictures from this trip can be found in the Flickr set.

Note: the geo-locations for many of the pictured sites have been changed to the local jail, since that is where you will be staying if you try to go out on your own and find these places without a local guide and permission from the Navajo Nation. If you would like to visit some of these places for yourself I suggest heading over to OAUSA to find out when the next trip will be.

Pictures of this trip can be found in the Flickr set.