The mysterious BLM map. It doesn't relate well to any of the other maps I brought. That's highway 10 along the top, around Chiraco Summit. We went clockwise from top right, & took the road back up across the middle.
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Sunshne Kid in camp Saturday morning.
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We camped off a side road of the powerline road. The ground was gravel, all pressed together almost like pavement
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Montego
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We almost didn't leave any tire tracks
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It was getting hot
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I thought this might make a nice computer desktop pattern!
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This is a tire print. Interestingly enough, you can't see it anywhere else, just right here. I think it might be where I turned the wheel.
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Dew dripping fropm the power lines makes more of a dent in the grounbd than our tires do!!!
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Now this is wierd! The train tracks have washed out & are just hanging in the air!
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Gaaahhhh!
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it's a 1963 rail
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This part is ready to wash away in the next rainstorm
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Not too far away, we had lunch at this abandoned train building
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This building was made of railroad ties & rails!
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For such a hot day, it was nice & cool in the shade.
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See? Those are steel rails & wooden railroad ties!
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The view from the roof. More rails make the roof.
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Thats an amazing piano hinge. It's huge! The doors are so heavy that they don't swing in the wind.
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The inside. I wonder what the rails on the floor were for? Did they have a cart to wheel out for train repairs?
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A sinkhole & you can see through the pipe. They must get some rain out here after all.
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Note the sky under the tracks! I wonder when it gets so much water.
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The train building is at about 4 o'clock or so. Before the 3 lefts. Of course they don't have any landmarks on the map.
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Why do a few idiots shoot signs? They make all gun users look bad. ANd the signs are just that much harder to read. Not that it was a very useful map anyway. Note how it doesn't match well to the previous map sign.
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A desert tortoise! Of all the places hecan be, he wants to cross the main road in the area. We stopped to say hi. He didn't say much.
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He looks healthy, and didn't seem to care if we looked at him or not.
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There he goes!
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Red Canyon
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Tiny frogs! We saw hundreds of them!
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Here is the pond where the tiny frogs live around.
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There must have been a lot of water flowing through here at some time.
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Oddly enough, a number of these tiny frogs have only one hind leg. Could be inbreeding? We seem too far from polution for that to be an issue. Maybe it's the greem slime.
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This is where the road got steep.
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And also where the 4wd lever came loose. Good old mini crescent wrench!
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A spectacular view!
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a view too big to take a photo of. Even a panorame wouldn't explain it well.
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A number of trails go off in a number of directions.
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Lunch in the shade. It was hot hot hot!
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BUBBLES!
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We camped in Joshua Tree at the free "White Tank Camp" it was really nice. We chose this spot for morning shade & evening sun.
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Watch for those curved rocks again at moonrise
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