Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

It was smokey up inside Middle Park and South Park over the weekend..

 

I had considered going to Middle/South Park but decided for easier travel to Mahogany Flat. Mahogany Flat was ok late Sunday afternoon but I could see lots of haze looking north and west. Very buggy up at the campground. Sand wasps to be specific. They ended their party after sundown but during daytime hours they were unbearable. I packed up and was out of there by 10am. Then onto Auguereberry Point and Skidoo. Both of which I'd never been to before. Amazing views and history. I was going to spend another evening at a location I've visited near 190 off Saline Valley Road South Pass. Took a nap, woke up and had dinner. Noticed mice in the area but had already decided to pack up and head home. Once home I found the four legged pests had hitched a ride. So that was fun taking the truck to get washed and parked outside my place hoping they would gtfo.

 

I still need to make my way up to Mahogany Flats, maybe next weekend!!

We had a very large gathering of yellow jackets that appeared out of nowhere when we were preparing dinner. They weren't aggressive ,just very annoying. And of course the burros end up hanging out at the fringes of camp waiting for leftovers. But not nearly as many of them from our last trip up there..

 

Sigh... No DV for me until mid-December at the earliest. And that’s kind of unlikely to happen anyway. Keep the posts coming, I need some vicarious living.

And to add insult to injury the death-valley.net forums shutdown with part of the justification being “better usability of social media platforms”. Yeah... right... and I’m not going to go to Ruth Chris because McDonalds announces a steak sandwich.

 

Increased spam, blah blah. You probably would not believe the amount of spam forums see. In my own experience, it's enough to keep me busy. Of course, the decreased participation definitely hurts.

 

Oh yeah, I completely understand how taxing the spam is for the owner, and the post rate was quite low. And of course the likely endless security updates to anything hosted on the internet. Completely get the decision. Thankful it existed as long as it did. I just particularly despise social media so the thought that social media is the alternative to a forum is a bit of lemon juice on a paper cut.

 

I agree with your SM assessment.

 

..i keep thinking i'll get there soon..but..not blaming InyoNF, but they keep extending the Closure dates, and I always stop and camp somewhere in InyoNF prior to entering DV, and...i live in the 12 mile periphery of the Glass fire and can't be certain that this area won't spontaneously combust into inferno conditions, plus...I'm still following strict COVID precautions, so don't want my actions to affect others, or be affected by others....and...honestly I'm not complaining about the local condition, or saying California sucks, or that the current office-holder is an idiot...but lots of factors factor in to the hesitation to just go...i'll get there..maybe in October, maybe not. right now the sun is dropping into a orange-brown grimy haze phase. So like DVex i'm liking the vicarious experience

 

..yeh lemon juice on a paper cut...I was just thinking how far a Instagram/Facebook education will get a young person in todays pseudo reality

 

That was definitely a bummer when I tried to go on there yesterday and saw this. A lot of good information on there, and some really knowledgeable folks.

 

I'm old enough I started out with forums back in the AOL internet days. I found the information in a lot of my early forum days helpful, after proper vetting of course. I resisted FB for a long time but finally relented and started joining groups and pages there for information. I quickly learned they were not a good source of reliable information compared to the forums. When a topic of interest would come it they usually go down the drain quickly and whatever nuggets of information are quickly lost in the name calling and memes. The better usability of social media has a long way to go IMO.

I am glad to find TW, ExPo, American Adventurist forums are still (mostly) good sources of information, and entertainment. My participation on them is rather limited as I'm more of a "read and learn type" than just jumping into other peoples conversations. The limited interactions I've had here and in the other forums has been all positive and helpful (unlike FB). This particular thread has been very informative for me and turned me on to a area I never really knew about. DV is now one of the locations I really want to visit and explore in the near future when I retire, if we can get past this Covid BS. It would be great if we could get a group meeting setup to celebrate when the restrictions and borders open.

 

I was just checking the temp for today and it's 95ºF with an unhealthy AQI of 125 here in Santa Clara, CA. Only 88ºF with an AQI of 35 in DV...

 

looks like it's about time to head out there then...
aiming to be there next week or the following for 2 or maybe 3 nights.

 

Supposed to get hot again in DV

 

Headed out there around Nov. 20th, can't wait. Time to start coming up with a game plan.

 

Super sad to see a tree like that go

 

It’s the right thing tho. It was dying.

 

Ayoo!! Might see you out there!!! 21st-29th !

 

Nice. Only gonna be there a few days. Throwing around the idea of Claire camp and the surrounding area for one of the days.

 

Has anyone ever been on this route ? Big pine to saline valley ?