The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

To be clear, I consider forums and mailing lists as distinct from “social media” just in the sense of terminology. I can totally imagine others reasonably lumping them together as far as terminology goes.

Regardless of terminology, forums and such are very different from Facebook, Instagram and the like with vastly different user bases and purposes.

In general, forums are self selected communities of people running on a “dumb” platform that allows posting and limited controls beyond that. Good ones usually have human moderators that are part of that community. Profit motives for the host are low, typically largely only costs are covered by limited advertising. Profit motives for the users are non-existent as there is no direct means for a user to derive profit from the host site (though of course they might promote a business through their posts).

“Social Media” companies and sites are whole different kettle of fish (poisonous fish mostly) with a strong profit motive built in from the start - both for the host and some of the users (content creators or influencers). Algorithms are specifically designed and tuned to create more profit through euphemistically termed “increased user engagement” (AKA psychologically tuned addiction). As we’ve all seen this works out just as well as Skynet did…

 

I was thinking the same thing as far as online forums versus sites like the one's you listed. I really miss Deathvalley.net. It had a lot of good people and posts.

 

Good luck! The flats are neat place to explore at high elevation

 

Damn, sounds like a similar trip I did! But instead of Coyote flats, we did white mountain then Mt whitney. Good luck!

 

Thanks! We just made it back to the valley from Coyote Flats. Super cool place to explore! Was perfect for our needs to acclimate to the higher elevation and relax. Got a couple of short hikes in and the weather was perfect.

 

I think the population is also more discomfort-averse and luxury-dependent as well, but a doubling of people means a statistical doubling of the subset willing to go beyond that six miles. I live near the PCT and the number of long-haul hikers I see has increased perhaps 20x in the last 10 years. Many of them also have earbuds in or a cell phone playing tinny noise through the speaker; luxury dependent. (I wanna hear the leaves crinkle if a big cat or bear is pondering my food potential)

 

Finally made it out to this area.
Spent last Monday thru Friday running lots of trails, almost 100 miles.
Had camping areas and lakes to ourselves in the Coyote Flats area.
So beautiful and amazing can't begin to describe it.

 

With the launch of the Bronco, sales of off-road tires, and other vehicles comes a lot of irresponsible commercials don’t help either. Like power slides, parking or driving offtrail, that kind of thing. None of it really teaches respect for the environment or addresses sensitive areas (like Death Valley). Of course, many will buy and never engage 4x4 while others may get the idea that stuff is ok.

 

Anyone been up to Laurel Lakes recently?

 

I was there this last Saturday

 

Was just up there on Labor Day, beautiful spot. Had a few rigs coming down as we were coming up (thankfully at locations where pulling to the side was possible) and by the time we made it to the lake we were the only ones there.

 

So I'm assuming the trail conditions are good? Never been but have heard stories that it can be difficult to get to.

 

Granted it was my first time driving up there, trail conditions were fine.
I was in my Gladiator on tons and 40s which may obviously skew perspective on trail difficulty, but I'd say a stock Tacoma would be just fine with a little air out of the tires and a quick spot in a couple locations. A customer of ours was heading down as we were going up, he has a 1st gen with armor, a couple inches of lift and 33s and he and the rig was handling it with ease. He frequents the area on a regular basis.
Any lightly modded Taco with a capable driver should make easy work of it. Just air down. Lots of loose rock to jar you around a bit and possibly slash a tire at full pressure.

 

Trail was good, didn't air down but would recommend it since it's a pretty bumpy ride. Also be cautious of the hairpin turn when you are going down to the lake. Due to driver error I needed to be winched lol. A bit embarrassing but definitely learned a valuable lesson. An f250 or 350 with a slide in camper made it down there so you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Sounds great! Thanks for the input. Going to try and make it out there in a day or so if I can find the time.

 

Any idea when the road typically becomes overly sketchy or impassable? I'm considering it for my early November trip.

 

If I had to guess I would say any heavy rain fall could make things get pretty interesting. Definitely a few spots where the road could easily get washed out or have rocks start falling down.

 

Define "sketchy". lol

You'll be fine in NOV as long as there's no snow. Once it gets more then 12" of snow on the trail it meets the sketchy criteria.

 

That's what I figured. Thanks!

 

In a "normal" snow year, there's a spot about 95% of the way up the trail, before dropping down to the lakes, where snow drifts can make it impassable even into the summer.