Leslie and David's Wanderings: 13 December 2020 Burro Schmidt Tunnel

When David picked up his rental car at the airport, he was surprised to see that they had foolishly assigned him a new Ford Ranger four wheel drive pickup truck! So of course he had to take it off pavement to see how it would perform. So on his second day off for the weekend, he went exploring the dirt roads north of Mojave. One of the folks at work had recommended the trail to Burro Schmidt’s Tunnel as something the Ranger could handle. So he took the southern route to the tunnel. The Ranger was not a great off pavement vehicle, mostly because the tires that were on it were not the best off road tires, but it handled the back roads just fine. He never really had to drop it into four wheel drive but did a few times just to see how it handled. As he arrived at Burro Schmidt’s tunnel, he was surprised to see the tunnel was actually open to the public and there were people coming out. One of them in a wheel chair! After asking them about the tunnel, he decided to do a little exploring. The tunnel was cut by William “Burro” Schmidt from 1900 to 1938 by hand. It goes a half mile through solid rock. Burro stated he started the tunnel to create a short cut, from his house to the smelter in town rather than taking “treacherous” trail over the mountain. Rumor is that he was following a vein of gold. By 1920 there was a road around the mountain but Burro kept on digging. The tunnel is on BLM land but there is a disputed mining claim that is open for the tunnel. David decided to go in to the tunnel as far as his cell phone flashlight would allow. Turns out he went all the way to the other side and only hit his head three times. About halfway through, he remembered that this area of California had experienced a lot of earthquakes in the last year. The thought of being in that tunnel during an earthquake was not reassuring. When he came out on the other end of the tunnel, there was a nice view out over the valley. He also found a trail he could take over the mountain rather than go back through it. Back at the truck, he decided to take the northern route out through Red Rock Canyon State Park. The road brought him out on CA14, but just in from the highway, there are a series of camping areas that are accessible for RV to boon dock. The road look easily passable when it is dry for our fiver. So he noted the coordinates of where the road interests CA14 in case we are in that area anytime in the future.