Took Thursday and Friday off, piled up the camping gear and headed off again ...

The weather is just about perfect this time of year out in the Mojave Desert ... so I had to make the Mojave Trail run solo. Day time highs were in the upper 70's and the lows hit the lower 40's on night one and 50's on night two. I've run this trail three times prior but this time we started on the east side in Nevada and worked our way back.

The Nevada - California border was well marked, very fancy.



The first stop was Fort Piute. Built in 1867 it was the second stop from the Colorado River. Mail and supplies were brought up to Fort Mojave and then overland to Piute. Military escorts were established to protect the mail riders and the settlers traveling to California following a native Indian attack that killed two settlers. Fort Piute was the first of several outposts built by the US Army. Their thought was hold the water and you'd hold the desert. The mail route was eventually routed further south and the fort was abandoned. The fort remained nearly intact into the 1930s.



The fort was built with a bake house and kitchen on one end, a coral in the middle, and a bunk house with fireplace on the other. The tops of the walls were made of wood.



We saw lots of wildlife: chipmunks, red tail hawks, quail (LOTS!), rabbits, and heard coyotes both nights.



We came upon the scene of a tragic auto accident which apparently happened only moments before we arrived ... looks like the two vehicles have been long ago abandoned. Parts of the preserve are still private property dating back to the BLM days.



Not much blooming going on, darn little in fact! The desert was pretty green and there was lots of new growth, just a bit early for the blooms. This yucca was just in beautiful color.



The wheeling was pretty easy, I was in 2WD except for two or three spots where I went to 4WD for the "just in case" factor of being out in the middle of no where alone. A couple of steep hills and lots and lots of whoop-te-doos.



We didn't hit the Nevada end of the trail until 1:00 PM so by the time I was looking for the Mid-Hills campground the sun was 30 minutes off the horizon and right in my eyes. We had to run by a nearly empty Running Springs and darken Government Holes as it was getting late. Running Springs is infamous for the large number of US Army soldiers that deserted there posts there.



The still function windmill pulls water to the surface for the wild animals to enjoy.



Nine hours of driving with 60 miles off road I was tired and hungry and my darn GPS let me down - the "road" that was clearly marked on the map was a wash. We went back and forth looking for the "road" but it simply wasn't there or had been closed off by the park service. We ended up camping in an old camp site above Cedar Canyon worried that the winds would nail us all night long. About ten minutes after parking the wind stopped completely and never returned (good karma!).

That night the coyotes were howling up a storm, our camp site was about 100 feet above the canyon and come morning we had a million dollar view 270 degrees around us. All night we had thought there were other campers within a couple hundred yards of us as we saw their lights moving around in their camp site ... no, those were two different roads about 20 miles away! Come morning the quail were in good voice.



The next morning was the whoop-te-dos and some really deserted desert so I let my un-licensed wife behind the wheel. Within in a mile she had hit two trees, one on each side of the truck ... she needs more practice.



The Camp Marl spring was very full and the water was plentiful. The ruins haven't changed much. Camp Marl Springs was occupied from 1867 to 1868 to guard the spring there.



Next stop was the Mail Box, someone had left the book outside so it was a bit wet. We signed in and left a note about my dog Trixie's passing one month ago to the day. So often while reading through these books we have seen tributes to someone's pet. Trixie made the trip three times with us and it was hard with out her this time.



We visited the frog garden and found that our three turtles were missing from the year before ... so we added three new ones back!



The lava tubes were next. The park service has put in a nice new ladder but blocked off the parking right near the top where you use to be able to get in four or five trucks.



Inside the tube the third sky light has caved in so there's just the big one and the second one. The cave floor was rather damp so the dust didn't fly. It was hot enough outside to run the AC but very cool in the tube.  



The road ended for us at the eastern edge of Soda Lake. The road further on was closed as the lake has lots of standing water. We managed another 50 miles on day two and quickly set up camp.



The campground was nearly full but we found an empty spot. There wasn't another soul on that side of the lake. Hundreds of miles of trail and we managed to meet seven other people in the three days - one tourist from Norway was running the trail solo and two groups of two trucks.



I found a nice place to pose the truck with Soda Lake behind. Truck of the month photo worthy?



We watched the sunset and enjoyed some adult beverages and chatted late into the night.



That second night was as nice as the first with no wind and at this lower elevation it was a bunch warmer.



About 8:00 we saw a pair of UFO's - that is to say they were flying and they were unidentified. On the far side of the lake we saw two very bright yellow-orange lights about 300 feet above the ridge line some 15 to 20 miles away. The could have been helos with very VERY bright flood lights but the color was wrong and they didn't flicker like a spot light would have. I broke out my video camera and by the time I figured out the manual focus they had just disappeared.

The clouds rolled in and gave us just about ten rain drops.



Day three was short as we just skirted the eastern edge of Soda Lake and hit Baker. The Mojave River crossing at Afton must be really deep with all the water about. All told about 114 miles off road.

As long as you're 4WD about the only thing you really need for "most" places is a good set of tires with 8/10 ply sidewalls. I was in 2WD for about 113 miles of my 114 mile trip. Even in the loose sand I staid in 2WD just to check it out. I stayed on the trail and didn't have a problem. I did pop into 4WD and did venture of the trail into the deep sand just for fun.

We didn't make the detour to finish that last ten miles or so of the trail down Afton Canyon to the crossing. Normally there's 18" worth ... now there's got to be a bunch more. There's not much room in that spot for the water to go wider so it's got to be deeper. We'd try it but not solo.

I've crossed it a dozen times ... but every time I'm waiting to high center on some rouge 18" high rock.

I'll be running it again with my 4WD club in April.

There's ton's of BLM property out there outside the National Perserves - which just opened to firearm possession on the 22nd of Feburary. I always open carry (loaded) while camping and have never had a ranger say boo. I am also not doing drugs, drinking, smashing bottles, or otherwise molesting the enviornment. I did make sure that I camp outside a park's boundaries during the banning of the Second Amendement right.