
Behind the gates, there is no one, just the remnants of wooden buildings and scurrying lizards. A short drive down the road, you hit what looks like the entrance to an abandoned camp - chicken-wire gate, a wooden sign for Mystic Oaks, KEEP OUT and BEWARE OF DOG postings. An old, vandalized sign indicates that you are entering a place named Mystic Oaks. A couple of turns take you to the entrance of a dirt road, rutted and deserted.


Although it is only 40 or so miles from Los Angeles, it feels like another world - this is Trump country, biker bar country, general store country. Deep in the Cleveland National Forest, high above Lake Elsinore on the border of Orange and Riverside counties, there is a winding road called Ortega Highway.
