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7 February 2021: Today was all about bringing together the elements of driving and navigation to cross the steepest sections of the dunes in search of a very specific point. This simulates the “black checkpoint” scenario of the Rebelle Rally where teams must navigate using only their map and compass to a precise GPS coordinate that will not have any visual marker to indicate they are there. Great fun playing in the sand and ending the day at “the swing set” …
6 February 2021: Day Two of the Barlow Dunes training brought us into the bigger dunes to face some challenges and get more comfortable “surfing the sand” while maneuvering across the steeper sections of the sand sea. There was also some review of different types of recovery scenarios …
5 February 2021: The first day of the Barlow Adventures Advance/Intermediate Dunes training got off to a great start in the smaller dunes (affectionately known as “the shitty dunes”) as we refamiliarized ourselves with the sand and the Glamis landscape. The “warm up” included some driving exercises and some free-style line-selection to navigate to a distant visual waypoint …
4 February 2021: Took some time to explore the scenic side of the sand dunes today before we start training in them tomorrow. Was nice to just appreciate their majestic beauty and feel the spirit of the deepest desert mysteries while watching the wind slowly “move” and reshape the sand dunes. Also made a short detour to the Tumco mine site near the Cargo Muchacho Mountains to explore some of the ruins…
3 February 2021: Continued the journey through the Kofa refuge across a vast empty swath of the Sonoran desert bordering the Yuma Proving Grounds, where the Army tests and develops new equipment. Didn’t see another person or vehicle on the trail all day. Exited the refuge back to pavement late in the afternoon and made it the rest of the way into Yuma…
2 February 2021: In the morning we did the Bulldog Canyon trail, picking up some trash for the LON/TreadLightly “Every Day Is a Clean Up Day” program. It was only a pound and a half of mostly cans and plastic bottles, but it was a start (and good that the trail had so little trash on it). Then hit the highway westbound to just before Quartzsite where we turned off pavement again for a detour through a remote area of the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Camp tonight was actually an old cowboy line cabin on the refuge…
1 February 2021: Crossed into Arizona early in the morning and made a brief stop at the Painted Desert before turning south towards the Phoenix area to set up camp for the night at Bulldog Canyon OHV area. This is the first camp of the trip, and bonus, a stately old saguaro cactus stood guard over our site as we watched the stars light up in a clear night sky…
THIS MONTH:
Advanced sand dune training with Barlow Adventures at the Imperial Sand Dunes in southern California. This three day driving and navigation program focuses on moving safely and effectively through large dunefields. Skills-building exercises are intended to improve pace, line choice and vehicle control, as well as developing precision map and compass navigation technique…
COMING UP SOON:
Joining in on a Ladies Offroad Network camping adventure in Arizona: Five days of fun learning out on the trail and in camp with Charlene Bower and a small group of adventure-minded ladies. The event consists of three core days of trail runs and training, and two days with additional optional activities designed around the event theme…
Trail Guiding for the California 4-Wheel Drive Association’s inaugural Death Valley Experience 2021 fundraiser event running from March 10-14, 2021. Each day will feature a choice of runs to some famous, some infamous and some secretive points of interest within Death Valley National Park. The runs will depart from Furnace Creek and from Stovepipe Wells. Some of the points of interest we will visit during Death Valley Experience 2021 include Zabriskie Point (famous), Barker Ranch (infamous) and the Racetrack (learn the secret of the moving rocks). Other points of interest include Dante’s View, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Artists’ Drive, Chloride Cliffs, Aguereberry Point, Skidoo, Titus Canyon, and Darwin Falls. All of the trail runs are suitable for novice drivers and SUVs with high clearance and 4-wheel drive…
Every Day Is a Clean Up Day in 2021. Ladies Offroad Network has partnered with TreadLightly! to create a year-long program that encourages members to pick up trash on the trails whenever they are out off-roading. Participants simply pick up the trash, weigh it, take a photo, and log the location and time it took, then upload the details. At the end of the year there will be a series of prizes based on pounds of trash removed from the trails as well as participation in other TreadLightly! initiatives. This is a great way to do some good on a local level and make a larger impact via the national program…
Looking ahead to a return to Paris as soon as possible to reconnect with friends and some favorite places in the city of light. Timing is still uncertain due to the pandemic, but we hope the trip is back on the calendar for early 2021…
THE IMPERIAL SAND DUNES
The Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, located in the southeast corner of California near the border with Arizona and the Mexican state of Baja California, is the largest mass of sand dunes in the state. The dunes are located west of the Chocolate Mountains in Imperial County, and are crossed by Interstate 8 and State Route 78, which passes through the old train stop of Glamis at the eastern edge of the dune field. Formed by windblown sands of ancient Lake Cahuilla, the dune system extends for more than 40 miles in a band averaging 5 miles wide. Widely known as “Glamis” it is an off-road paradise, with an extensive open area for OHV use. The recreation area is part of the Algodones Dunes field which extends along a northwest-southeast line that correlates to the prevailing northerly and westerly wind directions. The name “Algodones Dunes” refers to the entire geographic feature, while the administrative designation for that portion managed by the Bureau of Land Management is the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. The dunes are now separated at the southern end by agricultural land from the much more extensive Gran Desierto de Altar, to which they once were linked as an extreme peripheral “finger”. The only significant human-made structures in the area are the All-American Canal that cuts across the southern portion from east to west and the Coachella Canal on the western edge. There are several theories about the formation of these sand dunes, but the most popular theory holds that the Algodones Dunes were formed from windblown beach sands of Lake Cahuilla, which covered much of the Imperial, Coachella and Mexicali Valleys as late as 1450. Most of the dunes located north of State Route 78 are off-limits to vehicular traffic due to designation as the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness, while the area south of this road remains open for off-highway vehicle use…
KOFA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is located in Arizona northeast of Yuma and southeast of Quartzsite. The refuge, established in 1939 to protect desert bighorn sheep, encompasses over 665,400 acres of the Sonoran Desert. More than 80 percent of the refuge is designated as wilderness. The name Kofa is a contraction of the name of the King of Arizona gold mine, which was active from 1897 to 1910. The refuge is dominated by two mountain ranges, the Castle Dome and Kofa Mountains, which rise abruptly from the plains of the Sonoran Desert. Although these mountains are not especially high (the tallest peak is less than 5,000 feet), they are extremely rugged and provide excellent habitat for plant and animal species adapted to the harsh desert climate. Towering saguaro cacti reach up to 50 feet in height and are perhaps the most distinctive cacti found on the refuge. Able to store large quantities of water in their leaves, stems or roots, cacti thrive in the desert climate. Closer to the ground, prickly pear, cholla, hedgehog, pincushion, and barrel cacti, as well as desert night-blooming cereus, thrive. The vast desert environment is host or home to numerous mammal species, the majority of which are nocturnal and forage at night while the temperatures is cooler. Motorized vehicle traffic is limited to designated roads identified by numbered markers at junctions and vehicles may pull off and park only up to 100 feet from designated roads. Speed is limited to 25 MPH, or less as posted. Campers may select their own campsites. However, camping within 1/4 mile of water is prohibited by State law …
Nesconset | Paris | Belgrade | Akron | St. Louis | Clinton | Grants | Yuma | Borrego Springs | Laughlin | Baker | Barstow | Ridgecrest | Lone Pine | Death Valley | Beatty | Sedona | Phoenix
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
15-31 January – Roadtrip Southwest
1-14 January – Long Island
22-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
15-21 December – Holiday Roadtrip
7-14 December – Holiday Roadtrip
1-6 December – Long Island
15-30 November – Long Island
1-14 November – Long Island
28-31 October – Roadtrip East
22-27 October – Moab
15-21 October – Moab
8-14 October – Moab
1-7 October – Roadtrip West
16-30 September – Roadtrip West
1-15 September – Long Island
16-31 August – Long Island
1-15 August – Summer Roadtrip
22-31 July – Summer Roadtrip
14-21 July – Summer Roadtrip
1-13 July – Long Island
16-30 June – Long Island
1-15 June – Bald Eagle
16-31 May – Central PA
1-15 May – Re-opening Trails
April – Lockdown NY
16-31 March – Lockdown NY
9-15 March – Roadtrip Home
1-8 March – Moab
23-29 February – Vegas to Anza Borrego
15-22 February – Southwest Roadtrip
8-14 February – Southwest Roadtrip
1-7 February – Glamis to Vegas
27-31 January – Yuma to Glamis
15-26 January – Nevada to Arizona
Archive
EVENTS
LADIES OFFROAD NETWORK NONCON 2020
Recap from the Ladies Offroad Network camping and wheeling event, dubbed the “NonCon” as in “not the convention,” that came together after the official convention was cancelled due to the pandemic… [read]
RE-OPENING
Report from the first trail run with the Off Road Consulting group at Rausch Creek Off Road Park as the post-pandemic phased re-openings begin in Pennsylvania and some of our favorite local trails re-open to the public after the two-month shutdown… [read]
SPECIAL REPORT
A look into south-eastern Algeria on the border with Libya and Niger: overlanding with the Tuareg in one of the most remote corners of the Sahara … [read]
