NextStepDesigns

On a beautiful weekend in mid-March 2009, my 7 year old daughter Megan and I (along with a small group from MJR) took our Land Rover LR3 on the famous Old Mojave Road. Using Dennis Casebier’s wonderful and educational trail guide, we set out on our grand adventure. Unlike most modern trail books, this one purposefully does not use GPS coordinates. Instead, this book navigates you through history, referencing key landmarks and a system of rock cairns along the trail to lead the way. I love it!

We started on Friday morning at the bank of the Colorado River, where we grabbed a souvenir rock from the waterline that will be used later in the trip. From there, we headed west towards Picture Canyon. In modern times, the trail goes around Picture Canyon, but we had a chance to walk down it from the top, and it looks like it would be a lot of fun in the right rock buggy. BLM has closed it however, for reasons unknown…probably to preserve the petroglyphs found there (thus the “pictures” in Picture Canyon), but who really knows? From there, we made our way to the Nevada/California state line, in a lush green desert and granite boulder environment. We crossed US Highway 95, and continued west to Fort Piute, where we found quite a few well preserved ancient Indian petroglyphs just a short walking distance from the ruins of the old Army fort. From there, we went westward through ever changing desert environments, with clear distinctions between one zone and the next. Along the way, we stopped at the Old Bus, the Railroad monument, the Penny Can, Camp Rock Springs, and Government Hole(s), which is a still-functioning well. Nearby, is an excellent campsite called Mid Hills. A fire went through this area in 2000, and 9 years later things haven’t improved much, though you can no longer smell the burn. The front part of Mid Hills campsite is rather stark and burnt out, but the back end is fantastic, with green Juniper Pines all around, and clean vault restrooms and potable water.

The next day we made our way down to Hole-In-The-Rock, and enjoyed the unique rock formations and of course, climbing the rings! From there, we continued west towards Marl Springs and enjoyed the view of Kelso Dunes in the distance. We paid our visit at the mailbox (and frog garden?), then explored the fascinating Lava Tubes near the “recently” volcanically active area of cinder cones and lava flows. The Lava Tubes were a highlight of the trip. The short crawl on your hands and knees through the pitch black cavern is well worth it. I recommend getting there in mid-afternoon for the best sunbeam action. After the Lava Tubes, we enjoyed a fun trek through the soft sands of Willow Wash, and made our camp at the base of Little Cow Hole Mtn, forever known now as Raspberry Flats (you had to be there!).

Sunday we immediately headed out across Soda Lake to Traveler’s Monument, where we contributed our rock from the Colorado River. After crossing Soda Lake without incident, we entered the dry and wonderfully sandy wash of the Mojave River. As we neared Afton Canyon, we encountered a small rivelet of water that was fun to play in, and then made it through the deeper river crossing and stopped for lunch at the nearby campsite. At this point, most people rejoin the 15 highway, but we opted to continue west between the banks of the Mojave River, following the old route of the Mojave Road. This was miles and miles of flat, wide, sand dunes, and excellent fun! The trail ended a few miles east of Yermo, where we aired up and parted ways, with a few of us stopping at Peggy Sue’s for milkshakes before driving back to Los Angeles. A total of 170 miles of off pavement driving, following a 150 year old wagon trail. I love California!

Photos: 96 images on SmugMug

The first weekend of February 2009, six hardy adventurers and their friends and family set out on the historic Bradshaw Trail.  The trail was created in 1862 by William Bradshaw following an old Chumash Indian route through the southern desertland of the Chuckwalla Mountains.  The Bradshaw Trail was established as a “shortcut” for miners and prospectors from Los Angles who were racing to La Paz, Arizona upon the discovery of gold.  Around 1877, the gold in La Paz panned out, and the trail fell into disuse, but for reasons unknown, the BLM maintains it to this day and it is in excellent shape.

The members of Expedition Portal came from far and wide, braving the local rains and threatening forecast, and met at the truck stop in Mecca, CA along the northern shoreline of the Salton Sea.  The trail started out a bit damp and under heavy clouds as we followed along Coachella Canal, but we enjoyed the unique vistas and experience of driving along the aquaduct.  We all felt a bit like Hugh Hauser.  We soon reached the actual trailhead, and started heading east.  A few miles into the trail, we came across a few motorcyclists standing a short distance off the trail.  As I rolled up, I asked my typical, “Everything okay?” and got a very non-typical, “No.  A rider took a bad fall.  We think he’s hurt pretty bad.”

We jumped out and I went through my memory trying hard to recall all that I learned in my recent Wilderness First Aid class.  Two the riders in particular, Jake and Henry, were really on top of things and in control. Henry appeared to have had the same training and was able to answer knowledgeably and clearly to my questions and quickly satisfied me that he knew what he was doing.  We contributed ice and stabilizing collars from our kits, and after a short conference, we all agreed that the fallen rider was going to need to ride a backboard out.  Fortunately, the fallen rider was equipped with his own SPOT tracker, which was called into action.  About 90 minutes later, a Sheriff’s plane started circling the area, acting as a radio relay to an incoming helicopter, two fire trucks, a 4wd police truck and an ambulance, which all arrived about the same time (under 2 hours).  Jake was able to get cell connection and was in contact with the fallen rider’s wife, and was doing an awesome job relaying critical info to the rescue team and to the wife.  Henry maintained involvement with the patient until he was secured onboard the helio and flown out.  I was really impressed with their actions.  I didn’t find out until a little later that weren’t even with the group of riders that had the injured rider.  Way cool. And everyone involved was convinced that they needed a SPOT tracker for their own kit.

After the helio left, we resumed our eastward trek and quickly reached the iconic Trestle bridge, where we stopped for photos and lunch.  Then we made our way towards Red Canyon.  There are two canyons labeled as Red Canyon.  The westernmost canyon is incredibly beautiful, but does not go through.  It is only a few miles long before the canyon closes up and becomes intraversable.  We then moved east and found the proper Red Canyon rim route,  and drove northward 4 or 5 miles of breathtaking scenery.  It looked like nothing else I could have expected in the desert.  It was red and green with rolling hills and powerfully reminded me of Utah.  Simply stunning area.

We returned to the Bradshaw Trail, and continued east, following the border of a military Bomb Testing range.  After a miles and miles of caution signs, we found a lone bomb laying on the side of the trail.  Shortly thereafter, we found a pile of them.  Apparently dummy test rounds filled with concrete, air dropped a bit shy of the target is our guess.  The kids thought that was super cool.  “Dad, I can’t wait to tell the kids at school that I jumped up and down on a bunch of bombs!”

We then came across a side trail named Dupont Road, that looked like it headed into the nearby Chuckwalla Moutains and might offer shelter from any wind or storms.  We found a great little camp site in a sandy wash that showed no recent evidence of flow despite the puddles of water we had been traversing all day long.  We made this our campsite, had a nice dinner and campfire, and made a manly effort to stay awake the longest.  I think by 8pm we were all in our tents!

Despite threatening clouds all around us, it rained only a little bit that night and nothing came of it.  We were greeted by a spectacular sunrise, and an amazingly vibrant desert landscape.  Though we had no decent maps of Dupont Road, we elected to adventure on and see where it led.  What a beautiful trail!  Ultimately, we determined that the trail would take us north and away from the Bradshaw trail, so we backtracked up out of the wash onto the plains of Bradshaw Trail.  We then discovered that John’s leaf spring on his trailer had broken, so we came up with an organic solution that proved to be remarkably effective, allowing him to continue on with the rest of the group.

We made great time from Dupont Road towards Wiley’s Well campground.  The scenery along the Bradshaw Trail is spectacular, and the road itself is amazing.  It was recently graded and in fantastic shape.  It was one of the more pleasurable drives I’ve ever experienced.

At Wiley’s we turned south and headed for the Hauser Geode Beds, where we met one of the desert’s colorful treasures, Mr. Kim Jensen, and explored his collection of geodes and other rare rocks and minerals while enjoying his many tales and colorful personality.

Evening was drawing near, and most of us needed to work the next day, so we said our goodbyes and headed north towards the 10 freeway, and then the long drive home.  All told, it was about 130 miles off pavement in beautiful country with great weather and wonderful companions.

Thanks ExPo!

Photos:  69 images on SmugMug

I recently led an SCLR trip up to Papoose Flats in the Inyo Mountains, just east of Big Pine, CA. We started the trip up the 395 by stopping at Fossil Falls to climb the lava flows, then we had fun driving up into the caldera of the Red Cone volcano. I love the geology of the 395 highway! We stopped in Olancha at the Roadhouse Café and had an awesome breakfast around 10am, then rolled into Big Pine right at noon and met up with the rest of the SCLR gang. We had a diverse group, from founding members, to the two newest families in the club. 10 trucks in all.

We headed up Harkness Flat, which climbs from around 6,000 feet up to 8,500 feet, and offers terrific views to the west of the Sierra Mountains. The trail is moderate, with one decently steep hill climb that posed some problems for my traction challenged friend in a 2wd Toyota Tacoma. We strapped him up and easily pulled him to the top, and the rest of the journey was uneventful. After about an hour and half of beautiful scenery on the trail, we started to drop down into Papoose Flats.

Papoose Flats is amazing. Immediately a sense of reverence is felt as you descend into the valley. It is a very special place. Everyone could feel it. Many people remarked out loud, that no matter what happened the rest of the trip, just absorbing the views and sense of the place was worth the journey.

With a large group, our camping options were limited, so after hunting around a bit, we found a good spot upslope offering dispersed camping among some trees, and a centralized fire ring. After camp was struck, and people had some food, a small group headed out to explore a trail marked on the map as “The Narrows”. We figured we’d be gone for about an hour.

We were wrong! The Narrows is a loonnngggg trail, taking use along the eastern side of the mountains, all the way back towards Death Valley Road again. It’s an interesting trail, portions of it along a sandy dry creek towards an old mining cabin and mine entrance. Here and there, trail heads were marked out as closed, due to “Cultural and Historic Significance”, assuming they led to Indian artifacts or points of interest. It annoys me to no end that this history is denied to our children now, for the sake of some future generation?

Anyway, my little group of intrepid explorers eventually found ourselves back in camp well after nightfall, with a warm campfire, clear skies, amazing stars, perfect evening temperatures and a healthy appetite!

Sunday we woke up to a significant increase of haze due to the fires to the north, and the Santa Barbara “gap” fire to the southwest. Several of our group went to explore the Narrows in the daylight, while the rest of us leisurely broke camp, cleaned up the area, and then headed down to the jumble rocks to let the kids play. The rocks were a big hit, with all the kids scrambling all over, giving the parents a proper worry for their safety.

Our group rejoined, and we headed south over Badger Flats, again pulling the Tacoma here and there, as we climbed up past ancient Bristlecones and knotty Pinyon pine trees along the rocky trail. We reached Mazourka Peak in time for a late lunch, and absorbed the views from 9,350 feet. The haze was still prevalent, but you could still see a remarkable distance. A truly beautiful spot.

We then dropped down into Mazourka Canyon, watching the temps climb from a pleasant 70 up to what felt like 100 degrees towards the bottom of the canyon. Along the way, I spotted dozens of mines dotting the canyon. This is a well worked area of the Inyos for sure. I’d like to explore the mining history in this area more thoroughly in the future.

Photos of Papoose Flats (and Fossil Falls): 44 images on SmugMug

To celebrate Land Rover’s 60th Anniversary, the local “Cars & Coffee” homegrown car show dedicated a portion of the site (located at Land Rover North America’s parking lot) for the Land Rover marque. It was a fun way to spend the morning, with LOTS of eye candy everywhere.

Photos on Smugmug (40 images)

I participated in a wonderful event this past weekend.  Once again I assisted as a trainer/photographer for the “Dipped in Green” training event hosted by OffRoving.com in Sedona and Flagstaff, Arizona.  On Day 1 we conducted a “classroom” training session at the lovely Casa Sedona bed & breakfast inn, then we ran the famous  Soldier Pass and Broken Arrow trails. Broken Arrow is the most difficult trail listed in our Arizona trail guides. It is a terrific little trail, but certainly did not exceed the capabilities of the stock Range Rover Sports.

On Day 2 we visited the very interesting Cinder Hills volcanic park that is open to ORV’s.  This park consists of 13,500 acres of unrestricted open wheeling, with some very challenging hill climbs.  The entire park is made of volcanic cinders and rock.  There is no dirt anywhere!  The cinders are very similar to sand, and provided a wonderful training ground.

I really liked the Sedona area, and it shows.  I shot over 1,700 photos!  Each Participant receives a DVD with several hundred hand selected images as mementos of this wonderful weekend. Here are a few images sampled from the main galleries that best illustrate the entire experience:

DIG-Sedona Photos (43 images on SmugMug)

Last Friday I attended the NORCEA Continental Championships – indoor men’s volleyball, where the USA won and qualified for the Olympics. It was a fun event, but extremely difficult to shoot!

I actually maxed out the limits of my trusty Canon 20D camera. I found that I could not get the shot sequences I was trying to get. I wanted a shot of a hitter making contact with the ball, and I might as well have been trying to shoot lighting bolts at a hand held 1/5000’s shutter speed. I just couldn’t get the shot. I never perceived much shutter lag in the past, but when you shoot an event like this, it’s VERY noticeable. Now I know why the 1D Mark III advertises near-instantaneous shutter release. Makes sense for sports photography.

The lighting was also a particular challenge. The event was well lit, with color neutral lights (not sure what type), but not evenly illuminated nor bright enough for stop action photos. Flash photography was not allowed, and I was sitting about 15 rows up, middle tier seating. It was REALLY challenging. I found that the camera’s auto-selected white balance was working well with the conditions, but I needed to boost the exposure compensation by 1/3rd stop. I cranked up the ISO to 1600 (I can go 3200, but it’s too grainy), and I shot with my 70-200mm F2.8 at F2.8 nearly the whole time. I manually had to set my shutter speeds because the camera wanted to use a 4” second exposure!

I also found focusing to be very hard. I took good advantage of the ability to use selective focusing. Often I would shoot vertically, with an object down low (the player) and up high (the ball at the top of it’s arc). The center point was on a spot 30 to 50 meters in the background (the stands), so I had to manually select the bottom (far left) focus point with the camera rotated left to shoot it. That worked some of the time, but it was hard, even with the focusing mode set to Predictive AI Servo AF.

So in the end, a faster shutter release, cleaner high ISO, and more focal points and a fixed 200mm F1.8 would be the ideal set up. Good thing I don’t do this for a living, that’s $10,000 in hardware!

I now have tremendous respect for those amazingly clear and crisp images in SI of basketball games, etc…

Here are the images:
Here are a few photos (51 images on SmugMug)

Q.  How do you know when you are too close to a volcano?

A.  When you can take THIS photo!

Every year all the southwest Land Rover clubs get together and host a large off road event called Rover Rendzevous.  This year, I am a trail leader and coordinator for the event, so Trevor and I and SCLR clubmember Bill Ruttan went up a few weeks early to scout out the trails.  We stayed at Panamint Springs Resort, and ran a number of trails and destinations:

• Cottonwood Canyon
• Marble Canyon
• Furnace Creek Visitors Center
• The Charcoal Kilns
• Manely Pass
• Fish Canyon (part of the Manely Pass run)
• Ballarat ghost town (part of the Manely pass run)
• Lookout City

Photos are here (114 images on SmugMug)

I was able to recover much of my old NSD blog.  It had been created using the Blogger software, which has now been taken over by Google and gone through a lot of changes.  The majority of that old blog has been recovered and restored for “historical” perspective.

The link is here: www.nextstepdesigns.com/blog/

I had an amazing trip to Moab, Utah earlier this summer, and shot thousands of photos. I posted a few hundred of the better ones on my SmugMug account, but I sorted these all down to a select few that in my opinion, tell the best story.

Best of Moab - 2006 (42 images on SmugMug)

The other Moab galleries (and write-ups), are quicklinked below:

• Day 1 - Getting There
• Day 2 - Top of the World
• Day 3 - Klondike Bluffs & Arches National Park
• Day 4 - Fins-n-Things
• Day 4 - Land Rover National Rally Activities
• Day 5 - Lions Back
• Day 5 - Fooling Around