Desert Trip

My buddy Rick and I took a trip out to the desert and mountains on Saturday. It was a great time and since it was I wasn't grouchy at all. I made this same trip some years ago when I had a different jeep, my hair was bit darker, and young son wasn't just about as tall as I am (as he is now)
Same trip, different Jeep








New Jeep, same trip - this is in the Mojave next to a watering hole built by the CCC in May of 1936. We were there 74 years later, the same month! Is that cool or what?




























On this trip we saw one mystery snake (laying in wait for unwary creatures coming to drink from the water run off from the well) and three rattlers like this - except two were even bigger than this one!

The trail runs in a corridor through a wilderness area and climbs from 2,000 ft to 6,600 ft. The trail apparently was a paved road at one time in the past and here and there remnants of the concrete can still be seen but mostly it is a heavily rutted and off camber trail more suited to dirt bikes than Jeeps. The scenery is very nice. The trail dead ends at a cabin called McIver's. This is the view from the porch

The view from the side of the cabin - the area burned several years ago and is just coming back now.

McIver's cabin - anyone may use it for 48 hours, then it must be vacated for the next person. There are some expired cans of beef stew and the like inside for stranded dirt bikers. We encountered a group of dirt bikers as we traveled there who stayed for a bit and then raced off, leaving us to the quiet of the cabin and the stream running nearby. It looks like a great place to spend 48 hours! When it was time to go home we stopped for dinner at Primo Burger in Mojave, a eatery that lived up to its name. A new tradition was quickly established that will involve dinner at Primo Burger at the end of each desert trip!