Old Dale Mining Tour –by Jungle Jim Carvin

It was a beautiful day for a bumpy cruise through the desert. We gathered at meeting place then started for the trailhead. On the way, I got a call from Robert Pablos, who was on the way. His cell signal was weak, but I was able to direct him and he met us while we were airing down the tires.

It had been raining at home, some days before the event, so we didn't know how dry it would be out in the desert. The sand was soft, but the dust level was low. There was a soft breeze, just enough to blow the dust off to one side as we drove and to cool us when we rested.

We did do a prerun a month before, but the trails we tried were extremely narrow and finally impassible. So, we attempted a reversal of our Joshua Tree Tour. A wrong turn near the beginning of the trip turned out to be a blessing, as that trail we used was about as difficult as it could be, without us having to throw rocks to rebuild it. I'm still unable to explain how Robert was able to negotiate it in his heavy 3/4 ton long-bed GMC diesel truck.

Those participating were:

Bruce White

Jimmy, Robert, Amanda and Daniel Pablos

Stacy, Ally and John Laird

Rich Siemer and Jim Carvin

Having kids along is always fun. They say the darndest things and like to run all around. Fortunately, it had been cold for a long time leading up to the event, so there was no danger of snakes. And there were so few vehicles this time that I dispensed with the usual "drivers meeting" where safety concerns, driving etiquette, etc., are explained.

The only real hazards were cholla "jumping" cactus and deep vertical mine shafts. It is always interesting to take a close look at the terrain to see all of the creative little plants the Lord saw fit to create. He's quite an artist.

	See the Video (486kb)
Girls did girl stuff	Boys did boy stuff

Allie found this ingenious planter. Is that tire so big, or is she really that small?

Hiking around Ivanhoe Mine was interesting, and just good old family fun. There was an old building and a deep shaft, into which we threw large rocks and counted the seconds for them to reach bottom. The mathematicians in the group figured it was about 800 feet deep.

The last challenge of the event was this single, lonesome, irresistible sand dune. The video link below show us having fun there.

Video for Broadband (5.7mb).

The last leg of our journey was a fairly high speed cruise out Pinkham Canyon. The terrain was high chaparral and a rock and sand wash with a few tight spots. We managed to reach the end with daylight still burning, and seemingly no hurry to leave. We aired up in the canyon, said our goodbyes and headed toward Interstate 10.

See the promotion used for this event.