Attendee |
Vehicle |
| Chris Dow + Some Dow Fry | '93 Defender 110 |
| Leslie Dow (a.k.a. The Mad Scientist) + Some Dow Fry + Dart & Keneda the Dogs | '97 Defender 90 |
| Mark & KC Marcinik + Marcinik Fry | '97 Jeep Cherokee Sport |
| TeriAnn Wakeman & Lacey the Dog | The Green Rover ('60 IIA 109" pickup converted to a Dormobile Expedition Machine) |
| Gerry Elam | '73 SIII 88" Basil |
| Cameo Appearance by Nick Baggarly, Chanda, Chris, Chris's Sister, and her Husband | '6? Dormobile |
The Dow Fry were Thelen and Walker, and the Marcinik Fry are Rigel and
Angela.
We were up early, met Gerry and ate breakfast at the same diner. When we came out, KC and Mark were in the parking lot waiting for us. They left the previous evening and drove through the night to get there. After introductions, we packed up and headed out to the meeting place, which was supposed to be about a mile from the Needles Highway on the Mojave Road. Once we got to the point where the Mojave Road crosses the highway, we saw the Green Rover, TeriAnn, and Lacey. After a bit of time spent milling about this place, we headed out on the trail. I was in front for most of the trip, with KC and Mark behind me, TeriAnn behind them, with TMS, then Gerry bringing up the rear. We decided that since KC was the only adult not driving, she was the navigator, and she did a fabulous job the whole time. There was one hitch: the Marciniks have FRS and the Lazy-Buggers have CBs. So, I borrowed an FRS unit from them and spent the trip messing up which radio I used to respond to people! Please see the note on FRS at the end of this page.
We set out on the trail and it took us a few tries to get down the system for finding the road when in doubt, but it wasn't really much of a problem. The first bit of the trail is just nice desert scenery until you cross US 95. At that point KC told me we were in an area used by General Patton to train for Northern Africa before we entered that part of W.W.II. I related to all that this must have been the area in a story told to me by my grandfather. It seems that he was training with his 'tank' (they call what he drove a self-propelled howitzer now) in this area of the desert when he saw the jeeps that tell you you're dead heading his way. Being an ornery SOB (something I inherited!), he ordered his group to take off and run away before they were officially 'killed'. Patton found out that this happened, and evidently expressed his displeasure to my grandfather with some rather colorful language (as Patton was want to do). My grandfather said that he was very short and had a high, squeaky voice, and he had to try very hard not to laugh as he was being cussed out by him!
Our first stop was at what we thought was Fort Piute, but was really a corral. We found some very interesting petroglyphs there.
We finally did end up at the fort, and had lunch there. 
Afterwards, we retraced our steps a bit, then continued on the trail.
After about 30 minutes, TMS asked if I had Walker's back pack. I
responded that I did not. TMS then notified me that it contained
Pink Baby. Now, Pink Baby is a Rabbit that Leslie got for Walker
at Harod's. He had dragged it through the dirt on so many camping
trips that it's pretty ragged now, but non the less, it's Walker's Luvvy.
This means that without it he can't sleep. So, after determining
that nobody had the backpack, TMS turned around and we waited for her to
go back and get the backpack and return to us. After we got back
together, we headed off again. This time we did manage to take our
one long wrong turn. We ended up at a mine shaft and then backtracked
to the trail. As the sun was getting low in the sky, Gerry got cross-axled
going too slow across some 'moguls' in the road, and TMS & TeriAnn
got him out. We camped at about 1/3 of the way to the end of the trail
at the Guirado Hills Campsite and settled in. It didn't take long
for us to realize we were tired and the last ones up went to bed before
the New Year even hit New York!
Marl
Springs. Between Marl Springs and the Mail Box, there is a hill over
which nothing can be seen as it is approached. Upon cresting it,
however, a most breathtaking panorama is revealed. TeriAnn bemoaned
the power lines that prevented her from wanting to take a picture, though.
We signed the book in the mail box, which later helped Nick & Co.
know they were behind us on the trail. We then proceeded to the cinder
cones and messed around there for a while. After that, we traveled
to a nice camp site on the western side of the cinder cones. 
As we finished packing, a group of white Toyotas (pickups and 4 Runners)
pulled into our fairly out-of-the-way campsite. They were friendly
folks and it turns out one of them was Bill Mann, author of Bill Mann's
Guide to 50 Interesting and Mysterious Sites in the Mojave. It
turned out that Bill had a couple of copies of his book and we bought three
from him. He signed them for us, and we went on our way. As
we rounded 17 Mile Point, we saw huge sand dunes to the southwest and a
not-so-huge in the west. 
The
trail took us past the latter, so off we went. We detoured to go
to the sand dune at Little Cowhole Mountain.
After Little Cowhole Mountain, we set off across Soda Lake, stopping
at Traveler's Monument. The words on the plaque there are secret,
so if you want to know what they say, go there yourself. While
we sat at the Traveler's Monument, Mark read about the ill-fated Zzyzx
resort. After reading what happened there, Mark suggested we photocopy
that part of the guide book and send it to Chris Carter as the material
for an X-Files episode.
From Travelers Monument, we went to the Granites for lunch, then proceeded
west on the last leg of the last leg of the journey. During this
time we traveled through what was probably the sixth different ecosystem
on the trip. We got moving a bit fast on this leg and got a little
sloppy about waiting for the ones behind, but everyone made it. This
was one of the more fun parts of the trip, as it involved splashing about
in the Mojave river (this area is and OHV park!). It was in
this section that I made my worst navigational error--putting us on a hillside
overlooking where we should have gone. Some had to back down out of this--for
which I apologized! When we got to the Afton Canyon camp site, we
called it a day. KC & Mark headed home to Palo Alto, and
Gerry headed home to Phoenix. That left us Dows and TeriAnn to share
a camp site for the evening. After a dinner of Pasta, we called it
quits and went off to bed.
I
went down the trail a bit to look for Nick but didn't know exactly where
he'd camped, so I turned around. Once we were packed, TeriAnn suggested
we go find him, so this time we kept going until we found him.
When we found Nick, he mentioned that Chris's sister knew a 'cave' we could
explore, so we decided to go there. It turns out it was a channel
canyon that got so narrow and vertically twisty that it seemed like a cave.
Eventually, we timed out on the cave and headed out. When we got
to I-15, we saw how congested it was, so I whipped out the DeLorme atlas
and we plotted another course through the desert. I love having that
DeLorme Atlas and a GPS. TeriAnn stayed with us up to the intersection
of CA 58 and US 395, where we parted ways. The trip back was fraught
with fog, but that's another story.