Pinto Basin Mountains - Thanksgiving weekend trip recap

[inv3ctiv3]

Alright trip report time! So I forgot to grab my real camera and all I had on me was my GoPro Hero 4 Black and my iPhone 7+ so forgive me as the quality will not be what it could be....


My good friend, girlfriend and I decided to go to one of my favorite spots to camp, been here many times and it may look familiar from my other posts but it's north of Joshua Tree but this time we entered from the north rather then from the south where we have to enter Joshua Tree NP. It was a fun and narrow trail with rather large drops on the side which made my gf a little nervous but she was a trooper and we got to camp just as the sun was setting.

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

I also never posted any night pics of my bedrack pod lights but they are SUPER bright, couldn't be happier for $20:

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Camp:

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

We did a little shooting as well and as always I pick up every spent casing and whatever else I can find, I wish people could shoot responsibly out in the desert....

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

There are so many abandoned mines out here it's overwhelming but we got to explore all the ones we could see and went to the ends of all of them, some of them if you get far enough back have warnings saying you need oxygen past that point and maybe it was placebo but we all felt a little winded by the end of a couple of them. Another weird thing is I found a Baofeng handheld ham radio way back in one of the mines, does anyone know if this would work hundreds of meters back in a mine?

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

The winds really picked up Saturday night so we moved our operation into the old mining house where a fire pit was set up in the corner, the wind was so hard that it blew pieces of the roof off while we were in it! Luckily by the time we were going to bed the wind had died down and the tent wasn't super violent haha

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

We wanted to avoid traffic on Sunday so we actually headed east on the 10 to another spot I love exploring and we went hunting for petroglyphs, now normally we'd look at the ones that are right off the dirt road but they are so riddled with graffiti now that we went looking for ones off the beaten path and found some cool ones

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

 

[inv3ctiv3]

After running all the trails in this area that I had never done it was time to make lunch so we pulled off in this wash and made burritos

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Always love going by this house and seeing what new treasures they've collected, this is right in a wash out on public lands, does anyone know how you can just have a house on public land like that?

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

A huge storm rolled in just as we were leaving which left one side of the 10 pouring rain and the other side had an insane sandstorm

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

Thanksgiving 2016 Trip by Jim Bob Barnett, on Flickr

 

[lude4life]

Great pics! Looks like an awesome place.

 

[1MK]

Rad.

Love that area.

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Great pics! Looks like an awesome place.

Thanks!

Rad.

Love that area.

haha yea last time I was at this spot you guys came by, it's kind of my go to spot for a quick weekend trip.

 

[NMC_EXP]

"...does anyone know how you can just have a house on public land like that?"

Via Homesteading and patented mining claims the central govt passed title of land to citizens. At some point the feds closed this window and turned all remaining land over to the BLM and Forest Service. This left a lot of parcels of private land surrounded by govt land. The feds refer to these owners as "in-holders".

Un-patented mining claims are different. The owner of the claim only has rights to the minerals, but does not own the land. One entity can own the surface of the land and another owns the subsurface minerals. This is called "split estate".

With limitations, un-patented claim owners can build surface structures to directly support the mine or mill but generally cannot build a dwelling.

 

[inv3ctiv3]

"...does anyone know how you can just have a house on public land like that?"

Via Homesteading and patented mining claims the central govt passed title of land to citizens. At some point the feds closed this window and turned all remaining land over to the BLM and Forest Service. This left a lot of parcels of private land surrounded by govt land. The feds refer to these owners as "in-holders".

Un-patented mining claims are different. The owner of the claim only has rights to the minerals, but does not own the land. One entity can own the surface of the land and another owns the subsurface minerals. This is called "split estate".

With limitations, un-patented claim owners can build surface structures to directly support the mine or mill but generally cannot build a dwelling.

Interesting I did a little reading on inholders, pretty cool stuff out there!

 

[20DYNAMITE07]

Awesome!

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Awesome!

Thanks! Def one of my favorite areas of CA to explore.

 

[RIDGE]

Thanks! Def one of my favorite areas of CA to explore.

We need to get our schedules aligned one of these days! I'm so far behind on trip reports, I just started one from January!

 

[inv3ctiv3]

We need to get our schedules aligned one of these days! I'm so far behind on trip reports, I just started one from January!

Dude I know our schedules are like opposite haha! I'm down for something in January or February and if not then spring.