NextStepDesigns

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 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

After Lion’s Back, we proceeded at our pace to play around in a cool Mud Puddle that we found, and then we ran through the last half of Fins N Things.  We had a relaxing day, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves .

Photos of us Fooling Around (36 images on SmugMug)

On the 5th and last day, the SCLR group and honorary member Doug Evilsizor (founder and editor of LRL Magazine) decided against doing any organized Solihul Society runs and opted to do our own thing. We started out with Adam and Joe conquering the impressive and daunting Lions Back fin. Here are the Photos:

Photos of Lions Back (42 images on SmugMug)

Day 4 was the most fun for me I think. On this day I discovered that special place on this world known as the Fins N Things trail, in Sand Flats, just above and east of Moab. This is one of the most amazing places on earth to go wheeling.

Photos of Fins N Things (60 images on SmugMug)

This weekend is the our first weekend with the new LR3, and what should we do to welcome it into the family? Why…go off roading of course! So I grabbed an Adventure Pass, loaded the kids and wife into the car, and headed for one of my favorite flying spots at Cajon Pass. Fortunately, it had recently rained…a lot! So the trails were thoroughly muddy and we had a total blast storming through the mud.

This is a link to a photo gallery of the day: Cajon Pass in the mud
This is a link to a hilarious video shot onboard during one particularly impressive mud run (28mb WAV file).

Here are a few teaser shots (click to enlarge):