The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

My god. That's nuts! Didn't know how expensive Vancouver was. If you come to SoCal, we'll plan a trail run.

Yup! I know my thread is fairly family oriented, but something in me just couldn't let the thread get to 100 pages without some. lol

This summer I'm going to go to the beach a lot more than I used to. I wonder if they'll mind if I park my rig in the sand?

I hear that.

The older I get, the more frequently that seems to happen to me. lol

Had a conversation with my Dad recently. He reported that if enough time passes he can watch TV shows on Netflix that he'd seen once before, and it's like watching them for the first time again. lol

Thank you very much. Yeah I see you been in here since Nov. Glad you find it useful.

 

Crom & Friends travel the Historic Mojave Road. Part 2

Picture of first nights camp.


We were in no rush for our journey through the Mojave and our tour of the Historic Mojave Road. We woke, ate, and talked as the sun rose in the sky. We leisurely packed our things, did a campsite inspection, comms check, and hit the trail.

A view of the land that lay before us, waiting to be explored.


It was about seven miles south to rejoin the main trail, then we turned west. There was thick vegetation and the trail was partially submerged in the terrain becoming like a skateboard half pipe. It was really neat! For safety sake, I reduced speed. And I'm glad too because two motos traveling east came at me in a hurry. They stopped and graciously pulled over and let our rigs pass. After about 2.75 miles, the Mojave Trail joins with Cedar Canyon Road, but not for a mile before we take the drop off into Rock Spring Wash.

This drop off was fun. When I arrived at the drop. I parked my rig and invited everyone to walk it to see what was in store. I walked it to the bottom and saw that it was manageable and I felt that everyone in our party could negotiate the drop off successfully.

I went first. Easy does it.

Me in my rig going down. Photo by @GHOST SHIP (thank you )


And @GHOST SHIP


I pulled the rig forward and hustled back in time to take video of everyone in the party coming down.

Here is video of @HBMurphy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViltpjKbVmQ

I’ve not yet finished processing all the video yet, of each rig coming down but I will. I guarantee it -lol

Next we turned NE in the wash and in a few moments we arrived at Rock Spring and the ruins of the old Army fort, called Camp Rock Spring.




It was very relaxing and there was nice cool shade to be had here, and offered a nice chance to explore on foot.

In this photo you can see Bruce @Bman4X5 next to this large tree. Looks like a cottonwood, but not entirely sure.

There was a small dam constructed here which you can see behind him.



Beautiful cactus in bloom.


There was an interpretive trail to walk that showed the ruins of the Army camp.



Next up on our visit list was Bert Smith’s 1929 Rock House. I don’t know about anybody else, but I’d love to live out here.



We pressed on the trail and within a few moments we arrived at Goverment Holes. Despite the name, there is only one watering hole. There is an old Corral here.




We ate lunch at this location. I deployed a tarp awning for some shelter from the sun.


We ate and relaxed and enjoyed each others company. While eating, we were joined at random by a local. He was an older chap driving a rental car with out of state plates, and lives in the Mojave Preserve. He pulled up and was like, you know you can’t be camping here. We laughed and replied we were only stopped for lunch. He was a salty fellow and was rather hilarious and told us interesting tales about the land. Before he parted, I asked him his name which he gave. I in turn gave him mine and that was that. I have always enjoyed meeting locals during my travels.

Our meals devoured, and well rested, we mounted up and pressed on. We traveled Cedar Canyon Road going west, the route bisects a small mountain range, with Pinto Mountain, just over 6000’ to the North.

Eventually we traversed through the canyon and finally crested the high point and it was right then when the view opened and the grand Eastern Mojave was before us.

I decided this would be a great location to pull over and take in the views and do some photography.

Love this picture of @ETAV8R 's rig and the trail in the distance. This exposure is one of my favorites from the trip.


Photographing the photographer.

This location also allowed for a radio contact that HBMurphy was able to make with a friend who was traveling the Mojave Road, and was some 10 miles to the west of us. Later we would gain extremely valuable trail intelligence from this source.

So much color!


Rigs! @CVYota


End part 2. Part 3 coming soon.

 

The 'local' guy had Idaho plates.

 

He did! So funny! The things he said... You just can't make stuff up like that. lol

 

I loved it when he tried to say "Diane Feinstein" and his dentures came loose, causing him to remark "That word's hard to say!" with a fat grin on his face.
BTW, I doubled up on the quickfistage that holds my shovel. Thanks for the rescue Murphy.

 

You know, normally I will fully engage in a meeting like that but I just sensed that I didn't want him to know where we were from; I sensed he thought that he was a ranger. A ranger with out-of-state plates. If he was ranger, I'd be okay with that and would have been okay with engaging more. I hope everyone was okay with that.

 

Right off the bat I sensed that something was odd. I understood immediately when you responded with "Indio" lol.

One of the reasons I asked him direct questions about local topography. I wanted to see how he'd respond, see if he was really local, or ranger from Idaho.

I took everything he said with amusing large grains of salt. lol Random occurrences of strangers in the Mojave.

 

I've dealt with nuttier people. But I know not to give too much info. Such is my way in everyday contacts as it is. But "Indio" was priceless.

 

...and I sensed he knew not to dig further down that hole.

 

Part 3?

 

Crom & Friends travel the Historic Mojave Road. Part 3







The Mojave road from Kelso-Cima road westward has some large whoops and can be a lot of fun in a built rig.

We each carefully crossed the road.

As I recall Paul expressed a desire to exercise his truck on this section of the trail, so he was point. I took up second, and @CVYota was third, @ETAV8R was fourth, @GHOST SHIP fifth, and @Bman4X5 took sixth as tail gunner. Thanks to Paul's friend who was further up the trail, we had perfect traffic intelligence was to what was in front of us. On this day there was much traffic on this section of the Mojave trail, so the intelligence was extremely valuable. There were groups of motos, built baja bugs, and others. We knew in advance when to pull over and let them pass. It worked out fantastic.

Following Paul was fun. I followed him for as long as I could then pulled over and waited for Andy @CVYota , he passed. It was neat watching the suspension articulate. He recently flipped his shackles and I wanted to see that in action.

So fun!

I followed Andy for a while, then decided to pull over and wait for @ETAV8R . Got these great photos of him in his rig approaching my stop.





From about this section forward our group got stretched out and the trail was pretty busy, several other groups were encountered and allowed to pass. Paul, Andy, Bruce, ETAV8R, and Ghost Ship, we all passed relevant radio traffic, so everyone in our group was safe and ready. It was superb.

Paul was first to arrive at our planned campsite which was Beale Mountain, then Andy. Andy occupied the North end, while Paul went south to explore.

@ETAV8R and I rolled in, then @GHOST SHIP followed by @Bman4X5 . This area is large and can accommodate a few sizeable groups. I drove to the south end and really like the area Paul had secured. This south end guarantees if we had neighbors it would only be on one side and we had free reign to the south.

We all pulled into the south end and and parked our rigs and made camp.

We had arrived very early in the day around 2pm, so we had plenty of time to relax and shoot the breeze. Awnings were deployed to take shelter from the sun. Lunches, food and beverages were had. Camaraderie and new budding friendships followed, as we all got to know each other better.

As luck would have it, a small group arrived to the North of us. I was not fond of this group as they were drinking at one of the stops on the Mojave Road, and then driving. One of the women from this group approached us and was asking for trail/camp information. She was drinking. I wanted them as far away from us as possible, so I pulled maps, and sold her down the road that it was in her groups best interest to take her group and move down south for a "better" campsite. Indeed--they left.

Later a 3-rig Toyota convoy took up the same place, and that group was just dandy by my standards.

I climbed up the mountain about 60' up for these next few photos.

The majestic Kelso Dunes 15 miles away.


Here is a view of the above, but no zoom.

The Black Tacoma.


@ETAV8R 's rig with the top popped up.


While up on the mountain, I used my telephoto lens to capture this image of our Toyota neighbors to the north.


And we did what mankind has been doing for over 10,000 years... We had a camp fire, told stories, shared experiences


End part 3

 

Thanks for sharing Crom!

 

Your photos and trip reports sure inspire the urge to get out there. Thanks for sharing as always!

 

Crom & Friends travel the Historic Mojave Road. Part 4 - Sunday Morning.

Now this next part is only partly true. And it's only told purely for my personal enjoyment purposes.

The day prior, I'm not entirely sure, but I think @HBMurphy may have bent a roof mounted antenna while on the trail.

Now I have to ask... How does one bend an antenna on a trail with no trees and no overhead obstacles of any kind?



There can only be one logical explanation for this.






























Aileron roll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7M_4CFDUYc

It is plausible that if a specially built Tacoma, with an exceptional driver, traveling at the right speed, and on the right terrain, could go airborne and perform an aileron roll, and return all four wheels to the trail and keep going.

Just a thought.

That is all.

End part 4.

 

You're welcome, and thank you.

 

@HBMurphy parked/camped exactly where I did a few days later

I've got to get my trip report done but I've been busy fighting with my photo processing tools instead!

 

Nice pics and write up great job on the whole outing.

 

Crom & Friends travel the Historic Mojave Road. Part 5 - Sunday

We woke, brewed coffee, ate breakfast and had a nice camp fire as the sun rose behind Beale Mountain. I particularly enjoyed looking over everybody elses rigs. @Bman4X5 's super clean 2015, all mods super functional and finished really well. His under the hood aux electrical shelf was awesome, had not seen one done exactly that way before. Also great was to check out @CVYota 's bumper / suspension and fender mod I intensely liked hearing how cars were damaged when hitting his steel bumper.

I think it right around this time when I did a double take at @GHOST SHIP 's roof rack. He has some LED's mounted on the flank that were now held on with what looked like metal straps with heat shrink tubing over them. The double take was because a day prior they were zip tied on! like a ghost, truck seemed to mod itself! His electrical work was top notch, and very impressive. I also took time to check out @ETAV8R 's 4-wheel camper, aka the "Oxcart". Oh the comfort that is to be had in that thing! Very impressive all the way around.

And of course @HBMurphy 's rig. It's not a secret that his build was one of my all time favorites. Being an '09 he built his truck in a time and space, when I was just starting out. So for a long time, he gave me tons of inspiration and something to shoot for.

We had plenty of time to leisurely break camp. When the suns rays finally crested the mountain and hit camp, it was time to go.

Our destinations on this day included:

• Marl Springs
• Post Office Box
• Lava Tube Caves
• Soda Dry Lake.
• Rasor Road

We traveled a short distance from camp to Marl Springs. This was an Army outpost maintained at this location from 1867-1868. The name Marl Springs came from Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple who bestowed the name on March 7, 1854 as he was guiding his railroad survey team along the 35th Parallel of North Latitude. It is said that Marl Springs was probably the most crucial water source along the Mojave trail. The next natural water source would be more than 35 miles to the west, at Soda Springs. In order to reach it, from Marl Springs, the dreadful Devil's Playground and the treacherous Mojave floodplain would have to be navigated.



Lots of green.

Worker bee's doing their thing.


From Marl Springs, the route turned North. Under the major power lines, then turned west.

In short order we arrived at the famous Mojave Road mailbox trail register. Most in our group signed the register. Almost four years had passed since I'd been here. It was good to revisit. And as it happens Ken, @DVexile passed the register on 4/6, three days after our party. He has reported that there were 39 more entries between ours and his, in those approximate 3 days. Busy trail! Thanks Ken!

Next we moved onto the Lava Tubes. Now I have no pics to share. I left my camera in the truck. But I enjoyed the experience very much. I've been to Hawaii and played around there, so this was my second time seeing such phenomenon.

If you search for "Mojave Lava Tubes" you'll find some epic pics online.

Here is one such pic (not mine) Photo Credit is Paul1960, appears to be taken on Mar-'09


From here we drove back to the Mojave Trail, hooked a right now traveling west again. We took the trail all the way through the lava fields and stopped at Kelbaker road where we all caught up. We then carefully crossed Kelbaker road. Our route turned North through a fun wash. Then west again as we rounded Seventeen Mile Point.

From this point up until Soda Dry Lake, the trail became a patchwork of parallel trails. Whoops, berms, ramps, dips, drop offs, and other fun could be found here. I called them out over the radio as I encountered them. I laughed pretty hard when I called out a berm, and I think it was @GHOST SHIP who replied "ramp!" lol



I had to reduce speed as I approached Soda Dry Lake. We had caught up to another group and the dust from the lake is out of this world. Huge clouds from small movement. Visibility was a big concern, headlights were turned on. I waited until the other group had crossed before proceeding. Andy @CVYota who was behind me put some distance between ourselves to he could see.

Lots of fun here.



Final stop for this adventure, before hitting pavement was travelers monument, pictured below. It is customary for the traveler to take a rock from the east side and once safely across, deposit the rock on the monument. The monument used to be more pointy until a few months ago when a dumb clown named "Mojave Road Idiot" smashed it with his rig.



Some pics of our rigs at our last stop on trail.

















Right behind our group was a group of built buggies.

I don't know the name of the driver of the rig, but I might as well called him Mr. King.

The rig had dual King racing shocks.

When he exited the vehicle he was wearing a black hat and black shirt with big blue and white lettering that read: "KING RACING SHOCKS". Hi! Mr. King.


These motos also passed us at the Travelers Monument.


From this location we drove about 1 mile and exited NPS land, and entered BLM. I drove to the intersection and took Rasor road to the North.

Our group refueled and aired up at the Rasor road gas station. We said our goodbyes and took I-15 back home!

@GHOST SHIP , @CVYota and I were able to stay in contact on the radio while commuting back all the way to about the Cajon pass, and that was fun too!

It was a real honor and privilege to lead the group. I very much enjoyed sharing time with such great people.

Thank you to the crew @Bman4X5 , @CVYota , @Drainbung @ETAV8R @GHOST SHIP , @HBMurphy

Can't wait to do it again sometime.

Here endith my trip report for the Mojave Road Trail adventure for April 2016.

 

If I may, I'd like to add that my pace was considerably slower than the other guy's, especially on the rough road past Seventeen Mile Point. I'd like to publicly thank @HBMurphy for hanging back to make sure all was well with me. @Crom was the consummate leader, and all of the guys were top notch story tellers. I generally travel alone, but this trip was awesome.