Desert Rendezvous 2012, N32° 59.241′ W115° 57.196′

It’s been about a month since my last post, so I hope you’re settled in for a long one today…

As I hadn’t gone anywhere especially interesting for the entire month of February, it was a relief when March was time for a semi-epic road trip to Desert Rendezvous 2012. The exact location was something of a mystery which would be disclosed only at the last minute, but it was obviously going to be somewhere in the Anza Borrego desert, southwest of the Salton Sea and north of the Mexican border.

It’s not really a proper road trip if there isn’t some insanity involved, and driving well over 500 miles each way to enjoy about a day and a half of fun out in the middle of the desert certainly met that requirement.

I was fortunate that Anthony of Overland Nomads was going as well, so the long drive wouldn’t be as tedious as it would have been had I been locked up with only my own brain to entertain itself for ten hours behind the wheel. We departed from my house before dawn on Friday morning, and bee-lined straight to a local Starbucks before getting on the highway and setting the cruise control for the long journey ahead.

Our route took us down I-5 to the northern part of the Los Angeles basin, where we cut east and then south again to Palm Springs, and then Indio. I’d not been to the Indio area since the ’70s, when two of my hippie uncles lived on a commune in the area. From there we drove south past the Salton Sea, then a bit west again to the first checkpoint in the Anza Borrego desert. We arrived around 4pm. It was at this checkpoint where – after some mild and good-natured hazing – we were given the final location of the Rendezvous, about 10 miles to the east.

From there we were on a sandy, very dusty dirt road that paralleled some railroad tracks. At certain sections the dust became a fine, deep powder which would threaten to strand your vehicle if you weren’t careful with your driving and maintaining forward momentum. Anthony was in front of me, and I could tell that I was approaching one of these dustbowl sections because his Land Cruiser would abruptly vanish in a large brown dust cloud and I’d have to halt and wait for the track to become visible again.

It was a fun drive and before long we found ourselves at the Desert Rendezvous campsite, located in a large wash crossed by a short railroad bridge. There were already a lot of vehicles parked at the site, tents (both rooftop and conventional) were up, and people were gathered around on the west side. After checking in with the event’s main organizer – Dave, aka Tacodoc – we selected a spot to park & made camp.

Once we had settled in, we made our way over to the main gathering place was and socialized for the rest of the evening, enjoying the company and campfires. After dark we also did some night photography, and I gave my new Goal Zero camp lights a trial run. As another test, I slept in the back of Toyotie which worked out pretty well, if just slightly cramped.

Starting around sunset, the desert winds kicked up. By the time we went to sleep they must have gusting at 30mph+. The winds howled and battered us until they abruptly died off around 1am, when everything became still and silent.

We awoke early the next morning, socialized a bit and ate breakfast before Anthony had to scramble to break down his RTT and get over to the other side of the camp area for the “Desert Challenge”. About a half-dozen vehicles took part in the various timed challenges, which included jacking up your vehicle; deploying your tent; repairing a punctured tire; creating a sling for a broken arm; and opening up an ammo can that was locked up with various sizes and types of nuts & bolts.

Between the various physical challenges, the pressure, and the desert sun, Anthony was pretty whacked after he went through the ringer of the challenges. For the rest of the day we took it easy and I kept an eye on him to ensure that he re-hydrated himself and was feeling better. We did more socializing, took part in the gathering of trash from the area (we each filled up a trash bag of all sorts of garbage), and more socializing. We spent some time checking out the “80-series corral” that was set up near us, and I purchased a used Engel MT45 fridge/freezer from Zach at Overland Gourmet. Woot!

There are a few things that I have notice in both of the “overlanding” events I have attended. First off is that overlanders tend to be very hospitable and friendly people. Like me, they enjoy traveling and exploring interesting and remote places,  and sharing those experiences. There are some rough edges here and there but you would expect this from independent-minded folks, and I’m probably no exception. I think that the less social types tend not to come to these events anyway, so there’s a natural filter to some degree.

It’s also a diverse group, from Marines to new-age hippies, from $100,000 custom rigs to well-traveled 40-year old rust buckets, from gung-ho outdoor types to normal families… It was fun to see how little the various differences mattered while everyone shared a common enthusiasm.

Desert Rendezvous was a very positive event and I didn’t hear a single complaint about it, the organizers, or the attendees the entire time I was there… This was good times!

That evening Zach from Overland Gourmet delighted the crowd with a free hot dog dinner with four types of dogs on offer: Coney Island, a hot & spicy dog with bbq sauce & cool slaw, a reuben dog, and a “Thanksgiving turkey dog” that included gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce! There was also a raffle with lots of prizes (I won an “overland junk drawer” by the folks who make the Trasharoo), and more time socializing around the campfire.

It was windy again but still warm, probably in the upper 60s by the time we went to sleep. Eventually the wind ramped up to the level it had the previous night… And then some! It was windy enough to rock my heavy Land Cruiser around, and I could hear Anthony’s RTT flapping around like mad. Occasionally I heard something get blown over, and I hoped that my camp table wouldn’t sail off into the desert.

The next morning revealed a blown-over bottle but everything else had survived OK. I was very glad I’d put away everything except my table and chair. It also helped that the wind seemed to come from the southwest & never seemed to change direction. After breakfast I did hear that some of the Overland Gourmet merchandise had gotten blown around overnight, and that someone had sustained some pole damage to their regular camping tent.

As we had a very long return drive ahead of us, we quickly packed up & said our goodbyes, and reluctantly headed out. I know I could have used another week there in the desert, but I had to get home that night and pack for a flight to Austin the following morning. Bleah.

The drive started off nice, even with a big headwind around Palm Springs. Then we hit LA which brought traffic, rain and accidents. We even were snowed on as we neared the peak of The Grapevine, just a couple of hours from the warm desert! We pushed on and eventually parted ways as we neared the Bay Area, and I think we both made it to our respective homes around 7pm or so.

It was a whirlwind weekend and I had a great time. Now I’m looking forward to the 2012 Mountain Rendezvous scheduled for September, and of course for Overland Expo 2012 in May.

Desert Rendezvous is a free event, put together by a group of folks from the ExPo forums and led by “Tacodoc” Dave. Organizing and running an event like this takes a lot of time and effort. The volunteers do all the work in return for nothing but gratitude from the attendees. In addition to the free Saturday night dinner, there was a pile of donated raffle prizes, free decals and t-shirts paid for by sponsors, and Friday night happy hour including peach mojitos. I would be amiss to not mention my gratitude and thanks to the volunteers and sponsors of Desert Rendezvous 2012. Thank you all!

It was great seeing Anthony & Zach in person again, other folks (like Tacodoc) who I’d briefly met at the Overland Rally in Hollister, and meeting Wolf, Apryl, Tony, Trump, and many others for the first time. It was worth every mile and hour of the 1100-mile drive. I’m looking forward to Mountain Rendezvous in September.

Desert Rendezvous 2012 Photo Gallery

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More posts are coming up on my visit to Texas, mods & gear (of course) and some other activities. I’m also supposed to rework the iPad post I started on a few months back, now that I have more practical hands-on experience with it… If you have any questions or requests, be sure to let me know.