The Answer, My Friend

Continuing our story from yesterday...

Saturday morning we woke up feeling somewhat refreshed and ready for a fun day of visiting Anza-Borrego State Park. We had breakfast in our room (since it was a suite, it did have a kitchen, and we did have food for camping), and then drove over to the Visitor's Center. Since we would be camping that evening, we talked at length with a Ranger about some of the back country camping sites around. We were far too rustic to want to camp in the improved campground at the park that would have people who 'camp' in RVs with their satellite TVs and quadrophonic stereos. We wanted a place without picnic tables or water. Cause we're outdoorsy.

We decided on the Culp Valley site, and drove up to pick a site. The campsite sits in a pass at about 3400 ft elevation. When we got there, the wind was blowing pretty steadily at probably about 10 knots or so. We tried to figure out a) which site would give us the best protection from the wind, b) where we were supposed to build a fire (since there was a sign saying you could only build fires in metal containers and there didn't seem to be any metal containers at the campsites) and c) exactly where the heck the campsites were. (It turns out in the desert a campsite looks a lot like a patch of ground with no vegetation.) Finally we chose a site where we could set up our tent next to a tree which we thought (ho HO!) would give us some shelter from the wind. We set up and hurried back down to the Visitor's Center so the Things could participate in the Jr. Ranger program.

For the Jr. Ranger program, they had the kids learn about owl pellets (sort of like cats' furballs, but with bones), and then each kid got to dissect their own pellet, mounting all the little mousie bones on a sheet of card stock with glue. It sounded like a lot of fun, but parents weren't allowed in. Sweetie and I browsed the museum and watched the short film while the Things Rangered. They emerged about an hour later with a shiny metal badge and their mouse bone collage (which we were quite sure would not survive the trip home). Thing 2 was particularly pleased because he found FIVE shoulder blades.

After a quick picnic lunch, we headed out on the Borrego Palms Canyon hike, which Sweetie has covered quite nicely in her hiking blog, so I won't go into detail, other than to say it was quite pleasant, and we did meet our goal of seeing many desert wildflowers.

It was with some tired Things that we returned to the car and headed up the rise to the campsite. The wind had picked up some, so now it was probably around 15 knots, and it was getting dark and chilly. We didn't have a table at the campsite, so we cooked in the back of the car (with the hatchback open). We did a ground turkey lettuce wrap, which was pretty good, but sand was starting to blow around, so sometimes a little crunchy. We decided to just head into the tent after dinner. Having neglected to bring cards, we ended up reading and the Things played with their new puppets they bought at the Park, Hootie (an owl) and Jake Fuzzy Nelson (a coyote). About 8pm we decided to call it a night.

The winds were howling. The tree was not much help. Some of the tent stakes were pulled from the ground. It was loud. I was having trouble falling asleep, as was Sweetie and the Things. The Things were worried the tent would blow away. Sweetie was concerned how the morning would go. I, on the other hand, tried to construct in my head a scenario in which we would need to evacuate during the night: a tear forms in the tent (maybe from a branch of the tree?), the wind proceeds to tear the tent to shreds, and there we are trying to pack our gear in the dark in the wind to find shelter elsewhere. That didn't come to pass, but it was fun to worry about while my sleeping pad (which didn't hold air) deflated. At one point I thought to myself, "well, maybe it's close to dawn and this night is nearly over." I looked at my watch - 12:40am. The wind was still howling (the next day I looked it up - 20 knot sustained, 40 knot gusts), my pad was flat, and I was worried the boys were either cold, or had snuggled into their sleeping bags because they were cold and were slowly suffocating. I get this from my father. Finally, around 1:30, the winds died down some and I got some sleep.

I'll quit here for today and finish up tomorrow.

A Simple Plan

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie A Simple Plan, but the story goes something like this: three guys find airplane wreckage in the woods with a bag full of cash. They decide to sit on the money until spring, and then split it and move away from the small town they live in. Unfortunately, the 'simple plan' goes wrong because, well, people are greedy and stupid, and $4M makes you kinda paranoid. In the end, everyone is either dead or unhappy, and the money is up in smoke, so it was all for nothing.

Now, what does this have to do with our camping trip to Anza-Borrego State Park? Well, we did find a plane wreck full of cash... No, not really. We did have a simple plan for a nice weekend, which sort of spiraled down into a suburbanite survival adventure. Let me explain.

Sweetie thought it would be nice over Spring Break to head out to the desert while the flowers were still blooming to see, well, all the pretty flowers blooming. Being the hardy variety of suburbanite, we decided it would be fun to camp. I should note that the last time we camped in the desert, it was 118F when we arrived. We cleverly were planning our trip in a cooler period of the year, so we did not anticipate a repeat of that experience. The plan was to go over to the mainland on the Friday boat (arriving around 2pm), drive out to ABSP, camp Friday night, see the park Saturday, camp Saturday night, do a longish hike Sunday, camp Sunday night, drive to the Salton Sea Monday morning to do some birding, and then drive back to San Pedro.

Logistics for a camping trip, when the first part of the trip is 'Get on a boat', are a little more complicated. While we would be car camping, the car would be our tiny Prius, which doesn't hold much more than the four of us and a cooler. So we pulled the car topper we used for our Trek Across America (see my July 2007 blog postings) out of the shed, filled it with camping goodies, and we were on our way.

The boat trip was uneventful. I spent most of it talking to some colleagues who had been out on the island for a meeting I had organized, the Things were in the wheelhouse learning how to use the radar, sonar and AIS software. (Capt Trevor was very patient.) We arrived, hauled all our gear to the car, and managed to squeeze it all in. We had two stops to make before leaving, one to the apartment to drop off a bag for the post-trip activities (doctor and dentist appointments for the boys) and the other to REI to pick up our new GPS unit. So we got a later start than planned for.

We took the 91 east, not running into serious traffic until we were approaching Riverside. I don't know why there's always such bad traffic around Riverside. Who in their right mind would want to live out there? (And commute into LA, I mean.) This reminds me of the people who live in Hagerstown and commute to DC, except there's like a million more of them. Anyway, we had dinner in Corona, hoping some of the traffic would clear up, which it did, some. We then headed south on 15.

When we hit Temecula, I had no idea it was the last bastion of civilization, so I neglected to fuel up. Forty minutes later, with at least forty minutes still ahead of us to get to the park, we were on our last bar of gas, and in the middle of nowhere. Sweetie and I began to get anxious, which started making the Things anxious. Night was now falling, and we were feeling less and less enthusiastic about camping. After passing through one 'town' (Santa Ysabel, which, to my knowledge, consists of one 'Resort' and one gas station that closes at 6pm), we were losing the last of our optimism. Fortunately, a few miles down the road we ran into Julian. Not some guy, a town named Julian (elev. 4200 ft). They had an open gas station. Hooray! Crisis averted. We could now get to someplace to sleep for the night.

Wait a minute. We were in a cute little town (in some creepy fog that had rolled in). Why not stay there? So we browsed around for a hotel. The one hotel on the main street was full, and the other 'inns' appeared to be more of the bed & breakfast variety that don't appreciate last-minute arrivals. So we took an absolutely insane road (Rt. 78 - more like skiing slalom (and dropping like a stone) than driving for the first 4 miles and then straight as an arrow for the next 4 - after that I guess it's creativity is spent and it turns into a normal road) down to Borrego Springs (elev. 600 ft). On the plus side, Sweetie and I spotted a spotted skunk, which was gorgeous; on the minus side, the Things were extremely anxious about not finding a hotel. At this point it was about 10pm. Finally, we did find a room at Staunlands Resort Inn and Suites, which was reasonably cheap, but stretched the definition of both 'Resort' and 'Suite' (and perhaps 'Staunland'). It had beds though, so everyone in our car was happy.

Well, I'm exhausted, and we haven't even really started yet. More tomorrow!