Source: 2006 Q4 Beartracks, Pat Fagan
Seek your fortune while you follow in the footsteps of the lost 49ers. Goler is a good destination for hiking and mountain biking, with lots of mining history. Spend the night in an actual miners shack or sleep out under star filled skies.
Goler was once used by the Army Air Corp during WWII as an emergency airfield and practice landing strip. The runway is located at 35 25.51 N / 117 44.24 W, at an elevation of 2400’. The strip lies a few miles outside the north boundary of R2515, the Edwards complex, and is not depicted on the Los Angeles Sectional. Although the runway at one time was almost twice as long, a bog in the middle now limits it to about 2300’. The surface is in very good condition, although the western most 500’ is very soft silt. The silt doesn’t create too much of a problem for operations, but it does send up a hell of a dust cloud that coats everything in sight and drops the visibility to zero until it drifts away. If you land long on runway 5 to avoid the soft stuff use caution, there is a large hole on the south side of the runway, halfway down the usable length. It is well off to the side, so if you stay in the center you won’t have a problem.
The runway is fairly level, with a slight gradient to the west. The terrain climbs rapidly on each end, more so on the east, and there is a large mountain that rises to 3700’ less than a mile north of the field.
This can be a real middle-of-nowhere place to camp, provided you pick the right days to come here. The airport is less than ½ mile from a fairly major road, but it sits down in a depression left by the Garlock Fault and is completely invisible to highway travelers. However, being this close to the road, the place does fill up on weekends with motorcyclists and hunters.
John Goler was one of the “Lost 49ers” who, hoping for a shortcut to the California goldfields ended up crossing through Death Valley and almost perished there. After escaping from Death Valley, John was pausing to drink from a spring in a canyon where he discovered numerous gold nuggets on the ground. Tired and hungry, he continued on to Los Angeles. After re-supplying, he hurried back to search for his gold, but was never able to locate it.
There are two old miner’s cabins located on the west end of the
runway. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun an adopt-a-cabin program whereby volunteers maintain and restore these cabins for public use. There is no charge to use the cabins and they are first come first served. Some are decidedly nicer than others and, though there are no utilities, they provide a nice shelter during inclement weather. The cabins usually have resident mice and rats, so be sure and take precautions to guard against
The western most cabin is probably the nicest. Get there early, it gets claimed first. It is called the Dawson Cabin and has a nice balcony and screen porch. East of the Dawson cabin is the Mead Cabin. There was a Mingus Cabin
adjacent to the Mead Cabin but it was burned down by a careless camper over Thanksgiving weekend in 2005. Thankfully the outhouse was spared.
There are two more cabins in nearby Goler Gulch. To reach them, follow the trail that leads off to the northwest at the west end of the runway. At .37 miles you will pass an unprotected vertical mine shaft on your left. At .50 miles you will reach a road junction, stay to the left. At .66 miles you will drop down into Goler Gulch. There are several mine tunnels on your right in this area. Follow Goler Gulch north and you will reach the Edith E cabin at .82 miles. This cabin has some very nice brick work and a nice fireplace inside. Continuing north up Goler Gulch the travel becomes much more difficult for the biker. The soft sand and gravel of the dry wash had me pushing my bike on foot. At 1.08 miles the road forks again. Take either fork; they are both soft and one is no better than the other. They meet up again in another tenth of a mile. At 1.33 you come to a large side canyon. This is Sand Gulch but thankfully, the trail firms up and you can get back on the bike again. Turn left up Sand Gulch and in less than ¼ mile you will see the final cabin on your right. This cabin is Mad Dog’s Retreat. These are the highlights of the area, though you can continue up Sand Gulch and find more mining sites to explore.
Really energetic bike riders can take a 7 mile ride to Randsburg, a real, living ghost town.