On February 2nd, Christian Mulkey and I left on what would turn out to be one of my favorite trips in recent times. We left on dual-sport motorcycles with the intention of boosting our off road skills and tagging a number of obscure desert peaks. Our itinerary went as follows:

Day 1 (February 2nd) – Ride to the northeast end of the Salton Sea, catch the Bradshaw trail, hike Black Butte (descending in the dark)

Day 2 – Ride more of the Bradshaw trail to Chuckwalla Mountain, hike to its summit, ride out to Blythe

Day 3 – Rest, lunch in Quartzsite, ride to the base of Signal Mountain

Day 4 – Climb Signal Mountain, ride to the base of Castle Dome

Day 5 – Climb Castle Dome, ride out to Yuma

Day 6 – Ride to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, hike Mt. Ajo (descending just before dark)

Day 7 – Cross into Mexico, hike Cerro Pinacate, ride back up to Gila Bend

Day 8 – Ride back to San Diego

This was simply an awesome trip. The hiking gave us a break from riding, the riding gave us a break from hiking. With the long winter nights, we did end up with quite a bit of downtime though, which we managed to fill with campfires and a few beers. It really, really, doesn’t get any better…