On the way down, we left San Felipe and headed south. The Puertecitos road was not too bad, all in all. The potholes were still appearing as usual, but it was nothing to compare to the Nora washout in 1997. Repairs appeared to have been made. We saw a grader and the vados appeared to have been cleaned out. Some of the nastier potholing also was somewhat repaired. The road still needs work. I think it took us just a little more than an hour and 20 minutes to get to Puertecitos.

After leaving Puertecitos, we ascended the road out of town, which was horrendous, as usual. Proceeding toward Campo La Costilla, the recent grading had not degraded too substantially. Crossing the Three Sisters was not particularly alarming either. Erosion gullies appeared periodically, but they were easy enough to navigate around or otherwise avoid. Before long, we were heading down Huerfanito grade, which was still in surprisingly good shape. Overall, the ballasting that the road crews laid down last spring survived for the most part.

On the other side of Nacho's Camp and San Juan del Mar, it was time to cross the wide expanse of Arroyo Agua Dulce. This wash must fan out for 2 or 3 miles as it makes its way toward the Sea of Cortez. Arroyo Agua Dulce drains a fairly large area to the west and the water obviously was running pretty good. The road was washed out in numerous places, but this is not particularly unusual. I've seen it worse. Drive slow and carefully and it's no problema. A 2WD truck with good clearance could make it easily.

After crossing the arroyo and the Huerfanito Flats, we ascended again to more hilly terrain. As we approached the Cinco Islas Cafe, we encountered an obviously distressed motorist. We stopped to help what turned out to be a German couple from Hamburg. Their son had gotten married to an Amerikaner in Yuma and they thought it would be a good idea to head down to Gonzaga. I gotta admire their adventurism.

They had departed down the Gonzaga road in a rented Cherokee. By the time they had crossed the Huerfanito flats, they had two flats....tires that is. The second one was one of those $20 twinkie spares that the cheapskate American car companies give you with your new $25,000 car. After admonishing the guy for driving on the road without a bona fide spare, I drove down to the Cinco Islas Cafe and solicited help from the proprietor, who turned out to be Rene's brother (see the 1995 Archives - October trip). He was going to take the guy up to Huerfanito to get it fixed. After assuring that all was well, we continued on our journey. We continued southward to Arroyo Agua Las Palmitas, which runs out to sea near Isla Cholludo (Encantada). I was surprised, no, amazed to see that the road had not washed out less than 6 months after it was fixed. Check out the 1998 Archives, April trip to see what Agua las Palmitas looked like then. Here's a clickable javascript panorama of it looking toward the sea. You can see Cholludo offshore.

This vertical Panorama looks toward the mountains. Water is still standing in one of the depressions in the riverbed.

We continued south to the flats nearing our camp. We passed the turnoff to Los Delfines and Juan Pablo's camp. As we crossed Mikey's Mogul, we hit the brakes. This wash is called Arroyo Mal de Orin. The rushing water had cut a deep depression in the south bank. We followed another guy in front of us into the wash. A sand sliding ride of half to 3/4 mile ensued until we reached the old road. Here's some pictures from the south side on the way back. We cut over into the wash a lot faster on the way back, 300 yards down or so. Cutting may not be possible southbound, as the slope must be ascended rather than descended and it's rather steep and really sandy. Don't even think of trying this crossing in either direction until the road is fixed unless you have a 4X4 with good sized tires. Just in case you were wondering, the old road is washed out on the north side and it's not possible to cross there either. Here's the washout.

A section of road is visible in the middle.

This is looking downstream from the road.

Here's the center washout again.

Well, that's it for the October trip.

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