April is probably the latest you’d want to go out in the desert of Southern California, unless baking in the sun and hallucinating mirages cartoon style is your idea of a good time. Even though the mornings were cool and the nights breezy, the blistering heat of the sun meant that sunscreen was a necessity mere minutes after crawling out of our tent.
Phillip and I joined some coworkers with a Jeep to spend a couple nights camping in the desert so that we could really take my Jeep offroading, something I hadn’t done more than a couple times since I bought it in April of 2017 (right before going to Hong Kong and Cambodia, actually). We arrived late on Friday night after work, the two hour drive made longer due to a car sick dog in my back seat. Phillip brought his new-to-him KLR hoping he would be able to get some good dirt under his tires as well. It was well after dark when we arrived with the wind gusting. While the temperature itself wasn’t too cold, I found myself shivering with pure convection (ask me about thermal comfort, seriously, this is my job). We put our tent up as quickly as we could, built a roaring fire, and roasting bratwurst and veggies in cast iron on the campfire, sticking to our keto diet.
The next day, we made breakfast on a tiny propane stove, including coffee made a bit… ad hoc. I had forgotten my french press and my pour over, so I ended up throwing the coffee in a Stanley Camp Cook Set like this, brewing it like a french press would, then pouring the coffee into our cups through a pour over filter. It actually worked.
After breakfast, we met up with one of our coworker’s Jeeping buddies and headed out for Sheep Canyon where we planned to eat our lunch.
The drive itself wasn’t too bad for the most part. I have a fairly stock Jeep, while the other two Jeeps we rode with were definitely not, I kept up pretty well. Phillip did pretty well, too, on his KLR, until we got to a bit of a steep section that was mostly rocks and sand, a bit to tumultuous for his heavy bike. After that point, he left the KLR on the side of the trail and hopped in the Jeep with me and Kona, our dog.
The end of the road, Sheep Canyon, was a bit disappointing, to be honest. If we were hiking, the end would have been a palm covered canyon, much higher up the mountains. As it was, we were already hot and dusty, and decided not to make the last bit of the trek. We ate our cold lunches in the shade of our Jeeps.
One thing I think I need to get before our next offroading adventure, though, is some sort of protector for my neck. With all the bumping along, I ended up with a raw spot on my collarbone, even with the seat belt on the lowest height setting. Maybe real offroaders may say I don’t need to wear the seatbelt, or to wear just the waist strap, but call me cautious. I’d be curious if anyone has used a seat belt protector like this, before, and if so, leave me a comment or send me a message:
One of the best parts of the whole drive were the water crossings. They weren’t especially difficult, but just the fact that there’s water in the desert made the drive interesting. After our third crossing, we got out and let the hot dogs play in the water a bit. Kona was especially stinky after submerging himself in the creek, so I’m super glad that I had my dog seat protector.
By the end of the drive, we were all hot, sweaty, and tired from the sun. Even with my tinted windows and sunscreen, my left arm was roasted – but I was glad later to find out it wasn’t a real burn, just red from the heat I guess. Apparently, some guy named Dennis Avery, the owner of the Galleta Meadors Estate, had a sculptor erect over 130 metal sculptures all over his property. We checked out a few of the most prominent and easy to access ones.
Overall, we had a great time camping out in Borrego Springs. It’s a quick weekend trip from San Diego or Orange County, and you can even make an excuse to stop in Julian for some famous apple pie on your way (I might write up a bit about Julian in a future blog). I wouldn’t recommend heading out between May and perhaps September or October, unless you love and thirve in the desert sun. The town of Borrego Springs has a ton of great amenities, such as a couple of gas stations, a grocery stores, a chocolate and ice cream shop, as well as shopping for art, knick knacks, and even scultpures.
