The Geminid Meteor Showers were reaching their peak (the best for the next few hundred years or so in fact!), so a trip to the Anza Borrego Desert State Park on December 13-14-15, 2002 was in order. The predictions were for 80-100 meteors per hour and it was on the money!

It was a small outing, three vehicles, Jim A. with Corva, Ralph S, with the Dirt Devils and myself. We all arrived at the camp area in Loop Wash very late Friday night. As in 1:00 am or so. We had camp set up by 2:00 am, lit a fire and sat back to watch the show.

It was amazing, the meteors were crashing through the night sky from all directions and put on a dazzling show. We sat up drinking coffee, with some Bailey's in it for warmth ;) and watched the meteors do their dance. Some exploded and sent sparkler like fragments showering down some burned out while others disappeared behind the hills. It was worth the trip for the light show!

Morning seemed to arrive all too soon and we awoke to a beautiful day and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. We decided over breakfast to run over to the Blue Inn for fuel then run down 'The Slot', over Cut Across Trail and finally head to the Calcite Mine. Well, it was a good plan - but... We arrived at the Blue Inn and Jim discovered that his wallet was secreted away back in camp in his tent. We decided we would go back to camp and run up El Diablo Drop Off then make our way around to Pinyon Mountain and come back into Fish Creek that way. A nice loop with some good 4 wheeling and great scenery.

We made our way up the drop off, passing a large group whose members were struggling on the first climb. We shot the sand hill and headed out across the flats. Then, the CB radio crackled a "Help, my vehicle quit running" plea. It was Ralph's older Bronco with the 95 5 liter in it. Dead! The engine would not start.

We decided to strap him over to the wide wash area on the way out toward Ocotillo, leave him there while we went back for the camping gear. Alas, we went back to our well established camp, stuffed 3 vehicles worth of gear into two and headed back to where Ralph was waiting in the dark. We set up camp, had a nice fire going, enjoyed a great dinner, fired up the blender and had some fine blended drinks! It was cloudy Saturday Night so we saw no meteors - so it was a good thing that we all arrived so late on Friday night.

Sunday Morning, we strapped Ralph to Ocotillo, got a truck with a flat bed trailer headed his way and headed home.

All in all, not a great 4 wheeling trip but the meteor shower was worth the trip - anytime.

Dale Davis