Borrego for a day
Last Sunday I got out to Borrego for a day trip. My friend was sick so I went alone. Not nearly as fun that way
I headed for south Borrego, to areas I used to camp 30 years ago with another friend that is no longer with us. Was a bit harder than I thought to find the old spots where we camped. After 30 years, those snapshots you have in your head you find out are not all that accurate. Things just don't look the same, even though they haven't changed at all.
Course some things have changed!
THESE THINGS. There's like 50 of them ALL OVER the lower borreco/ocotillo area now. Almost completely surrounding Ocotillo. Those people that lived there and had clear and vast views of the desert are now hemmed in by these giants. Kind of made me think.. What exactly is "Green" or "Eco" about these again?
Explored around the Dos Cabesas area. We used to camp at Mortero Palm a lot.
I scrubbed out the "Hail Satan" on the base
I was surprised they spelled it correctly. Must have been real Satanists!
Headed over to the old calcite mine area. I didn't think I'd been there before but when I arrived I had a distant memory of it come up from the depths.
I then headed over to the fossil canyon area. Boy that place has changed :/ besides being encroached on by development, it is now apparently the official, unofficial lawless shooting rage for the most part. Everywhere I went there was tons and tons of brass and shells. Couple of guys with some insanely high powered sounding stuff shooting at steel plates it looked like in one area. Could have been wood painted dark grey though I guess. Fossil Canyon itself was also blocked off to vehicles, hiking only. But if the shooters all go to that area instead of Painted gorge area like I've seen in the past then overall that's a good thing. There wasn't anything really that special about the camping there really.
From there I headed to Painted Gorge to see what was up over there. There was a new gate across the entrance since I was there last. Now closed Jan1 to July1 for the Bighorns. So go early if you want to get in. Drove as far back as I could but not up the trail to the peak since I was alone.
No one was camping in the gorge! Strange, maybe that's fallen out of favor. We always camped in the gorge.
I went back out of the gorge without getting a pic somehow, then over to the shell beds to the north and then drive north on the east side of the mountains. After getting out of the wash to a main cross road I headed to Corizzo Mtn. What a hell road! Woops the entire way ugh.
Half way through I decided I was tired of it and tried cutting across the Stage line trail to the west since I'd never gone past the swamps before. Unfortuantely after a few miles the route was closed due to "unexploded ordinance"
Had to head back to the Woops road and continue north.
After a while it became a wash and it was all high flying fun till I got to the tip of the Corisso range ( dark mtns on the left in the above pic) and crossed under the plaster city RR trestle. From there I headed SE along a pole road. 100% sand, fast and fun with occasional break slams
Then I cut across to Superstition hills. Hadn't been here in at least 30 years. All sand everywhere. And a great view of the military action, including live bombing, even at night! Only a lonely helo out today though.
Only did a little dunes running as again, I was by myself and didn't want to get stuck somewhere stupid.
Finally headed back towards Seeley and home. Passing by the dummy target range where we used to watch them drop talc bombs from about 1000 feet away. Range was still there, but quiet on a Sunday. Had some new targets out there it looks like though.
Headed back home as the sun was low, clouds keeping it from my eyes mostly and listening to my new "Desert Mix" on Google play that I recently put togeather of all my old late 60s /early 70s arena and psychedelic rock for the drive home.
Stats:
Escondido to Ocotillo: 90 minutes
Total off roading: 5+ hours
Superstition Hills to Escondido: 2hours and change
Distance: 246 miles
MPG: 15.9
Final note: I forgot my Nikon at home and had to use my phone to take these pictures. I'm actually surprised at how well they came out. Note 4 in HDR mode. Nice
