I’m terrible at packing. I usually like taking trips, but I dread getting ready. What if I forget something vital? What if I break something and I don’t have a spare or the tools to install it? What if…???
My typical response to “what if” is to bring more and more stuff to prepare for every contingency that remotely comes to mind. At the end of an adventure, several t-shirts will have made the trip without having been worn. More than one box of food will be well-traveled, yet unopened. It’s just the way I roll.
The upside to my approach is that when I finally pull away from the house, I’m pretty well-prepared. There might not be much leftover room inside the 4Runner, but all the essentials are along for the ride…and then some.
It was about midnight on Friday when I turned the key and drove off into the night. I’d debated getting up before the crack of dawn Saturday to make the four-hour drive to the Tierra Del Sol desert safari in the Truckhaven Hills near the Salton Sea. I’d packed the tent, sleeping bag, ground tarp, pad, and pillow and I was set on using them. Furthermore, I just needed to get outta town. No doubt I’d forgotten to pack a thing or two, but when I discovered the missing item I was either gonna buy it on the road or do without.
Rain was predicted to roll in Saturday, and I didn’t want to be driving through the mountains in a downpour: yet another reason to shove off Friday night.
Traffic congestion was nonexistant by that hour, the Vegas-bound crowd already squeezed through Cajon Pass. I took the 60 freeway to highway 71 which shortcuts its way through Chino Hills on the way to the 91. The 91 is normally a gridlocked slice of hell, but by this hour it was moving unrestricted. I merged onto the 15 south from the 91. More smooth sailing.
In Temecula, I left I-15 and topped off the tank before pointing the 4Runner onto highway 79 and the tiny town of Warner Springs. The ‘Runner’s wider front stance makes it delightfully stable in the corners, and highway 79 is full of them as it winds its way through the Laguna Mountains. It’s not a fun route when you’re stuck behind a slow RV but again, thanks to the late hour, the traffic was light to nonexistent.
In about a half-hours’ worth of curves and dips, I got to Oak Grove and its USFS campground. Oak Grove sits at 2,800 feet, so the mountain air is often crisp at night. Oak Grove has plenty of campsites and I’ve never seen it full.
I stepped out and started to read the information board at the Oak Grove campground entrance. One handbill grabbed my attention and forcefully pulled me in. It read “A mountain lion attack occurred (the exact date was given, but I’ve forgotten) near the Oak Grove fire station. A large dog was taken. Please be aware of your surroundings.”
Oak Grove fire station happens to be right across the two-lane highway from Oak Grove campground! I want nothing to do with cougars, either the type with the teeth and claws or the middle-aged attractive homo sapien variety. I’m not uninformed. I know that virtually the whole mountain range is mountain lion country, and that the sneaky, powerful cats can be almost anywhere. Still, the death of a large dog at the teeth and claws of a big cat meant that said cat knew the immediate area and might just be hanging around in search of its next meal. I wasn’t about to set up my tent alone on the dark in those circumstances.
Nature was calling, and I heeded it with a visit to the facilities at Oak Grove. Paranoid, I rummaged through my stuff looking for instruments of self-defense before I got out. Pepper spray? Check. Fixed-blade knife? Nope. I’d left it attached to a Camelbak strap at home. See what I mean about always forgetting something? A couple minutes later I discovered I’d forgotten to bring any hand sanitizer. If I can keep my hands clean during off-road trips, it matters a little less how dirty the rest of me is. I rummmaged a little deeper and found a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer in my camera backpack, but it was just about used up.
Once safely back in the ‘Runner, I knew it was time for plan B. Plan B involved continuing to highway S-2 to Scissors Crossing where I’d pick up highway 78. Once on 78, it was a few hairpin miles to the juncture of 78 and S-3, where the Tamarisk Grove and Yaqui Well campgrounds were. Tamarisk Grove is downright civilized with flush toilets and hot showers. There’s a fee for Tamarisk Grove but it’s a bargain. Yaqui Well is free but has no facilities other than a pit toilet.
Tamarisk Grove was full. Bummer. That meant Yaqui Well got the nod. I turned off the highway onto unpaved Grapevine Canyon road and loped along to the campground. It was after 3 am.
Several spots looked good, and a few were already occupied. I found a spot nestled between scrubby trees with a comfortable distance to the next occupied campsite. I still had to set up my tent alone in the dark, but now I didn’t have the paranoia that a big cat lurked in every shadow. Life was better this way.
Through all this, I was too worried about getting to the trails and potential feature vehicles to snap photos of the adventure along the way. I will next time.