ETAV8R's build: Gini and some wanderings

Not my original idea. I read it on the internet ...

 

I thought I had a photo of the annex and awning set up in Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada.
But, I do not.
Here is the truck, awning on other side.

 

Subscribed! Got myself a tradesman now on my truck. Love your excursions.

 

Yes I know. I was asked to take measurements of the back of my truck to see if the 3rd gen cap would fit on your truck. Looking forward to see how you use your new Tradesman.

 

It is about 3/4” too long, but I put a piece of 1/2” ply on the top of the tailgate attached with some super glue, cut to size and sealed with some rattle can outdoor black paint and it’s been working great.

 

Happy 4th of July!

 

New Diode Dynamics fogs and spots

 

I haven’t done a trip report in quite a while and this wasn’t a great trip but I had a couple days to get away and went to some of my favorite areas. I managed to get out of the LA area and into the desert by 1pm. I fuled up at the Costco in Lancaster. Once back on the road, the 14 northbound had construction going on and merged into one lane. Fortunately there wasn’t too much traffic at this time of day. Even though it’s not terribly warm in the region I still fill up my shower tube and backup water at the Coso Junction. This way I don’t haul water weight all the way from Orange County. The gas station construction at Coso is now complete by the way. I wouldn’t find out till later that my backup water container was holding some murky water. This is the first time this has ever happened to me and I don’t know why. Maybe I should start filling up at the Division Creek Rest Stop which is inbetween Independence and Big Pine. On this trip I didn’t have set plans so I wasn’t sure if I would be exploring around the Centenial Flat/Darwin area or continue north to the Inyos or around Bishop. My main goal was to be in the northern area near Bishop on Thursday morning when Copper Top opens. I was picking up all sorts of food stuffs from the area to take back home.

On the 395 Northbound there is more construction which starts somewhere after Coso Junction. For some parts the entire 395 South is closed and traffic is diverted onto the Northbound lanes making it single lanes in both directions. Owens Lake! I’d seen pictures and videos showing the water in Owens Lake and even when closing in on the southern end it still didn’t seem very impressive. But once you are in the area where the bulk of the water is the lake is astounding. For a first time visitor the water may not be impressive but for those of us who have been coming here for years, 1999 was my first visit to the area, seeing the water in the lake is a big deal. The color changed from blue on my way up to a greenish color on my way south just a couple days later. Who knows what caused the change, maybe wind stirred something up or perhaps it was the angle of the sun. Either way it is great.







After fueling up in Big Pine I headed up the 168 to Death Valley Road. The road has “Road Closed” signs and I don’t encourage breaking rules or not abiding signage. Having explored the Death Valley/Inyo area since 2008 I have experienced similar signage in areas that are heavily traveled and have no damage and I have also experienced actual road wash outs where the pavement was gone for substantial distances. I’ve read about people making it through areas without any problems and also those who have been cited. The latter was mainly by CHP. One interesting sign I saw for this particular road closure was “Gate Closed Ahead”. I wish I had taken a photo of this sign. On Death Valley Road there is no physical gate that I know of. The only gate is “Devils Gate” which you drive through and it is an impressive piece of local geology. While I would have preferred a couple days at Saline Valley Warm Springs I was well aware that there is a four foot wide and four foot deep washout at the Willow Springs area and from a reputible source there are patrol rangers in the area doing their best to ensure peoples safety and discouraging travel on these roads. My goal was a spot in the Inyo Mountains to spend at least one night. I reached the turn off for Saline Valley Road around 6pm. I aired down and slowly made my way not wanting to discover some other washout which would hinder my plans.



I arrived at my selected spot and set up camp. There was a slight breeze and temps were dropping. Dinner would be a “bougie salad” (term originates from HB Murphy) which is a premade salad you get at the grocery store. I also bought a premade Asian noodle dish. The noodles were blah but it was hot food on a cold night. I had bought some firewood just in case I wanted to do a real fire but I also had my propane Lavabox fire can. I started the Lavabox while I made dinner. I still wanted to try out my UCO Flatpack Grill for a fire too. I lit some small pieces of firewood and placed them in the UCO. They didn’t stay lit for long and it wasn’t imperative that I have a wood fire. I wanted to stargaze and campfires aren’t exactly conducive to astronomy. There was also an owl out there in the darkness giving a hoot here and there on a regular basis. This was a nice surprise to have an owl doing its thing since this is probably the third time I’ve heard one in the region. The last one was out at Alabama Hills a couple years ago. As temps got lower than 40F I decided to call it a night and crawled into my camper.







Sleep was good. Breakfast would be a few eggs, tortilla, cheese, and some precooked bacon from Costco. Tasty and quick. With camp put away and no real rush I would get back to pavement and air up then be on my way to Bishop. During my way up Death Valley Road I noticed that the plants on the roadsides were encroaching on the road, some even sprouting up in the cracks in the pavement. This is most likely due to the decrease in traffic from storms and the park closure. On the way down there was a mower doing work on the roadsides. Thank you Inyo County.





Arrived in Bishop and got some jerky, bacon, and a sandwich at Mohagany Smoked Meats. If you haven’t gone there, you should. Tasty to be sure. Initially camp would be at a spot I happened upon last year in the Buttermilks. GPS was set and on the way I noticed a road heading off in the distance in the Tungsten Hills. I checked it out and it would do fine for a one night campsite and place me closer to pavement than my originally planned site. Dinner tonight was similar to the night before-bougie salad and ramen this time. Dessert was cookies and milk. During the afternoon the winds started building and would stay with me until about 8 or 9pm. No fire this evening but I did watch the stars, only one shooting star but I’ll take it. I hit the sack early and was up around 1am then couldn’t go back to sleep. I had a quick oatmeal and had coffee in hand before 530am. Camp was put away and I was rolling by 630. Both Schats and Great Basin Bakeries would be open and I could get more goodies for the family. I highly recommend the ham and cheese croissant at Great Basin. Lots of cheese and meat in this one. Breakfast part two was done and my hunger sated. Let’s explore.




Copper Top Bakery didn’t open til 11am so I had several hours to check out some sites that were on my map which I hadn’t been to. I picked two potential sites that weren’t too far. I exited Gerkin Road and headed to two sites. One was covered in graffiti and the other didn’t have level ground. Both were a wash…a wash that sounds good. Time for a soak in the Keough hot ditch. The water felt good but not 104 good. After a short soak I was back on the road but where to go? Ah lets head up high in the White Mountains to see what’s going on. There’s a spot I know up there which I had been priveleged to find by accident about eight years ago. I call it Deep View for various reasons and it had been closed off since that time. After that I sought out something similar and found another spot I named Deep View II. The names come from the fact that this area provides great views of the night sky…deep space…and they’re on the way to Deep Springs. So I headed off and whata surprise…the area has reopened. I passed a guy in a Subaru with a telescope. On the way out I stopped to talk with him and he said he’s been able to access the site for a few years but I don’t know how since it was closed but what do I know.



Siblings behind Schats



Don't inhale the water through your nose!



Back down closer to Big Pine I parked and grabbed a couple hours of sleep before heading to Copper Top BBQ. More food acquired and it was time to head home. On the way home I took some photos of the colors on the slopes at the foot of the Eastern Sierra and also more of Owens Lake. It was a quick trip but good as always. Thanks for reading my wordy diatribe.

 

Love the trip report. Truly great photos. That crusader sticker on your shell is hysterical! Thanks for writing.

 

Not sure what has happened to TW but photos from earlier posts don't show up anymore. Big bummer since that's the point of threads like this.

 

great stuff mate - I became immediately 'hungry' looking at the bakery photo..

 

I just checked, I see your older pics

 

Idk...some show up and some don't. Maybe it's a glitch.

 

Loved this trip report. I'm so itching to get back down there. Your camp spot west of town - overlooking the area that your "volcanic wave" photo introduced me to - is one that we've enjoyed as well.

Eric - were all the photos added as attachments to the posts? (I know your recent ones generally are, but I haven't looked back through to see what's broken).

@tcBob - can you help out here?

 

The photos seem to be showing up now...I was looking at pages midway through this thread.

 

Yesterday I had threads, I was looking at, where pictures were not loading, the file name showed. I refreshed again and again. Is that what you saw? I thought it was my internet.

 

Good morning, I just did a quick scroll through all the pages in your thread. All pics and videos visible, video links worked Must have been the server indexing last night.

 

Not likely related to whatever photo issues were plaguing y'all's viewing experience the other week. But @tcBob upped the photo resolution for us all around the turn of the month, and I think that's super cool. You can see it just scrolling down this page!




Overdue response:

Fuck yeah!


Same day, different place... oddly similar shot?

 

I like your spot better.

 

You've likely been there... just off Mazourka. Not going to scroll back to check though.

They say great minds think alike... and although I lack the key requisite to substantiate such a conclusion, what the heck, here's a couple more "alikes" from that trip:

Kind of a stretch on that second one... but it was a fishing trip, after all, and this was my catch.