Sue and I left for Laughlin, NV Wednesday afternoon about 3PM.  We hit traffic just right and were in Barstow for dinner by 5PM.  It was just over 2 hours from there on in and uneventful.  On Thursday we met with some old friends from OC-4Play and had lunch and later met with other friends for a card party in our room.  The next morning we met at the Texaco before hitting the trail.  George Olinger and his daughter Amanda, Roy Walker and his nephew Matt, Connie Sims, Jeff (Jefe) Reynolds, And Sue and I.  We got to the trailhead and aired down and started our “BIG ADVENTURE”.  The Weather couldn’t have been better with clear skies and little wind.  We wound our way across stopping to look at sights along the way stopping at Piute Springs for lunch.  We got to Granite Spring about 2 hours before dark and I decided to make camp there.  There is a large flat area with a good rock fire ring in the middle and plenty of room for our camp.  As we were setting up the clouds coming across the hill looked bad and Jeff said we were going to get rained on real soon.  He was almost right.  It was soon but the rain was snow, lots of it.  It must have dropped 2 inches in the first half hour.  The next morning our Jeeps and tents were wrapped in a white blanket.  You very seldom get to see everything covered in white in the desert but Saturday morning was just beautiful.  We worked our way across to Kil-Baker Road and not wanting to cross Soda Dry (muddy) Lake we made a right and drove into Baker.  We had lunch there at Dennys and gassed up.  From there we ran the I-15 to Razor Road and got to the point where we would have exited Soda Dry Lake.  From there we crossed the sand dunes and up the Mojave River Wash to Afton Canyon.  The river was running real good in the canyon and we sprayed a lot of water having a great time.  The crossing at the end was deep and it washed over the hood of Connie’s and Roy’s Jeep’s but they made it through just fine.  We got out to the freeway and aired up before dark and headed home.  I have done this trail about 6 times now at different times of the year and every time brings something new and different to the run.

Frank Hayes KE6RDG
President Orange County 4-Play
Hayes Ent. custom Jeep work
http://hayesentjeep.com