Deacons Activity

Monday, December 11, 2023

What a great weekend this was. We wanted to have a final activity with the Deacons before they move on to Teachers and we decided to do it this weekend. Its tough to get away this close to Christmas and I know Lisa wasn’t terribly thrilled with me being gone for an entire Saturday but she didn’t complain too loudly and I had a blast.

Friday afternoon we headed out with three vehicles, twelve bikes, three leaders and seven kids. Every one of these kids moves on in January. We picked up three Costco pizzas on our way out of town and headed into the desert to the mud caves.

It was dark when we got there but that makes little difference when you’re inside a cave. The caves are very cool but I’m claustrophobic so I can’t get as excited about them as some of the kids do. The last time I went to the mud caves there are a few larger ones that I’m fine with but where we camped this time they are just a bit too tight for my liking.

I did go a ways into one of them but a few hundred yards in I was struggling to hold down my panic the entire time and I kept asking myself when the tunnel was going to open up into a cavern (like I was told it would) and I finally realized that I wasn’t enjoying this and I didn’t have to stay in there. I told the guy in front of me that I was leaving, so they wouldn’t wonder where I had dissappeared to, and headed back to camp. I was perfectly happy staying in camp and enjoying the amazing stars.

There was no moon so they were spectacular. I used the app on my phone to try and learn how to locate some of my favorites.

The next morning we made breakfast burrito’s, packed up our gear and headed to Jacumba where we would connect to the railway.

We unloaded the bikes, got our packs together, food, water, lights and what ever else we thought we would need and then headed out.

Our first wipe out happened before we even got out of the parking lot. Conner was behind me and clipped my back tire. He is lucky he was wearing all the proper gear. He had some nasty gouges on his check, which would have be across the side of his head if it wasn’t for his helmet. He had scrapes on his gloves, which would have been all along his hands if not for his gloves and his shoulder was very tender.

Not far down the tracks we came across some abandoned railway passenger cars parked on a side track. They were actually quite cool. I think if I were a homeless man I would consider camping out in one of these railway cars. They were covered w ith a ton of graffiti which I find very annoying but I do have to admit that whoever painted the graffiti had some talent. We let the boys play among the passenger cars for a bit and then moved on.

The ride took us through seventeen tunnels and a few dozen bridges ranging from small bridges to the Goat Canyon Tressel bridge. I suppose I should mention that the entire railway is now abandoned.

The tunnels were very cool (literally and figuratively) and for some of them the light was essential. I wasn’t ready for the first longer tunnel and I was riding between the side of the tunnel and the tracks and all of a sudden I couldn’t see the tracks or the side of the tunnel. I didn’t want to stop and mess up everyone behind me so while riding with one hand in the dark, hoping to not hit the side of the tunnel or the railroad ties I managed to turn the light on with my other hand.

A few of the tunnels had collapsed, or had been deemed unsafe and they had them gated off. When this happened we had to detour on some rather sketchy paths around the tunnel. That is where things got rough. The trail was often impossible to ride and was bordered on both sides with nasty cactii. The Cholla’s were the worst. At one point I was following EJ and he suddenly stopped. I about ran him over. He had brushed Cholla and had it stuck in both his tire and his leg.

I dropped my bike to go help him and brushed my ankle on one. I felt it immediately start to swell. I removed the cactus from his bike tire and pulled the thorns from his leg. I then squatted down to pull the thirty or forty thorns out of my ankle and as I did so I backed my rear end into another cactus.

I finally got my ankel cleaned up and poor EJ had to pull the thorns I couldn’t get to out of my rear end.

The scenery was stunning, and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire ride. About halfway through the ride, we arrived at the Goat Canyon Trestle bridge. It is the largest wooden trestle bridge in the world.

The boys were getting all excited and I thought they were in awe of the engineering marvel that was before them. It wasn’t the engineering that had them exited. One of them came up to us and asked if they could pee off the bridge. We agreed and Gus gave them some important advice. He said that before they do, they should spit and see which way the wind is blowing.

Most of the tunnels and bridges were on the uphill side of the trestle bridge so the last half went much smoother and faster but still amazing scenery.

We were less a mile from the end and I was once again following EJ, when I saw him swerve to avoid a rock, hit a rail road tie, and then his bike ran straight into a small bush. The rest was like slow motion. He flew over this handle bars and landed on his feet, but between his forward moment and the fact that he was on the side of a very steep slope, he took two large steps trying to catch his balance and then, when he saw he was going to face plant, he tucked and rolled the rest of the way down the hill.

He still ended up with a nasty scrape on his right arm, but he got up and walked away. This photo is where he went down. That bush is the one he hit and you can see the rock at bottom left. The photo doesn’t show just how steep the hill really is but you get an idea.

While I was standing there letting EJ recover, I heard something behind me and turned to watch Monson wipe out and roll down the hill. As I was checking to make sure Monson was OK, I watched Conner, who was already stopped, literally tip over and roll down the slope. He wasn’t nearly as graceful as EJ but he had the honor of being the first and the last accident. Within three minutes and fifty yards we had three boys go over the edge. All I could think of was how lucky we were that they did it on that relatively gentle twenty foot slope and not on one of those three hundred foot cliffs.

We then packed all twelve of us (seven boys and five leaders) in Kyles expedition and headed back to the drop off point. On the way home we fed the boys In-N-Out and then arrived at the church after 7:00. I hadn’t planned on this taking all day but the weekend was a ton of fun.

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Nintendo was founded as a trading card company back in 1889.

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