Bert Gildart: Writer and Photographer

©Bert Gildart:  Here are some images from a bike trip Adam Maffei and I made to Font’s Point several days ago.  The destination in Anza Borrego Desert State Park  provides incredible views, but the struggle of biking there was a challenge, one which we could have simplified if only we’d been familiar with the techniques for peddling through deep desert sand.

Adam and I drove to Peg Leg, parked the truck, unloaded our bikes and then peddled three miles along the highway linking to a dirt road that then twists over sand and gravel for four miles to the famous overlook.  We were flanked by  desert cacti such as ocotillo, catclaw, and cholla.

 

We rode mountain bikes and at 70 psi our tires were properly inflated for road travel, but not for sand travel.  What we should have done was to reduce the psi to about 25 pounds, thereby increasing surface area. When you return to the pavement you can re-inflate your tires using a CO2 cartridge or — with prolonged effort — a small hand pump.  And because you will be riding through an area flanked by cactus thorns, which are sometimes difficult to avoid, you should change out your normal tubes for “slime” tubes.

 

Down here (remember, we’re from Montana), everyone knows what they are, but simply said, the tubes contain a slim that immediately fills in the type of puncture created by a desert thorn.

Despite a certain amount of naivety, we made it through, but there were several deep sandy spots over which we had to walk our bikes, for tires ground deep into the sand.  But the payoff was extraordinary.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Not only is the view from Font’s point mind boggling, but it is also historic and is important from the paleontological perspective.  In 1775 Pedro Font was the chaplain and navigator on Spain’s second expedition from Tubac, Mexico to Mission San Gabriel in California. The expedition was led by Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza, for whom this park was named.

Anza Borrego contains so many wonderful sand roads that it behooves bikers to learn the few techniques necessary for facilitating desert riding.  Often you have the roads to yourself, but sometimes, as shown by looking closely in the middle image, you’ll see that you must contend with occasional vehicular traffic.  No big deal, MOST drivers slow down, wave,  smile, and go on by.  But there’s always one…  so sorry gentle reader but there may come when it is absolutely incumbent on  oneself  to express pent up inner feeling by “flinging out  a wave.”  

As well these incredible badlands harbor the remains of many prehistoric animals to include the ground sloth, short-faced bear, dire wolf, sabertooth cat, mastodon, mammoth, giant zebra, half-ass, camel, yesterday’s camel, llama, giant camel, pronghorn, elk, deer, shrub oxen, and the Bautista horse.

In other words, a trip to Font’s Point may well offer a little something for everyone. Next time, however, we’ll take along a tire pump, deflate the tires and then inflate them back to road pressures when we return to the road (Road bikes).

I’ve also change my regular tires out for slime tube tires, doing so right away because I had a flat.  I was lucky because the flat was created by a slow leak. The culprit was a tiny ocotillo thorn and I didn’t notice the flat until next day.  I was lucky, but I won’t be trusting to luck again.  I’m now prepared.

 

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(NOTE: My posting several years ago on Night of the Grizzly continues to generate comments.  The Public TV documentary about Glacier’s first fatal maulings has recently gone national.)

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THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

*Mysterious Rock Art

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2013 at 9:52 am and is filed under Biking, Natural History/Conservation, Photography, RV Travel, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.