Prayn4surf

Mono lake is a super cool place. There was not a breath of wind, which meant it was hot, but awesome. Im not much of a bird watcher but the birds of prey in this area are plentiful. After dumping my trash, and the trash I picked up, in a bear safe garbage can, I decided to go down the road that said 4wd only. It was soft silt, but not tough. It did however have some pretty epic birds I stumbled upon. A red tailed hawk that was probably watching me the whole time before I noticed him, and an Osprey. The Osprey nest there and its protected so dont get to close to the tufa is what they say. Its also the nesting place of the california gull. If you see a seagull in california, chances are it was born at Mono Lake. Kinda crazy tidbit.

 

Thanks Jason! It was a little sluggish at altitude, and I threw a bolt off my swingout that attaches to the frame lol. Other than that truck did great with all the miles and steep grades I put it through. Your truck is looking pretty dam good too man!

 

From Mono I was headed to Bodie, the onto the town of Masonic which was founded by free masons obviously lol. Bodie was a trip, and has a ton of traffic, so don't expect to feel a ghost town vibe. It is definitely worth a stop over if you're in the area, and buy a map from the FS when your there to help support the town. The road was super pretty and very well graded. I took the long way in and out to be sure to avoid the minivans and maximize my dirt miles.































All in all i had a great time walking through the town and checking everything out. I was also glad I had two liters of water in my platypus to walk around with. Pretty funny watching everyone look like they were dying of thirst. It also proved that hiking in my pants would be totally doable. I hate the zip off pant legs, and these things proved legit! I walked all over and then made a turkey sando, answered a few questions about my truck, and headed to the town of Masonic. Needless to say the crowd wasn't following me. It was a gorgeous drive and lots of Hawks out and about. The vistas were epic.











The town of Masonic was divided into three portions upper, middle, and lower. I couldnt find anything at the upper and middle town sites. I also didnt walk around much as it was pretty warm and the day was starting to catch up with me since it started at Laurel lakes at around 9,800 ft. The lower town site is where they found all the gold. They made lots of money here, until they didn't, and it was abandoned after the land owner fell i to the main mine shaft. Some say he was pushed or so the story goes. It looked like a large operation and way more ghosty then Bodie. There are endless amounts of roads around here to check out, so its going on a list as well.















At this point I knew I had one more mine to check out which was what I was planning for the next day. I was pretty tired and only about 4 hours from a bar, shower, and a bed. With the camp sites I found there wasn't much shade, and it was hot. So I bailed and went to the Chemung mine site. It was pretty cool and super creepy at the same time. There was great campsite there but it was taken by a nest of yellow jackets. So not much of an option. But I did walk around and checked everything out.











This shot was right before A random blast of cold air came screaming out of the mine. It scared the shit out of me and since falling backward onto what looked like a collapsed mine shaft was not an option, I figured that shot was good enough even though my shadow is in it lol.







I left the site behind and headed to Bridgport to air up and get some gas. Then over Sonora Pass and into town to The Rock for a burger and an ice cold IPa. I would have one down day before heading back to Bishop and praying we got our permits from the ranger station, which we did. Then began the dusy basin loop that we finished in 6 days vs the 8 we had allotted.







Ill post some choice pics of the hike, but since this is TW I will keep it to a minimum. After the hike we headed to the bristlecone pine forest and had a great campsite also. I was glad to be back in the rtt thats for sure. Also we were glad we finished in 6 days because Bishop pass got lots of weather the evening we got off the trail. We also found another mine. You could throw a stone and find a mine in this part of CA.

 

I love photographing at Bodie and Mono Lake. I need find out some of these other places too now.

Great stories and photos!

 

There are hundreds of sites, hard to choose em really, but this fit my time frame and gave me an option to bail on one more night of camping. If I wasn't sleep deprived the first night I would have found a place to camp by Masonic, but being tired and knowing I had a 53ish mile hiking trip over three 11,900 ft mtn passes, I wanted a full day of rest before hitting the road again.

 

Some shots of the hiking trip















This is the basin that was the opposite side of the camp spot I had when in the truck by Bishop

 

Happy birthday homie! Make it a good one! Cheers to wheelin with you!

 

Thx homes! That was a fun day! Hopefully get in the dirt again soon! Once I replace all these bushings hahaha

 

Happy belated birthday!

 

Thx Randy

 

Been a hot minute since Ive been on here and updated things. In the last month went wheeling with the TW fams at san G


Ive been putting off replacing bushings so I bought bushings for the rack, the uca's and the leaf eyelets. I got the uca's done





You can see they were pretty deformed. Pretty sure it was from me over greasing them and or not loosening the bolt. Add lots of dirt miles and they were toast.

I got side tracked with the other bushings because I scored a deal on a switchpro and put off maintenance that isnt 100% necessary but will be done next month. I ordered a bussman bracket from paranoid fab here in SD and got to work. Had to cut out a bracket for the switchpro to rest underneath the paranoid fab one as switchpro recommends mounting them vertically. Plus it is hidden completely. Had lots of help with the wiring of the switchpro from @AY_ARONTRD im going to eventually trim down the mount I made for the switch panel but I like how everything turned out.







The one thing that gave us lots of issues was the arb compressor. After talking with switch pro and Aaron we ran it with the pressure switch in line so it would power on and shut off vs continuously running. So I stripped more of the harness they provided, got some new flag connectors and put this harness together. It lost a ton of wires









I had bought some cheap rock lights from Amazon, cause I got buttons to push and wired em up and plugged it in. The switch pro makes things pretty dam simple. I was trying to get as much usable light as possible, and in the wheel well it looks good, but I just see huge shadows in the areas im trying to have lit. I like the look of the lights in the wheel well but if Im going the mall crawler mod route, im gonna go function over form. Im pretty happy with the outcome.







since ive been on a buying spree its also time I did something about the cheapo amazon $40 headlights that barely light shit up. So there will be another update soon.

 

How big of a pain was it messing with the headliner? Headlights huh... time for some fancy retrofits?

 

It wasnt too bad. Just removing lots of shit to get to it. It was a pain threading the nuts in an awkward position lol that shit sucked. So pretty much it will be a hot minute before I take it out to trim down the mounting plate.

yep retros

 

Sweet! Switchpro looks good brotha let’s go ahead and scratch cleaning up wiring off the list! Onto the next project. Keep that buying spree going! Haha

 

Nooo haha. I have not been very responsible in the spending of money on the truck. Im just gonna keep my head buried in the sand on that aspect of things hahah

 

I agree on the rock lights not illuminating over the tire issue. How about adding a flood light on below the frame, in front of the rear leaf hanger. It will be at a 45*. Almost like ditch lights but lower and farther back.

oEdRo LED Light Bar 2pcs 6 Inch 18W LED Work Light Off Road Lights Car Boat Lights... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DQL6M6T/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_i_Q1VTDb7DMMQFT

 

that would probably do it haha. Your truck it seems to work better because you dont have an IFS blocking light. Im happy with the outcome and will keep it as is. Not gonna throw more money at rock lights. $60 was the budget

 

Yea you have been spending a lot lately lol. Both truck and house haha

 

Its about the only thing I have done under budget lol

 

What a nice place, great pics!!