New Anza Borrego plates

I was excited to see that this license plate was available on the DMV's website. Not really sure of a better way you could spell out Anza Borrego with 7 letters? This is what I came up with and I think it works pretty good.

CPUC believes SDG&E has lied regarding Sunrise Powerlink facts

Union Tribune Article Here!

No surprise since SDG&E's whole Sunrise Powerlink campaign has been based on lies and misrepresentations. This article is in reference to one of the alternate southern routes.

Facts that SDG&E does not want you to know.

• San Diego does not need the Sunrise Powerlink to meet it's energy needs.
• Sunrise Powerlink's main objective is to get fossil fuel generated power from Mexico to Southern Orange County and Los Angeles.
• 500 KW towers are harmful to wildlife, ugly and help make lot's of $$$ for SDG&E

Sunrise Powerlink decision delayed until end of year.

In yet another set back for SDG&E the California Public Utilities Commission has ordered a "re-circulation of the draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Sunrise Powerlink."   According to the Union Tribune article the CPUC would like further in depth analysis  of the technical feasibility and the economic benefits of the various alternatives cited in the DEIR.

What does this mean for us?

• The CPUC's decision is delayed to the end of the year and not the end of the summer as was orignally planned. This gives us more time to get the word out to the public, politicians and others that the Sunrise PowerLink is not in our best interests environmentally, economically or technically.

You can read the Union Tribune Article here.

 Stay tuned for more opportunities to participate in stopping this project and plan on attending  Ranchita Rocks at the end of the summer.

Bob

Sunrise Powerlink Final CPUC Hearing

You would think that the Monday 1PM schedule would deter many Sunrise PowerLink opponents from making the trek out to Borrego Springs for the final CPUC hearing. 
Not true!
This is a passionate group of grassroots people who don't want unnecessary 500 KW powerlines strung through protected California State Park land and pristine San Diego back country.

This hearing was different in a couple ways. First it was the only time that 4 of the 5 CPUC Commisioners would be present and second it was the last chance for the public to express their concerns, opinions, and views to the CPUC.

While most attendees such as myself merely had to endure  drizzle, thick fog and road construction to get to the hearing, Dennis Trafecanty , a Sunrise Powerlink opponent, ran 50 miles overnight throught the Desert  to arrive at the Borrego Springs Resort by 12 noon. How is that for making a statement ?!

Another hilight was the banner that the Sierra Club put together with all of the postcards that were collected at Earth Day. During Micah's public comment a group of us walked the banner in (all 27' of it) and paraded it in front of the commissioners. Pretty fun to do and I think it was very effective.

I am glad there were so many people that were willing to drive out to Borrego to voice their opinions against this ridiculous proposal. Besides the core group I am starting to notice some new faces so it looks like the word is getting out. Now we wait until we hear from the CPUC. They are expected to make a decision sometime this summer so check your local papers and the Smart Energy Website for updates.

Bob

Sunrise PowerLink Advocacy Hike

This past Saturday morning Mary, Kaiel, Diesel and I joined David Hogan and the Sierra Club on an advocacy hike out in Ramona. The hike was an effort to illustrate that in addition to  scarring a path through Anza Borrego, the Sunrise Powerlink would run through some beautiful areas of the San Diego backcountry.

The weather for the hike was a bit on the warm side and hats and sunscreen were necessary. We hiked in the morning sun for close to an hour and in that time we saw an eagle, a flat-tailed horned lizard and a pretty cool looking large brown spider.

Thanks to Micah for organizing this hike and thanks to David Hogan for sharing his knowledge. It is good to see that we have so many that are dedicated to stopping this proposal. 

Slideshow with all the pictures.

Earth Day versus Sunrise PowerLink

The Sierra Club's Smart Energy Solutions campaign could not have had better timing to promote its' Sunrise PowerLink alternatives.
On Saturday I helped set up a table at the Patagonia store in Cardiff to take Polaroid pictures and collect comments from people. As opposed to SDG&E's $45,000 glossy ad campaign that is rammed down our throats, these grassroot type events reach people on a more personal level, giving them the chance to ask questions. The event was a bit on the small side but we did manage to collect alot of postcards that will be presented to the California Public Utilities Commission on May 12 in Borrego Springs.

On a much grander scale, and I mean GRANDER, Earth Day in Balboa Park is like a huge rock concert with tens of thousands of people. By the time I arrived at the Smart Energy Solutions Booth for my shift  the Polaroid film was gone and according to Micah (the Smart Energy Solutions organizer) they had collected 300 comment cards. I also met Larry Hogue from the Desert Protective Council who was kind enough to give my website a mention in his great BLOG. I think the Sierra Club, various watchdog groups and community organizations are doing a great job on getting the word out to the public.
We don't need the Sunrise PowerLink !!

Next stop Borrego Springs on May 12 for the CPUC hearing.

Bob

Carrizo Gorge trail to Goat Canyon

Well I have been studying Google maps as well as my GPS map software and it looked like it was possible to hike along Carrizo Gorge/Creek trail to the mouth of Goat Canyon . If you have been reading my BLOG you know that Goat Canyon is home of the world famous Goat Canyon Trestle. At two hundred feet tall and 750 feet long, it is one of the  tallest, longest wood trestles ever built often described as an engineering marvel or "the impossible railroad". 

Previously, when it was somewhat legal, we hiked along the tracks from Dos Cabezas to reach the trestle and in another adventure, Mary Kaiel and I did a 3 hour hike from Mortero Wash to reach the trestle. This time I wanted to try to access it from along the canyon floor. Armed with my new Delorme GPS and steadfast confidence Mary and I jumped in her Toyota Tacoma and drove out to Anza Borrego. We hit some pretty strong winds driving over the Tecate Divide but once we dropped down into Ocotillo the wind settled down.

Pulled off the S2 at Carrizo Creek, put the Tacoma in low range and headed down the trail.  The trail heading south through Carrizo Gorge actually goes pretty far in and there are a few somewhat technical 4-wheel sections towards the end. Let me clarify, technical for a stock, non-lifted Tacoma. I don't think the modified  jeeps that drove past us had any trouble, but then again they were running 35" tires and we were still using the useless 30" Dunlops that came with the truck..

According to my GPS we were about 3 miles from the mouth of Goat Canyon from where we parked . That distance is a bit misleading in that it is "as the crow flies" and I knew we would be scampering over boulders, squeezing through marsh reeds (carrizo) and trying to avoid the prolific cholla in certain areas. Still Mary and I were game and headed off along the canyon floor.

The trail was pretty obvious in some places and at times would completely disappear. The GPS was very helpful in keeping us on course  as were the "ducks" (trail markers). This seldom explored area of Anza Borrego is beautiful and amazingly quiet. We were constantly scouring the surrounding mountains in hope of seeing  Bighorn Sheep. No sheep but we did get an impressive view of the Carrizo Gorge railroad high above the canyon floor.

After about an hour and a half of hiking the trail disappeared and we were confronted by a somewhat impenetrable forest. Up to this point we had been collecting scrapes and cholla thorns so the thought of squeezing through yet more vegetation was not that appealing. We opted to turn around this point which was unfortunate since the GPS showed we had 7/10 of a mile to go.

I would love to know if anyone has completed this hike to Goat Canyon so let me know in the comments.

Until next time,
Bob

| Link to Photo Album | (Link To Slideshow) |

SANDAG votes on the Sunrise PowerLink

I was invited to attend the SANDAG meeting by the San Diego Sierra Club so I decided to drive downtown to give my comments .

I am embarassed to say that I never even knew the purpose of SANDAG and what the acronym stood for.
For those of you that don't know SANDAG is the San Diego Association of Governments and is governed by a Board of Directors composed of mayors, councilmembers, and county supervisors from each of the San Diego's 19 local governments.

From what I have understood SANDAG has already decided in favor of the Sunrise PowerLink.  In a nutshell  the Regional Planning Committee (RPC) has already recommended to the SANDAG Board of Director's that they support SDG&E's Sunrise PowerLink project.  Kind of makes you wonder if SANDAG is just going through the motions on hearing public input.

There were a lot of "suits" in the meeting room so I began to worry that all the comments were going to be one-sided and slanted towards why we need the Sunrise PowerLink. Luckily as it got closer to 9AM some familiar faces began to show up. Some notable comments were given by Dennis Trafecanty, Kathleen Beck and others.

I was also excited to hear that my city council members Maggie Houlihan and Teresa Barth are opposed to the Sunrise PowerLink. I had emailed the Encinitas City Council a while back and received this response:

 Dear Mr. Baran;
Our council has had presentations on it, but have taken no position. I personally believe we need greater redundency re our electrical supplies, and doubt we can locate enough in-basin power plants, or economically meet our needs completely using distributed generation. So in general I am supportive of the need for aded transmission lines / capacity, but have no position relative to any specific alignment. I figure that's really up to the CPUC, not the City of Encinitas, and tend to focus my energies on that which is within my area of responsibility.

I hope that helps;

Unfortunately before I was given an opportunity to speak the SANDAG Board decided to take a 45 minute closed session break. Couldn't wait around any longer and handed my comments to the clerk. Micah from the Sierra Club told me later that they read my comments out loud, so I do feel a little better.

Be sure to look in tomorrow's paper for the outcome of the SANDAG vote.

Update : (Thanks Kelly)
SANDAG board backs Sunrise Powerlink by 17-3 vote

Bob

SDG&E Will Campaign To Sway Public

Boy aren't you glad your utility bill is going to pay for SDG&E's media blitz?

http://www.10news.com/news/15772054/detail.html?rss=sand&psp=news.

Part of the biased 10 News Article states,
"The Sunrise Powerlink is a proposal to build a 150-mile line to link solar and geothermal fields in the Imperial Valley to San Diego".
Not true.
SDG&E 's real motive is to tap into cheap fossil-fuel generated energy from Mexico and sell the power to Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Billboards, Internet advertising and radio ads?
Don't be swayed. SDG&E stands to make a LOT of money if the Sunrise Powerlink goes through, and guess who is going to foot the bill? That's right you and me.

Why not use the $1.3 Billion to subsidize solar initiatives for home owners and businesses so we can become energy independent?
Oh that's right SDG&E won't make money this way.

Let's not forget what SDGE did to us in the early 2000's with price gouging, deceit, and rolling blackouts.

Windy Anza Borrego

Rounded up the crew for an overnight trip to Anza Borrego's RockHouse Canyon.
Great sunny weather but the wind at night proved to be a little much. Casualties were Kaiel's REI tent and a sleepless night for most of the campers.
 
Coffee and breakfast helped us recover and after breakfast we did a late morning hike up to the RockHouse Canyon linehouse where we were able to check out the fauna.
Seems the wildflowers have reached their peak in this area and are starting to disappear but the cactus blooms are beginning to show.

Beavertail blooms in RockHouse Canyon	HedgeHog Cactus with blooms

Can you spot the flat-tailed horned lizard?	BJ70 Base Camp

Another wildlife encounter came in the form of a rattlesnake moving down the jeep trail in Carrizo Gorge. Mark's son Tim was able to snap this picture as the rattler moved away. 

More to come....

View the SlideShow  or the PhotoAlbum

Governor Schwarzenegger "terminates" brother-in-law Bobby Shriver

Governor Schwarzenegger lived up to his Terminator persona and dropped his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver from the CA State Parks Commission.  

Is this move in response to Commissionser Shriiver's opposition to the Sunrise PowerLink and the 241 Toll Road Extension which the Governor supports ?
My guess is as good as yours but ahem....

The following quote is from the LA Times :

Several environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Surfrider Foundation and the California State Parks Foundation, said they submitted a letter to state Senate leaders Tuesday requesting a hearing into the oversight of state parks. They based their request on Schwarzenegger's treatment of the two commissioners, his proposal to close 48 parks because of the state's fiscal crisis and his support for development in parks.

In case you didn't know Governor Schwarzenegger supports the Sunrise PowerLink and has sent a letter to the California Public Utilies Commission urging them to follow suit.

Governor Letter To CPUC (PDF 183.80 kb)

If you would like to respond to Governor Schwarzenegger and tell him why the Sunrise PowerLink is the wrong choice for San Diego write a letter to the editor..

Thanks,
Bob

Anza Borrego SOLO

Since free weekends were disappearing faster than the money in my checking account I decided to take a solo mid-week trip out to Anza Borrego . I had read that the flower season was going to be "peaking" in the first two weeks of March so I was really anxious to check things out.  

I left Leucadia around 3:30 PM on Wednesday, topped off the BJ70 with bio-diesel in El Cajon and dropped down into Ocotillo around 5:30PM.  Not bad considering the Bj70 with its' 90 hp diesel motor does not like hills and the trek out via Interstate 8 is nothing but hills. Basically the 8 will take you from sea level to 4500' then drop you back down to sea level around the town of Ocotillo..

I ended up camping on Egg Mountain which is near the mouth of the Carrizo Creek / Gorge jeep trail. What's nice about Egg Mountain is that at an elevation of 900' you get a 360' view of the surrounding desert. The area was blanketed with flowers as far as the eye could see. Since it was dusk the lighting was pretty good but I decided I would wait until morning to take flower pictures.

Ocotillo Bloom at Dusk	Sunrise at Egg Mountain	Morning at camp

The next morning I had barely brewed my first cup of coffee  and looked down and saw a scorpion. He was busily heading on a path that would have taken him directly over my foot. I managed to snap a few pictures but he was a bit camera shy and very fast.

Scorpion that charged my foot	Desert Dandelions.	Indian Paintbrush

After breakfast I drove down Carrizo Gorge trail and parked at the entrance to Rock House Canyon. I was really anxious to try out this new GPS I purchased off Amazon. I set a waypoint at the start of my hike and headed up the wash in the direction of the cattlemen's line house. The flowers were intense. Everywhere you looked the ground was carpeted with colors of yellow, pink or blue. I didn't notice too many flowers on the cholla and other cacti so i am guessing that will happen later.

The hike up to the linehouse took about an hour and was around 2.7 miles according to the GPS.

Desert Sunflowers frame the linehouse		Desert Sunflowers

Hiking mid-week in the Anza Borrego Desert by yourself is interesting. The only sound you hear besides your foot steps are the various creatures going about their routines and birds sounding an alarm that you are approaching.
Using the GPS made all the difference. Although I have hiked this wash before it is really nice to know how far you are from your truck and what direction it is in.

Pics are here

Sunrise Powerlink CPUC Hearing

I took a long lunch and drove to downtown San Diego to the California Public Utilities Commission meeting at the San Diego County Building. Of course downtown parking is a nightmare, so $13.00 later I showed up and signed in with the Sierra Club. I came to find later that there was free parking right next to the County building.  Note to self : read email thoroughly next time.

We all stood around while the proponents of the PowerLink ; various politicians, business owners and SDG&E paid flunkies each got up and said how much we need the Sunrise PowerLink to ensure San Diego's economic future. It was really hard for us to listen to but we toughed it out and held up anti-PowerLink signs and banners. It was pretty funny because the pro PowerLink group were wearing green T-Shirts to signify enviro-friendly or whatever you want to call it.  Whatever side you are on : putting 160 ft. 500 Kw towers through a State Park is far from being environmentally friendly.

I signed up to speak at the desk and was given number 76 which at 3 minutes a pop meant I would have been there almost 4 hours waiting. Luckily there were a lot of people speaking that were far more articulate than me and they pretty much said what I wanted to say. I turned in my speech to the desk and drove back to UCSD.

I heard some great points being made. One of the strongest I thought was a lady who stated "Why are we even here? When a place is designated as a State Park why are we allowing businesses and politicians to come in and try to take it away?". Good point and I hope the CPUC really thinks hard on that one.

PowerLink Briefing

I drove out to Ramona  Monday evening to attend the Community Briefing put on by the Sierra Club. Very informative meeting regarding SDG&E's proposed Sunrise Powerlink. To summarize, regardless of the lies SDG&E is feeding the public, the Sunrise Powerlink Project :

1. Would be a huge cost burden to ratepayers
2. Will do nothing to reduce global warming
3. Will irreversably damage our rural back country including Anza Borrego and the Clevland National Forest.
4. Will rely on fossil fuel generated sources form Mexicali

Author Bill Powers discusses the PowerLink's shortcomings	A little music to get the crowd fired up.
Powerlink and fire danger illustration

If you are interested in further reading, I found a great document on the San Diego Smart Energy Website which discusses "Myth versus Facts" . You can view it by clicking the link below.

SRPL_mythvsfact.pdf (858.91 kb)

RockHouse Canyon

I read about a spot called RockHouse Canyon so I convinced Mary to take a trip out to Anza Borrego to try and find it. Apparently it is accessible off Carrizo Canyon which was perfect since it is one of our favorite areas in the Anza Borrego Desert. 

On the way out there were still plenty signs of snow from the storm that came through a few days back. People were actually stopping off the 8 freeway to play in the snow. We had actually planned on stopping in Pine Valley on the way out to get our snow fix but decided a beer Ocotillo's Lazy Lizard was a little more enticing.

We spent the night on the West side of Carrizo Canyon at a spot I THOUGHT was the RockHouse Canyon trail head.  Turns out it wasn't and we ended up having to do a lot of "overlanding" through fields of cholla and ocotillo until we found the correct tributary. Bob vows to work on his math skills and reading his odometer correctly in the future.

Once we found the correct trail, which is basically a huge wash, the hike was easy. The canyon is beautiful and you find yourself surrounded by rock cliffs as you hike up the sandy trail. The silence is amazing. The only sounds we heard were the occasional planes flying high overhead.

Our goal was to get to the old cattlemen's line shack which we finally did find.  The shack is built next to a huge boulder and inside are the remains of a fireplace and a rusted bed. The rotting wood door still works which is amazing. It was pretty cool to sit inside and look out the painless window overlooking the valley. We both also noticed that the temperature inside the tin roof covered house was much cooler.

Mary in the Rock House.

We probably could have spent a few hours exploring the area but with only one bottle of water and no food, we reluctantly headed back down the wash to the FJ Cruiser for lunch. Hike up took us close to two hours while the hike back took us about an hour since we had since figured out the correct trail.

Link to photo slideshow

BJ70 in Anza Borrego

Mary and I decided to take a quick overnight trip out to Anza Borrego. I was excited to go because we were finally going to get to 4-wheel the BJ70 which we bought a few months ago. The drive out from San Diego was non-eventful. The BJ70 who we are now calling "Opie", does great on flat stretches of freeway but when you hit hills patience and downshifting become your mantra.

Once we arrived in the lazy, desert town of Ocotillo (I mean lazy in a good way) we decided to stop in for a beer at "The Lazy Lizard". After years of driving by this place it was fun to sit down in the one room bar with some of the Ocotillo locals.

After leaving the Lazy Lizard we pointed the BJ70 towards the north and our camp site in Carrizo Canyon. It was getting dark as we arrived  so we quickly setup the tent. No roof top tent this time since the racks would not accommodate the clips of the tent. This was discovered after Mary, Kaiel and I had already hoisted the tent up onto the lifted BJ70...ouch.

The next morning we took a quick run up to Egg Mountain to check out the view. Egg Mountain is around 900' in elevation and offers an excellent view of the Carrizo Creek/Canyon area. Highly recommended! 

The next stop was Canyon Sin Nombre. We dropped down into the twisty canyon and spent the morning exploring the mud caves and slot canyons in the area. The area has a prehistoric feel to it and you expect a dinosaur to pop out at any time. As is true with much of Anza Borrego this area was once the northern part of the Gulf of California and was completely underwater.

We are convinced that this coming Spring the Desert will have loads of flowers dues to all the rain we have received in the past few months. There are signs of green grass popping up anywhere. We will cross our fingers.

You can check our slideshow here.

Thanksgiving 2007

We woke up early Friday, loaded the rest of the camping stuff into the Tacoma and drove out to Ramona to meet up with Jan and Gina. Hooked up with Michael in his diesel troop carrier and headed to Anza Borrego by way of Julian.

We arrived at our camp site in the Carrizo Canyon East Fork area  and were pleasantly surprised to see it was empty. Everyone helped unload the wood, tables etc in preparation of our big Thansgiving feast.

While the turkey was cooking, Mary and Sarah went for a hike and the rest of the crew opted to hang by the camp. Jan mixed up a great batch of bloody marys and we all sat around enjoying the Desert scenery. Turkey was ready in a few hours despite our numerous times of opening the lid. Everything came out great and we even topped off the meal with pumpkin and apple pie.

The next morning we were moving a bit slow but made an excellent camp fire breakfast of eggs, ham and turkey bacon for the crew. After 3 cups of camp fire coffee we fired up the Toyotas and headed over to Egg Mountain to check out the 360' view of the Carrizo Canyon area. Kaiel ran over and checked out the geo-cache that we found a year back and checked out the log book. Seems two more people have found it since the last time we were here which is pretty cool.

This has turned out to be a great time of year to visit the Desert. While you won't find the wildflower blooms of Spring the weather has always been great.

You can check out the rest of the trip pictures here. 

Borrego Thanksgiving

We are in the process of planning our day after Thanksgiving trip out to Anza Borrego. 

Open to suggestions but would like to camp Friday in Torote Caynon / Indian Gorge or Carrizo Creek where we will dig the hole and pit roast the turkey. 

There is suppose to be a pretty good hike up to Sombrero Peak at the end of Indian Gorge road which would be cool if anyone is up for it. 

Saturday we are thinking of checking out Ghost Mountain  and the Marshall South homestead site and doing a little wheeling and exploring.  Sunday we will make breakfast do some more exploring and then make the trek back to San Diego. 

Powerlink Articles

Here are a few recent articles discussing alternatives to SDG&E's proposed PowerLink Project.

• Alternative to Powerlink is proposed
• Go Solar over Sunrise
• Taking a trip to the desert

New Site

Decided to "Blogisize" this for ease of maintenance and navigation. The old site looked great but as it got bigger it was really hard to maintain.
Hopefull now it will be a lot easier to navigate and update so stay tuned.

Here is a quick pic from a couple years ago when the wild flowers were just intense. That's our friend Jan in the background and our dog Tia in the foreground. Hopefully this year we get something close to this. It was pretty unreal to be driving through a dry sandy wash and suddenly be blinded by fields of pink and white Desert wild flowers. 

We are going to be heading out to Borrego for Thanksgiving this year. Plan is to dig a hole. Line it with rocks and leaves and throw in a turkey. Need to start reading up on this.

No Sunrise Powerlink

If you have not heard about the proposed SDG&E Powerlink project now is the time to voice your concerns to the CA State Parks Commission and the Public Utilities Commission.

After receiving this flyer in the mail from the Sierra Club I decided to drive out to Borrego Springs after work to attend the hearing. Very long drive from UCSD. I do NOT recommend doing the Banner grade in the dark.

When I arrived at the Borrego Springs Resort I was happy to see that it was standing room only.
There is a lot of opposition to this unprecedented de-designation of state park lands.

A lot of people stood up to voice their opinion . SDG&E has resorted to scare tactics arguing that if we don't have something in place by 2010 we are all going to be in the dark. C'mon now SDG&E. I would probably opt for using candle power if it means we could avoid cutting a path through Anza Borrego.  The hilight of the evening for me was a great speech by Diana Lindsay who co-authored "The Anza-Borrego Desert Region", a book we have used for years.

I left after about an hour and a half because I knew I had about an hour of driving to get to the area I wanted to camp. Rolled into Carrizo Creek around 9:30 PM. Had a couple of beers, cranked up the Maggiolina tent and fell asleep.

Next day I did a little exploring and found a Geocache by accident. I guess you are suppose to have a GPS to be able to find these capsules but I just happened to be looking down and there it was. Geocaching is kind of a game where geocachers hide these capsules with various items including a log book and then publish the coordinates on the Intenet. If you take an item, you are suppose to leave one in return. I left a couple of things along with a log entry and stuck it back in the bush.

Thanksgiving 2006

Even though we had our fill of turkey at Holly and Dave's great Thanksgiving feast; Friday evening found us once again feasting on turkey, stuffing, green geans yams and sweet potatoe pie. This time we were out in a hidden canyon in the Carrizo Canyon area. As luck would have it when we first arrived a Jeep Wrangler and an older couple in a Toyota Tacoma were just leaving. I quickly threw the FJ into 4-Low and negotiated up the canyon to secure our spot. I didn't really need 4-Low or probably even 4 wheel drive for that matter but I had to convince Mary once again our need for a 4x4 .

About an hour after we started setting up camp we heard the unmistakeable sound of two diesel engines coming up the canyon. It was Jan and Gina in their HJ60 affectionately named "Betsy" followed by Andy and Rebecca driving Jan's BJ70. It is not very often in Southern California that you see one diesel LandCruiser let alone 2 at the same time. Pretty cool !!  
Once they arrived we quickly set up camp and the eating and drinking began. We had an amazing assortment of food including a huge turkey which we BBQ roasted, sweet potatoes and every other type of food you could imagine. Logistically it was amazing that we pulled it off out in the Desert.  

The next morning, to walk off the huge meal of the night prior, we trekked further down the trail to do a hike that Mary and I have done before. It runs along the canyon floor which eventually takes you to the Goat Canyon trestle.There were some impressive tall barrel cactus along the way.

Kaiel , being a kid, had to scare his Mom by climbing the vertical collection of rocks half way down the trail, Bob being a kid at heart had to follow him and bloody up his leg in the process.

Torote Canyon Thanksgiving

Planning This Thanksgiving we decided to try something a little different. Well different for us. Anza Borrego is actually a pretty popular Thanksgiving destination due to its mild weather and beauty. First things first, I had to convince Mary that cooking a turkey out in the Desert was actually easy. A quick Web search revealed at least a dozen methods that people have used in the past, some succesful some unsuccesful. My favorite was the "Trash Can" method where you actually impale the turkey with a 3 foot stick and cook it vertically inside of a  trash can. This sounded like the easiest way to do it. Unfortunately once I began reading , I learned of the possibility of chemical contamination due to the galvanized steel used in most trash cans. Uggh...scary stuff.   Trash can method. Our Trip We then decided on the more conventional method of grilling the turkey .  The key to this is that you need a turkey that will fit into your BBQ. Luckily Mary was able to find a 9 pound turkey which was the smallest Ralphs had. Not a trash can but it worked great. (Mary) On our way out to Ocotillo we saw these 100' tall windmills. Seems like a good use for the abundance of wind out here. Giant modern windmills (East San Diego) We decided to camp in the Torote canyon area of the park. Plenty of room for the dogs to run around and not as much cholla as other places we have camped. No football games, traffic or comfy couch out here.		We finally got the grill going around 1 PM and since we really hadn't done this before had no idea how long we had to wait. Why won't these coals light ?! In the meantime while (hopefully) the turkey cooked ; we set up camp, went for a climb and went into "rancho relaxo" mode. The first thing Kaiel usually does when we arrive out here is find the largest mountain of rocks and scramble to the top. This time was no different and before you could say "mashed potatoes and stuffing" Kaiel was shouting  "Hey Look at Me !!".   Kaiel rock boy After about 1 hour the smell of turkey permeated our campsite.The challenge now is  as tempted as you are to sneak a peek you need to leave the lid closed.  We gave it one more hour and then it was time to pull the lid.    No trash can needed. Carving on the tailgate Three hours after we arrived, we were all sitting down to a great Thanksgiving dinner. Hard to beat the scenery out here sitting amongst cactus stuffing yourselves on turkey, cranberry sauce etc. Next year we are hoping to bring a bigger group with us since now we have it figured out. Happy Thanksgiving from the Barans

Water in the Desert

We took a late spring trip out with Linda and Jake to see if we could find some cactus blooms and wild flowers. Wind was blowing kind of hard so we opted to camp in our "secret" canyon in the Carrizo Gorge / Creek area of Anza Borrego . It is really protected from the wind so it seemed like the logical choice.   I always expect to see campers before we pull in but noone seems to ever camp there. Side note : I wonder if it has something to do with the precarious boulders perched overhead. Linda really enjoyed the campsite. Her Montero worked pretty well getting her and Jake up the canyon. She is now a seasoned off-roader. Mary, Jake and Kaiel hiked up to the top of the canyon wall and were treated to an incredible 360' view. View Full Photo Journal Here,

We took a wrong turn in the wash and ended up driving down this ever narrowing creek that got softer and softer. We finally stopped after a motorcycle came back from the other direction and told us it was very narrow. This particular canyon in Canyon Sin Nombre began to get pretty tight after a mile or so of driving. Kaiel and Jake acted as lookout as we creeped up this side canyon. One of the many reasons that we love Anza Borrego Desert State Park .

Anza Borrego Wildflowers

Can you say "Flowers"... We were really having seconds thoughts about this trip. The weather on the coast was pretty bad  and the news was talking about flash floods. Driving south on 805 we saw a pretty bad accident involving 6 cars. Another accident on the 8 freeway had us asking ourselves if we should really be out driving around. Lucky for us once we dropped down into Ocotillo the weather was actually nice with minimal wind. In Ocotillo we met up with Jan and Gina in their cool BJ70 diesel Land Cruiser and took them out to one of our favorite camping spots in the Carrizo Creek area. Once again our "secret" campsite was available so we parked the Cruisers and hiked further up into the side canyon. Hilights of the hike were Jan playing with this cool brown tarantula and Kaiel's rock climbing antics. View Full Photo Journal Here,

Driving out of "Canyon Sin Nombre" we were lucky to find an intense wildflower field. The Anza Borrego Desert is alive with color right now. Group shot in Canyon Sin Nombre