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| | Anza-Borrego after Kay, CA | | | |
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Anza-Borrego after Kay, CA
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| Storm Chasing | |
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| no partners | | When dying tropical storm Kay was blasting parts of Southern California Friday, I got the crazy idea to drive over there and see some of the aftermath. The reports and video coming from there made me want to go, but I knew better than to go Friday! I wanted to get a motel room for two nights in Borrego Springs, so I had a whole day in the area to look around. I was able to get a motel room at the off season rate for Saturday and Sunday nights (I had no interest in camping in those conditions). The tricky part was getting there Saturday. There were plenty of road problems and closures with this event, as you would expect with the excessive rainfall in the mountains and flooding in the desert sections. I drove in via the standard route with the best roads to maximize my chance of getting through. It worked, with the area along CA 78 from the CA 86 turnoff through Ocotillo Wells to the turnoff to Borrego Springs being the most likely to be a problem. Fortunately, by the time I drove through late morning Saturday, Caltrans had bladed the highway and there were no flows to contend with in the huge washes that cross the road. 
Heavy clouds, moisture and haze prevailed my whole time there, with intermittent showers (light). This created a rather eerie mood, with the low light and lack of many people (except for locals). They had just come out of a withering heat wave when this event occurred, so it wasn't surprising this was the case. It was very interesting.
On my free day Sunday, I drove some of the main roads, but didn't wander off pavement much, since I had no interest in getting stuck somewhere. I really wanted to drive back Monday by way of S-2 to I-8 at Ocotillo, but that was not going to happen. I drove down S-2 until I hit the Caltrans road closure near Bow Willow CG turnoff (nearby Agua Caliente Park received over 4 inches of rain, while areas up higher in the mountains had some totals over 10 inches  ). Just beyond this was Carrizo Creek, which no doubt caused problems along the road along with others down to Ocotillo (based on the amount of trucks I encountered on the drive heading that way). Ocotillo was kind of ground zero for the runoff.
After verifying that S-2 was a no go for my return Monday, I headed back closer to Borrego Springs and stopped for a short hike at Culp Valley, before calling it a day and heading to Carlee's for food and drink. Monday morning I headed home the same way I drove over on Saturday. By the time I got to my house in Tucson in early afternoon thunderstorms were about to unload again. I was able to get the truck unloaded before a big downpour of about an inch of rain hit! |
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