Mojave run 9-15-11 Lots of pics

Yes, and im still feeling the aftermath of his sting. still swollen, and skin is very numb in that area. Must have been an africanized killer bee with some powerfull poison, cause it still hurts and im still getting headaches

 

If it still bothers you, you should go get it check out just in case man.

 

Yeah, come on down, Matt! We'll cut it open and give it a gander to try and find something. We won't stop digging into your head till we see SOMETHING! No insurace needed at Greg's Garage!

 

Looks like a fun trip, I haven't been out there in a few years, maybe I'll join you guys next year, but I def won't be going 60mph, especially without LT.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. doctors.. who needs em!

 

[FONT=&quot]We began our Journey on Harvard Rd. just past the train tracks.
















Our first stop after about 15 minutes of driving yielded our first stucks. We had just passed a lot of good deep sand:



Nice desert side view:



Back to the stucks

Here we have Chris with his rear dug in nicely:



Andy first pulled out Will to make room for pulling out Chris. I <3 Will's truck:




Matt coaches the extraction:



Kickin and kickin so Andy pulls from the rear and Will slips out like a new born babe:





And then Andy pulls out the Ranger and drags him to the safety that is the hard pack:

Three extractions in 30 minutes: Prerunners in Pismo anyone??

Back on the road!


We crossed MANY rock gardens throughout the desert. This of course caused us to slow pace by just a tad:



Just another pit stop to make sure everyone is still together:




Here we are at Afton Canyon Campgrounds stopping for a restroom break. Last restroom call for the ladies till we get to camp:





Tons of huge splits in the mountain. We went up there to take a look... Not without the ranger getting stuck first. Andy made his way back down to extract. Andy was already proving to be very valuable:














The photographer never gets pics, so here she is:




Our trucks await:



The train we saw was LOOOONG!



Forgot where this was, but cool line up:




James's turn for an extraction:



After that quick one we made our way across the dune-ish landscape... Where the ranger got stuck:


So Andy turned the FJ around and attempted a deep sand extraction a slight uphill incline which got him a little sticky as well simply because he couldn't reverse in the deep with his tire positioning. I'm more than sure he could have made it going forward, but he was already latched with the tow strap at full stretch to the Ford. So we ended up digging out the sand behind the FJ so he could back up to undo the strap. He would go around and extract from the rear:




Tools used to extract the 4x4:


This giant rock pile is in the middle of the muddy salt flats, in the middle of BFE. Bring a rock from home and leave it here:







We stopped at the LavaTubes as well. We were in the area so why not!




Prickly little guy in the middle of the road:

Some scientific research has been done here. Looks like they've been pulling rock cores??










There's a mailbox with our country's flag next to it. We signed the book, left and item and took an item as is tradition. I left a 3.5mm male to female coupler and took a glow stick:






Just a few yards north of the mailbox is the Frog Shrine. Bring a frog statue and leave it here. According to the team, there was a gnome shrine too, but it has been removed:


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[FONT=&quot]We moved on and took another pit stop. Damn good thing we did because Chris heard his tires making a noise which ended up being an air leak! In field repairs were immediately necessary to hold the air in, but we ended up needing to throw on a spare. Will was very nice and let Chris use his wheel spacer to fit the spare onto:


Will checks out the damage and assesses the situation:

A wild Mojave cloud:


We should have gotten a pic of each girl next to the tree so we could post them all up, but these will do just fine. Try not to drool:




Me and my girlie:



Mojave Rd. monument:




Our last stop before hitting camp on our first day. It's getting dark out:





That was Day one

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[FONT=&quot]Day 2:

I woke up the camp at about 6:30 or 7-ish with the snapping of photos. Got some morning photos of the people in our camp spot:



RJ Scans for danger:

Donny follows suit:


Camera goes back into Martha's hands:
Good morning, Greg!


This was the water pump we used at camp:

And the visitor center at camp:



So we head out to go see the mines, barreling at about 70MPH. A sudden turn caught ol' Johny off guard and he went into the sand really hard and deep with Matt almost swiping his tail end. I would have then sandwiched Matt and RJ would then smash into me if they did hit. After an extraction by Andy, some cleaning and very small bending, Johny was as good as new after about an hour. I can say that Johny got some bush out in the desert that day. Go Johny! :





The local fauna:


How man makes trails:






Some DMZ Fabness:

I want this done on my truck. Screw bolt on:


Random shots while repairing Johny's rig:





The photographer sporting her SoCal Tacomas shirt... I suddenly want to go visit her



On the road again... Stupid pavement... Were it our way, there'd be no pavement:


Another train!!





An old house:


Some Landscape:




One of the MANY mines that litter the Mojave. Man has truly left his mark on this landscape. It's funny because the Sonoran Desert feels like the opposite- largely untouched and lonely. Maybe I haven't seen enough of it though. Here's the mine we visited:









The view from the mine tower:












Donny found a cool rock that really shows the history of the area well:



A shack at the mines:


Continuing on the trail brought us to some natural springs in the middle of the desert:

No horses!






Rare little dude!


This abandoned building had like-new furniture in it. Though boarded up, you can see inside through holes and cracks:




A bee came along and stung Matt a good two times. One for himself and one for the Mojave:


Back on the road:



How sick is this. This truck really gets put to work:







Random mud puddle got me excited till we smelt it after stepping out of our trucks. Who knows was in that shit. We decided to avoid mud from then on:



Thanks to a wrong turn off, we ran into a beautiful canyon. "This is what it's all about!" James said, "-Exploring! I'm having fun!" So was I!!


Some of us couldn't help but hit the mud again. Poor Will didn't mean to- he was just following and noticed it was the wrong turn at the last moment. Once the ranger hydrolocked and got stuck, Will had no choice but to stop in middle of the scummy mud:





I booked it when I saw the mud coming my way:




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Back on the correct trail. On our way to Fort Piute:



Martha's first LT ride:





Made it to Fort Piute:






One of John's kiddos found a Red Spotted Frog:



Everyone was hungry and it was getting dark so we headed back to camp.

The next and last day: We took the same routes out that we became familiar with and went to seek out a gold mine before hitting Primm and taking Powerline Road to Barstow. It was a sad feeling as we entered the mining area. I knew this was the last major site of the weekend:



This owl flew out as we were entering the gold mine. Little did we know his or her nest was inside. We spotted the nest on the way out.


We traveled about 75 yards down into the mine before we saw a large puddle where the mine was flooded. Throwing a large rock into the water yielded a good splash and gases surged to the surface. This was definitely not something you'd want to walk into:




I ran up to get Martha's tripod; It was too dark to be holding the camera and trying to snap pics at the right settings. After setting everything up, the camera died. We'll be sure to take a spare battery in March/April. Martha was upset but her camera phone documented the rest of the trip. That will come when I get home to extract them from her phone. Please note that all of Martha's shots were taken in manual mode. She had to do all of the aperture and F-stop settings herself as well as the focusing. She prefers to shoot this way as it teaches her more about her camera. She's on her way to becoming an excellent photographer. Much thanks to her and her sore finger.

 

Couple Panoramic photos:

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!! This make's me crack up SO hard. Especially in the video, you ran like someone just dropped a grenade infront of you!! lolol

 

Im SO glad I saw the other path.. that would have been bad if all 3 of us got stuck!

 

Such a good picture... LOL

 

awsome pics.. some of the later pics didnt show up though... Man that had to be the best mojave trip yet...

I saw the Ranger this morning... It's looking really bad.. I forgot my phone this morning so ill for sho get pics tonight. I mean its really in bad shape.

 

Whats wrong with it?!

 

Awesome pics Greg.

 

Will, where the vids at?!

 

Thanks, James. Wonder why the other pics didn't come up... Aw man. I hope he gets it in better shape soon Any chance of that??

....it's a ranger...

Thanks, Will! I loved your video. I hope you have the original still. I'd like to get it from you and add it to our SoCal TW video.

 

Hey, give credit where credit is due, Im pretty sure the only reason it made it anywhere after getting it to start- Is because it is a ford! aha

 

That shit was crazy!