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Archived Newsletter |
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March 2007
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ANZA BORREGO SNOWRUN Snow run you say? Let me explain. The day started out with great anticipation of doing the famous "Turkey Track" section of the fabled Coyote Canyon trail in the upper region of Anza-Borrego State Park. Since the park's closure of the middle section between the middle and upper willows parts of the trail, most of the 4 wheel drive runs have been on the lower section of the trail. It's easy to combine it with other trails in the area since it's a "in-and-out-the-same-way" deal, since the closure. The upper part, starting in the town of Anza, has been pretty much forgotten about because of its out of the way starting point. The Turkey Track section has always had the reputation of being the more difficult section and the "grand finale" of the historic trail. Even the guide books charge it with being difficult enough to re-consider doing it, and hiking instead. Hence the decision to do the trail after so many years, and seek out something different from the past Jeep runs. We made reservations at Anza RV "Resort," as did the Kellys. It's just down the road from the trail head. Dave Trice, Paul & Debbie, and Jim Hein with sister, Sandy along, all drove up for the day. With great anticipation, we all headed out only to get onto the wrong road to the trail. Lots of new construction and roads in the area got me turned around. We finally found the "trail" to be paved through a new sub-division for about the first mile. Further on, we passed a group of Land Rovers airing down, making ready to run the trail. The leader was some expedition company. Little did they know what was to come. Turns out, we never did put our vehicles in 4WD, much less low range. You could see where the graders have left tracks and shoved rocks off to the side. Our biggest problem was trying to get our shocks adjusted to settle out the bouncing. Turkey Track was turkeyed out. We went all the way to the closure, near Bailey's cabin, without any trouble at all. So we backtracked to a side trail, Alder Canyon, and explored that one all the way to the end. Finally we shifted into low for one little section just before the trail ended. At least the day was sunny and we found a great lunch spot next to a running stream and had plenty of shade. After lunch, we were back in camp before 3. What a bust! I'd researched another trail from the area that I was hoping to take on Sunday. The trail is just a road that leads to Toro Peak via Santa Rosa Peak. Basically, it's just a road to microwave towers with great views of the desert region. We decided to go and see if we could make it before sunset. Dave left for home but the rest of us went for it. The road leads off of Highway 74 and goes south up to 8,000'. Anza sits around 4,000' We got up into the trees and started hitting snow on the trail. At least we could use 4 wheel drive! As we got higher, the snow got thicker with longer sections. As we neared the top of Santa Rosa, the trail got real steep and slippery so, finally, low range was required. On top, you could see down into Coyote Canyon and into Anza Borrego. You could see the Salton Sea all the way south to Brawley. If it was clearer, we could have seen the ocean. And for you Geocache aficionados, I signed 8 of us in as Fun in the Sun on the peak. On the way back down we had a spectacular sunset. Sometimes, you never know what you'll find. Turned out a good run after all.
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