East Mojave Heritage Trail

[BigBearJoe]

Anyone ever heard of this? I've got all 4 guidebooks and several sections of it in GPS track files. Great way to explore the East Mojave and learn about the local history and flora and fauna.


It is 660 miles all told... a loop that begins and ends in Needles, California.

[Crawdaddy]

Originally Posted by BigBearJoe

Anyone ever heard of this? I've got all 4 guidebooks and several sections of it in GPS track files. Great way to explore the East Mojave and learn about the local history and flora and fauna.


It is 660 miles all told... a loop that begins and ends in Needles, California.

Not familiar with it but I'm over in BullHead City from time to time which borders on Needles......so post the track file and I'll go ride it

[BigBearJoe]

Okay, here is essentially what would be the 4th and final section of the East Mojave Heritage Trail. This was a weekend trip and we based out of Amboy, California. The route is from Amboy to Needles the first day and then returning by a different route than next day. This includes the tracks that we actually rode as well as the rougher route that I laid out to guide me through. The true East Mojave Heritage Trail is actually the first day section from Fenner to Needles. Everything else is just interesting side trips. One of the tracks chose a route through the Turtle Mountains which is now actually WILDERNESS and not open to motorized vehicles. You can use the route as a go around for the wilderness. The sidetrip on day 2 that goes up Carbonate Gulch is a rough route to a abandoned mining operation which is pretty cool to explore.
There is also a sidetrip on the first day to the area where Camp Clipper used to be near Essex and Fenner. This was one of General Patton's tank training bases. If you look closely at Google maps or Google Earth you can see remnants of the sizable road grid that used to be there
We gassed up in Fenner (both ways) , Havasu Lake (on the reservation), and Needles.
Other questions welcome.

[Crawdaddy]

May check out some of these tracks around Thanksgiving......I'll talk to you about'em more when we're both at an event we're not supposed to talk about.

[jonz]

edit - maybe the books below are the guidebooks you already have.

Guide to the East Mojave Heritage Trail: Needles to Ivanpah (Tales of the Mojave Road ; No. 12) by Dennis G. Casebier

the books are out of print but availabe on Amazon.com and the used prices are reasonable - used to be in the $50's and 60's but now in the 20's. anyway, the book gives a history of the trail, mile by mile for all the settlements, mines, forts, etc. now that the book prices are reasonable, i'm going to get a copy, and ride and/or drive that part of your route in the next year or two.

[BigBearJoe]

Yes, I've got all four books and purchased them from Friends of the Mojave Road back when they were still available. I've ridden all 660 miles over the course of several trips but not in order of the books. On the first couple of trips, early 2000s, I rode with the guidebook and enlarged 8.5 x 11 copies of the individual maps.
Sadly, I've only got GPS tracks for maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of it. This is by far the cleanest GPS track. The others are low definition and fragmented.

[BigBearJoe]

Hey guys,

Thought you might be interested in these GPS files. They are about as complete and accurate as I can make them via the computer and Google Earth, although any place where there is a track has been ridden by motorcycle.

Check them out and let me know if you have any specific questions.

If you ride these, let me know how it goes and if there are any corrections needed.

Now that winter is here it's a great time to go explore the Mojave Desert!

[BigBearJoe]

And here's Segment 2.