The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Time for another desert trip! We covered some familiar ground on this trip so you may see some sights I've posted before.





This hill seemed steeper when I was at the wheel than the pictures show!





Abandoned talc mine aka the Dutch Cleanser mine

Visited an old desert rat's camp. He's dead and gone but the place is preserved as a memorial to him





That's a lot of cans!

http://www.bickelcamp.org/

More about Walt Bickel, former resident of Bickel camp.

I must admit I do miss the desert

sign92 rufrdr

Those cans, are they baked beans and the like?

Thanks rufrdr once again for your excellent photos. Keep them coming.

I see you have more at...

http://citizengrouch.blogspot.co.uk/

It's great you have so many places like that to visit in California.

I once drove south from Las Vegas to San Diego via Kingman, Lake Havasu and Yuma and was amazed at how quiet and desolate the road was. The only thing that worried me was breaking down, no phone signal and the heat.

What precautions do you take on your trips?

25Pdr wrote:Thanks rufrdr once again for your excellent photos. Keep them coming.

I see you have more at...

http://citizengrouch.blogspot.co.uk/

It's great you have so many places like that to visit in California.

I once drove south from Las Vegas to San Diego via Kingman, Lake Havasu and Yuma and was amazed at how quiet and desolate the road was. The only thing that worried me was breaking down, no phone signal and the heat.

What precautions do you take on your trips?

We always go in groups of at least two vehicles. I carry a couple gallons of water, MREs, blankets, tools, tow strap, shovel, road flares, fuel siphon pump, high lift jack, winch, CB radio, M6 with some ammunition (only for signaling of course!) knife, saw plus the food and drinks for the day.

christel wrote:sign92 rufrdr

Those cans, are they baked beans and the like?

I think those contained his dinner each day! I bet there were lots of beans consumed at that place.

rufrdr: Great photos, now looking for passport and credit card.

Is CB radio effective in all areas or do you find yourself without signal at times...???

rufrdr wrote:

christel wrote:sign92 rufrdr

Those cans, are they baked beans and the like?

I think those contained his dinner each day! I bet there were lots of beans consumed at that place.

I take he lived there alone then

northumbrian wrote:

rufrdr wrote:

christel wrote:sign92 rufrdr

Those cans, are they baked beans and the like?

I think those contained his dinner each day! I bet there were lots of beans consumed at that place.

I take he lived there alone then

Actually he had a female opera singer from Australia who lived there with him in a touring trailer on his property for many years. Walt lived in the house that you see in the pictures. Walt met her at Randsburg in the 50s (Randsburg is a mining town nearby which has gone through the usual boom, bust, boom, and semi-ghost town status of many mining towns in the west) and was so taken with her that he went to Los Angeles and bought her the top of the line trailer for her to live in. She first stayed with him in his shack and after a week said that she had enough of that! Thus the trailer. Walt also had other folks who lived on his property over the years, other desert rats who dropped out of society and washed up on his doorstep.

According to the docent at the site Walt was quite the character and well known to the Hollywood movie crowd who often filmed in the general area and came to know him as he was called on to fabricate and repair equipment at their movie shoots. That's how he ended up with Jimmy Durante's Cadillac.