Earthwalk Day 1308 (22 August 2025), 13,042 km

My route these past two weeks took me east on Route 78, then south on BLM 191, a dirt road unknown to Google Street View but apparently part of the 1,950 km Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. That turn seems to have kept me from encountering the Republic of Slowjamastan, a 0.045 square km nation where Crocs are illegal except on National Wear Your Crocs In Slowjamastan Day.

From there the route bent southeast, then north again through Brawley. Past Niland, Google’s walking route turned a bit problematic. It put me on the worryingly named Gas Line Road where I was supposed to go past this:

The wonders of Gas Line Road

Note the sign on the left saying something about “DANGER UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE”. What Google Maps doesn’t show, but OpenStreetMap does, is that Gas Line Road goes right through the middle of the Chocolate Mountains Gunnery Range, which is a world champion level instance of combining in one phrase something awesome (chocolate mountains!) with something bad (gunnery range?).

A clear instance of Google Maps not supplying the optimal route.

So I shifted the route to go west of Niland, north to Frink, and from there on System Road around the northwest end of the gunnery range via Gas Line Road (but it’s a different Gas Line Road — I suspect these are more descriptions than names, really) and Summit Road, which is where I am now. From here I get onto Bradshaw Trail, and then Gas Line Road (and that one is the same as the first one).

Yes, I know, I’ve blithely wandered, virtually, into places like Edwards Air Force Base before. But only because my destination was Edwards Air Force Base — and I suppose I could have just stopped at the gate, but what fun is that? In this case my destination isn’t inside the gunnery range, so I’m staying out of it. Besides, I’m guessing there is less unexploded ordnance at Edwards Air Force Base.

There’s no Street View here on Summit Road, but I’m not far from this panoramic view. Pretty rugged.

There was one rain day, and one day I again didn’t walk much due to morris dancing stuff, but also there were two bike rides, of which one, at about 46 km, broke my recent-years record for a day’s ride. August is still coming in below average but hopefully it won’t end up too sub-par.

A map showing my progress is here, a spreadsheet with progress detail is here, and a Google Earth KMZ file is in this Google Drive folder. Present coordinates: 33.513°N, 115.697°W.