Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

Lol. You’re right, my thread was dedicated to trail jacking.

Ghetto ramp only suggested for flat driveway or garage. Not on the trail.

Besides not being damaged, make sure all four ramps are all matched (the exact same.)

 

Death Valley Spring Break - Part 2
March 2018

Monday morning I was a bit conflicted. I like to let my daughter kill as much time as possible in camp but we were also going to walk on the dunes today and that's a bit cooler in the morning than the afternoon!

First things first though. We needed to leave camp like we found it so she had to fill in all the holes she dug the previous evening.

Zero Residual Presence
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Today was only going to have the dunes for hiking and otherwise a lot of vehicular exploration. That would mean no opportunities for climbing things which my daughter had made clear was the only thing she considered interesting anymore. So we climbed up a steep slope next to our camp. Over and over and over again. On the last and highest scramble she wanted to descend on her own so I took a picture.

Morning climb
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Eventually we got all packed up and headed back down Echo Canyon to the 190. There was some patchy cloud cover around and I hoped that it might stick around for our hike on the dunes. Most all of our hiking for this trip would be in canyons where there is plenty of shade but the dunes are obviously rather exposed.

We pulled into the parking lot for the Mesquite Flat Dunes which always seems to be crowded these days. This morning it wasn't too bad. It had been many years since I'd even stopped at these dunes since they are typically overrun with people. They are the easiest access though and my daughter has been driven past them repeatedly each time asking when we could go walk on them.

Proud that I remembered to apply sunscreen to both of us we headed out. My goal was to just make it to one of the higher ridges a little ways from the parking lot. Dune walking can be very tiresome and I didn't expect my daughter to have much patience for it. She wanted to try walking barefoot and gave it a try for about twenty feet before deciding shoes were better. I let her attempt to climb one slip face so she could convince herself that it was a bad idea and perhaps follow my routing suggestions instead.

I think in the end the going was easier than I expected for her. She had an advantage of being light with fairly giant feet so she often stayed on the surface where my feet would sink in and slide. When traversing slip faces if she followed in an adult's foot prints she wouldn't experience any additional slide. The patchy clouds were sticking around so most of our walking wasn't in full sun.

We took frequent breaks to dump sand out of her shoes, drink water and have snacks. The number of people thinned as we got further and further out. Once we climbed one of the higher ridges it was clear that we could make it to the very highest dune mostly by following a zig-zagging ridge walk - easier than climbing up and down. I pointed out to my daughter that we hadn't seen any kids in a long time which made her rather proud and then determined to get to the top of the highest dunes. She kept asking whether I thought any other five year old kids had ever made it this far.

Fortunate timing meant that the few groups that had made it this far "summited" as it were and then headed back before we reached the highest dunes. So we ended up having this part of the dunes to ourselves for the half an hour or so that we were there. It had probably been more than a decade since I'd been up here and I had to admit despite not being particularly remote or particularly high these dunes really do have a charm to them. About this time the clouds started moving out. We had a snack and I let my daughter lead the way around the highest ridge as we made our return to the truck.

Leading the way
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While we weren't climbing much the walk back was a lot warmer as we were in sun almost the whole way. The occasional breeze was very welcome and we chose a route that kept us on ridges as much as possible to be better exposed to the wind. For whatever reason my daughter was endlessly amused by the rhyming request "more breeze please" and enjoyed shouting this fairly frequently and then waiting to see if there was any breeze. It was a bit ridiculous but kept her distracted from the heat. Eventually we got back to the truck and while she complained about the heat and getting sweaty she was clearly very proud of her accomplishment.

With the temperatures climbing and the clouds disappearing we headed to higher ground for lunch. Headed east on the 190 we were surprised to see a Jeep something-or-other well off the road with airbags deployed, front bumper dug into the dirt and a fair bit of dirt on the hood and roof. Doors were all open and nobody around so presumably someone collected the occupants and took them to nearby Stovepipe. Best I could tell the driver was gawking at the dunes to the right and thus missed a bend in the road resulting in them driving straight into the desert at around 50-60 mph. Thankfully they just plowed themselves into the dirt and creosote and not head-on into another vehicle. The amount of stupid that happens in national parks never ceases to amaze me.

We left the 190 and headed up over Daylight Pass. A little ways down the other side we pulled onto a dirt road and drove about a mile from the highway to have lunch. With a bit more elevation it was extremely pleasant temps. After lunch we returned to the road and drove just a little bit further to Rhyolite.

Rhyolite is an old gold boom ghost town. There are a surprising number of significant structures left. One is the semi-famous "bottle house" which is constructed of empty bottles used as bricks. This amused my daughter to no end. She is very into writing and making lists these days so Rhyolite occupied more time than one would expect because she had to make a list of every building we stopped to look at. She also decided that she had to sketch the window and the door of the jail so she could show mom what it looked like (this despite her having her own camera).

Architectural Sketching
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From here it was time to hit Titus Canyon Road. It had been more than a decade since I'd been down Titus Canyon so even I was a little bit excited to go. I must say I've been an idiot not to go down it more often. What an amazing drive. I had almost completely forgotten the first half which includes some amazing switchback climbs and descents with epic views. Somehow I also didn't remember the colors at all. It is like Artist's Palette but on the scale of a mountain range. Since it wasn't a weekend there was very little traffic at all. We passed just two vehicles before reaching the canyon bottom. Within the canyon we passed one group of three vehicles stopped at a spring. There are lots of spots to potentially hike along the way but today we were just going to be sightseeing from the truck. Will have to come back again soon.

The pièce de résistance of Titus is of course the lower narrows. It is maybe the one place I sort of wish the truck had a sunroof. Photos don't really do it justice but it'd be miserly not to have at least one photo.

Titus Narrows
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After Titus we just needed to get to our camp for the night. That was a bit of a journey away still despite it being nearly visible from when we exited the mouth of Titus. We were going to camp in Marble Canyon on the other side of the valley but that would meaning rounding the dunes again and a longish drive on dirt. It was a pleasant drive as the afternoon sun started casting more shadows. We passed a few other vehicles on Cottonwood Canyon Road. At the turn off to Marble Canyon there were a lot of vehicles parked which I suspected were folks doing the Cottonwood/Marble loop backpack. Further up Marble near the end of the road were a few other vehicles parked - presumably other backpackers lucky enough to have two vehicles so they could leave one at each trailhead and avoid a fair bit of road walking.

Right up at the wilderness boundary was a perfect spot for a minimal footprint Flip-Pac camp. We did our normal evening routines. The sun set and bats came out. Despite not quite as much hiking as the previous day we were still both beat. My daughter passed out in less than ten minutes.

Marble Camp​

Tuesday morning dawned and after breakfast it was time to start the day with a hike starting right from our camp. The goal was the second narrows of Marble Canyon which are some of the most spectacular in the park. It had been so long since I'd been to Marble Canyon that I really couldn't even remember them at all.

This is an extremely pleasant hike. A nice gradual climb with fairly easy footing. Usually plenty of shade in the morning plus being at a bit of elevation keeps things cool too. The whole walk is pretty with interesting canyon walls and peaks even when not particularly narrow. Nearing the second narrows a huge chock stone blocks the path but there is an easy and well cairned bypass. My daughter was getting a little impatient on the hike often wanting to give up because there was no climbing to distract her and again her body was noticing the uphill even if consciously she wasn't. It was about a mile and a half along with 500 feet of elevation gain to get into the second narrows.

The narrows themselves are truly spectacular. They are a bluish dolomite which emphasizes the cool shadows that envelope everything. While not extremely narrow like a true slot canyon they make up for that in height. We reached the end of the narrows and then doubled back inside for a snack. Trailing behind my daughter a bit provided some perspective on this simultaneously huge but confined space.

Exploring the Narrows
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Heading back down canyon once again my daughter was all smiles since downhill is easier than uphill. Nearing the truck we heard voices behind us and were overtaken by a pair of college age girls with huge backpacks. They were the lead of a group that had done the Cottonwood/Marble loop. They said their group had done a lot of extra hiking on account of missing the correct crossing between the canyons. I've heard of this happening a lot and made a mental note to research that carefully should I ever do the loop myself some day!

After our hike it was time to finally hit the Visitor Center. My daughter wanted to get yet another Junior Ranger badge. This was to me a good way to kill time. Afterwards we had an early lunch in the shade near all the date palms. It is a noisy spot but quick and easy.

Our last destination in Death Valley was to go back to the "Climbing Canyon" as I had promised my daughter we could do. We made it up in record time and she was disappointed it was over so quickly! The forecast called for winds this afternoon and they began to make their appearance in parts of the canyon. It was also getting warm and so the cool shade of the canyon was welcome relief as well.

It was time to say goodbye to Death Valley but we still had one more night of camping before getting to Los Angeles to meet up with my wife. We had dinner in Baker and then headed to the mouth of Afton Canyon down Basin Road from the I-15. My daughter was hopeful of seeing some trains. There was forecast to be a brief period of winds in the evening as a front passed so we situated the truck where it should be in some shelter.

We did see trains, quite a few in fact. They are very loud. We got very little wind but did get unexpectedly some occasional sprinkles - nothing requiring the rainfly though. There was a period of at least twenty minutes where my daughter just sat on her sleeping bag slowly sipping a drink not doing anything or saying a word. Keeping her worn out was giving me a bit more peace and quiet than usual! Sleep came early again.

During the night I was woken up by at least four trains though my daughter slept right through them. The fifth one at 6am did wake her up though! This did mean at least I was up for a sunrise photo.

Afton Camp​

We ate breakfast and tried to kill some time in camp. We had one last place to hike before we headed down to LA. This was a repeat for us from two years back. So called "Spooky Canyon" is an amazing slot branching off of Afton Canyon. My daughter has recently become more scared of dark closed in spaces so for this trip I renamed it "Flashlight Canyon" to emphasize the fact she would get to play with a very bright flashlight. This subterfuge seemed to work fine.

On the way in we did get a surprise though, we almost stepped on a huge scorpion! I've never seen one so big. We took a step back and watched as it scuttled over the gravel looking for a daytime refuge. Rather than terrifying my daughter as I expected this instead made the canyon more fun for her as now she pretended I was "daddy scorpion" and she was "baby scorpion" and we needed to get back to our dark cave for the day (she had just the day before in her Junior Ranger activity book sorted animals by nocturnal and diurnal). Indeed the canyon does narrow down to a slot so twisted and deep that there is zero light in many places and you really do need a flashlight. We repeated our same photo we took two years ago:

"Flashlight" Canyon (aka Spooky Canyon)
​

And that was about it for our trip. It was time to head south and meet up with mom. We did stop on some BLM land a bit before Barstow so my daughter could collect rocks. The one thing she hates about national parks is not being able to collect rocks! We stopped a bit off of Field Road where there are lots of small agates around.

For me the trip was a reconnection with parts of Death Valley that I hadn't visited in years. I'd ticked them off as "seen" but in reality they had mostly just become "forgotten". It was great to appreciate them all over again - even more so to see them a bit through a little kid's eyes at the same time.

 

Great report. Love living some of that again, given our recent trip down. And I wish we'd been able to go further up Marble Canyon - if only we hadn't been in a rush to get over to Cottonwood and setup camp - the narrows look very cool! Next time, I suppose...and there are so many of those.

 

Great report! I’m glad my daughter has grown up into a desert-loving adult ... but I miss those younger years too. If you don’t mind, I’m going to send you a brief PM with a kid-friendly DV suggestion.

 

Treasure those wonderful days and adventures with your daughter.

 

We just transplanted back from SoCal 1 year ago. We miss that place so much

 

19.4k Blackstone Oil Analysis
March 2018

Here is the most recent used oil analysis from the last oil change:

​

I've been using Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5W-30 for all my oil changes on the theory that its more substantial additive package may be of benefit as the truck becomes lower mileage and the time (rather than miles) between oil changes extends. The oil got to 6,000 miles in 13 months this change due to the big drive for the eclipse this past summer (1,900 miles in a single trip). I'd expect usually 18 months going forward to reach about 6,000 miles.

The report looks great but I don't think I feel like trying to extend miles past 6,000 though I also don't want to change it every 6 months or other such ridiculously short intervals. As noted it an earlier report when I asked Blackstone a question their advice is to ignore the time interval between changes and go with mileage assuming the driving profile isn't introducing lots of contamination. So I think I'm going to now plan on a 6,000 mile or two year change interval (whichever comes first).

Note the comment on trace fuel contamination and short trips. Indeed while the truck sees mostly highway travel right before this oil change I had to do a bunch of short little trips around Barstow and all of this on a chilly morning. Those are exactly the conditions that cause fuel contamination so neat that they could detect that in the analysis.

 

Great report on your trip with your daughter. I have a 6 year old girl and so many of her mannerisms mirror your daughters. It reminded me so much of her at every turn. Daddy daughter time is real special. I wish I could do more trips with just my daughter but my wife and son always want to come too! I guess that's a good problem to have. Thanks for the tale, my daughter wants it for a bedtime story tomorrow night!

 

@DVexile have you ever considered writing a book about your years of adventures in Death Valley? I bet between your photography, knowledge of off-the-beaten-path locations to explore, and your gift of gab it would be pretty successful. I just this evening returned from my first trip to Death Valley and feel like I didn’t even scratch the surface.

 

We love having mommy along - and she loves coming too - but we've had a bunch of breaks where she was stuck on travel and so it was just the two of us. We all got to see the eclipse together (hurray) and before that a bunch of family trips when we were living in CA for a year. One problem is mommy is very bad at carving out "me time" for herself. So doing a daddy-daughter camping trip is a way to force some "me time" on her so she can maintain her sanity.

Thanks for the compliment! I've thought about doing a book in the past few years. It would certainly be fun though a lot of work of course. I know a few folks who have written books on various subjects, both fiction and non-fiction, and all of them say only do it if it is a passion because you certainly won't make much if any money from it!

The one thing I have done is outline a variety of topics if I were ever to actually write a book and from that created a list of photos I should take to support those topics. It can take a few years for me to get around to actually taking a photo I've conceived of in advance so I figure I can be collecting those now just in case I'm ever motivated enough to write a book. Also having a list of goals for photography is a fun way to get out there and explore so even if I never write a word it won't be wasted as far as I'm concerned.

I hope you had a great trip! The place is deep for sure. I've been visiting off and on for a bit more than two decades now and it seems like the list of places I haven't visited yet just gets longer each time I go!

 

This post had reminded me that I wanted to come up with some way to minimize the risk of slipping in cases in which the flat plate adapter for the jack was used. Then I also realized that if jacking from the sliders I'd probably want something to protect the finish on the sliders. So I found something that I think serves both purposes.

I got a pack of

MATNIKS Rubber Sheets, Black, (Pack of 3) 6x6" by 1/4 (+/-5%) High Grade Shore 60A Neoprene, Plumbing, Gaskets DIY Material, Supports, Leveling, Sealing, Bumpers, Protection, Abrasion, Flooring

6x6x0.25 neoprene rubber sheets to put between the jack adapters and whatever surface they are jacking. For the tube/frame member adapter this mostly is just to protect something like a slider. For the flat plate it offers greatly increased friction to reduce the risk of slipping. Under jacking loads the rubber pad will deform slightly around both the edges of the 4x4 flat plate as well as any features on the mating surface of the truck. That should provide even more resistance to slipping.

Here are two of the pads, one folded slightly into the tube/frame member adapter and the other with the flat plate on top of it to show the pad is oversized so that the flat plate edges can "dig in" to further resist slipping.

​

 

FREE to a good home! - Sorry, all claimed already!



Culling through boxes in the basement I've discovered that I have duplicates of a few books. From left to right:

A Natural History of California - An amazingly well done book, and extremely thick to boot. Rather than just a giant "identification" guide this book includes hundreds of pages describing how environments in CA actually work. Discussions of things such as rain shadows, north slope effects, soil conditions impacting what can grow, evaporation potential, adaptations for different precipitation patterns and on and on and on. Each region of the state gets a long section dedicated to describing the processes most important in that region. Since CA contains so many different biogeographic regions and many of them extend out of the state or have analogs elsewhere in the west it is actually a great reference for natural history in general in the west.

Hiking Death Valley - This is *the* book for Death Valley written by Digonnet. This is the fifth printing of the first edition. There is presently a second edition which adds just a little bit over what is in this particular edition, the Owlsheads in particular. It would still take the average person a lifetime to explore everything in this book.

Hiking Western Death Valley - This is *the* book for things just outside Death Valley. Also written by Digonnet this is the current and only edition published in 2009.

Sorry! All claimed already! Turns out we have a lot of bookworms on TW!

Free to anyone who promises to actually read and use them! I'll send via media mail so no need to send me anything for postage as it will be essentially free. It will take a number of weeks to get to you probably.

I'd prefer to send only one book to each deserving soul in order to spread the joy so PM me your first choice but feel free to send a second and third choice in case your first choice is already taken by an early bird.

Happy reading!

 

^^^ I recently bought the Hiking DV book and then ordered the western DV guide since I didn’t realize so much was not included in the main book. Already shipped ... darn!

 

PM inbound

 

Ok, why are you getting rid of the Hiking DV books? I have them on my desk right now and use them all the time.

 

Because I have three copies of the ones I'm giving away! They are so useful that I keep a copy at home and a copy in the truck of each of Digonnet's books. But owning three copies is a bit excessive. For the original DV one I updated to the 2nd edition so I have a 1st edition to give away. For the Western DV one during out move out to CA and then back to MD it appears I somehow "lost" a copy or so I thought. So I had bought a new second copy and then last night "found" a third copy in the basement.

The CA Natural History one both my wife and I owned a copy before we were married and so one was redundant.

 

Wow I thought I liked his books. Makes your trips to and from DV easier not having to haul the texts. Now it is perfectly clear. I thought perhaps some updated editions had escaped my bookshelves. I still have the 1st edition too. I was going to give it to a friend but I have notes in it from trips.

 

Back on page 25 you had a pic of some canvas storage bags:

• "Camp" bag (digital camo, see later post)
• "Electronics" bag (olive drab, see later post)
• "First aid" bag (red, see later post)

Do you remember from where you purchased them? Thanks.

 

If I might, they are basic "GI tool bags" readily available online from various sources online.
https://www.gijoesmilitarysurplus.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_4

I have a couple in my camper, one for stove hoses/gauge stuff, another for shore power extension cord and other electric.

 

@DoorDing and @scocar have it covered! The particular ones I've purchased are made by Rothco and can be purchased from Amazon or a variety of other places. It can be a little confusing to try to get a wide variety of colors because there are a variety of slight variations in the bag construction - nylon vs. brass zipper and straight vs. U-shaped zipper opening. Each of those varieties has a different selection of colors available! I've managed to find ten unique colors/patterns so far.

This

$21 Rothco Mechanic's Tool Bag - Heavy-Duty Organization for Your Essential Tools and Gear, Woodland Camo

link gets you to seven different colors with a nylon straight zipper.
This

Rothco Mechanic Tool Bag, Earth Brown

link gets you two more colors with a nylon U-shaped zipper.
This

$24 Rothco Mechanics Tool Bag With Brass Zipper (Olive Drab)

link adds olive drab as a color with a brass straight zipper.

There are other vendors makers besides Rothco that make essentially the same bag. I've gone overboard on purchasing all different colors so I can tell them apart!