Pictures of me making an emergency water landing (Shameless attention whore warning)

[puerco-bellies]

I believe we suffered a beetle strike in our left air intake on our VW Syncro. I heroically made a dicey water landing in the Mojave River at Afton Canyon.

Amazingly enough the 814 news outlets I contact showed little interest in acquiring images of the incident.



The moment of impact, and Ali gamely faked boredom in the face of death..



Here I am showing amazing skills at gently skipping my Van on the surface of the mighty Majove.



Luckily we had enough momentum to reach the far shore, saving us from sinking in the nearly 3 feet of murky water.



Earlier that day we noticed a mine up the side of the canyon.



Ali could not make the last 50' feet or so and waited at this point.



The structure turned out to be a ore shute loading point. Material was carried along rails still connected to the wheel. Carvings on the timber suggest the mine was active in the late 1880's.



If you look closely you can see Ali at base camp "Chicken" in the lower right of the picture, and our van on the canyon floor.



For some reason Ali thinks I should have more life insurance..



Thanks for looking

[bluesbassman]

1. Cool shots as usual p-b!

That "bridge" looks a little dicey though.:rofl:

[puerco-bellies]

8. The timbers seemed pretty solid

If they were as old as the mine they'd be about 130 years old. I think this little bridge was the route the ore took to the rail line across the river bed. The track is still active and is the main rail line crossing the Mojave Desert.

[Heidi]

2. What a gorgeous landscape!

And you look pretty cute, too. ;)

Hiya, p-b and Ali! :hug: :hug: <-- One for each of ya. :)

[puerco-bellies]

10. Hi-ya Heidi.

Thanks. The area is Afton Canyon about thirty miles east of Barstow CA. Roughly just over half way to Arizona from Los Angeles. We did not take pictures of us rock hounding in the Calico Mine back country. The hills there are even more colorful.

[XemaSab]

3. Cool!

:hi:

[puerco-bellies]

11. Well, I'm not sure rock hounding can be considered cool..

Lesson' your old folk like Ali and me..

[malta blue]

4. Those are terrific

You are a wonderful storyteller puerco-bellies, and you always have awesome pix!

:yourock:

[puerco-bellies]

12. Thank malta blue.

Story teller, bull-shitter, tomato tomawto..

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. That looks fun! Thanks for sharing your good time.

Beautiful pictures- I will likely use the overall shot of the canyon as my computer desktop. :thumbsup:

[puerco-bellies]

13. Thanks Peake.

I surprised we did not take more shots. The climb up was somewhat difficult and Ali is not very sure footed so we were pretty busy just trying to get up the heavily eroded slope. I should of took the time to get better pictures, the area is way nicer then the picture suggest.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. Cool!! A pic thread and a good story and satire at that. Well done

bravo :applause:

[puerco-bellies]

14. Aw shucks..

That's very kind of you.

[crimsonblue]

7. It's a miracle you didn't fall into the mine. n/t

[puerco-bellies]

15. I don't screw around near mine shafts.

Nor do I go in them anymore. The picture of my standing on the timbers was an old ore bridge over a 15' or so deep arroyo. Up on top the structure was the point that the ore was dumped down now ruined chutes to the canyon floor below. I did not want to leave Ali down below too long or I would have continued to climb up to take a look at the actual mine. Here is a shot of the ore hopper tram line winding it's way down to the structure we climbed up to.



It's hard to see but the now collapsed structure climbs from right to left, then cuts back and climbs to the right of the picture.
We never even got close to the mine, which I would guess was another 100'+ up the slope.

[bridgit]

9. Wow! That's bringing it home! Cool pics!! Love the country!

:bounce:

[puerco-bellies]

16. Thanks bridgit

I really love the desert. Winter time is the only time you can appreciate it with out being preoccupied with survival hiking around in it.