Due to mining activities in years gone by, the Calico Mountains contain a maze of roads. A group could easily spend a few days in the area and never cover the same road twice. Unfortunately, Lone Writer only had one day to spare. Badhat and Bear needed to be at work on Monday. But, they still had a few hours of daylight left so the exploring continued.
After leaving Borate, they turned down Tin Can Alley Road. There are no signs marking that one either. It got its name during the mining years when residents of Borate used it to discard the many tin cans emptied by hungry miners. Clean-up efforts by numerous groups have removed most of the cans, so the origin of the road's name is not so obvious.
Continuing up Tin Can Alley took them past numerous intersections to an old silver mine called Bismarck Camp. The mining camp is fun to visit because of the many tunnels to explore. Extreme care must be taken with young ones in this area because there is an abundance of holes for them to fall into. If you plan to explore the many tunnels, don't forget a flashlight.
As the day came to an end, Lone Writer found a reference to Kramer's Arch in the old book Badhat had brought along. At first, they used the directions in the book to search for the arch but did not find it. Then Badhat noticed a page with the GPS position listed. Lone Writer keyed it into TopoUSA and a new route was chosen. They parked the Jeep at the bottom of a very steep and rugged hill beside a campsite. A short hike up that hill and Badhat could be heard in the distance yelling, "I found it!"
The arch is interesting to use as a window frame to the valley below and the roads leading in. By the time they returned to the campsite where the Jeep was parked, the sun was setting in the west. Determined to make the day last as long as possible, they turned on some side roads and immediately found minefields of boulders that would challenge any modified vehicle. Since they had only one vehicle and no one would volunteer to walk for help if anything got broken, they decided to back out and return along the easier route.
The sun was completely gone when Badhat parked his Jeep in the lot at Peggy Sue's Diner off Interstate 15 in Yermo. "There's no better way to end a terrific day than dinner at Peggy Sue's," Bear said with a grin.
Larry E. Heck has been writing backcountry adventure stories since 1985. Some of the newer e-book products in the Campfire Tales series can be found at his website, www.lone-writer.com. The site also contains some Campfire Tales written decades ago. If you have an idea for a historic backcountry trail that you think Larry should consider, send an e-mail to larry@lone-writer.com or call (303) 910-7647.