Bounder First time out in the Rig Story

Some time ago, when Rock hounding in a "Rig" was new to us, Hubby and I decided to go out to Wiley's Well for the first time. This is a favorite winter dig in the desert east of the L.A. Basin.

We were looking at the map and figured that we were supposed to turn up something called Milpidas Wash out on one of the desert highways. This State highway, a two lane road, was very narrow in spots and even served as a sort of sand collector for the many wintertime "gullie washers" below the numerous arroyos. When we reached Milpidas Wash, which was clearly marked as a road on the BLM map, we thought nothing of the fact that the sand seemed a little bit loose. This was a Bounder, built for this travel on unpaved roads! Yeay!

The Bounder was not yet loaded to it's full capacity. We were new to this "Rig" thing, so we had yet to learn about all the cubbyholes that could be filled with the minimal "Ten Thousand Things". This is probably what saved us, that and my husband's good driving. Maybe it was Beginner's luck, or that "fool's rushing in where Angel's fear to tread" thing, etc, etc.. Anyway, off we went and we were on our way up this "road". This was the most spectacular dirt roading experience we'd had so far. This was what a Bounder was built for!

As we went further and further, the going would get a little steeper and rockier in places and then settle down to sand. It was also getting later and later. The sun was getting lower, and we were starting to think that we wouldn't get off this road until after twilight. It was supposed to be an easy drive to the campground from the highway. So, we just kept at it. We couldn't even find the road in some places but we got out and used our best Indian tracker skills to locate scratches on the shaley rocks, anything for a clue about where this alleged road was supposed to be. Heehee.

We came to a rocky shelf. The views were spectacular, but we were really out there and it didn't look like this "road" had been used recently so we began to wonder why. Out came the map and sure enough this was marked as a properly maintained dirt track that was suitable for less than four wheel drive. We'd already driven about 40 miles on it, and that part didn't make any sense but with these maps some things never do. It did get very narrow and rocky and hard to clear in places, and it still didn't look like it had been used at all on this normally busy weekend in the winter. Now, we were driving a 28 foot vehicle, made for dry camping but not for off roading. Our brows began to furrow. As we looked at each other with brave smiles, the unspoken question was, "Are we lost?"

Finally we came to what we knew was a proper road and started down it, thinking we would see the pie pans and our own clubs little signs on the right hand side of the road because we were supposed to see them there. Rockhounds put out brightly colored pie pans and paper plates on sticks driven into the ground to point the way into a dry camping area.

About 5 more miles down this new road I glanced back at some pie pans on the left, and there they were, our clubs signs. We had arrived! We stopped and went to the next turn out and backtracked. Soon after we stopped the sun set but not before our friends all rushed out and started saying things like. "Wow, we saw your rig sail by from the wrong direction and couldn't believe it! You came up out of nowhere!"

So we came to find out that we had taken a road that had been closed earlier in the week to all but four wheel drives because of washouts and flash floods, and we had driven across nearly 30 miles of desert arroyos that had been washed over and obscured Milpitas Wash Road between one highway and the another. And, we had done this "closed to all but four wheel drives" trek with a vehicle the size of a school bus. Welcome to Rig ownership!

We still don't know exactly where all we wandered around in that wash. Perhaps someday our tire marks and scratches will be read by other lucky fools.