The CaliKid's latest desert adventures

[TheCaliKid]

ORIGINAL: JOETHECROW

Thanks Bob, for the great sharing of your adventure... The note in the tin is pretty cool...Also I really like this pic,..I used to have a truck just like the one on the right...(Wish I still had it!)

Yeah, that truck is awesome......did you happen to notice the rifle rack? That's a slice of Americana you don't see anymore, not in Commiefornia anyway.

 

[TheCaliKid]

ORIGINAL: sem_yeto

Cool narrative and pics !

I've dug in the town of Darwin a few times back in the mid 1990's. It IS a creepy place ! I knew a guy that bought an abandoned house there and fixed it up as a second home, or cabin, if you will. There was a bearded guy there then too , that would stare us down when we roamed the town. Could be the same dude?? Also, there are quite a few ex San Francisco types there living. They were cool and let us dig. My friend is an electrician and was fixing shit there for people, so he got in good w many of the locals. Some people there are literally living in underground bunkers ! Dogs running loose all over the place too. The locals hate "tourists" and outsiders. I'd guess there are a good number of people w warrants hiding out in that place too. The soil is harder than hard, and lots of rattle snakes there too. We dug in a gully and only found a few bottles. We saw signs of early diggin from the 1970s bottle diggers . Most of the older bottles are probably still there, but deep under the hard cap, and probing is out of the question there. Dry, hard and rocky. Need a D8 and take the whole place down 4 feet !

Yeah, good luck with that soil! It's like concrete.

I'm mostly just interested in 40's through 60's small town California ACL's, nothing else really grabs me, unless its a super rare bottle from the 1870's or something like that. A niche obsession for sure, but that's how I roll. Did you find any California ACL's out there?

I conversed with the owner of the rock store in Lone Pine last April. She has a brother who lives in Monterrey, but occasionally digs Darwin and Keeler. I really wonder what's left to find?

 

[TheCaliKid]

ORIGINAL: surfaceone

Hey Kid,

Thanks for the great photo illustrated desert excursion. I love California deserts, high and low. You do take some wonderful landscapes, sir.

You are welcome and thank you. I try my best. The lighting out there wasn't perfect, but hey, you can't do anything about it.

Same here, I love the Cali deserts high and low. I think that I am slightly more addicted to the high ones, esp. the ones in the 7,000-8,000+ foot range.





I'm

ORIGINAL: surfaceone gonna argue with you about this:

In California, finding a complete soda bottle out in the open like this is extremely rare! Any bottle that had colored glass (such as green, blue, or purple, etc.) was picked up or shot up long ago.

While most of my bottle hunting has been Nor-Cal, I've found sodas just waiting for me from Joshua Tree to Borrego Springs, nothing noteworthy, alas. I've dug 19th century stuff feet from I-80, and I love 395!

When and where you headed next?

Ok, you got me. I just about fell out of my chair after reading what you wrote above.

I have walked countless dry, dusty, dirty miles, and only ever found two (2) soda bottles, one of which was embossed, not an ACL. In fact, it is so bad that I can count on the fingers of my hands the amount of broken acl's I have found. Even finding those is somewhat rare.

What's your secret? What I am doing wrong here? I have good vision, and I am far-sighted and observant. All I find is broken glass, or nothing at all.


The 395? What do you mean by this? How the heck do you know where to dig off of the 395? Or do you mean that you just walk it?

It has been my experience that unless you are in a fairly remote area with little soil disturbance, you are not going to find anything.


Right now, I am thinking about heading out the second weekend of February (weather permitting) Depending on who ends up in the Super Bowl, I may head out on that weekend instead......I'll have the whole desert to myself!


I'll PM you at a later date, because I'd love to call you up and talk about this stuff.

 

[sem_yeto]

I'm into digging pre 1890 bottles. I'd bet there are hundreds of privies left to dig in Darwin, but the ground it just to darn hard, and the people living there are hard to crack, unless you have an inside connection...

To be honest w you Kid, back in the 90's when I made an annual pilgrimage to the Desert to probe and dig, we didnt bring home any bottles that were made after 1920. I know, dumb... but we only wanted hand-blown stuff, and were really hoping to find 1860s - 1880s bottles. Nowadays, I bring anything interesting home, including the ACL sodas.

 

[TheCaliKid]

ORIGINAL: sem_yeto

I'm into digging pre 1890 bottles. I'd bet there are hundreds of privies left to dig in Darwin, but the ground it just to darn hard, and the people living there are hard to crack, unless you have an inside connection...

To be honest w you Kid, back in the 90's when I made an annual pilgrimage to the Desert to probe and dig, we didnt bring home any bottles that were made after 1920. I know, dumb... but we only wanted hand-blown stuff, and were really hoping to find 1860s - 1880s bottles. Nowadays, I bring anything interesting home, including the ACL sodas.

Yeah, I've read that even up into the 1990's, most ACL's were considered to be not much more than common trash......$1 or $3 garage sale fodder.

Amazing to think that today they have become one of the most popular markets, fetching prices that no one would have dreamed of!

 

[Photon440]

CaliKid, that was a most interesting and enjoyable set of photos. Thanks for sharing, it looks like a great adventure.

No, I didn't see the guy watching you in that photo.

 

[TheCaliKid]

ORIGINAL: Photon440

CaliKid, that was a most interesting and enjoyable set of photos. Thanks for sharing, it looks like a great adventure.

You are welcome. It was quite the adventure for sure, can't wait for the next one!

ORIGINAL: Photon440 No, I didn't see the guy watching you in that photo.

Here is the picture........look CLOSELY!

Ok, I'll give you a break.....


Here he is:

And in case you think that I am bluffing.......


Here is a picture taken less than one minute before:

 

[mattinad]

Calikid:

AWESOME article about your adventures in our part of the world (I am from Ridgecrest/China Lake).

My family and I go Geocaching in these areas (Randsburg, Garlock, Cal City, Owens Lake, Olancha, etc.) and we NEVER find such cool stuff like you do!!!

Have you ever been to Keeler???

-Dylan

 

[TheCaliKid]

Dylan -


Thank you for your reply. Yes, our corner of the world is very special indeed! Honestly, I think that the Eastern Sierra and surrounding deserts are some of the most beautiful places on the planet. We are very blessed to live in relative close proximity to them.

Last year we drove by Keeler, but didn't stop in the town proper. We almost stopped there on the last trip, but ran out of time. I plan of checking it out on the next trip though. Like I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, I talked with the owner of the rock store in Lone Pine, and she told me that her brother who lives in Monterey, digs out in Darwin and Keeler from time to time. He must be in good with the locals is all I can say.

ORIGINAL: mattinadMy family and I go Geocaching in these areas (Randsburg, Garlock, Cal City, Owens Lake, Olancha, etc.) and we NEVER find such cool stuff like you do!!!

Interesting that you should mention that, because I came across a .30 caliber ammo box under a Joshua Tree just outside of Darwin, but I didn't bother opening it. It was obvious what it was.

Well, all I can say is that I "rubber neck" pretty hard. I was also born naturally far-sighted, and am generally quite observant. Still, I feel like we got really lucky out there. And, not to diss surfaceone, but when he wrote this on page 1 of this thread, I had my doubts because I have never found it to be true:

ORIGINAL: surfaceoneWhile most of my bottle hunting has been Nor-Cal, I've found sodas just waiting for me from Joshua Tree to Borrego Springs, nothing noteworthy, alas. I've dug 19th century stuff feet from I-80, and I love 395!

surfaceone may be referring to decades past here, I have no clue.

At any rate, to add credence to position, I was on a land surveying crew for 4 years. We accessed many remote areas, including those not available to the general public. Even back then I was always looking for "artifacts". In all those years, I only found ONE thing, and it wasn't all that exciting either........here it is:

It is very hard work and involves quite a bit of luck too, that's all I can say, you had better not mind a lot of walking/hiking around for hours on end. We started to get dizzy out there with all the looking intently in different directions. It does wear on you after awhile.

You have to realize too, that you are dealing with a very FINITE resource - one that is getting scarcer and scarcer by the year. In SoCal (now with 23 million people) there have just been too many people over the decades that have wondered by and shot up or destroyed the glass. That's my theory anyway. You have to get into extremely remote areas. You have to think, "where do people today NOT have a reason to go to?"

Abandoned roads are your friend.

 

[mattinad]

Calikid:

Thanks for not disturbing that Geocache, but in the future, feel free to sign the log of ANY Geocache you come across. People LOVE to see non-cachers happening upon cache containers.

I have been wanting to go up to Keeler and explore since we moved to Ridgecrest in 2008. Havent had a chance but have heard lots of stories about it.

Have you been to Ballarat?

I am fairly new to bottle collecting (my latest "find" was today at an Estate Sale in Acton LOL! A "Yankee Doodle Root Beer botttle circa 1947). How do you decide where to dig for bottles????

-Dylan