Back to the desert again, with a storm system blowing in from the coast. Not much rain got to the desert, but the top of the local mountains got 2-3" of snow on my way there.
Camping in Hawk Canyon. Deserted. Wonderful ampitheatre to play the Bose XM radio into with nobody for miles around!
Lights lit up.
Not much side spread - I think I'll need to frost them to make them more like floodlights.
You can carry so much more car camping than backpacking.
Sunrise over Borrego from Butte's Pass.
Sunrise rainbow.
Interesting rock formations at a former native American site called the "morteros", named for the grinding bowls left in the rocks. (mortars)
Rock crawling on the way to the Pinyon Mountain trail.
A famous gateway to the Pinyon Mountain trail called "The Squeeze." An inch too narrow for the 'Voy, but I just had to drive her up to sniff around where the Jeepers even have to fold in their mirrors.
View from the far side of "The Squeeze". The rock on the right side tilts you after you get through the narrow part, and bashes the back of your vehicle on the side of the gateway. Evil.
Close, but never to penetrate. Seven miles back to the start of the trail. The stuff I go through to take pictures for you folks....
Straddling the sandy ruts.
Welllllll, excuuuuuuuse me, Mr. Trail Bike. Am I holding you up while I pose the 'Voy on this nice rocky hill? There's plenty of room on the right - just don't scratch the paint.
Switchbacks coming up in Oriflamme Canyon.
Yes, those certainly are scary switchbacks. 20 degrees downhill and hope the rain doesn't start to fall while I'm on this trail.
Glad for the superior turning radius of the 'Voy.
The view from here of Oriflamme Canyon is worth it all. This is why I ride. 'nuff said.
At the edge of the Borrego badlands are thousands of hills like this, attracting 1 VW sand buggy, 5 sand rail cars, 500 ATVs, 800 trail bikes, and one Roadie.
So I go up to this little hill, pose the 'Voy, parking brake holds (amazing), and then I step back to take pictures. Just then, 20 ATVs drive by and stop to see if I need help getting myself out of the mess they think I just got myself into. I think they believed I drove up there by not noticing this hill ahead of me. The concept of posing a picture just to show it can be done seems foreign to them for some reason. I just drive off, sputtering because I unported my gasoline pickup. Forgot that little detail. Sigh...