A friend put out an email to seven of us, and that soon became nine, with the simple lure of doing something "man-like" to break us out of our domesticated routines. I'm not sure about the motivating factors for others, but for me the timing couldn't have been better to get me away from my everyday thoughts. The plan was to do some camping and cave crawling at the Anzo Borrego Desert.
Most of us have wives … wives that won’t stay at sub-par hotels much less a tent with no bathrooms. So, the plan wasn’t to exclude the women as much as it was assumed that it would be a “guys trip” where it was OK to be a bit smelly, raunchy, and quiet (yeah, simply enjoying NOT talking even when in a large group is kind of a guy thing). Unlike most other plans, this one just appealed to us all and attendance was 100%.
There was some planning to make sure we had essentials, but in the end it was left with half the people not actually signing up, some things left unassigned, and … well, that was fine. There were some things that were signed up for (sandwiches for lunch, etc.) and those didn’t make it to the camp and … well, that was fine too. Nobody got bent out of shape and nobody worried about starving to death and nobody carried a grudge and … yeah, what a refreshing change. Now I’m not writing this to judge men better than women in this because I totally enjoy the care and comfort that comes from my wife, sister, and mother in their planning of outings. However, I have noticed that when my brother-in-law and I “plan” similar outings it takes us less than 5 minutes to knock out the basic plan and then we just assume the other will take care of their part however they see fit. It is kind of the same way with this camping trip. Do it or not, it is on the guy to step us as he sees fit and if not … well, fuck it, we aren’t gonna die. So, not better, just different. And it is exactly that difference that made the trip so appealing. I’m sure all those girls trips have a similar appeal without men in there being all man-like.
Anyway, back to the trip. We took off Saturday morning and drove up past Julian (I don’t get the lure of that place, honestly – perhaps that’s material for another post) and into the desert. We met up with the other truck coming from Temecula and then found the camp our other group setup from the night before. It was the perfect spot with a south-facing wall that provided shade of some kind throughout the day. I can’t tell you how important that fact is out there in the desert! We put up the tent, unpacked gear, scrounged for lunch food (note the missing sandwiches for lunch above), and within about 30 minutes we were ready to hit our first cave.
Cave number one just happened to be the best cave of the whole trip. We didn’t plan it that way since the maps don’t really give much of a clue as to the cool factor of each one. We just happened to camp next to the best one out there. The mud cave had a nice mix of dark passages, open high points, and interesting crawl spaces. Later caves had more of one or the other, but this first one had balance and thus the complete experience.
The interesting thing for me is that I’ve never really been spelunking like that before and didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t research the caves before hand or see any pictures so I didn’t know what to expect until I was there at the mouth of it. It was a freeing experience to jump into a jeep, drive out to a location I didn’t really know on the map, and into a cave I knew nothing about.
We went from cave to cave that day until it started getting dark and our muscles threatened to give out on us. Back to the camp and a set of fires were already started for us by the few that went back early. We ate grilled steak, beans from a can, and bread … perfect dinner to go with the beer, warmed sake (saki), and homemade lemoncello. We were gonna have smores for dessert, but the guy in charge of that brought marshmallow crème in a jar (OMG, I laughed my ass off on that). After two friends started dueling banjos (music on iphones) back and forth from “Boot scoot boogie” to some kind of gangsta rap we all realized there would be no winners this night. It wasn’t long before we all went to our tents to sleep for the night.
Some of us were sleeping in one large 8-man tent that was bigger than my first apartment. There was plenty of room in there, but that didn’t stop the usual grab-ass from ensuing. Most went to sleep (despite my snoring) but I woke sometime in the middle of the night like I have been for the last month or so. I got up, went out of the tent, and realized that this night my lack of sleep was actually a gift. The night was quiet like you just don’t get in the city and the night sky was bright with a sea of stars. I sat in a chair just outside of the now burned out fire tub. Laying back into the chair, first watching the sky, later just closing my eyes, I became almost mesmerized by the sounds of the bats active in the sky. They were all over the place sending out sounds and whirling past overhead. I easily fell asleep out there in the chair only to be awakened again when the temperature dramatically dropped.
Sunday morning we all woke soon after the sun rose and thankfully somebody thought to bring a burner and carafe for coffee. We had eggs, bacon, steak, and tortilla for breakfast … better than I eat at home. For some reason, it took forever to get things packed and people out of their chairs to hit the caves again. By the time we took out for the caves, it was 10:30 and the sun was already blazing again. We headed further out and the caves this day weren’t nearly as good as the day before so we eventually called it and folks headed home. I was in the jeep though and we were only starting our day. The plan was to head back via Diablo Drop-off. The off-roading was awesome and it brought us to another area to hike up to wind caves. I’m glad I saw it, but by this point we were all feeling like we had been in a brawl and got our asses kicked. We still had another couple hours drive back.
The drive back was kind of like coming back from Las Vegas … completely different in excitement level than the trip out. Still, I enjoyed the conversation and company of my friends and was a bit saddened that we couldn’t spend another day out there.
Next day was a work day (some called in sick -- wussies!) and I was still riding the high and enjoying the feeling of exercised muscles. I looked up some ideas for our next trip and emailed all the guys about hiking in Big Bear. Here’s hoping we can keep a good thing going.
Most of us have wives … wives that won’t stay at sub-par hotels much less a tent with no bathrooms. So, the plan wasn’t to exclude the women as much as it was assumed that it would be a “guys trip” where it was OK to be a bit smelly, raunchy, and quiet (yeah, simply enjoying NOT talking even when in a large group is kind of a guy thing). Unlike most other plans, this one just appealed to us all and attendance was 100%.
There was some planning to make sure we had essentials, but in the end it was left with half the people not actually signing up, some things left unassigned, and … well, that was fine. There were some things that were signed up for (sandwiches for lunch, etc.) and those didn’t make it to the camp and … well, that was fine too. Nobody got bent out of shape and nobody worried about starving to death and nobody carried a grudge and … yeah, what a refreshing change. Now I’m not writing this to judge men better than women in this because I totally enjoy the care and comfort that comes from my wife, sister, and mother in their planning of outings. However, I have noticed that when my brother-in-law and I “plan” similar outings it takes us less than 5 minutes to knock out the basic plan and then we just assume the other will take care of their part however they see fit. It is kind of the same way with this camping trip. Do it or not, it is on the guy to step us as he sees fit and if not … well, fuck it, we aren’t gonna die. So, not better, just different. And it is exactly that difference that made the trip so appealing. I’m sure all those girls trips have a similar appeal without men in there being all man-like.
Anyway, back to the trip. We took off Saturday morning and drove up past Julian (I don’t get the lure of that place, honestly – perhaps that’s material for another post) and into the desert. We met up with the other truck coming from Temecula and then found the camp our other group setup from the night before. It was the perfect spot with a south-facing wall that provided shade of some kind throughout the day. I can’t tell you how important that fact is out there in the desert! We put up the tent, unpacked gear, scrounged for lunch food (note the missing sandwiches for lunch above), and within about 30 minutes we were ready to hit our first cave.
Cave number one just happened to be the best cave of the whole trip. We didn’t plan it that way since the maps don’t really give much of a clue as to the cool factor of each one. We just happened to camp next to the best one out there. The mud cave had a nice mix of dark passages, open high points, and interesting crawl spaces. Later caves had more of one or the other, but this first one had balance and thus the complete experience.
The interesting thing for me is that I’ve never really been spelunking like that before and didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t research the caves before hand or see any pictures so I didn’t know what to expect until I was there at the mouth of it. It was a freeing experience to jump into a jeep, drive out to a location I didn’t really know on the map, and into a cave I knew nothing about.
We went from cave to cave that day until it started getting dark and our muscles threatened to give out on us. Back to the camp and a set of fires were already started for us by the few that went back early. We ate grilled steak, beans from a can, and bread … perfect dinner to go with the beer, warmed sake (saki), and homemade lemoncello. We were gonna have smores for dessert, but the guy in charge of that brought marshmallow crème in a jar (OMG, I laughed my ass off on that). After two friends started dueling banjos (music on iphones) back and forth from “Boot scoot boogie” to some kind of gangsta rap we all realized there would be no winners this night. It wasn’t long before we all went to our tents to sleep for the night.
Some of us were sleeping in one large 8-man tent that was bigger than my first apartment. There was plenty of room in there, but that didn’t stop the usual grab-ass from ensuing. Most went to sleep (despite my snoring) but I woke sometime in the middle of the night like I have been for the last month or so. I got up, went out of the tent, and realized that this night my lack of sleep was actually a gift. The night was quiet like you just don’t get in the city and the night sky was bright with a sea of stars. I sat in a chair just outside of the now burned out fire tub. Laying back into the chair, first watching the sky, later just closing my eyes, I became almost mesmerized by the sounds of the bats active in the sky. They were all over the place sending out sounds and whirling past overhead. I easily fell asleep out there in the chair only to be awakened again when the temperature dramatically dropped.
Sunday morning we all woke soon after the sun rose and thankfully somebody thought to bring a burner and carafe for coffee. We had eggs, bacon, steak, and tortilla for breakfast … better than I eat at home. For some reason, it took forever to get things packed and people out of their chairs to hit the caves again. By the time we took out for the caves, it was 10:30 and the sun was already blazing again. We headed further out and the caves this day weren’t nearly as good as the day before so we eventually called it and folks headed home. I was in the jeep though and we were only starting our day. The plan was to head back via Diablo Drop-off. The off-roading was awesome and it brought us to another area to hike up to wind caves. I’m glad I saw it, but by this point we were all feeling like we had been in a brawl and got our asses kicked. We still had another couple hours drive back.
The drive back was kind of like coming back from Las Vegas … completely different in excitement level than the trip out. Still, I enjoyed the conversation and company of my friends and was a bit saddened that we couldn’t spend another day out there.
Next day was a work day (some called in sick -- wussies!) and I was still riding the high and enjoying the feeling of exercised muscles. I looked up some ideas for our next trip and emailed all the guys about hiking in Big Bear. Here’s hoping we can keep a good thing going.
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