Who We Are

	Who We Are

SIMCIA Slate Range Home Office

SIMCIA ("sim-see-ahh") is an unordered grouping of our family's first names: Sarah, Isaac, Mary, Charlie, Ian and Andrea - located in Ridgecrest, California. My, (Charlie's), parents settled in Adelanto in the early 1920's, and I grew up there as a child, and greatly enjoyed all that the Mojave Desert has to offer. After Mary and I lived in several other places, we came to the desert to raise our family and be where we love - complete with the dust storms, high temperatures, and all. Of course, when Mary first saw Ridgecrest it was 108 degrees, and we had just come from our home in Seattle, WA. She turned to me and said, "You want to live WHERE?!", but she's grown to enjoy it as much as I do, (thankfully). The entire family has enjoyed Bickel Camp, Burro Schmidt's tunnel, and other sites nearby, hopefully we can help pass along some sense of the beauty of this place, and help keep it available for all to enjoy too.

Friends of Bickel Camp is a loosely organized group of people interested in sustaining Walt Bickel's Camp. Walt really touched a lot of people in his years in Last Chance Canyon, His thirst for knowledge, humor, and quick wit made him friends with most he met. He was always ready to help a stranded motorist in the canyon, where aid can be difficult to come by. Friends of Bickel Camp (FBC) can be easily joined by simply stopping by Bickel Camp and signing in our log book. Your donations to our caretaker, (such as canned goods, water and your encouragement), will certainly help us continue to keep things going. Passing along encouragement to the local BLM office for sustaining Bickel Camp and providing a caretaker at Burro Schmidt's Tunnel is a good idea too. Any questions or comments please write to me (Charlie) at webmaster@bickelcamp.org.