Topic: Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

[RikRong]

Well, it was an awesome day with some great people. We all made it through with no issues. Riz went through the Squeeze pretty effortlessly, until the end, where he received some body damage. Other than that, everyone came out unscathed.

We then headed to Bickel Camp, ate lunch, and received a tour from the caretaker. He was pleasantly surprised by the donations we brought. After that, we went up to Burro Schmidt Tunnel. After the tunnel, occupantX and Morgan headed down to make camp, and the rest of us headed to 14 to air up and hit pavement for home.

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pics on this trip. I know the Fanaselles were busy with cameras, as well as others. Please feel free to post any pics in here.

Airing down

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

My brother Robert shot these

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

The Squeeze

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Breakfast at Crazy Otto's

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

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[Celt]

That looks like a really fun trip and wish I could have gone to be sure. It's too bad Riz got some carnage but it will help keep the Priuses away from him on the freeway!


   I'm not admitting I'm jealous I couldn't go, nope not gonna do it.....

[Ghost65]

Thank you Rick for posting up and organizing this run!  Looks like a perfect day weather wise and group size to match. 

[RikRong]

That looks like a really fun trip and wish I could have gone to be sure. It's too bad Riz got some carnage but it will help keep the Priuses away from him on the freeway!


   I'm not admitting I'm jealous I couldn't go, nope not gonna do it.....

Just wait until Joe posts some of his pictures...

As far as scheduling, I know Saturdays or even weekends can be difficult for some people.  For the next one, I'll try to look at a Sunday, at least.

Thank you Rick for posting up and organizing this run!  Looks like a perfect day weather wise and group size to match. 

The weather was outstanding, much better than the 100+ temps I experienced up there last time. 

[beedee]

Great pix Rick. Any video of Riz going through The Squeeze? Bummer about the damage, but glad it wasn't too bad!

A Sunday trip would be prime!

[GreenAcres]

Excellent weekend! Thanks, Rick, for organizing it.

Occupant X and I will need to talk to you about getting out of there, after camping we tried twice to find EP107 back to the where we started, each time ending up back at Bickel mine! Finally gave up and took EP15. Still great fun, had the best views of the weekend trying to find our way out .

By the way the campsite Occupant X found was perfect. Roomy, flat, empty. Wanted to stay longer....

[JFanaselle]

Ok, I finally went through the 400+ photos I took, plus the 150+ that my wife took. 

Here's my trip report:

The wife and I pulled an audible and decided to head up on Friday night after all. We got a cheap room in Ridgecrest and made a quick pitstop on the way up at the abandoned prison that I've been wanting to explore forever. I was surprised to see that there weren't any no tresspassing signs, as there is mixed info about whether you are or are not allowed to access this site. There are no fences or even a gate on the road in. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to explore, as we only had about 45 mins of daylight once we got there. This site is HUGE, and I could have easily spent an entire day here!

We walked around for a bit and I snapped a ton of photos. The setting sun made for some great light off of the buildings. We didn't enter many of them - they were all in the same condition. Heavily vandalized, including ALL copper pipes and wires removed by tweakers. There wasn't a single wall or ceiling that didn't have holes in it and graffiti on it, and there wasn't an intact glass panel at the entire site. After wandering around for a bit, we found one piece of paper attached to the outside of a building that was an official notice of trespass on federal property, and it ordered anyone reading the sign to cease and desist immediately. We complied and left the site, as we weren't looking to get into any kind of trouble. Anyway, here are some photos from that stop:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

The old payphone area for the inmates was pretty cool (the phones are long gone, of course):

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

After a nice evening in Ridgecrest, we awoke early and headed over to the meeting spot. We arrived a few minutes early, and used the opportunity to explore the "Saltdale" area, which is directly adjacent to the trailhead. There were many old salt evaporation ponds that don't appear to have been used in quite some time. There was also a really cool set of old railroad tracks that had been flooded at some point (looks to be several years back). The salt water ate away all the metal rails, and all that was left is some piles of rusted dust and a perfect row of old railroad ties that are slowly being reclaimed by the earth:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Once we got on the trail, I did my best to get some cool shots of everyone playing around in the rock gardens:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

My "drone" shots  :

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

[JFanaselle]

Continuing...

Some shots of Riz hitting the squeeze. You all already know the story of what happened here, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Walking back to survey the spot that caused all the ruckus:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

My wife was nice enough to hop out of the car at several points and get quite a few good shots (note, I've tagged hers with her name in the corner so I don't steal her credit  ). It was nice to get a few shots of my own rig in action, albeit not very much action:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

We spent a bit more time in the rock gardens than we planend. So after we were done with them, we took a cutoff road that heads straight for Bickel Camp to save some time. There was a landmark on the topo map that said "caves," but we got out of the rigs and hiked around for quite a while with no luck finding anything. However, the area was very beautiful and it was a good little hike for most of us. We also took some time to explore another old abandoned camp in the area, which was full of old junk autos. Here are a few photos from that stop:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

[JFanaselle]

Continuing...

We made it to the Bickel Camp and had lunch here. It seemed like an abnormally busy day here at the camp. There were several large groups here when we arrived, and a couple more large groups showed up before we left. The caretaker seemed a bit overwhelmed with the number of people, but he was excited to give tours to everyone. The place looks like a junk yard, but the caretaker does a great job of helping you understand the resourcefulness of desert mining folk as he walks you around and gives you the story about everything. The place was actually a treasure trove of very cool pieces of equipment and artifacts, and he kept stressing that nothing was for sale. Apparently, they get quite a few collectors through here that try and buy some of the old vehicles, old appliances, and anything else that people love to collect and restore. Walt Bickel was a pretty tough guy, and he was only one of many who lived like this out in the desert. The tour of this camp really gives you an appreciation for how much tougher people were back then. Here are some photos from the camp:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Once we finished here, we headed up the hill to the Burro Schmidt Tunnel. It, too, was quite crowded, but it wasn't much of a burden on our group and we certainly weren't a burden to anyone else. Most of us made the 1/2 mile trek through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain. Here are some photos from this site:

Bickel Camp, as viewed from the Burro Schmidt Camp:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

The views on the other side of the tunnel were amazing, and we were looking right down on the Saltdale area that Jessica and I had explored earlier in the morning:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Once we made our way back through the tunnel and back to our rigs, we departed ways with Morgan and OccupantX, who were heading back toward the area of Bickel Camp to find a place to set up camp of their own for the evening. Riz98, RikRong and myself had planned on taking a specific route back down the hill toward the area where we began the trip in the morning. But after ascending to the top of the hill, we learned that the trail was not for Trucks and was a quad/side-by-side trail only. So we took the "plan B" route back toward Red Rock State Park and eventually met up with Hwy. 14. Here are some photos from our stop at the top of the hill, and our decent back down toward the 14:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

A couple of the really good ones that Jessica took as well:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

In this one, you can see Bickel Camp in the background:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

We finally made it back to the "main road" that comes in off of Hwy 14, and got stuck in a traffic jam of sorts as everyone was making their way back to their camps. The sun was rapidly setting, and we had just enough time to air back up before hitting the highway:

Last Chance Canyon: 12 Nov 2016

Riz98 and his family broke off and headed toward Ridgecrest, where they had a hotel room booked for the night. Myself and Jessica took Highway 14 back toward the Antelope Valley along with Rick and his brother. This was a really fun trip and a fun day of exploring. I could easily spend a whole week out here taking every little side trail and trying to find all the cool sites to see. Thanks again Rick for setting this up and leading us all around out there. As was already mentioned, the weather couldn't have been any nicer (it was in the low 70s and partly cloudy all day!), and the size of the group was perfect!

[RikRong]

Excellent weekend! Thanks, Rick, for organizing it.

Occupant X and I will need to talk to you about getting out of there, after camping we tried twice to find EP107 back to the where we started, each time ending up back at Bickel mine! Finally gave up and took EP15. Still great fun, had the best views of the weekend trying to find our way out .

By the way the campsite Occupant X found was perfect. Roomy, flat, empty. Wanted to stay longer....

I apologize about that, I should have contacted you all by radio.  We tried to go out over the front side, but the trail was closed off to SUVs, so we went back down towards Bickel and then headed west to hit Hwy 14.  I'm glad you all did finally make it out, though.  Again, I should've though of contacting you all prior to us leaving the area.

[GreenAcres]

I apologize about that, I should have contacted you all by radio.  We tried to go out over the front side, but the trail was closed off to SUVs, so we went back down towards Bickel and then headed west to hit Hwy 14.  I'm glad you all did finally make it out, though.  Again, I should've though of contacting you all prior to us leaving the area.

No worries whatsoever. We got lost with a smile on our face! In fact if I didn't need to get to an appt (pick up my rock sliders from John and Natalie at White Knuckle) we might just have gone around a 3rd time .

[RikRong]

Truly awesome photos, as usual, Joe.  It is nice your truck in there, so often you're too busy taking pictures of everyone else and no one gets any shots of yours.  I think we need a second "resident" photographer in the group. 

[JFanaselle]

Trust me, there are plenty of photographers in this group with the skills to make me ashamed of myself  There are some great photographers in the Xterra world. Or maybe it's just that there are a lot of Xterras in the world of great photographers

[RikRong]

Trust me, there are plenty of photographers in this group with the skills to make me ashamed of myself  There are some great photographers in the Xterra world. Or maybe it's just that there are a lot of Xterras in the world of great photographers

I don't know...I see a couple of pictures in there that could be the new SCCX forum banner...

[Celt]

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I don't know...I see a couple of pictures in there that could be the new SCCX forum banner...

  I'm voting for this: