Southern California Club Xterra

Southern California Club Xterra => SCCX Xcursion Pictures => Topic started by: Paul on December 29, 2009, 09:44:49 PM

Title: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Paul on December 29, 2009, 09:44:49 PM
Updated: Movie done

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/Videos/?action=view&current=StAugustinePass.flv (http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/Videos/?action=view&current=StAugustinePass.flv)

Had some time off and wanted to get out to the south west edge of the state to enjoy the fine weather. Daytime temperatures were in the upper 60's and nighttime lows in the upper 40's. Just a touch of wind on Monday and just a trace of rain that night, no wind to speak of after sunset.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/RoughMap.gif)

First leg of the trip was out of Chiriaco Summit where the General George S. Patton Museum is.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/Tank1.jpg)

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/Tank2.jpg)

Headed south and east though Red Canyon which is a very stock friendly trip up along the ridge of the canyon before dropping down into the sandy bottom of the canyon. Along the way we ran into a group of lost quad riders who didn't know their north from their south so we pointed them in the right direction and headed off.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/RedCanyon.jpg)

Red Canyon trail ends up on the Bradshaw Trail. From there we headed east along the rail road tracks out out across the northern edge of the Chocolate Mountain bombing range. The Bradshaw is a very smooth gravel road and allowed for some high-speed crossing of distance. Paused to visit the pile-of-bombs.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/BradshawBombs.jpg)

And then into the Augustine Pass. The Augustine is the middle pass between the Dumont and Graham Passes and is a nice tight challenging few miles of twists and turns. Nothing too technical but certainly more exciting than Red Canyon and the Bradshaw. As we were climbing the pass we ran into a group of quads and some really wide dune buggies who were not going to be able to squeeze through some parts of the Augustine. One buggy was broke down right in the middle of the trail and they sort of took offense that after ten minutes of waiting for them to get it running again we offered to tow them out of the way. They pushed it to one side and let us pass. We crossed over the Chuckwalla Mountains and hooked around back to the south into the Chuckwalla Spring area. We camped there for the night.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/Campground.jpg)

Come morning we made our way further south along the two forks of the Spring trail, the western fork was fairly short and ended up in a box canyon too tight to get a motorcycle through. The eastern fork was rewarding with some nice waterfalls to climb and some old mining ruins.

Not all trucks made it out.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/AugustineTruck.jpg)

This arch had a night tight squeeze or a pretty fun climb to by-pass it.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/ChuckwallaSpring1.jpg)

Further up the canyon allowed for some climbing action.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/ChuckwallaSpring2.jpg)

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/ChuckwallaSpring4.jpg)

There was lots of green rock - copper ore I think - out in the open. Noon spent a half an hour collecting some beautiful rocks for the garden including some round bead-sized stones.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/ChuckwallaSpring3.jpg)

Since we were so "close" to the Palen Pass I wanted to roll out there and check it out - 25 miles at 45 miles an hour later ... we made it to the start of the Palen Pass trail off the 177 north of Desert Center. It looked much closer on the maps so we didn't air up and just maintained a slower speed. At the start of the trail is a memorial to the armies who trained here - including George Patton's - prior to heading off to fight the Nazi Germans and Fascist Italians (according the the plaque).

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/Palen1.jpg)

The trail is laser straight and pretty smooth but as it approaches the Palen Mountains becomes a bit more fun. Up in the pass itself there are some stone ruins from improvements made by the visiting armies back in the early 1940's. Along the hillsides you can find machine gun nests where the soldiers piled up rocks to protect them from incoming fire. Empty cartridges and "K-rations" litter the ground and an occasional training mine is still buried in the sand.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/Palen2.jpg)

Made for a really long day and one tired driver.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/Palen3.jpg)

And for a very tired dog!

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/TiredDog.jpg)

I shot a bunch of video and hope to get around to doing some editing this time ...
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: onewaysoldier on December 30, 2009, 12:28:30 AM
Paul, looks like you had a great little trip.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Goldfish on December 30, 2009, 06:35:31 AM
Looks like a good time. Thanks for sharing with us.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: XterracerX on December 30, 2009, 10:11:46 AM
What an adventure! Very scenic! Thanks for sharing Paul! Great pics as always!
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: FrankB on December 30, 2009, 10:47:24 AM
Very nice Paul.  Looks like a lot of fun, and a good choice of route.  I'm hoping we can get out that way in the next few months.  Glad to see Trixie is still around too.  Looking forward to the videos.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Bobby B. on December 30, 2009, 12:36:32 PM
Nice run Paul.  Poor Trixie looks all tuckered out!

Funny how in that first pic it looks like the tank's track is chocked.  Like it's going to go anywhere.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Paul on December 30, 2009, 01:20:25 PM
Quote from: Bobby B. on December 30, 2009, 12:36:32 PM
Nice run Paul.  Poor Trixie looks all tuckered out!

Funny how in that first pic it looks like the tank's track is chocked.  Like it's going to go anywhere.

It's not chocked - it's stuck!
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Oz on December 30, 2009, 06:44:05 PM
(http://www.pacificsurveys.com/ozlikesthis.gif)
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Paul on January 09, 2010, 05:00:22 PM
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/th_RedCanyon-1.jpg) (http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/09-12%20Dec%202009%20Red%20Canyon%20etc/?action=view&current=RedCanyon-1.flv)

The first bit of video from Red Canyon. I really didn't start shooting much until the Augustine Pass and Chuckwalla areas.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: justin4x4 on January 09, 2010, 05:26:20 PM
Paul that looks like a lot of fun, the video camera mounts on your X are great. Last run I had my dad holding the video camera which made it really shaky and hard to watch.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: FrankB on January 09, 2010, 06:07:42 PM
Quote from: justin4x4 on January 09, 2010, 05:26:20 PM
Paul that looks like a lot of fun, the video camera mounts on your X are great. Last run I had my dad holding the video camera which made it really shaky and hard to watch.

Try some duct tape.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Paul on January 21, 2010, 05:39:05 PM
Finally got the movie done - Adobe Premiere was rotten and crashed every couple of minutes. Avid Liquid can't spell HD or AVCHD. Sony Vegas Movie worked like a champ - fast, no crashes, worked with all my camera's media.

About 4 minutes long. Gives you an idea of what the Augistine Pass and Chuckwalla Springs area is like. The Bradshaw Trail is a sandy smooth trail.

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/Videos/?action=view&current=StAugustinePass.flv (http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/paul1960/Xterra/Videos/?action=view&current=StAugustinePass.flv)
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Goldfish on January 21, 2010, 08:48:07 PM
That was awesome Paul. When you become a famous movie producer, don't forget us. ;D
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Paul on January 23, 2010, 07:18:12 PM
Quote from: Goldfish on January 21, 2010, 08:48:07 PM
That was awesome Paul. When you become a famous movie producer, don't forget us. ;D

I won some competitions in the Navy and service wide against the Army and Air Force producers way back in the day. I'm way way WAY out of practice now.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: onewaysoldier on January 25, 2010, 12:06:48 AM
That was a rad video Paul.  Nicely done.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Ghost65 on January 25, 2010, 05:38:21 PM
Nice video Paul, like the music choice on the Red Canyon video. 

Take the long way home....
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: GUANO on January 26, 2010, 04:22:34 PM
Paul, what are you using to mount the camera?

I use adobe for my editing as well but I haven't tried sony vegas yet.  I haven't had TOO much trouble with adobe malfunctions and too lazy to crack another program when this one still works lol.
Title: Re: Red Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Augustine Pass, Chuckwalla Spring and Palen Pass
Post by: Paul on January 26, 2010, 07:35:38 PM
Magnets - I mount the cameras with very powerful magnets to the Shrockworks bumpers and stuff. The GoPro mounts to my glass with a suction cup mount.

Premiere is know to have issues with Asus motherboards and RealTech Audio cards - I have both. $80 wasted.