We traveled the Southwest and Baja with Al for almost 20 years until he went on the final trip in 2017. We will forever miss him and there is not a desert trip where we don’t talk about a trip with Al.
Here are some notes that I shared with Al’s family and friends at the Celebration of Life get-together held after he passed away. Below is a gallery with additional pictures.
Al’s Camp
- Once we picked a camp spot Al would go into his perfected routine of setting up his camp.
- The Bar table was the top priority; it was up before anything else. Everyone would add bottles to it. The yellow flag was an addition from the 2006 FZB trip to Death Valley, where Al found it along the road.
- We all came to rely on the collapsible trash bag
- Once his camp was done he would settle in his chair with a beer watching everyone else still setting up.
Desert Rescue
- Al carried all kinds of recovery gear and bags with screws and bolts. We never worried about breakdowns when out with Al.
- The guy in the picture was not part of our group. We ran into him in the KOFA with a dead battery. He had partied too hard and drained the battery. Al had him up and running in no time.
- Nobody knows how many tires Al fixed for others in the desert. He did it so often that he had people’s flats fixed before they knew what was going on. He drove through half of Baja one time with 7 plugs in one of his tires.
Beer at the end of the day
- There are so many places that I had a beer with Al at the end of the day. I don’t think we ever ended a day on a trip without having a beer together
- The one in the picture was an unusual case since we didn’t camp but stayed in the little Nipton Hotel in the Mojave.
- Also unusual is the brand of beer in the picture. Tecate and Pacifico were typical ones and favored by Al.
Biking support
- Jack D. wanted to do the Mojave Road on a mountain bike, I immediately was up for it. We needed a support vehicle. The answer was obvious… Al’s reply was simple: “When?”
- One of the last trips with Al was another one of Jack’s biking adventures: Follow the route of De Anza from the border to Mexico through Anza Borrego State Park. Al helped in the planning with his vast knowledge of the park and then, of course, came along as a support vehicle.
Tail Gate Lunch
- How often had we lunch on our tailgates parked next to each other? Sharing stories and food.
- This one was on the Toroweap trip in 2009. Al went back to the area with others for more extensive exploring. He was not done with the area.
- Talking about food and sharing. Al had everything in his truck. We got sloppy in our packing. Did we bring a big knife? The big pot? The cutting board? Doesn’t matter Al is there and he carries all of that. With his latest truck setup Srisuda actually often cooked on his stove. It was just too convenient and Al loved to see it put to good use.
Hiking Support
- As I got back into hiking Al was there for some great adventures.
- 3 attempts to finally make it up to Picacho del Diablo, Baja’s highest mountain, would not have happened without Al. The area is remote and not much visited. At the time the peak was climbed by less than 10 groups a year. Knowing that Al had our back was invaluable.
- On 2 of the Diablo attempts Al just camped by himself for 2 nights waiting for us. The picture was taken at the 2005 attempt when there were others along.
- Srisuda and I took a couple of trips with just Al to the desert for hikes where again Al was our safety line.
- On one hike I had planned a bit too ambitiously. We ran late and Srisuda got tired. So I got the 2m handheld radio out and called Al to arrange an “extraction”. I directed Al to the closest dirt road and he picked us up.
- When some of us crossed the Gran Desierto de Altar in Northern Mexico on foot Al talked Srisuda through driving our truck on some pretty rough dirt roads
Planning the next trip
- Before we were done with a trip we would always talk about the next one at camp. Like here in November 2005 in Death Valley
- I often called on Al for advice when planning an outing.
- Al was never big about campfires, but he knew we all loved them. In the last few years they actually became a problem for him because of the breathing
Reading on the Road
- In this picture, we are studying a map to figure out how to continue. This is how it should be: stop and read the map.
- Al was known to read maps and look things up in books while driving. I knew when he slowed down a little and started swerving he was looking up something. This often happened after a question arose over the radio.
- He kept all kinds of books and maps relevant to the current trip on the passenger seat. A small subset of his big library of material at home. For the longest time he resisted getting a GPS. When he got one he got really good at using it.
Some more pictures
