Day 4
Woke early and geared up for a little off-roading.
Jesse "The Pugilist" Pollock.
Ventured across the desert to the strange little town of Chloride.
Half ghost-town, half trailer-park and no one looks twice when you roll up six motor bikes deep in a cloud of dust.
Burgers and beers at Yesterdays then back on the trail in search of old mine caves.
Almost had a minor pile up as we all tried to avoid hitting a road-crossing snake, then watched as Yanni worked some crazy fearless magic and nabbed it behind the head.
No small snake, that one.
Kept on the lookout for tailings and finally hit an area with quite a few. All that earth has to have come from somewhere...
Found the first mine, but straight down and a broken ladder means a no go. Could hardly hear the bottom when I dropped a rock inside.
Cave the second stopped me in my tracks as well. This is definitely not what you want to see when clambering into a dark place alone.
Grabbed reinforcements (and a flashlight) and delved a little deeper. Turned out not to go very far back but the bones were still pretty spooky.
Reminds me of a still from "The Descent".
Followed my Pops' intuition that a nearby ravine wasn't there by the grace of Mother Nature and was psyched to find that he was right. Pushed aside some hanging roots and plants to find what was once probably a very large opening, now half filled with sand. Slid down inside and realized at once that we'd found something good---standing room, wooden supports and cart tracks going back farther than we could see. Decided to ride back to the ranch, get plenty of flashlights and come back after dark.
Made it home before dark, though young Jesse got lost on the way. Its a bad feeling to watch the sun descend knowing you've got a man out in the middle of the desert, maybe out of gas and definitely not familiar with the area. The Pollock's a smart cookie, though and a crisis was averted in small part due to the previous owners of the ranch using it as some sort of weekend brothel, thus meaning if you ask a local he probably knows how to get there.
The ranch's closest neighbor, Don Laughlin, likes to make his presence known from time to time.
Horseshoes are a good way to pass the time.
The prodigal son, returned and bathed and ready for some cave exploration. Packed everyone into the Bronco with flashlights and a .22 and headed back to our mine. Don't have any pictures to show the debacle that ensued but the first lesson might be that knee high rust-colored ooze is a good reason to turn back. The second? Never yell "Run!" in a pitch black cave.
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Day 5
Time to head for home, but not before getting a couple rounds in.
Tin can alley brought out the big and little guns.
Desert driving once more, this time the fun part in the light of day. Two lane highways, trains for neighbors and lots of dips in the road.
The occasional road soda helps. Couple glasses of wine and a steak dinner in Tehachapi and suddenly a short nap turns into our driveway. I can't wait to do it all over again.
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Look like fun? That's because it is. The ranch is amazing; off the grid and like a little island in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hills to hike, dirt roads to ride on and all sorts of hidden treasures including, but not limited to petroglyphs, caves and renegade sofas, cars and other sundry housewares dragged into the desert and shot at (so much effort just to demolish something, but who am I to judge). Its been in the family now almost 15 years and I still find something new each time we go. Just ask Jesse and Evs, they took way more interesting photos than I did anyway. I can only hope we'll be back real soon.