The trip, according to Guy

Hey everybody thought I'd share this story with you, enjoy!

Here's the scoop on the 2001 Picacho  trip 10/11/01-10/14/01.

I left for Sacramento at 5:30 AM to take my Pharmacist Exemptee
exam. I finished and returned home to pick up the dog and get my
camping gear, I left at 3:22 PM already racking up 330 miles that
day. The traffic down to San Diego wasn't too bad so I made it to
Dave-o's by 10:30PM. We loaded the car and headed for the desert.
We found Indian Pass road without any problem, the sign is back
up, but that's were our good luck ran out.

We dropped down into the river bed, the 4WD road down was very
washed our and steep, no worries we have the GPS:-) we got to the
river bed and started off north, there is pretty much no other
place to go. Everything seemed to be going alright but about 2 or
3 miles in we lost the road. We could see lots of evidence that it
had flooded down in the river bed, after all the road was gone and
we could see the fresh "flow" marks in the sand. Well needless to
say we got lost since it was really dark (even with the million
candle power spotlight). That's okay we still had the GPS and we
were getting closer and closer to the camp. We got to within 0.33
miles of the camp, yes I'm talking about 1500 feet but we still
couldn't get there from here! Then we spotted a sign "Fee use area"
and we know we were in the park, we 4 wheeled it over to the sign
and there was the road! Down the road we go......then......MUD! I
make a running start at it, we get about 1/3rd of the way through
it when we come to a grinding halt!!!!!!!!!! The front axel is
half buried and the rear is more than a quarter buried. We decide
that we need to scout before doing anything else, did I mention
it's now 3:30 AM? Dave-o braves the mud and steps in, sinks to
halfway up his calf! He mucks his way up the road and comes back
with the report that there is a dry flat space coming up. We decide
the best course would be if I could back out of the muck, so I
start rocking the car back and forward. Finally I break loose but
it's in the forward direction, I power out, almost getting stuck
at the end of the mud pit were it makes a turn. Well at least we
were no longer stuck:-)

Next a six-pack and then crash out on the road for the night. The
next morning I scope things out and just as we suspected we were
on the road to the main Picacho camp. Once I climbed the hill I
could even see the camp, now about half a mile away. Two problems,
the car was facing the wrong way and the road was only as wide as
the car is long and the Mud Pit! First getting the car turned
around, we had to take off the car tail carrier and then clear a
bunch of debris from the side of the road. Next the 20 point turn
around. That done we backed the car all the way down the road to
the next mud pit (yes there were more and worse ones further in)
to get a running start at the pit. Of course this time the curve
was at the beginning of the pit so we were going to loose a lot of
momentum  right off the bat. I hit it and we went flying, I hit
the curve but the car was still going straight! I eased off the
gas and caught some road to get us turned and then gunned it, we
managed to power through! BEER TIME!

We got to the camp about 15 minutes later, even having trouble
finding the road in the daylight!

Next, the jetski. Carl had bought  a "stand-up" type jetski so I
went for a ride, it was fun but I didn't  brave standing up. Finally
on the second run I decided to try, up I went and then down hard!
Oops there goes my glasses, the second pair the Colorado has taken
from me over the years! But not being the type to give up easily
I got back on and gave it another go. This time I got up, I made
a beautiful turn and was headed back to camp when I lost it.  This
time I hit so hard I couldn't keep hold of the jetski. I theory
the ski will travel in a circle when the rider falls off, unfortunately
the circle kept changing directions and I was just getting exhausted
swimming after it.  By this time I was floating past camp and had
to swim for shore or I was just going to keep going.  Dave-o and
I grabbed the canoe and put in to go after it. Paddle like mad.....
finally we got hold of it but now we are way down river, luck for
us a couple of hunters that were going by on a boat came to our
rescue and towed us most of the way back. I was so exhausted from
all of this and the lack of sleep the night before I crashed for
2 hours!

Everyone else arrived just before I woke up. Jim and Mark even made
it in the 2-WD truck! Then 10 minutes later the jetski broke (starter
went) bummer! So Carl and I decide to go get the motorcycle (Husky)
and move it into camp. Off we go in Carl's truck, just before we
get to the Husky the power steering goes. We stop to have a look
and find that the serpentine belt he had just had replace had
slipped off the pulleys and now we were screwed. I had a pair of
swim shorts on and a beer and that was it! We managed to get what
was left of the belt back on and limped into camp.

Last event of the night, Mark getting lost. So Mark decides to go
look for Luna who in theory was still coming out. He took  off on
the Husky about 20 min till dark. Nobody remembered to tell Mark
the light was only going to work for an hour. After and hour Danno
went to look for him. We got Mark on the cell phone and he said
they had just driven by him but didn't see him.  After another hour
Danno came back without Mark. Out again, this time Danno had a
fresh crew. Meanwhile Mark is franticly gathering brush to make a
signal fire. Little did he know that the plateau he was on was so
high up that they couldn't see the fire from the river bed. They
finally returned with Mark around 11:30 PM, some 5 hours after he
left and he was less than a mile from camp!

The rest of the trip went without much incident and was really quit
a blast.  I did get lost leaving on Sunday even though it was
daylight. The lesson learned, NEVER drive into the desert at night!

Peace, Love and Vegetable Rights!

GVZ?