Anza-Borrego Desert January 9, 2000 Clicking on images will open a larger version of that image. The whole trip began as sort of an afterthought- we were spending the night at Crisonja's house, Todd came over, we all decided that we should go for a desert run on Sunday. Sunday morning came early. By 8 we were on our way to meet up with Todd, then off to Mike's house to see his new-to-him Cherokee and to head off to Lower Coyote Canyon out near Borrego Springs. The freeway drive was uneventful and we made good time to a parking area near Coyote Canyon, paid our $5 day-use fee and headed out onto the sandy wash that leads to the trail. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that the road is still out from a washout last year. Bummer. The washout itself wouln't have phased us- rough obstacles were exactly what we were looking for. But it turns out that there is a locked gate before the washout and all of us feel pretty strongly that it is important to respect gates, even if they do mess up your plans. Oh-well…. So off we went, looking for another trail. The Anza-Borrego desert is a pretty darn big place, and there are literally dozens of good trails. Of course, it is also a pretty easy place to get a little bit lost. So after talking about it a bit, we chose Diablo Dropoff- a 3+ trail that is mostly just driving on sandy washes but has a handful of tough obstacles and a short strip of technical driving. Sandy had been out on this trail once before, but it was at night, so this was a great opportunity to go back and see what it really looks like. We decided to break for lunch at a little camping grounds/trailer park- largely because they had a neon "Open" sign out front of the locked General Store door. "Oh-well", we thought, "we'll just eat our lunches here in the shade." That worked great until the surly owner came by and bluntly informed us "You've got two minutes to leave." Hmm. Doesn't seem like a great way to drum up business! So on we went. Beebee wanted to drive today, she has decided that she is a little bit sick of being the second-string driver in the family and has vowed to spend some time practicing before we set out on our trip. It was a great choice of trails to drive for her as it starts out pretty mellow and, more importantly, Mike is a fantastic leader who did a really good job of picking obstacles that we would all enjoy. So after the relatively easy drive through some sandy ancient sea-bed -apparently the whole area was part of the Gulf of California several thousand (million?) years ago- we got to the first really major obstacle, Diablo Dropoff. Diablo Dropoff starts at the top of a mesa and drops sharply for about 40 feet with some long ruts, makes a slow turn to the left and tapers off less severely for about another 150 feet. The ground is deep sand throughout the dropoff and doesn't offer much traction nor confidence. To the left of the driveable part of the dropoff is a serious ditch that threatens to devour anyone who locks up their brakes and slides off into it. Todd took his mostly-stock Blazer down first and made it through without incident. Mike followed, and then drove back up. Beebee drove next and went down this one with much trepidation, but was (and still is) determined to get more experience, hence better, behind the wheel. She was pretty nervous and scared, but in control the whole way down. She did, however let Steve take over the driving for a while afterwards. Following Beebee's lead, Sonja jumped behind the wheel of the 4runner and came down last. Of course, Cris drove back up and came down again himself. Not to be outdone by everyone else (Todd also went back up), the first thing Steve did when he got the wheel again was drive back up and down again- Beebee chose not to join in on the "fun" and let Steve keep driving for a while. Good thing as we came next to a much harrier drop off that was deeply rutted with a couple of big holes just made for getting stuck. The descent started off steep, then you have to steer left to avoid a hole, then a quick right to climb up the side of the wall a little bit to keep out of another, larger, hole. In the big hole we could see that some people who had passed before us had piled up some rocks. Even with the rocks in the hole it still looked pretty forbidding. Beebee was glad to not challenge herself quite that hard. Mike tackled the new obstacle first, lifted the right rear tire of his Jeep Cherokee a few feet in the air, skidded a little and nicked his bumper on a rock, but made it down just fine (download a 557K animation of Mike's descent). Cris barrelled his Forerunner down, lifted the right rear just a little bit, skidded a fair amount, stalled (seemingly a separate problem, not caused by the obstacle) restarted, and grooved right on down. Steve went last and finessed down the whole way. This was he first time we really and truly saw how awesome the OME suspension is- it managed to keep all four tires on the ground the whole way. Todd chose discretion as the better part of valor and went down an "easier" way that ended up being a bunch of loose sand that was pretty sketchy. After everyone made it down, most of us decided to go ahead and… drive right back up! It turned out to be a little bit tougher than we expected, for some of us, anyway. Mike made it on his second try with a little wheel-spin at the top. Cris made it look easy as he went right up on the first try(download a 199K animation of Cris's ascent). Steve, seemingly unable to pick a good line, failed to make it up on his first three tries. With some help from Cris's spotting, he finally got the hang of it and zipped right up- nearly running over poor Cris in the process. The second descent was as uneventful as the first. Shortly after that second descent, we drove over the one truly technical part of the trail- some tight canyons with boulders strewn about. After Steve finessed through a few rock clusters, and some tight passages Beebee stole the wheel back from him, sent him off to ride with Todd and did a little rock crawling herself. We took a break for a little while to appreciate the incredible canyon walls, in some of them you can still see ancient oyster beds, in others the the stratified layers have twisted into beautiful patterns. After a litte sightseeing we decided that it was getting cold and dark enough to get moving so we dropped back into 2wd and did a little speed test through the sand. Something about the crawling, driving alone and the hauling butt through the desert sand woke up the driver in Jocelyn and with a wide grin and a few hoots and hollers, for the first time she really enjoyed off-roading for the sake of just… driving. She also seems to have overcome much of her discomfort at high-speed off-road travel. The downside, of course, is that now we have to come up with a good way to decide who gets to drive, when. We stopped once more to drag some kids' 2wd-, tires at full pressure-, xcab-Ford out of some soft sand. Used our Master-pull tow rope for the first time and… WOW! Much stretchier than a regular strap, and much smoother. That truck popped right out and we were all on our way. When we hit the asphalt, Steve and Jocelyn decided to air up while everyone else drove on to a gas station for their air (nice to have on-board air). We enjoyed a fantastic sunset, then Beebee graciously let Steve drive back on the sinuous paved road in the dark. Steve is still thinking maybe he got the short end of the driving-stick, but all in all it was a great day of wheeling with good friends, and that is what this is supposed to be all about. We'de like to thank Mike, especially, for leading us around for the day. Thanks Mike!