BorregoFest 2015 - Last min trip to Anza Borrego

m3pedro

Observer
Last min trip to join in on the fun at "Borregofest" being held by Outdoor adventure USA group. Sponsored by Larry from Dirty Parts.

I always wanted to go to Anza and honestly the infamous squeeze was on my "offroad bucket list"

so last min I invited a friend and off we went!

Arriving at "BorregoFest" HQ campground and few mins later we were off on the sculpture tour.

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Series of sculptures by artist Ricardo Breceda. This one is Columbian Mammoth used to walk these valleys 1.1 million years ago.

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Wind God bird. A real bird! Largest flight capable bird in america. Wingspan of 17ft. stood 4'tall. only 6 of these have ever been found, 3 of them in Anza Borrego. 3.5million years ago. Artist Ricardo Breceda.

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The Utahraptor 6' tall much bigger than the 3' tall velociraptor.

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Spinosaurous live here in the borrego desert. Artist Ricardo Breceda.

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m3pedro

Observer
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For scale

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Help!!!


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Allosaurous vs. Carnotaurous

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Wild extinct horse that used to roam this area about 57 million years ago. Became extinct 11,000 years ago.

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Wind God bird. A real bird! Largest flight capable bird in america. Wingspan of 17ft. stood 4'tall. only 6 of these have ever been found, 3 of them in Anza Borrego. 3.5million years ago.

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It took artist Ricardo Breceda 3 months to build and 3 months to install. More than 1,000 scales! Incredible...the detail is amazing.

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"india head" represents indians who played a major role in the Anza expeditions in the 1770's Salvador Palma was cheif of the Yuma Indians when Anza arrived at the colorado river in 1774. The partnership was cruicial to opening the first roads out west.

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m3pedro

Observer
The breceda scorpion

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Headed to explore the famous "Slot canyons" of Anza" unfortunately only by car as we did not have time for hike.

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checking out the slot cayons from above....before droppign into them

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dropping in to the slot canyons...tricky downhill section

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getting tighter and tighter

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That is about as far as we could go....

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m3pedro

Observer
on our way out of the slot canyon trail...

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The colors are beautiful....

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Fonts point for sunset....then back to camp for the day....

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perfect place to take a nap...

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absorbing the energy of the universe for a moment.
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On top of the world, on the edge of disaster.

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Million star Hotel.

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Some of the other trucks at BorregoFest....

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Classic

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Breakfast!!

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Is served....scrambled egs and ham and cheese melt.

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The sun was already making things hot....

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Tomorrow I post DAY 2
 

m3pedro

Observer
DAY 2

With less than 1 hour of studing flash cards My friend Ryan challenged me to the HAM test that the organizers were offering.

We sat down and both failed....but in that failure we had fun and learned alot apparently we got dangerously close to passing....

So we packed up and decided we had to do one more thing before we left.....which has been on my "offroad bucket list" for awhile.

Anza's infamous "SQUEEZE" on the Mt. Pinyon trail which lead us to the sandstone canyon trail also....

Trail is pretty easy right up until you come up on it....

We stopped to take a look a think for a min. or two.....then we said furk it.....we didnt get all dressed up for nothing.

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I guided my buddy Ryan Thru in his Xterra first.....it is a game of tetris almost...with the secret being precision rock staking

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It's a this point in the tightest of the SQUEEZE that you really start questioning your decision making......and you start to really go 1/2" at a time......placing a rock here or there in order to tilt the car one way or the other.

Patience is key....seriously. Try to rush the process and CRUNCH.

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This is how close he got to total sheet metal destruction.... with some luck and some skill we got Ryan out unscathed.

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Now its my turn....oh crap.

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coming into it...

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at this point I start to worry

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completely unsure how this is going to turn out.....****.

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Truely between a rock and a hard place.

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Trying to get a better look and aid my spotter

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The tightest point in the squeeze.......

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When you see this out your window.....talk about shatting bricks.....inch by inch we progress forward carefully

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Done even ask me how we didn't touch anything....some luck and some skill I guess.

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Rock and ********** Roll......I used the side of my NITTO's to climb up a bit on the right side wall....they held firm

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on the other side...caution is still required as the tires on the driver side can slip and your door will get it.

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ALMOST....

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A bit more stacking...

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behind...you can see my driver rear is off the ground in the air at this point, riding the side of the rock face...

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If I slipped it would of been damage for sure....so we placed some saftey rocks so if it slipped the car wouldnt fall to far as too crunch the door.
 

m3pedro

Observer
Taking another look

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OMG the relief!!

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after that there was another tricky section with a sneaky boudler that promised disaster.

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....Look how worried I was about the tip of that boulder I stared at it like ....on no your not....you can't let your guard down because when you do....bam!

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Ryan trying to get up the section. He has a stock xterra...no lockers so sometimes he needs momentum up certain things..

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I started to notice he was too far to the right....towards the tip of the boulder......

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But then just as I was about to YELL STOP!!! he continued and I think by reaction I pressed the shutter on my camera and captured the exact moment that the rock made friends with his back window......CRUNCH. Just when we thought we were going to get out this trail clean.

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Bummer

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Still the Xterra soldiered on....we taped up his window and continued down the mountain towards heart attack hill.

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not before high centering on a rock....I yanked him out

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The only photo I have of HEART ATTACK hill or the pinyon dropoff....(it's in the background) words cannot describe the fear of going down that hill.....no way to describe it....pictures or video will not do it justice.

suffice to say we were happy it was over...note the new racing window on his xterra

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The incredible walls of "sandstone canyon" trail

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incredible....you have to see this place to believe it ....feels like another planet....tattoine maybe....was just waiting to get ambushed by sandpeople

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the last bit of dirt and dust on our trip....another unforgettable adventure....
 

m3pedro

Observer
The pinyon trail was much more difficult that the guide book makes you believe.... the pinyon droffoff or "heart attack hill" is very tricky. flipping is easy if you dont take care.

Going thry the squeeze solo would be risking body damage for sure
 

m3pedro

Observer
So nice to see a FJC doing a "Jeep" trail. Great photos.

whats a "jeep trail" never seen one before....also my friends Nissan Xterra is totally stock besides the tires....open diffs.

People have a warped idea of what thier trucks can and cannot do....

Here is me and my FJ on another "jeep trail" .....double back diamond(whatever that means) if your not familiar.....

https://vimeo.com/63956618
 

Crom

Expo this, expo that, exp
Great pics. Thx for sharing. I'm familiar with the trails. Quite impressive making it thru. After the dropoff and the rock garden, there is a moderate hill climb. How was that?
 

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