November 20-29, 2009: Mojave Camping Trip

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday, Sunday Saturday My battery had broken loose the day before, which landed on an A/C tube, which rubbed against a pully, which cut through the tube... So I rode with Tacitus. We headed down to Mitchell Caverns, the day started out nice so flea had his top and doors off on the Jeep. We had to buy tickets at about 11am for the 3:00 tour! Since we had a few hours to kill, we went up Crystal Springs Trail for a ways. Some great views, but we didn't make it all the way to the spring. We headed to Fenner for lunch and fuel. Then on the way back, realized that a rain storm was directly over our destination. We took the tour. It's a small cave system run by the State of California. After we came out it was cold and windy, and we were surrounded by snow and rain. The heaviest clouds were to the north where our camp was, and it was going to be dark in about 30 minutes. We rigged up an impromptu roof for the jeep using a tarp and some tie downs. At camp we found all of our chairs iced over. We got a fire going and everyone warmed up after that drive. The deepest snow was about 3" on top of mud. There hadn't been any snow at camp yet when we got back, but a few hours later it really started to come down. Probably about 3" per hour. Then the wind picked up, and the lighting started! Sunday The next morning we only woke up to a dusting of snow. The high winds had blown most of it out. We woke up with the sun and got going pretty early. We went to GolDome, a big abandoned mining complex nearby. We had visited in 2007 and this room was FULL of nasty chemicals. Like a 55 gallon drum full of sodium cyanide with dixie cups in it (the amount under a fingernail can kill you). We later found that the EPA had cleaned it up in 2008! These two are from 2007 when it was full of deadly chemicals: th_2007_img_8293.jpg Kelso Depot. This cage was the actual jail used in Hart in 1909. We're the scruffy looking group that everyone avoided. Kelso Dunes. Turns out it's a strenuous 2 hour walk through loose sand to get to the top. We didn't go up. The strip of tire we put into the salt 9 days earlier, about 1/4" of salt had built up. We tried to grab the tire, but it was firmly attached to the rest of the salt.

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