The trip was fine, actually.....epic!! As normal, got about an hour late start, but it was fine with only three (3) trucks instead of 6 (six).....so we made up some time. But because of the 100000 acre fire last year, camp spots have changed, so we travel a little extra and go down Watson's Wash into Camp Rock Springs......and then up to the site of the old school house over by the old Rock house and Governments Holes. During the day, weather was Great!!! 80*, not a cloud in the sky....but later the wind kicked up.....not too bad, just annoying enough to make cooking on the grill take a bit longer. Anyway, Ryan's passenger buddy was funny, as I was unaware that he had been getting pounded all day long and was flat out wasted by the time we got set up!! He brought along a small fold up shovel for some reason, and proceeded to start digging holes for no ap[parent reason!! LOL!! Then started digging up the fire pit, which I told him we were Not using, as we no longer bring fire wood on my trips, as we were going to break in my new Lava Box propane fire pit (replacing my other much bigger one)...... Then, after I get my big ass 6 person tent set up by myself (instant tent) I watched as Ryan, Matt (fu(ked up!) and Cody (by this time, also Fu(ked up) attempter to put up Ryans tent! So, two guys wasted out of their minds, and Ryan stone sober (3 guys) trying to set up a small like 3 person tent.....I watched for an hour to 1.5 hours just laughing my ass off.......as it was extremely comical.......not only could three guys Not set up a simple tent, they broke the shlt out of it!!! LOL!!!
It took them another hour to get a tarp tied off covering the bed of Ryan's Tacoma so they had at least a little shelter from the wind. Anyway, you should have been there, as it was funny as hell!! Anyway, my buddy NPS Ranger Dave Nichols finally made it over (his ranch is right across Cedar Canyon Road from our campsite.....and Then the party started!!!! So, as promised, I brought a Big ass bottle of Bourbon, and proceeded to get Ranger Dave pretty drunk(he was off duty and off for the weekend and lives across the street!!) and ate obviously, great food that I cooked!!!
Good, pretty fun night overall. Saturday morning, had breakfast and packed up, watching the storm coming in......we got moving, went to Government Holes, then up to Mid Hills campground for a few...then up Wildhorse Canyon and showed them some other views......and now it's raining.
Went over to Macedonia Canyon Road and now it's starting to get into a torrential storm........had a blast hauling ass down that road, once down......took the bypass road (too much stuff on my roof rack to fit under the railroad bridge)......a few minutes later, we had to get out and change my right rear tire as I either hiti a rock and blew the tire or hit a rock and bent the inside of my rim and blew the tire off the wheel! Anyway, it took three of us to change it in what could have been hurricane rain!!! I worked the Highlift, Ryan worked the lug nuts and the tire and Cody worked the spare and putting the flat back up. All in all, not bad time, but Soaked to the bone!!!!
Depending on what the weather was going to be like, our original plan was going to be to camp at Beale mountain.
I changed my plans when it was obvious that there would be no break in the weather, and I didn't feel like setting up a camp in that shlt! So, my plan was now to get us to shelter, so my new destination was to get us all across the Mojave Road to the Brannigan Mine cabins. Then, a real treat.....that rained turned into Snow!!! It so awesome and beautiful traveling in the Snowstorm!!! Just awesome!!!! Like I said, this trip was EPIC!!! It snowed and snowed and snowed!!! The trip was beautiful!!! Decided there was no point going to Aikens Mine or the Lava Tube, so hit up the Mojave Mail box, and Frog shrine.........and kept driving through the snow!! Eventually, the snow stopped and we got down across Kelbaker Road and over to the Branigan Mine Road and up to the cabins and both cabins were available!!! So, I got us out of the weather, had an incredible drive through snow.......and got us two houses to sleep in for the night!!!!!
So, weather......was really Not a problem, as our tour guide (ME) had an alternate plan that just worked out!! So see, those who bailed because of the rain should have trusted their tour guide!!!! We had not one, but two super clean habitable and heated cabins for the night!!!
I stayed in the bigger one, but if y'all had made it out, we could have but you guys in the small cabin and the rest of us could easily have fit into the bigger one!!
Easter Sunday, after breakfast and getting packed back up, we locked up the cabins (made sure they were left better than we found them) and headed back down to the Mojave Road. But, because of all of the rain Commiefornia has had......and the storm that we Just had.........Soda Lake remains closed, so we aired back up and headed to Baker. Got a little bit of $6.00 gas, $20 in lotto tickets and hit I 15 to Razor Road for the Soda Lake Bypass!!!
After a couple of miles of getting the crap beat out of us on that road, we aired back down again! Had some fun in the sand dunes for a little bit, then across the Mojave Flood plains to the Borax mines and climbed some hills and explored a bit, then over to the Afton Canyon bridge.......took pictures......then played in the streams of water all the way through the canyon!! It was literally the Most fun I've had driving through there in years!!!! What a blast!!!
The Water crossing going to the campground was a bit disappointment, as I'm not sure where all of the water went, especially when we were able to play in the water all the way through the canyon!!! Got to the campground, aired back up, changed air filter in my truck and hit the road!!!! We encountered another Huge storm on I 15, but I got off on Cima Road and headed up to Rileys Camp and to Geer Cabin (my favorite cabin out there) and of course.....more rain and snow for a couple more hours, but who cared........as I was at my home for the next four (4) days!!!! I got my flood lights out, one of my four EcoFlow Solar generators out and lit up the cabin, got heater running and we (me and the dog) were good to go!!!!
I stayed until Thursday and came home.....just in time to miss the 22* nights that would have been in store for us had we stayed!!!
THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
