Afton Canyon Feb 22-23rd

Bob Dodds

Arrived at campground around 2:00 PM and set up withclouds and light sprinkles. I got out my bottle of

wine I had saved and realized I could not open it. Thecorkscrew must have grown legs and walked. As I

struggled to get it open Jim Proffit arrived and savedthe day. Later Sunny and Jean drove in. The five of us

sat around the table in our little house and tasted 3bottles of different wines. Nancy was sleeping

(resting her eyes). After darkness set in we started afire and was enjoying it when Steve and Debbie

Marschke arrived.Saturday AM the sun was out with not a cloud or windin sight. 9:00 AM everyone was lined up and ready to

go. In Attendance; Craid Baker and his girlfriend(sorry I can't remember her name), Nan Savage, Mark

Murdock, Mal and Jean Roode, Allan Hodes with his lab,Shadow, Dan and Lois Bowman(in their very nice 55

chevy PU 4X4), Jim Proffit, Greg and Laura Raven,Steve and Debbie Marschke, Sunny and Jean Hansen, Jim,

Judy and William Clemens and Marten And Jeanne DeGroot.Our group headed out and the first stop was a short

hike to the caves(thanks to Steve who knew where theywere), wading in and out of the Mojave River which is

a light flow there. Tug and shadow had the most funrunning in the water and sand dunes. After exploring

the caves and Debbie's spontaneous lecture on who andhow the caves were used was a great addition, we

walked back to the vehicles and drove to the next stopwhich was what I called the chimmney, water has cut

out the mountain and the walls were very tall. Spooky canyon was the next spot. Everyone really enjoyed

walking up and admiring the verticle walls with twistsand turns. Some went way back requiring alittle

climbing. We were amazed that there was no trash inthe canyon. Lots of pictures were taken. Playing with

my new GPS (I'm a late commer in getting one) we wentright to the buried rail car. Nancy and I didn't find

it on the pre-run but drove right to it this trip.Nancy found a hole going down into the car which

several guys climbed down to check it out. I heardseveral moan's from our group which turned out to be

hunger pangs so off we went to the lunch stop. Lunchwas at the mine site where the wooden planks and rock

walls were done by chinese workers. Its amazing howbeautifully the stones were layed in so perfect.

After lunch and climbing around, we crossed the UnionPacific RR line, thanks to the workers, and followed

the tracks east. We stopped at the grave of DeloresHolland, an infant who died in 1931,baby of a railroad

manager and railroad people keep up her grave today.Further down the road we stopped at what use to be

crucero. Everyone sure wanted to go to the megaphoneand bathtub springs but the day was ending and some

needed to head for home so all decided there must be aPart "B" of my one day trip soon. Thanks to everyone

who joined us and always to remember to TREAD LIGHTLY. Bob