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Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2008: Mojave National Preserve Mountain-Bike Camping and Hike / Day 7: Mojave Desert springs: Butcher Knife Spring and Cottonwood Spring day hike, New York Mountains, Mojave National Preserve /

Hmmm... there are no more tire tracks in the wash here; where did they go, and where is the road that I was on?

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00154-me-butcher-knife-wash-800px.jpg I'm still walking down the wash away from Butcher Knife Canyon, mindlessly, enjoying the scenery and the sunshineThumbnailsTo my right is an old trailer on a hillside that I'm not expecting to see, so I start hiking cross-country toward my tentI'm still walking down the wash away from Butcher Knife Canyon, mindlessly, enjoying the scenery and the sunshineThumbnailsTo my right is an old trailer on a hillside that I'm not expecting to see, so I start hiking cross-country toward my tentI'm still walking down the wash away from Butcher Knife Canyon, mindlessly, enjoying the scenery and the sunshineThumbnailsTo my right is an old trailer on a hillside that I'm not expecting to see, so I start hiking cross-country toward my tentI'm still walking down the wash away from Butcher Knife Canyon, mindlessly, enjoying the scenery and the sunshineThumbnailsTo my right is an old trailer on a hillside that I'm not expecting to see, so I start hiking cross-country toward my tentI'm still walking down the wash away from Butcher Knife Canyon, mindlessly, enjoying the scenery and the sunshineThumbnailsTo my right is an old trailer on a hillside that I'm not expecting to see, so I start hiking cross-country toward my tent

I shouldn't be seeing that small hill ahead. I quickly realize that I've been following "bad" tire tracks for at least a mile, and that I forgot to stay on the "good" tire tracks that would have led out of the wash to the road back to my tent.

If I keep walking straight ahead, I'll eventually end up down in the Ivanpah Valley below Morning Star Mine Road, which is not what I'm intending!