The Mojave Desert Riders Off-Road Club yet again conquered the 150 mile trail from Barstow to Laughlin. All told this year’s ride was shortened in length by about 40 miles to make up for the reduced speeds that we traveled. The MDR 4x4 crew met at the Afton Canyon campground on Friday and conducted their pre-ride meeting and equipment check. As in years past, we judicially checked out our planned strategy’s on tackling the deep water hazard that left many a motorcycle sucking water last year…Being that Ed Moore had the tallest (and nicest looking Jeep!) we decided to have Ed drive through first and measure the depth at its deepest point. He would then drive through and turn his jeep around in the event we needed to utilize his handy-dandy front-end winch…We had it all figured out…

With a full proof plan, we started up our engines and with great excitement and anticipation, ventured down the trail, exiting Afton Canyon Campground, and making that narrow right handed turn into the chilling water crossing…However, as we made that turn, we gazed upon a site of horrific reality…The officials of our Great Land filled in the water crossing with railroad stones. That same little rock that our railways use to lay down their track…It was now covering our one great moment…

As with all Mojave Desert Riders we refused to have this let-down affect our trip and we rode on…All 10 vehicles (check that…9 vehicles…we lost one on the 210 freeway, 5 miles from leaving home-a Black Sheep Samurai blew a head gasket and limped back home…) So all 9 vehicles ventured forward and admired the beauty of the LIVE desert oasis…that is until we struck sand…deep sand…The two wheeled powered truck in our group that maintained stock tires…that’s a two wheeled extended cab full size Chevrolet Silverado with a loaded down truck bed on stock tires, immediately got stuck… Once again, like a true veteran and in MDR spirit, Ed Moore and his beautiful Black Lifted Jeep Rubicon sprung into action and strapped up the large steel anchor we referred to as the Chevrolet Silverado (Good thing Ed programmed his Super Chip to Super Duty Lightning Bolt Mode). Like a blink of an eye, Ed ignited his massive Jeep 6 cylinder engine and we heard a loud roar scream from Ed’s motor, in fact, as I sit here writing this factual account, I believe I heard Ed’s motor scream out “I am MDR and I will ROAR…Yes I can! Yes I can!” as it pulled out the Sand Anchor-Chevrolet… Now, by now you are probably wondering “Who in the heck would be dumb enough to bring that 2 wheeled boat out on the trail…?” Well shockingly the truth must be told…It was last year’s MVP rider…Country Joe Marchese…The Igloo was temporarily decommissioned and he called on his trusty steed-Chevrolet Silverado to carry through…Poetic justice…all these times that Country Joe has saved our bacon, it was nice to finally give Joe a hand…well at least Ed did…

With the sand behind us and only one tire blow-out (apparently some of us can’t avoid the big sharp rocks) we ventured on. We were treated to some of the desert’s most cherished wild life. We came across thousands of lizards, chipmunks, wild cattle, 1 rattle snake and 2 German Tourist…That’s right 2 German Tourist in a low profile all wheel drive RENTAL CAR. According to our recollection we observed in the distance a massive cloud of dust approaching us at a rapid pace. At the time, this was observed from about 10 miles away. Suddenly the dust cloud stopped. As we moved on, we finally came across our mystery dust cloud…2 German tourists in a RENTAL CAR…now with a ripped up radiator from undoubtedly bottoming out…not to mention the damage done to the sides of the car from hitting the brush in a trail they had no business on. They said they were headed to Los Angeles…check that…I advised them “Now you’re headed back to Vegas, where you landed!”

After notifying the National Park Rangers on the GPS coordinates of 2 lost souls, we left them some water, some “Atomic Magic Putty” (They were convinced that they could fix that ripped up radiator), and ensured that they would be o.k., we bid them a bon voyage…

We ended our first day adventure at the Mid-Hills Campground and we spent the night telling stories, laughing, planning our continued trail activities, laughing, having Joe tell us what he would do to Sarah Palin if he was single (nasty boy), laughing, watching Joe miraculously miss falling into the fire not once, but twice, and (of course) more laughing…

The next morning called upon us with a beautiful Saturday morning sunlight and cool crisp air. We were then joined by Uncle Tom Aguirre and his beautiful wife, Helen, who came in from Bullhead City, AZ to join in on the fun. We head out to some of the best riding we had ever experienced, even though I lost my rear torsion bar to broken metal and rusty welds…

As we traversed the technical riding trails we were greeted by many other off-road groups out for a great day of trail riding. We even ran into a park ranger that was actually glad to see us. He thanked us for assisting our German counter-parts, of course he said this with a smile and a chuckle after realizing they had no business being out there…but just the same, he thanked us for our MDR good deed. At about 3:30 p.m. we finally landed at the AVI Casino parking lot, which brought back many fond memories of our past ride and made me appreciate all of our  Mojave Desert Rider members.

So in honor of all MDR members, Saturday nights brew was in your honor…