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Those sliders look beefy! Nice hidden winch setup! Cool hanger workshop!
March Club Run - March14-15, Anza Borrego, day trip with optional overnight. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter DirtyRice Joe
- Start date
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Those sliders look beefy! Nice hidden winch setup! Cool hanger workshop!
- Thread starter
- #22
Wow! Looks great, Achilles!
We had a great March club run at Anza Borrego! We met at the Arco Travel Plaza in Salton City, where Marc Mason showed up with his friend and neighbor Kevin, in Marc's 80 series; Chris Vermeulen joined us in his FJ40; Nathan Mills brought his family in their 80 Series diesel conversion; and Danny & I were in my 80 Series.
Our first stop was the Calcite Mine trail. Unfortunately, it was a very short stop! The significant rains that we've had recently washed out the trailhead. Since everyone in the group decided they'd prefer to stay shiny-side-up, we decided to pass on Calcite Mine and head to our next trail.
The Cross-Over Trail does just that, as it crosses over south through Ocotillo Wells SVRA. The trail was in good enough shape to go through, and bad enough shape to make it fun for a group of Land Cruisers! We hit a few minor washouts, and a lot of muddy ruts and bogs that caused a bit of slipping & sliding. Fortunately, no one had to get muddy boots as we worked our way through, choosing the best lines we could find. This trail is not just a single trail, but almost a network with lots of offshoots - some of which lead back to the main trail, some of which were washed out, and some of which were dead-ends. Although I will admit I earned the moniker "Wrong Way Roy", we did all end up just where we wanted to be! Kudos to GAIA GPS!
Just a couple of miles west of the end of Cross-Over, we hit the Pumpkin Patch Trail. Again, this normally mild trail offered just enough mud challenge to make it fun. Mud was to be the theme of this trip, as over the day I think each truck picked up at least a hundred pounds of the sticky stuff. If you've ever wondered about adobe & it's structural integrity, I can tell you this mud was super sticky! I'll bet it would make some amazing bricks. Now I understand how some old adobe buildings are still standing! At the end of the Pumpkin Patch trail is it's namesake garden, along with toilets, and enough shade covered picnic tables to allow us to have a nice lunch, while still maintaining our "social distance".
After lunch, we headed into Anza Borrego State Park and over to The Slot, where Chris left us for the day, as he needed to head back home. The rest of us ran The Slot from north & east, until it connected with Buttes Canyon Trail & brought us back south to our starting point. At that point we lost the Mills family, as Nathan needed to be back for work early the next morning.
That left Marc & me to head over to our chosen area to camp, Blair Valley. On our way, it started raining, but luckily only while we were driving. Once we got to Blair Valley the rain stopped. We drove through a beautiful desert valley and found a nice spot to dry camp a short distance off the trail. After setting up camp & cooking dinner, we sat around (6 feet apart, of course!) what we wished was a campfire (no ground fires permitted in the park) to enjoy the peace & quiet, stars coming out and eventually blanketing the sky, adult libations (Danny makes a great Kentucky Mule!), and ever lowering temperatures. The cold eventually forced us to say, "Goodnight", and into our tents for a little warmth.
The next morning, after hearty breakfasts, we drove the rest of Blair Valley Trail to the Pictograph trailhead, and then back-tracked to the Little Blair Valley Trail, which returned us to the highway. These were very mild trails, suitable for any stock mid to high clearance vehicle, but the scenery was beautiful! From there we headed to Oriflamme Canyon.
I have to say, Oriflamme Canyon is one of my favorite trails in Anza Borrego State Park! It's a through trail so you can run it from either direction. We started at the Box Canyon/Vallecito Wash area off Hwy S-2, and then took the trail west and north to the little town of Banner. The trail climbs from about 2,500 ft. elevation up to about 4,000 ft. elevation, so you start off in high desert and end up in forest. The views across the canyons and valleys were spectacular. If you haven't yet done this trail, it's a must-do, in my opinion! There was no snow at the top of the trail this time, but when I ran it last year solo, we went from desert to snow covered forest. This trail crosses the Pacific Crest Trail, so we ran into a jogger, a couple of hikers, and a few other rigs heading in from the Banner end of the trail. Call me lazy, but I was glad to let my Land Cruiser do the work! This moderate trail had, again, just enough challenge to be fun! After a few miles of trail, and a few obstacles, we popped out in Banner and headed to Julian for a piece of apple pie and the trip home. As they say, "A fun time was had by all"!
link to photos -
Looks like you had a blast, would love to join you for future overnighters.
- Thread starter
- #24
Well, hopefully we’ll be planning some more club runs soon!
I think that is a great idea, it's time to get out and live your life again.
This is an open invitation to anybody in the club who would like to go out for just a simple day trip up to the mountains or out to the desert something easy?
