The Mojave Road

By Ben Bennett

The Mojave Road Is an ancient Indian trail that existed hundreds of years before the coming of the European. The Mojave Indians established the road to travel to the Pacific Coast for sea shells. Spanish explorers used the Mojave trail, then came the fur trappers. Eventually, the wagon trains used it to head for California.

In 1981, a group of 25 volunteers got together and formed an association:

The Friends of the Mojave Road. They expended a lot of time and energy developing the Mojave Road and turning it into a recreation trail. They researched the road, marked it with hundreds of cairns, and provided carefully drawn maps. In 1983, the first edition of Mojave Road Guide was written by Dennis Casebier.

The latest edition of the Mojave Road Guide is a beautifully detailed hard bound book. It has 21 maps and over 200 pages of very detailed directions and narrative. The landmarks and points of interest are pinpointed by the mileage on your odometer in tenths of a mile.

Enough history of the Mojave Road from me. There already are some excellent books on it. In addition to The Mojave Road Guide, there Is the Mojave Road, also by Dennis G. Casebier. It covers the history of the road starting with its discovery by Spanish explorers. If you can't find these books in your public library, you can get them from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The Mojave Road sounded like a real adventure and I was ready to try it. What better way to experience it than on a Dual Sport bike, or, as they're sometimes called, an adventure bike. Enter the Yamaha XT350.

This was my first experience in offroad touring· where you carry everything you need to eat and sleep; and head out for the boonies. Sure, I've gone dirt biking. You haul the bikes out to the dirt, and ride within shouting distance of the truck.

I've also been camping with my street bike, staying pretty close to the asphalt and trying to pitch the tent where there's a dinner in sight. So, bear in mind this account is from a tender foot.

There were four of us involved in this adventure, I'll use first names only to protect the. innocent: Bill, Carl, Jerry, and me. Bill and I planned to ride our

dual sport bikes over Interstate 40 to Needles on Friday afternoon. We would establish first camp at the Needles' Motel 6. Jerry and Carl would join us after work. The four of us would hit the trail early Saturday morning, camping Saturday night about half way. That would put us in Rock Springs. We'd complete the trail Sunday.

Now, on a trip like this, planning is everything. Planning can make or break an adventure trip. I knew that. That's why I was over at K-Mart getting outfitted at least two hours before I was to leave. Since we planned to bivouac (army talk), the first thing I looked for was a tent. Right off, I spotted the perfect tent for an adventure like this. The box was small. and light. Slightly longer than a foot, maybe two or three inches square. But what sold me was the picture on the box: a young man Crawling out of the tent with a big smile on his face. I knew this was going to be a happy tent.

The next thing on my list was a water container. The lady at the BLM office suggested taking five gallons of water per person per day. We four had a good laugh over this, "Boy! She must think we're going to get really dirty." But in the back of my mind I kept thinking, ''What if she really knows what she's talking about?" That's why, when I spotted the collapsible two and a half gallon water jug, I figured it would be the perfect compromise. A full quarter of the suggested amount, and, as I used the water, the container would get smaller. Sheer genius.

I threw a couple of freeze dried something dinners and a handful of Tiger bars in the basket, and headed for checkout.

It didn't take long to pack the bike. I even filled up my collapsible water container just to make sure I could tie it on. I headed for the rendezvous with Bill and three blocks down the road the water jug slipped it's bungie. 'Well no time to fool with it now, I'll have plenty of time at the motel tonight to figure out how to tie it on." I dumped out the water, and continued.

Bill and I rendezvoused around noon and started for Needles and some lunch. We would have made it too, if it hadn't been for the head wind. About 30 miles from Needles, I went on reserve, and shortly after that Bill ran out of gas. Luckily, (for us) there was a CHP officer writing up a citizen right where we stopped. He directed us to a station about 8 miles off the highway. I thought he was a little abrupt. Guess he hates it when people run out of gas on his"

It was dark by the time we got to Needles, so I decided to worry about tying down the water container in the morning. So far, the trip hadn't gone as smoothly as we had hoped, but tomorrow was another day.

The next morning, I created a pack tying masterpiece with my collapsible water container. I slung it over the left side of the back fender, then I used bungies to control the fore and aft movement. It was beautiful. I even said the riggers prayer, "this baby's (optional: sucker's, puppy's) not going anywhere." Ever notice when people tie something

We had a little trouble finding our way out of Needles, (if you can believe that). We kept winding up on the freeway. Eventually, we found the River Road. Across the river is the site of old Fort Mojave. There were no remains of buildings to be seen. I guess they've been long gone. You can see where they should have been. It's a peek back in time. We followed the River Road out to the turn off for the Mojave Road. The trail starts at the river. Turn right, check your Mojave Road Guide, and go the three miles to mile 0.0.

At that point I found my precious water was spurting out of several little holes in the stupid collapsible water container. (And, sure enough, it was getting smaller as the water leaked out). Somehow, it had found its way into the back tire. That baby-puppy-sucker went somewhere.

The other guys had to wait while I rode the ten or so miles into Laughlin to buy a suitable water container. It was almost 11:00 am by the time I got back and we finally got started. We spotted the first cairn on the west side of River Road marking the start of mile 3.0. The cairns (a small pile of rocks with a stick in the middle) are generally in pairs on either side of a trail or road crossing the Mojave Road. So, they can be followed in either direction. As we got further off the beaten path, it was very reassuring to spot those little piles of rocks.

The road wasn't all that difficult for our do-it-all dirt bikes, even with all the gear we carried. There is a lot of loose sand, some rocky sections, and some

very deep, very old ruts. Picture riding in the same ruts that were started: wagons 100 plus years ago.

Riding into the desert, I sensed there was something different. In time. dawned on me: no trash. There wasn’t the usual beer cans, plastic refuse :. general debris that marks the passage of civilization. Either the Friends of the Mojave Road are very good house keepers or the people that use this trail respect it enough to carry their trash out with them. I hope it's the latter. we tried not to leave any evidence of our passing. Our first official stop was at mile 23.5 Fort Piute. You can spend all day sight seeing in this area. There Is the Fort, the creek, even prehistoric Indian petroglphs. Some hiking is required to see everything.

While we had lunch, I rethought my whole packing system. I was spending a lot of time going back to pick things up. The most successful system seems to be, bungie everything down as well as possible, then envelop the whole mess with one of those cargo nets.

Next stop is Piute Hill. We had to take a little detour but the view was worth it. It extended all the way back to Needles, our whole days travel. We passed through Lanfair Valley and the Omni Navigation Station. Then, the last thing you'd expect, a telephone booth. Can't you just picture some poor guy; lost, out of water, hope gone. Suddenly, he spots the telephone booth. He's saved .. But wait, he's out of change. ..

Rock Springs, an interesting stop. The spring is in a wash that passes through a mountain spur. In the canyon, the bed of the wash is solid granite strewn with large granite boulders. About a quarter mile above and below this short canyon, the wash is sandy with shallow banks. There was just a trickle of water coming out of the spring when we were there. The puddle that had formed below the spring had frozen over about two inches thick. Did I mention there was a little nip in the air? Some of us thought the sandy canyon floor would be an ideal place to camp, with the nice soft sand to bed down on and the canyon walls to protect us from the wind. Jerry pointed out that the way the sand got there was from flash floods raging down the canyon. . Since it was starting to sprinkle, we decided to seek higher ground.

It was getting dark by the time we set up camp. I pulled my happy tent out of the box and read the instructions with my flashlight. The first instruction was, "Before using your new tent, set it up in the backyard and wet it with a garden hose to seal the fibers." Well, I didn't have to· worry about that because mother-nature was going to seal my fibers shortly. The tent wasn't all that hard to set up. The only problem I had was whenever I crawled in, I would get hung-up on the entrance, knock the center pole down, and pull the stake out of the ground. The whole damn thing would collapse in on me, and I'd have to wiggle out and set it up again. The guys said it was okay though because that was the only entertainment they had: me raging at my happy tent.

We boiled some water and made up our freeze dried stuff for supper. A camp fire sure would have been nice, but you, can't pack much fire wood on a bike. It was cold when we got there, and it was getting colder by the minute, so nobody wanted to Stay up and talk that night.

Not long after we turned in, the rain started to come down hard. I can't think of many things more pleasant than lying all snug in your sleeping bag and drifting off to the sound of rain pattering on your happy tent. About the only thing that can spoil that picture is worrying about having to get up and go to the bathroom.

It was still raining in the morning. We boiled some more water and had instant oatmeal for breakfast. Standing around in our rainsuits eating oatmeal, no coffee, we were a pathetic looking bunch.

The rain was almost turning to snow, in fact, there was a little white stuff sticking to the hills above us.

After very little deliberation, the four of us decided to give it up and experience the rest of the Mojave Road another day.

It was a short ride to Cedar Canyon Road (dirt) and then to asphalt, Kelsocima road. We came back through Kelso. About lunch time, we pulled into Amboy. I doubt if I'll ever have a cup of coffee that tastes better then the one I had there.

The Mojave Road is a grand adventure. I don't think it can be covered in one weekend. It's the kind of ride that can become your favorite, and every time you do it you'll discover something new. The best time to do it would be around April or early May preferably when the wild flowers are out. The fall would be another good time. We’ll let you know. We’ll be back to finish Mojave Road, hopefully before the snow begins to fall again. Look for our further adventures in the October issue of free 2 wheel.