Mojave Never the Same

I spent 3 winters camping in Mojave 1970's

Inside the Chocolate Mt USAF Gunnery Range

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocol..._Gunnery_Range

No camera

and now more than glad I took none

as my memories and the subject is best in memory

I saw and learned the wonderful desert as we drank warm beer, rode bikes and our DIY dune buggy

We quickly learned to always have 2 vehicles just in case

The VW was a stripper, bare bones, a steering brake. I flat towed it from Chicago. It never failed even when it lost a wheel

I slept under the stars, glasses on to see incredible stars

and USAF jets practicing at night, they knew we there

Same place Patton trained his desert tanks, we saw the tracks

found tiny bits of a Jet as it had crashed strafing an ancient bridge

I think of that pilot often

saw UFO's chased by USAF that could never get close nor maneuver those crazy 90 degree turns and accelerate way faster

Also saw touch and go USAF right beside a road, over and over

I know this is a repeat post, so what!

My memories will follow me

at that time I could not have made images to match my memory

A real horror was finding burned out tall palm trees in an oasis

One oasis had barbwire, a severe and convincing sign, "Trespassers will be Shot." It was public hand

We carried paper Geological maps which were a great help

Got shot at in totally empty land. I wanted a snow plow to bury the druggies

I had to quickly get our 11 people in 1 van, lights off and escape at midnight

next day they were still shooting, but not at us

my new 1977 Pickup had a 45 bullet hole

We moved camp much farther away and into the Patton Tank Tracks

pictures would have been worthless, I did not have the skill

I like my adventure memories

I was NRA for a long time, now I don't show or tell

Interesting memories. That's good.

One thing about the desert, you see strange people there, and strange things tend to happen. There are very few people there, but strange people seem to be drawn to it. I remember the end of Aron Ralson's book, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", when his friends (who have gone to collect his abandoned equipment, and arm) see a dead hawk near the puddle of water he drank from after escaping from the slot canyon. Ralston had reported seeing a hawk fly over the slot where he was trapped every day at the same time.

If you stay there long enough, you might become strange yourself, I think.

I always loved the quiet of the desert, and the way time seems to have slowed down there. It is interesting to be able to hear a bee, or a beetle, 50 or 60 feet away. I never spent a night there. I wish I had. At this point I probably never will. But I have other memories.

Most of the paved roads at least in Death Valley are now back open after previous flashflood damage two years ago, although the upper route is still snowed shut, which was ironically the only way in earlier in winter. One extreme to another there. Horrible flood damage and washouts have been occurring these past two weeks many places in California, but especially in the normally arid regions. Today could be bad in SoCal. There could still be a spectacular wildflower display some of those places in April. Due to our exceptionally cold March, the typical flower season seems to be a whole month late. Any travel is the mountains is still tantamount to suicide.

One never knows exactly how dangerous the desert can be until the SHTF on a trip.

Most prophets and religions came out of the desert and people who frequented there.