Four Wheeling Into History Part VI- Rolling along the Bonanza Trail in the El Paso Montains.. Bickel Camp...

We traveled another seven miles along EP15 until we began to climb the steep grade that would lead us to "Burro" Schmidt's Tunnel.  Since I haven't had the time to edit the photos of this site, I will write about the tunnel at another time.  So I'll skip about ten miles ahead to a place where a resourceful man made his home for over 50 years.

 To be continued.....

Four Wheeling Into History - Part V...The El Paso Mountains...

Driving another three miles, we came to the top of a very steep, rocky down grade.  The soil here is a coppery reddish color, and there is an abundance of plant life.  Water flows under ground here, and during the winter months, additional water from melting snow flows down to the bottom of the hill.  This results in a little stream that crosses the trail.  A mini water-crossing, if you will. 

I once came across a prospector, who, using a "wet/dry" vacuum (powered by a generator) was panning for gold here.

The following video was shot during an earlier trip to the area; I apologize for the poor quality, as I was using my BlackBerry to create the video, while driving.  Obviously, driving the vehicle comes first.

On trip depicted in the footage, we had entered the El Paso's from the other side, and we are climbing the hill here.

To attempt what we have done here requires four wheel drive with "low-range" gearing, as well as off-road driving experience.  It is also best to have at least one other vehicle along, in case you do run into difficulty. 



Catalina take off.MOV

Click here to view this video

My wife and I flew our rented Cessna 182 to Catalina Island on the day after Thanksgiving (2011).  If the take off run seems long, it's because I flew in ground-effect until I reached 75 knots indicated air speed. 

The runway on Catalina is rather bumpy, and I wanted to get the nose off the ground as soon as possble in order to reduce the possibility of a prop.-strike.

The flight from our home airport in Riverside, CA only took 35 minutes. yet it felt as though we were off to visit an exotic, far-away place.