The 140 Mile Journey Pt. 2

Now where was I? 

Ah, days three and four. 

Photo by Sarah Ramm

So by this point my camera has died, and I brought my ipod in case I got reeeally bored and wanted to listen to some music, but I decided to use its camera ability instead. Surprisingly, the new ipod touch takes some pretty damn decent outdoor photos, and was therefore optimal for this photo happy trip. 

We stopped here for lunch on day two. It was near perfect weather, so Mikey and I took the opportunity to dry our wet stuff, which worked pretty well. Sarah made everyone some yummy chicken salad, and I would've had some Nutella if it hadn't gotten so cold it was nearly solidified.
Day three was all about the photos, really. I got some cute pictures of all of the dogs, and we went to what seemed to be an old mine site. The clouds were just surreal that day; they looked like paintings. I feel like this is what anyone who has never been to the southwest pictures it, with all the cactus and sand and pretty skies. When the weather wasn't crappy it really was pretty.

Later on we came across an interesting marker. A flagpole, with the United States flag and a sadly torn "Don't Tread On Me" flag, sat rather randomly along the trail, accompanied by a decorated metal box. In this box was a thick notebook, where obviously travelers have stopped at and written in.
(I took a picture of a really funny signature I had to point out to everyone else later. "Kris stuck it in my pooper on the Mojave Trail. Matt.")
So we signed and dated our own little moment on the Mojave Trail. I added "IT'S COLD!!!" to emphasize the time of year, because damn, it was cold the entire time.
We ran across more weird junk. A lone chimney, obviously the only thing left standing from a (probably) torn down house. A rusty bed frame.
By then we'd covered quite some distance, and it was about time to set up camp.

This was how we set up every night. The orange tarp was an addition after the first or second night to block the wind, which made a nice little safety area to eat dinner and play games. The Cooks have this amazing ability to be comfortable wherever they go. I'm loving camping more and more for several aspects:
a) Getting away from all technology
b) Not worrying about all those pesky possessions except the ones that matter
c) All the wandering and discovering
Okay, that sounds super gay and hipster. I don't know, I'm just getting a lot more out of it than I used to. It helps being with cool people when you go. I didn't even feel all that gross like you normally do when camping, since it was so cold I didn't sweat much and when I did it didn't have the chance to sit and make me smell bad.
Aaanyway dinner was pure sodium that night. We had a discussion about how bad it was for us. Packaged flavored mashed potatos, canned meat/chicken (chicken if you were smart like Rah and I) and corn. Salty salty salty. Add sugary drinks and alcohol and I'm fairly sure I gained weight on this trip. Fantastic. Good thing I have Wii Fit.

It was chilly and windy that night, but thankfully it only rained for a little bit, and not as hardcore as it did the first night.
But I was so cold I bitched out on seeing the first landmark of day three, this rock pile you see on the left. It may not look like much, but it's a damn big pile. You're supposed to leave your own rock there.
It sits on Soda Lake, which isn't as much of a lake now as it is a pile of muddy salt. That's what all the white stuff is. Salt. Kinda crazy. I stayed in the car while everyone got out and took pictures. I had Michael take this one.

Our next stop was this creepy place called Zyzyx in California. According to the sign of facts, it was once a religious mineral spa and resort started by a priest. Mikey and I thought this was just code word for Cult. There were empty bath houses, rooms and stale water. What's left now is a small gift shop and some rooms for college students to stay in. For some reason. I forgot...
I got some really interesting photos here. I put a few up on my DeviantArt, once again, so follow the link from Part 1 and have a look.

Day three was amazing. The rain went away and the wind settled down, and we stopped by this place with sand soft like at a beach, minus the body of water. Mikey and I let our sleeping bags dry out completely. We buried him in the sand and made him a sand mermaid!
And I read Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk in one day. Michael had finished it and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Honestly, I didn't really like it. Just not my kinda book.
I was so busy trying to finish the book though, I missed out on taking videos/pictures of the quicksand we came across. Luckily Sarah took one!

It kinda freaked me out at first because Mikey went in that first hole and kept sinking, and we didn't know how far it went. I don't know why I was worried; it's not like he was totally helpless and we had Chris Ramm with us. That's good news in any bad situation.

So we pressed on and found ourselves a camping spot next to a mesa. All of our stuff was finally dry, the weather was great, and it was a good night. We'd covered a lot of ground that day and were almost to the end of the trail. From where we were we could see the road between Vegas and Los Angeles, all light up with cars. There was a train nearby, too, and we would hear it occasionally. I drank the last Smirnoff and since it was my last night drinking freely underage I added some alcohol to my alcohol. That's right. We all had more to drink than we had the whole trip. I slept awesome.

So that morning we climbed the mesa we parked next to. A little nerve wracking for me. We did see a tortoise though, which was cool. We didn't have much further to go, so it was a little sad.
We reached our last landmark shortly: Camp Cady. This marked the end of our trail. We had completed 140.4 miles across the Mojave Desert. I'd feel a little more accomplished if I'd been driving or Mikey had been driving but it's still a fun thing to say you've done.

There wasn't too much to see at said Camp Cady, though. Some crazy trees. Broken glass. A couple old bricks representing the remains of a wall. The smokestack of the old train was cool however. Pretty sure it was rusted cast iron.
After that, we got onto the interstate to head home. It was really weird being on an actual road again I started to get carsick almost immediately, and we had a little trouble discovering just what route to take home. Rah's radio was kinda breaking, too, though thankfully it wasn't as important to keep in touch.
We were looking for an A&W to have some fast food as is tradition after epic trips, but settled with a Tommy's instead.

Tommy's was disgusting. They're a burger joint, and for some ungodly reason they put chili on everything. Chili fries, chili burgers, chili breakfast sandwiches, chili breakfast burritos...I hesitantly tried a chili burger, and could only eat half for two reasons:
1: It was so greasy the grease was soaking through two layers of wrappers. It was really unappetizing.
2: I was surrounded by the morbidly obese patrons of the restaurant. It's really hard to eat gross food while looking at people who have probably eaten too much of it.

My stomach hurt for a little while afterward, and I settled for a Cliffbar to hold me off till dinner at Chili's (ironically) in Kingman. I've never been to Kingman before, but it isn't bad. The view is really nice. I wish I'd gotten a picture, but I was paranoid about my ipod dying at this point, and was trying to stop whipping it out at every opportunity by this point.

Three more hours, and we were home, exhausted and ready for a shower. It sucked coming home to snow. After the epic snow in December, I was so done with it. I guess we missed the worst of it though, which is good, but it's supposed to snow again tomorrow! Agh!

I can't believe I ever thought about living in Flagstaff.

So there you have it! Overall it was a really good trip. Way better than staying home. I skipped a day of class but it was worth it, and I've already made up for the notes I missed.

Here are some extra pictures: