anza borrego 24hr trip

a few weeks ago i recived a email from sky(velo cult) asking if id be interested in doing a cargo bike ride and then possibly camping. within a few days of searching for a 30ish mile route that was somewhat flat that we could camp at we found the anza borrego jeep trails. during this time we were in the middle of a huge rain storm and with the trail being mostly soft beach like sand we figured leaving a few days after the rain would leave us a perfectly hard pack trail.

so in the end it was sky, his good friend eamonn, and me. we loaded up the bikes and started driving out to the spot. we drove to the end of hour riding trail and picked a campsite. while there we hid some of our water and fire wood to lighten ours loads a bit. then, burrito time. we picked up quite a few burritos from the local taco shop and drove to our park n ride spot.

we started setting up our bikes and making sure we had everything with us and packed. all of a sudden sky yells out, "i cant go!" eamonn and i, worried try to get an awnser out of him. he then explains how he spaced out and brought his 29er not relizing it will not accept his bob trailer. now before giving up eamon had a bright idea for himself and sky to swap trailers becuase eamonn's was a yakima. after digging through the truck we found some washers to make it work and the journey began.

we where a few hours behind as originally planned, and to top it off our bikes were very heavey and not rolling well on the sand. the trail was not packed like we planned. we all stopped for a moment and discussed turning back as we had 30 miles left and about two hours of sunlight left. we decided to carry on untill dark and turn back, well eamonn and i did. sky wanted to keep going. eamonn and i made it back to thr truck, loaded our bikes up and took off to go follow sky. we caught up to him almost ten miles up the trail where it started to get a bit more technical. he was riding in the pitch black with nothing but a camping headlight.

after loading skys bike up we carried on the trail by truck and ended up making it the the famous 4x4 spot 'the squeeze'. we passed through fairley easily but couldnt make it up and over what was in front of us further up the trail so we turned around. now came the hard part, getting back up the squeeze. we spent about an our trying to go through at different angles. eamonn had some good experience with this and saved us by setting up rocks under the tires to get the correct grip. we got back on the highway, drove to our campsite and started setting up our tents.

the wash was very scenic and we enjoyed every bit of it. we started up our fire and made our dinner. sitting around the fire for hours in the middle of the desert is really alot more fun then it sound. we all learned and important lesson about jiffy pop and how not to cook it. we went to bed somewhat early and slept in. while waking up we noticed by a few jeeps heading out through the wash. we figured we have a whole day left, lets do the same and drive the trail.

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