Part 1: MogFest 2013

20131003-04

The Experience

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

Our trip north from San Diego we saw the oddest vehicle on the freeway near the crest of the Cajon Pass.  This is a 4x4 'vette (at least in body style).  I doubt that the vehicle would 'wheel worth a damn, but you never know.

We arrived at the KOA in Calico, CA and got set-up.  Late in the evening a U-500 camper pulled in next to us.  Next morning I got a good look at it; it is a big rig with a substantial overhang on the rear axle.

Thor is, of course, just Thor.  Thor ran like a champ seemingly anxious to be out of my driveway after sitting for a couple of months.

The U-500 camper has a slide-out.

Dawn brought moderate winds and some blowing dust.  The view of the Calico mountains was a bit hazy from the dust.

Terry's Helgeth-modified 1300L was ready to rock and roll.

Eric's DOKA provided our base of operations for the day.  He was kind enough to let us ride with him.  This DOKA is Altar-proven and came with us on one of our sand dune expeditions.

Since the MogFest party did not officially start until the afternoon, the group decided to take a run to Rainbow Canyon and then to some nearby petroglyphs.  The group decided to air down to make the trail bumps a bit more tolerable.

Alan, Joe and others were going to pre-run the trail for tomorrow, but later decided to join us on our easy route.

Joe's heavily modified 404 has been heavily modified by the trail.

Nothing shows "Mog Commitment" better than a special tattoo.

This 404 DOKA is trail-ready.

We headed into Rainbow Canyon through a narrow road.

There were plenty of interesting geological structures visible from the trail.

The uplift followed by faulting and erosion produced interesting cliffs.

The warping exposed many layers of multi-colored strata.

Some of the dip angles of the uplift were quite severe.

Look carefully at the lip that the warping has exposed.  The lip is actually curved around to the right around the ridge line.

More interesting strata was exposed by the faulting and uplift.

This mud formed "popcorn" structures not unlike seen in caverns.

As we headed south, the cliffs became higher.

We followed the trail for a few miles then turned to the north into the hills covered by volcanic ejecta.  Along the route, we stopped at a site with a  few petroglyphs and decided to eat lunch.

One of the kids had an RC 406 that was kicking up dust attacking the hills.

The little truck was actually quite capable on obstacles of the same scale.

About another mile up the canyon we came upon some better petroglyphs carved into the desert patina.



These were not the best petroglyphs in the area, but far from the worst.



These are clearly desert sheep.




This panel was quite busy.



Not all the rock writing was ancient.  But, 1961 was quite awhile ago.



Getting to this area in 1933 must have been quite an undertaking.



There was no information available about the age of the primitive rock art.



This inscription was dated 1824.  Back then, this area was very remote.



Some of these symbols are found in rock art throughout the American West.

We explored the surrounding cliffs for more petroglyphs but found no more.  So, we loaded up and headed back to camp.

We had a pot luck dinner with tons of good food.  Joe and Tammy fried a whole turkey, Eric made "Mariachi Chicken", Kathleen lasagna.  There were many other dishes as well and nobody went hungry.

Tomorrow, we do the "official" trail run.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2013, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.