160 Miles through the Mojave Desert

SamCarroll

Faux Runner
Staff member
Jan 25, 2011
7,740
1,981
113
Northern California
This weekend i went on an adventure on the historic Mojave Trail. This trail was originally the path that brought American Pioneers to California. Now its become an off-road destination trail filled with everything the desert has to offer. 160 miles on original desert terrain with steep drop offs, desert sand and many washed out old historic mines. I was asked to join with a group from BajaKits as they lead a trail run. Some of these photos are from my phone and some from my camera.

The first day we left bright and early at 7am from home heading 9 hours to Laughlin NV, the beginning of the trail. Stopping at a few spots on the way down.

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Saturday Morning we set out to start the trail and get more than half the trail done in one day, we were going to have to get on it. About 15 miles into the desert we stopped for a drink and to take a look around.

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Continuing on we stopped along the way to see the Joshua Tree Forest and take it all in. Inside this part of the path is a "Penny Tree". You're supposed to drop a penny in the bucket on the Penny Tree to bring good luck along the trail.

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Went about 40 more miles and took a lunch break in the middle of the flats to take a look around.

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We went on for a few more miles until we reached our campsite destination. Just in time to set up camp and admire the amazing sunset.

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Just after the light escaped the horizon, the wind picked up. It picked up extremely fast and hard. Soon we were packing camp up just to make sure we wouldnt lose it. We started a fire to keep warm as the temps were dropping fast and now into the low 40s with 30MPH winds. Once it finally hit around 10pm we gave up and went to bed as the wind was becoming miserable. Awoken in the middle of the night to the wind violently ripping through camp, were talking 70MPH gusts with a constant 50MPH wind tearing apart our camp and throwing rocks into all our vehicles and slowly ripping apart our tents. We gave up sleeping in the tent as it seemed as if we would never get any sleep up in the sky. Abandoning the tent gave me a ton of anxiety as i was worried this wind would single handedly destroy our tents and camp but we had to do it for the safety of ourselves and our group.
 

SamCarroll

Faux Runner
Staff member
Jan 25, 2011
7,740
1,981
113
Northern California
Waking up around 6am, not getting much sleep we quickly broke camp after accessing the damage and decided it was time to get out of there instead of continue to be pummeled. On our way out we stopped at the Mojave Road Mailbox. Its a mailbox in the middle of the trail set to give some, leave some. It has a guest book which we signed and we checked out the monuments that have been slowly growing.

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Leaving the Mailbox we went for the Lava Tubes. A cavern eroded away in time from lava fields that have since dried up.

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Climbing through the cave was a task but extremely worth it. Bats filled the dense dark and cold areas of the cave, a dusty cold air filled the cave. It was a pretty awesome experience and well worth the hike to get there and into the cave.

Onward we marched to the dried lake bed known as Soda Lake. Here is when we are supposed to grab a rock and take it across the lake and deposit it on to the rock monument as a way to have a successful trip through the Mojave. Naturally we took group photos here and had some fun on this dry lake bed.

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Ending the trail we took a group photo under the bridge that treks through the desert and still actively transports good from the east to west. This trail was a lot of fun and it got me in touch with a lot of good people. I tried documenting as much as i could but with almost 70 miles a day off-road it took its toll and we all lived in the moment and soaked it all in as it happened.

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It was an amazing weekend and I am extremely happy i was able to come along.
 

Huck

BIIIIG SQRBDY GUY
Jan 27, 2011
12,335
1,389
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Gainesville, Ga
Looks like an awesome trip. I wish there was more to do like that in the SE. There’s really only 1 or 2 trails in GA and a few in TN that I know of


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