Oh, the Places We've Been. 2016 DCLB OR 4X4

Disclaimer: Exploring abandoned mines is dangerous. Entering abandoned mines may be harmful to your health and may cause death or dismemberment. I practice caution when in abandoned mines and have done much research on mining processes and safety. I do not take, hold, or carry any responsibility for your actions should you choose to enter or explore any abandoned mine.

If you are interested in exploring abandoned mines, please message me privately before doing so. I will not post mine site locations in this thread. Contact me privately and we can talk more about locations.
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This is / will be a thread about the places we have gone in our 2016 DCLB OR 4X4.

I will try to start at the beginning when we got the truck in December of 2015.

My wife and I were married in August of 2015. We spent from then until November searching for our truck. We looked high and low, were screwed by a few dealers (nothing lost but time), but this time allowed me to search for what I wanted to do in my truck.

I learned about the California Gold Rush in 4th grade. I had a teacher who brought history alive and I really enjoyed the pictures of the Placer mining that we saw. This stuck with me. When I was in college, I took a Geography course based on California as an elective. It was interesting and I started watching mining history videos during and after that course.

My wife randomly called a dealership near where she grew up, Toyota of the Desert, in Cathedral City, CA. This was in Early November, 2015. They had received two 7568s into their allocation that morning. The Silver had already been swooped up but the white had not. She texted me that they had one during class. We are both teachers.

After watching as many mining history documentaries as I could find, I started watching YouTube videos of private miners. Most of these miners were on lode claims. I learned a lot about hard rock mining and processing. During this time I remembered a trip my mother, grandmother, and I took after 6th grade. We drovey grandma's RV up to the Oregon border.

We drove out to Cathedral City that night and spoke with the Internet department sales people. We agreed to 500 under MSRP, which was a great price compare to the 3000-5000 that serious dealerships were looking for to request allocation for what we wanted. 500 under for a 7568 is still a good deal today in this area. It's been almost 2 years since they started producing the third gen!

On that trip up California, we stopped by the American River and Sutters Mill. We learned about the history of the first gold discovery and my grandma bought a big piece of fake pyrite. It was just some jagged rock painted gold. We also bought a gold pan. My mom and I went to the river to 'pan for gold' which was just me swooshing sand around my metal pan. I hid from my mom and took the fake pyrite out of my pocket.

We put a 500 dollar deposit on our 2016 Double Cab, Long Bed, TRD Off Road, 4x4, in Super White. V6, Automatic. Tow package. Door sill protectors and carpet floor mats. This was my dream truck.

I placed the rock into the pan and covered it with sand. I yelled to my mom and she walked over. I swooshed the sand out of the pan and the gold rock appeared. I looked back at my mom and her eyes were protruding from her face. She bent down and yelled, "Hey, that's not real!" She laughed. I remember she was wearing a cheap Sutters Mill trucker hat that she bought earlier. Looked really stupid on her.

This wasn't an 'order' because it was a truck they already had in allocation. After spending months on TW, I knew all about the process. I checked the temporary VIN on the paperwork. I checked the model number, list of packages, list of factory options, list of port options, and signed the paperwork. It was scheduled to arrive in 25 days. 25 days.....

When my mom and grandma saw how much I liked the mining aspect of the trip, they somehow found a hard rock mine that offered tours. I have no idea where this was or how they found it, but it was 1998 or 1999. The tour self guided and of a short adit. There were big green metal doors around the portal. We walked in with our provided hard hats. I don't remember much but I do remember was walking to a crosscut that was gated shut.

We waited. I waited. Constantly chatting with the Internet department about the truck. It was built 5 days early. It arrived 3 days arly due to sitting at port over a weekend. On December 10, 2015, we made the 3.5 hour drive to Toyota of the Desert to pick up our truck! We arrived after dark and I saw it sitting in the delivery bay behind the roll up doors. We spent an hour doing paperwork. Then we did a walk around. I popped the hood and saw the adhesive already separated. I already knew this would be a problem. About 9pm, we drove out of the dealership in our new truck.y wife actually drove the car. She was very tired so we cruised at 60mph all the way home.

This crosscut had a wooden door with metal mesh window. I tried desperately to see what was in the darkness behind the door. I knew it must hace led to a better part of the mine. There was nothing good to see in the 500 foot adit that the tour walked into.

I did not know that these two events, touring a crappy mine at age 12 and driving off the lot in our new truck at age 28, would shape these recent years of my life.

Just a preview of what is to come:

Soon after getting the truck. Big Bear, CA. that's me.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBmKwSyHfkD/

Step dad. My mom. My wife. Me. Underground 2016. Location Undisclosed. Please message me privately if you are interested in exploring abandoned mines.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOWPIfwjaWJ/

Looking into a stope, a few thousand feet into a large mine. Location Undisclosed. Please message me privately if you are interested in exploring abandoned mines.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQGzY_CDSfL/

Recent trip to Death Valley. Titus Canyon
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSkqUxGl0tp/

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Disclaimer: Exploring abandoned mines is dangerous. Entering abandoned mines may be harmful to your health and may cause death or dismemberment. I practice caution when in abandoned mines and have done much research on mining processes and safety. I do not take, hold, or carry any responsibility for your actions should you choose to enter or explore any abandoned mine.

If you are interested in exploring abandoned mines, please message me privately before doing so. I will not post mine site locations in this thread. Contact me privately and we can talk more about locations.

 

Great report... lets go! There are some deep shafts in a 90 year gold mine in Baja I won't go into solo. See them photos in my 2017 Baja Trip Report #2

 

Do you want explore abandoned mines?

this is a good time to bring this up before I start posting a ton of mine photos.

If anyone is interested in beginning or starting to explore abandoned mines, this is the place to start. Underground 2017 will be taking place in November. Due to the small community of mine explorers across the country, this a a premiere public mine exploration trip in the country. The Underground Explorers host this event on private, patented claims near Tecopa, CA. The mine systems are large and very safe*. There is lots of exploration to do on main levels that involve only walking. A large portion of the attendees of this event are professional Mine Search and Rescue Crews. This is where you want to start if you are new. They/we will help you get started.

 

First trip:

Hungry Valley SVRA. Gorman, CA

We took the truck out after about a week of owning it. I was in 4WD on some easy fire roads around the park. I had no idea what I was doing. We started up a Blue labeled trail, intermediate, and I didn't want to decend a steep hill. We have since done that trail many times, in both directions. I had a lot to learn.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BABr45SHft8/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

I just noticed that the dent isn't in the bedside in these photos. I wonder when that happened.....?

 

Then we went to Azusa Canyon a few times. We made many trips but this place is small and boring so I'll only write about it once. It's very rocky and has very popular mud when the water line is low. There is also a big water crossing on the way in.

San Gabriel Canyon OHV Area. Azusa, CA.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAIC3FonfgZ/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQy4nzL5FtA

 

Interesting read. Way to follow your passion, very cool activity.

 

We did Cleghorn Ridge a few times over the course of a few months. We did it once in driving rain. There were streams crossing the trail from the hillside in many locations. It was very interesting. The view of Silverwood Lake in the rain was cool to see from the trail.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBOtbldnfkv/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

These initial instagram photos look really bad. They didn't have the full editing options that they have now.

 

We took my mom and step dad up to Big Bear one weekend. I think it was February. We got to the trail we wanted to do and a few rigs were stuck in a ditch. They were being recovered but it said it was going to take a while so we turned around and played on some other smaller snowy roads. We never even aired down. It was very crowded so we went to the town and had lunch and spent the day over there.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBekqHHnfvp/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

We bought my wife a quad in late February or early March. I have a 2002 YZ250 but it hadn't been ridden in about 5 years at that time. I was servicing it on the weekends in between trips. I didn't have health coverage in college so I chose not to ride. We went to Stoddard Wells, Bell Mountain, Barstow area a few times.

the quad is an 2004 Honda 250EX. It fits in the long bed with the gate up. Very nice to close the gate behind it.

first trip. felt good to back in the desert. it had been a long, long time.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCVgkWqHflA/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

second trip
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDJJqeGHfup/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDWGUpmnfqL/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

near some small test adits. Airing back up at the end of the day.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEpCUSPnfj9/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

We took a few trips to Calico. Not the ghost town! The hills behind the ghost town are full of insane rocks, chutes, slot canyons, hills, mines, mines, waterfalls, etc. This area is no joke. The off roading goes to double black diamond, if they were rated by someone. We took my wifes quad but the area was very rocky and she didn't ride much. We went around the back to Bismarck and explored some of the caved mine workings. The originally drove adits, drifts, raises, winzes, etc into the hill sides to take out good material. When processing later became more efficient, they started blowing up the hillsides and processing everything they left. All that is left are big open pits with stopes carved out in the deeper areas.

I didn't take many pictures on these trips. It was extremely windy both times we went. I may post more photos from my files, later

A small waterfall. This is just above Pucker Pass. We turned around at Pucker Pass! lol
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDceoMwHfua/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

Just East of Kramer Arch.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDcdlVrnfsp/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

We took a few trips to Big Bear with just my wife and me. Our favorite way is Grapevine Canyon from the high desert. I believe the trail is

I will update the trail name and numbers when I get home. It starts on BLM land and then transitions to USFS land.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BESJsT-HflH/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

My cousin and I went for a tour around Lytle Creek. We started in the town of Lytle Creek, crossed the mountain to the North through Sheep Canyon, then took the dirt road and highway West and turned up the backside of Gobbler's Knob. Dropped down from the knob to the creek and came out near the shooting range.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEkneN1HfuQ/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

Gobbler's Knob. The Pacific Crest Trail goes through this range. We almost ran over some hikers while they were sunning themselves on the road behind a blind corner. They looked up as I skidded to a stop and slowly got up, rolled their mats up, and walked away.... yeah
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEt4qVnnfmx/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

We spoke to some of the hikers. They were doing the whole trail and took 6 months off of work to do it.

 

We bought a Utility trailer when the one we wanted went on sale at Tractor Supply. These are great for light loads and easy on price. They are permanent plated in California so cheap to register.

We added the 3/4" plywood deck, tongue wheel, zerked bearing caps, and some other things.

Here is a build thread I made about it. It was fun to modify for what we wanted.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/5x8-tractor-supply-utility-trailer-build.430108/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE6T4WInfjX/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIl5UsCDczc/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

Mother's Day came around and we took my mom and step dad around the East side of Silverwood Lake. We did Pilot Rock Truck Trail to Miller Canyon road.

This got my step dad interested in wheeling and camping again. They now have a huge Sierra 2500HD and camper.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFK4PuMnfmN/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

Great pics, love the scenery you've enjoyed!!

 

One of my other hobbies is 1/10 Scale RC Rock Crawling. This was an event at Horseman's Center in Apple Valley. I used the Napier 57000 tent and Airbedz mattress in the bed for the first time.

My Axial 1/10 SCX10. HH BRXLwp and 45 hand wound TMP on 3S. Lots of lights, winch, and other crap.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFs954EHfmH/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

I pitched the tent for the first time at around 1am that night. Took about an hour... yeah
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFuWftVnfmU/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

the dent is now present in the bedside. I do not know when it happened

 

Went to Giant Rock in Landers, CA. I never got a picture of the whole rock and the truck.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGk5p9EHfom/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

Did another Big Bear trip with @odinsbro15 and his friend. Went up Grapevine and came out at the fire station.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHbDdL2DTNP/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

airing up after.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHfMbifDUUw/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

Yeah, idk
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHbDAJaDflN/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

Planned at trip to the El Paso Mountains in Inyo County, CA. This is just North of Red Rock Canyon State Park, in California.

My wife got sick the night before and couldn't go.

Joni Jac Cabin. Sears Cabin in the background.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHyooEaDUnM/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH8rk6vDRrM/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

Met the guys who were staying in the Sears Cabin for the weekend.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHypAR5jOzJ/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

Post Office
https://www.instagram.com/p/BH8sCQWDulp/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

 

Same trip to the El Pasos.

Holly-Ash Pumicite Mine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIrh4y8jpI1/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIrhgg1jf4O/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIunrC8DNe6/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH8sc53j3UO/?taken-by=z50king&hl=en