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I really enjoyed being unplugged and wandering around in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park this weekend. It was an amazing weekend, but unfortunately ended with my friend Mike's Toyota Tundra Limited truck burning to the ground. :-(
Saturday morning Mike came by the hotel with his son Reilly and I finished loading up the Jeep with my gear and the almost 9 gallons of water and Gatorade. By the way, we drank all of it and each drank 2 gallons on Saturday alone.
We rolled out the 8 to Ocotillo and then took County Road S2 to begin our trek through the Carrizo Badlands up Canyon Sin Nombre. After that we went up Arroyo Seco del Diablo and then crossed over to Arroyo Tapiado and came down that canyon. We camped that night in Arroyo Tapiado.
I left some more of my Jeep's paint on a rock and we had to change one of Mike's tires, which had lost in a confrontation with a sharp rock. The temperature had gone past 122 degrees and the electronic thermometer would no longer give us a reading beyond that. It was hot.
The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is an amazing place if you are well prepared for the harsh environment, which we were. The drive up Canyon Sin Nombre was a great appetizer for the wonders to come. Arroyo Seco del Diablo allowed us to hike through some great slot canyons and Arroyo Tapiado was the crown jewel of the day with our exploration of mud caves, which maintain a constant temperature of a welcoming 65 degrees.
One cave was barely wide enough for us to squeeze through sideways with our flashlights and required us to crawl on our hands and knees through a couple of spots. When you looked up you would see bizarre formations rising 20 to 50 feet. In one spot it looked like there was a mountain within a mountain. The inner mountain looked like the Matterhorn and was a bit eerie looking when all 3 of us shined our lights up at it, because above it was a solid ceiling. We must have made our way deeper into the cave for about 15 minutes before turning around in this pseudo-karst environment.
Sunday, there was a tentative plan to meet my friend Rich who had just returned from climbing around on Mt. Rainier. If he wasn't too beat from his own adventure (he returned on Saturday night) he would meet us at the Texaco station in Ocotillo and ride shotgun with me in the Jeep. We would have picked up his vehicle on the way out.
We wandered toward civilization just far enough for me to use my Sprint phone to call and hang up on him twice before Rich could answer. Mike's T-Mobile phone was doing no better, but his Verizon phone was working well. Rich let me know that he was beat from his own wilderness experience and that he wouldn't be joining us this time.
This opened up some new possibilities for Mike and me. Mike wanted to end up on highway 78. I showed him that the most direct route would take us over a more difficult stretch of trail called "The El Diablo Dropoff." We decided to go take a look at it. It was easier than I thought it would be, but a bit more challenging than Mike thought it would be. With some rock stacking and careful spotting, we both managed to get through this section with some minor scrapes. It gave us both a great feeling of wilderness accomplishment.
We came out in Fish Creek Wash and turned left to run up Sandstone Canyon. This was simply awesome as the canyon got narrower and narrower, until we could only proceed on foot. It was as close as it gets in SoCal to wandering through the Grand Canyon.
Coming out the way we went in, we continued past where The Diablo Dropoff ushered us into Fish Creek Wash past the foot trail to the Wind Caves and through Split Mountain Gorge. Split Mountain Gorge is a canyon that passes right through the middle of a mountain and is spectacular.
This brought us to Spit Mountain Road, which had us back on pavement. We decided to look for a gas station to bring our tires back up to full pressure for getting back on the highway and heading back to civilization after an outstanding weekend.
Just past the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park sign, Mike flashed his lights at me and pulled over. I pulled over and backed up to where he was. It looked like steam was coming out of the radiator and we thought that he had sprung a leak in his cooling system. When Mike popped the hood we noticed that the paint was starting to bubble and then saw flames in the engine compartment.
Mike and I were both carrying fire extinguishers and discharged them under the hood, but by now the fire was too big. We called 911 and then immediately hauled all of the stuff out of the truck starting with the (5) 5-gallon gas cans and the propane bottles. Some locals came to our aid and helped us move everything across and down the street.
That's when things started exploding. The nitrogen charged shock absorbers and tires all blew up one at a time sending shrapnel flying. Upon later inspection it was discovered the the driveshaft actually exploded in the fire. It was so hot that the aluminum rims melted right off of the axels. All that was left were the steel components of the truck.
I felt aweful for Mike as that truck was his pride and joy. Mike and I are both "glass half full" guys and we immediately started concentrating on the positive aspects. No one was hurt and we got almost all of the personal belongings out of the truck. The fire fighters were able to reach the vehicle and the fire was extinguished with no damage to any other property or the State Park. Mike has another vehicle to use for work and this ultimately just comes down to a bunch of paperwork. That's an oversimplification, but that's how we chose to think about it.
From there, Mike was able to get the things that were salvaged from the truck into his van and home with the help of his lovely wife and family.
From there I drove back to the hotel via the 78 through Julian and then to Ramona and down the 67 to El Cajon. This was a very scenic drive and exposed me to some beautiful countryside in San Diego. From here it was a short drive back to the 15 via the 8 where the hotel was located.
Mike has posted pictures here:
http://www.chasenetworks.com/public/anza2009/
I really look foward to going back to this area.
Christian
Saturday morning Mike came by the hotel with his son Reilly and I finished loading up the Jeep with my gear and the almost 9 gallons of water and Gatorade. By the way, we drank all of it and each drank 2 gallons on Saturday alone.
We rolled out the 8 to Ocotillo and then took County Road S2 to begin our trek through the Carrizo Badlands up Canyon Sin Nombre. After that we went up Arroyo Seco del Diablo and then crossed over to Arroyo Tapiado and came down that canyon. We camped that night in Arroyo Tapiado.
I left some more of my Jeep's paint on a rock and we had to change one of Mike's tires, which had lost in a confrontation with a sharp rock. The temperature had gone past 122 degrees and the electronic thermometer would no longer give us a reading beyond that. It was hot.
The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is an amazing place if you are well prepared for the harsh environment, which we were. The drive up Canyon Sin Nombre was a great appetizer for the wonders to come. Arroyo Seco del Diablo allowed us to hike through some great slot canyons and Arroyo Tapiado was the crown jewel of the day with our exploration of mud caves, which maintain a constant temperature of a welcoming 65 degrees.
One cave was barely wide enough for us to squeeze through sideways with our flashlights and required us to crawl on our hands and knees through a couple of spots. When you looked up you would see bizarre formations rising 20 to 50 feet. In one spot it looked like there was a mountain within a mountain. The inner mountain looked like the Matterhorn and was a bit eerie looking when all 3 of us shined our lights up at it, because above it was a solid ceiling. We must have made our way deeper into the cave for about 15 minutes before turning around in this pseudo-karst environment.
Sunday, there was a tentative plan to meet my friend Rich who had just returned from climbing around on Mt. Rainier. If he wasn't too beat from his own adventure (he returned on Saturday night) he would meet us at the Texaco station in Ocotillo and ride shotgun with me in the Jeep. We would have picked up his vehicle on the way out.
We wandered toward civilization just far enough for me to use my Sprint phone to call and hang up on him twice before Rich could answer. Mike's T-Mobile phone was doing no better, but his Verizon phone was working well. Rich let me know that he was beat from his own wilderness experience and that he wouldn't be joining us this time.
This opened up some new possibilities for Mike and me. Mike wanted to end up on highway 78. I showed him that the most direct route would take us over a more difficult stretch of trail called "The El Diablo Dropoff." We decided to go take a look at it. It was easier than I thought it would be, but a bit more challenging than Mike thought it would be. With some rock stacking and careful spotting, we both managed to get through this section with some minor scrapes. It gave us both a great feeling of wilderness accomplishment.
We came out in Fish Creek Wash and turned left to run up Sandstone Canyon. This was simply awesome as the canyon got narrower and narrower, until we could only proceed on foot. It was as close as it gets in SoCal to wandering through the Grand Canyon.
Coming out the way we went in, we continued past where The Diablo Dropoff ushered us into Fish Creek Wash past the foot trail to the Wind Caves and through Split Mountain Gorge. Split Mountain Gorge is a canyon that passes right through the middle of a mountain and is spectacular.
This brought us to Spit Mountain Road, which had us back on pavement. We decided to look for a gas station to bring our tires back up to full pressure for getting back on the highway and heading back to civilization after an outstanding weekend.
Just past the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park sign, Mike flashed his lights at me and pulled over. I pulled over and backed up to where he was. It looked like steam was coming out of the radiator and we thought that he had sprung a leak in his cooling system. When Mike popped the hood we noticed that the paint was starting to bubble and then saw flames in the engine compartment.
Mike and I were both carrying fire extinguishers and discharged them under the hood, but by now the fire was too big. We called 911 and then immediately hauled all of the stuff out of the truck starting with the (5) 5-gallon gas cans and the propane bottles. Some locals came to our aid and helped us move everything across and down the street.
That's when things started exploding. The nitrogen charged shock absorbers and tires all blew up one at a time sending shrapnel flying. Upon later inspection it was discovered the the driveshaft actually exploded in the fire. It was so hot that the aluminum rims melted right off of the axels. All that was left were the steel components of the truck.
I felt aweful for Mike as that truck was his pride and joy. Mike and I are both "glass half full" guys and we immediately started concentrating on the positive aspects. No one was hurt and we got almost all of the personal belongings out of the truck. The fire fighters were able to reach the vehicle and the fire was extinguished with no damage to any other property or the State Park. Mike has another vehicle to use for work and this ultimately just comes down to a bunch of paperwork. That's an oversimplification, but that's how we chose to think about it.
From there, Mike was able to get the things that were salvaged from the truck into his van and home with the help of his lovely wife and family.
From there I drove back to the hotel via the 78 through Julian and then to Ramona and down the 67 to El Cajon. This was a very scenic drive and exposed me to some beautiful countryside in San Diego. From here it was a short drive back to the 15 via the 8 where the hotel was located.
Mike has posted pictures here:
http://www.chasenetworks.com/public/anza2009/
I really look foward to going back to this area.
Christian
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