Jawbone Canyon, California, November 4-5, 2012

Sunday: Move Day

The move to Jawbone Canyon took us through a lot more sagebrush and sand.  We took a side trip to the town of Ridgecrest in search of groceries.  We had planned to stock up in Bishop four days ago, but the only market we could find had no parking for rigs the size of ours, so we kept on going.  We found both a Wal-Mart and an Albertsons side by side, with plenty of parking.  After taking care of business, I set the Tom-Tom for our next destination, only to have it route us onto a dirt road which we could see went on for miles across the valley to SR 14.  We passed on that and ended up detouring farther north to catch a paved road.


The Jawbone ORV area is located on State Route 14.  There are tons of dispersed camping sites located off the main roads as well as the side roads.  We eventually found one we liked off Dove Springs Road, and after leveling up, opened the door for the cats to explore.  They were a hoot.

We parked next to a fairly deep erosion ditch the cats could range around in.  The birds spent a lot of time teasing Bailey.  They live in the brush at the edge and they kept nattering at him until he’d chase; then they would fly farther down the ditch. Bailey and Andy would slink around down in the ditch, hiding from ‘prey’ and each other, pouncing on imaginary critters and having a blast.

Monday: Ride Day

In the morning we talked to some quad riders about maps for the area, and they pointed us to Jawbone Station.  This Visitors Center had maps of many areas, so I had to buy some.  My California map collection continues to grow!  Guess we’ll just have to come back some time.

From Jawbone Station we headed out on the Jawbone Canyon road.  This took us past some huge hill climbs, the kind that had Wayne wondering how you get down once you have gone up them.  The area is riddled with old 2 track roads.

 

The newest use for this stark land is Wind Farms.  Much of the land around the canyon road is private property, and the owner is probably making a ton of money, renting his land out for wind mills.

 

 

We followed the road up into a large valley, and from there followed the signs to the Piute Mountain Road.  The hills began with juniper trees, and then with a tree I didn’t recognize, but it made great tunnels to ride through.

On the way to the Piute Mountains

Tunnel Trees; check out the roots on the left.  You’d think that tree would fall over

Soon we were back up in the pine trees, and the Sequoia National Forest.  Not many sequoias in this portion, but there are several large groves of the giant Sequoias located in this forest. We traveled on several ridgeline roads, and crossed the Pacific Crest Trail.  What a waste.  It looked very unused in this area.  However the motorized single track trails Wayne found had plenty of motorcycle tracks on them.  It looks like a good sized system.  With more time, and another partner to ride with, Wayne would have been happy to evaluate them all.  But with just one day, and only me as a partner, he had to pass.  Where is Doc Johnson or JD when you need them?

 

We came across evidence of an old sawmill operation, along with this sawdust burner.  It is obvious that this area had been logged clean to give them clear space to work, but the trees have already returned, and are big enough to need to be logged again.  And why is timber not considered a renewable resource??

This area is such a study in contrasts.  We went from heavily forested hills to this in just a couple of turns.

Check out the road down to the valley, yep that is where we are going!

At the bottoms of the valley road is the old town site of Sageland.  In the 1860’s it was the support town for the surrounding mines.  However the mines played out and the town soon followed.  Nothing remains at this site now.

Sageland Town Site

From here we took the Dove Springs road back to camp.  At this end it is a long winding road of deep loose sand.  We could move along fast enough to stay on top of it most of the time, but some turns were blind enough to make us slow considerably.  We thought the road would be in better shape because it is hard packed down where we are camped.  Fooled us.  What a workout!

Once back at camp we had to get ready to go back to civilization.  Tomorrow we move to Temecula near San Bernardino, home of Chapparell Motorsports.  For the next 10 days or so we will be hanging around San Diego and Baja Mexico, in preparation of Wayne and Bob running a pit for the factory KTM Motorcycle team at the Baja 1000.  The bad news is that the weather is caving in, even in San Diego.  the day time highs should only be in the 60's and rain is expected.  Bummer.