Goffs and the desert trip

craig333

Riley's Human
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Posts
8,295
Location
Sacramento
I went down to the second annual East Mojave Heritage Trail trip. Spent the night at the Alabama Hills before continuing on. Back and hips really didn't like the long drive. I was happy to get there. I had pleasant surprise on the Friday run. Our group was led by the local NPS arky.

I even got see my first Desert Tortoise.

Found my new home away from home.

Completely furnished.

We found some pictographs severely faded. I mentioned a program and the archeologist brought up Dstretch. He'd even met the guy who wrote and said he'd spent a lot of time in the area fine tuning it.

He even had a twenty five page booklet for us all about the California mine.

Saturdays trip was scenic but no tortoises, mines or horses. Unfortunately I somehow activated selfie mode and lost a bunch of pics :( After the run we got a demonstration of some of the mining equipement.

The gyratory crusher was fascinating to watch. Its considered a portable crusher. Only miners would consider something like that portable :)


Unfortunately during the Stotts demonstration I took more pics of myself :(
Other than the cold tri tip the food was very good. Best mcmuffin I've had. The mac and cheese was to die for.

We also got a presentation on Olive Oatman. Complete with full period costume. I am assuming the chin tattoos aren't real!

Afterward she mentioned choosing Olive Oatman because the stories from those days are almost all about men, if women are mentioned its about cooking and cleaning. I think she has a point.
The weather went from hot to cold and windy and back again. Had to take down the awning it was so windy. Yet I still managed to sunburn my ears and nose. Cold enough at night I fired up the heater. Really hating I40 I decided to come back on 95. Even got a few snowflakes at pass level. I finally stopped at the Fireworks place. I really went all out. Spent a whole eight dollars there :) One advantage of having Monitor Pass closed was fueling up at the Indian station in Nevada. Saved a few bucks there.
 
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I forgot the BLM guys. One guy handed out pamphlets and answered questions. The other put on a presentation. He was a Realty specialist. Not often you get to hear from those guys.
 
Another thing that kind of frightened me a bit. While we were looking at the petroglyphs there were bees flying around. I was a bit unnerved to find out they have killer bees in the area. Do not disturb the bees!
 
Another thing that kind of frightened me a bit. While we were looking at the petroglyphs there were bees flying around. I was a bit unnerved to find out they have killer bees in the area. Do not disturb the bees!
And here I've either read or heard recently that they've been declared irradicated in this country! And I thought that they were found only in Washington state. Maybe they decided to make a run through the southern border ... :oops:

EDIT: I had it mixed up with the "murder hornet." Asian giant hornet - Wikipedia

Then I remembered the "murder bee" scare from the 1980s and 1990s. Africanized bee - Wikipedia

Nice trip and report, by the way. (y)
 
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Hunkered down in a thunderstorm I read Julie your trip story. Sounds like it was a nice event for you. Julie is extremely jealous about the tortoise. We've only found an empty shell. Julie also occasionally takes photos of herself but never tells anyone. We agree completely about I40. Anything but I40......I15 too. Second thought, no interstates. Thanks for the report, Craig! How's Riley?
 
Riley is doing well. I was very worried about him getting into the cacti but he seemed to know better. Not that 95 is a great route but its a lot better than I40 or I15.
 
Riley is doing well. I was very worried about him getting into the cacti but he seemed to know better. Not that 95 is a great route but its a lot better than I40 or I15.
Craig, even though I’m quite bald, I carry a comb (and a Leatherman) in the desert. Makes it much easier to remove Cholla and other cacti from the dogs and me,
 
I can name two reasons for avoiding I15. One is Las Vegas, the other is Salt Lake City.
And the Inland Empire, Lake Elsinore and San Diego ...

Makes me nostalgic of the days growing up in the Mojave Desert, when Cajon Pass was 4-lane divided, as well as most of US395 until one got south of Temecula, when it was two lane. My grandmother lived north of Escondido until the mid 1960s, when she moved to the high desert near us.

I-15 follows the general route of what we called the Devore Cut-Off, where it veers off in a southwest tangent at the mouth of the canyon below Cajon Pass and where it crosses old US66 in the Ontario/Fontana area. The Devore was all 2-lane road. We had relatives in the Covina area we'd visit and we generally took US66 there instead of what was called the San Bernardino Freeway, now I-10. I remember vividly when crossing the Pomona Hills on a clear day, such as when the Santa Ana's blow, one could see the LA city hall and occasionally Catalina Island.
 
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Should you wind up in the area, the museum and grounds is worth a stop.

I'm keeping my insect overlords happy. I just put up some hotels for them :)
 

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