MogFest Part 2

20221015-16

The Trip

The group had a nice night with the partial exception of the wedding party in the next campsite.  The bride and groom elected to get married at the Calico Ghost Town and had their friends attend.  They had a DJ and catered food and, of course, excessively loud music and drunk guests.  But, no matter.  It is best to fight fire with fire.  May the  drunkest man win!

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

Late the first night Alan and his son Jim showed up.  Alan's mog was being repaired and they brought Jim's flat-fender Jeep instead.  I venture to say that nothing is stock on this Jeep as the motor, axles, seats, tires, wheels and nearly every other bit of running gear has been upgraded.  In essence, only the sheet metal and frame remains original equipment.

Alan's custom Franklin stove made from a scrap air compressor tank.  It works great.

I rode with Terry in his 1500L.  The trail route for the day traversed the steep mud hills which become an impassable, gooey mess when wet.

When the winds are calm, this is a good trail.  When the winds are strong, huge clouds of choking dust block your ability to see the trail.  When wet, this trail is a no-go.  While the winds increased in the afternoon, they were calm for our passage.

Some sections of this trail are quite steep and require high clearance to negotiate obstacles.

Higher up the mountain, the volcanic activity became visible.  Note the wind caves in the cliff face.  Also note the stacked-rock "bridge" allowing passage of a washed-out area.  This bridge was part of the network of trails constructed by the miners to allow access to their mine sites.  This particular trail leads to a narrow choke point and a waterfall.  We have successfully negotiated this trail, including waterfall, in the past with my 1300L, but it is not on the day's menu.

Wind caves carved into the volcanic rock were numerous.  The caves are caused by blowing sand eroding the face of the cliffs.  This is a graphic example of the relentless erosive power of wind-blown sand.

Some sections of the upper trails were narrow.

Above, the wind carved a tunnel in a volcanic fin.

The Calico hills are riddled with old mine tunnels and shafts.  These old dig-sites are very dangerous and subject to collapse.

Another steep face on the trail.  This required engagement of the differential locks.

Every steep ascent was matched with a steep descent.  Note the mine tailings on the hillside.

Jim and Alan negotiate a narrow choke point.  Terry's 1500L was too wide, so we took the bypass, thus allowing this photo.

We finally arrived at our lunch spot at the mines high on the ridge.  Above, Alan confers with Joe on "the plan".  Note the tunnel and tailings behind Joe's rock crawler.

The balance of our group rolled into the lunch site.

The group assembled and we dug into our sandwiches and "sodas".  From the high ridge, we could see storm clouds brewing to the south.  We checked the weather prior to traveling to Calico and the forecast called for only a 10% chance of rain.  Rain in the Mojave Desert is rare, but sometimes the odds work against you.

Back in camp, Kathleen had started making some from-scratch sourdough bread from her sourdough starter.  Above, the loaf proofs on the table outside our camper.  It started to get a bit cloudy, but we were hungry and the group assembled for a pot-luck dinner.

Hungry moggers chow-down during the potluck as clouds roll in from the east.

As the pot-luck progressed, the clouds began to build and we could see lightning from our tables in the canyon.  To get a better view of the lightning, I climbed the ridge to allow a clear view of the eastern horizon.  I started a video to see if I could capture the lightning strikes.  Above is an extracted frame from the video that contained a strike.  The white dot just below the ridge is the headlamp of a fellow who is making his way back to camp after realizing that being on an exposed ridge during an approaching electrical storm was likely a bad idea.  We would soon follow suit.

The lightning frequency increased and I was able to capture a number of ground strikes.  This was a massive bolt that struck a ridge in the Calico hills just to the east of our position.  Note that there is another bolt just starting on the right side of the photo above.



The lightning was starting to get close enough to our position to cause concern.



This huge strike was the last straw.  The winds came followed by strong rain so we retreated down the ridge to our camper.  We were overtaken by a massive cloudburst.  Huge pregnant raindrops pelted us on our way back to the camper.  We quickly secured our stuff and went inside.

The noise of the rain on the camper's roof was deafening.  Within a minute Kathleen noticed an odd sound (in addition to the high wind and rain) and opened the door to see a flash flood comping through our camp.

The water was flowing under our rig surrounding our stairs.

The flow was getting stronger.  We did not think we were in any danger because the camp area, while in a canyon, was wide and therefore generally safer.  While pondering our situation, we realized that some of our group were in a narrow canyon - in a tent.

The rain lasted several hours, but the heavy rain stopped after about 30 minutes.  The flood stripped the campsite of all soil and small gravel leaving only larger cobbles.  I spied this fellow the following morning.  Chuck and I saw him the previous afternoon on his dilapidated mini-bike riding with no helmet and his injured leg in the air.  We were slack-jawed in amazement; clearly the initial injury did not hurt enough to cause a change in his behavior.  He is clearly a candidate for a Darwin Award.



The camp was washed clean.  The flood deposited silt from the distant mud hills making walking a gooey mess.



The water flow eroded the access to neighboring campsites making a hook-up for departure difficult.  Above, the 2WD pickup attempts to backup to his trailer to connect the hitch.  The wash-out will make his departure a damage-inducing challenge for his low-clearance trailer.



Kathleen did a walk-about in the camp to assess damage and noted this fellow's stabilizer footing had been washed away.



Our friend Shaun and his party had been camped in one of the network of canyons that comprise the Calico campground.  Above, his tent as seen during the flood.  Thanks to Shaun for this photo from his phone.  The tent was destroyed and the contents were a total loss; they were all safe.



Shaun's EZ-Up canopy was also a casualty.



Our campsite had been washed clean as well.  Happily, all of our stuff was secured in Thor prior to the arrival of the flood.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2022, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.