Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

Thanks for writing. The spell checker may have gotten you. Isn't the mountain Cowhole? I've wanted to hike it too. And same goes for the Old Dad Mountain, for the last 10 years, . Love the post!

 

Not the spell checker - just my brain on not enough sleep. Corrected now - thanks!

I figure until I get around to doing Cowhole it would be best to not consider Old Dad. Or Cave Mountain for that matter also nearby!

 

Mojave National Preserve - Part 3
November 2017

Thursday I woke up with some pretty modest goals. I wanted to explore a road into the Old Dad Mountains where I figured there must be some mining ruins. Then I wanted to have some time at the visitor center to check out their library and some old maps I didn't have time to look at the last time through. After that probably head into the mining area near Ivanpah.

First though I was still on east coast time so up early with plenty of time to watch sunrise. Not a cloud in the sky but the raking light made for pretty shadows.

Mojave Sunrise
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I continued north on the road I was on which continued to have endless deep dips into small washes. I turned east on a road just north of Old Dad Mountain which followed a major wash. I needed to stop a few times to check the route on foot. It was a pleasantly brisk morning driving with the windows rolled down hearing the gravel in the wash crunch under the tires.

Indeed at the top there were the remains of a mine. I haven't made any attempt to track down the name of the mine or what mineral they were after. It appeared there were probably some additional structures and equipment here in the past that were destroyed and swept down the wash by a flood at some point. A few things of interest remained though.

Abandoned


Collapsing
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The shafts appear to have been on an extremely steep hillside and serviced by a short cable tram. I spent a little time examining the hillside with binoculars as it was too steep to be worth climbing - especially solo.

After I bit I headed back down the wash. It still required some care to avoid taking the wrong path down the wash as in a few spots previous visitors had gotten onto the wrong line. Turning a bend in the wash brought Soda Lake and Cowhole Mountain into view again.

Descending from the Old Dad Mountains
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Returning to the road I had left I continued north and fairly quickly the road improved greatly allowing for faster travel. Eventually it crossed the Mojave Road which I took to the east to reach Kelbaker Road. I aired up the tires again just before the pavement. It had been about 90 miles since I'd seen pavement. I headed down Kelbaker to get to the visitor center at Kelso.

At the visitor center there are some nice shaded benches along the track side arcade that make a nice spot to eat lunch. There were, however, prominent signs warning to watch out for tarantula hawks (a wasp with the second most painful sting in the world described by one researcher as "…immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream"). While contemplating the warning a tarantula hawk cruised between me and the sign after which I decided to alter my lunch plans.

If you ever pass through here be sure to check out the small library upstairs and especially the old maps that are under glass in some pull-out drawers. After a bit of a visit I decided to continue towards Ivanpah and eat lunch somewhere along the way. Driving east I saw the train signals indicating a train was in the distance headed this direction so I decided to stop along one of the dirt roads that climb to the south east to have lunch and wait for the train.

After lunch I continued through Cima and Ivanpah to reach the mines around Vanderbilt. By this time it was clear it would probably be a windy evening as conditions were getting rather blustery. I decided I'd do just a little exploring in the area and then get a room in Vegas for the night so I'd have a little time to do various truck tasks and arrive home a bit better rested.

There is a relatively modern and extensive mine in the area that I decided to check out before heading into Vegas. Perched on the hillsides this site has quite a view across the Ivanpah Valley. There is a large processing building, tanks and conveyors. There is a fair bit of graffiti too of course. With the winds sighing through metal stairs and walkways not to mention the obligatory bangs of metal doors and loose corrugated siding this former industrial site was converted to just the kind of eerie lonely place that makes your skin crawl slightly. I don't think I'd appreciate visiting it in the dark!

I poked my nose around from the outside mostly. It appeared a ranger had put up a helpful warning sign regarding a beehive in part of the building. Entering a bit further from a large open back door I inadvertently spooked a barn owl that had been perched up under one of the walkways. After successfully restarting my heart I decided to restrict my remaining explorations to exterior of the building.

Industrial Nightmare
​

Eventually I got it into my head that it would be a good idea to climb the exterior sturdy metal stairs and walkways to the top of various mixing tanks. The expanded metal grating was sagging disturbingly in parts so I restricted my steps to where it overlapped cross braces. Reaching the end of the walkways I decided I'd much prefer to be back on the ground after snapping a quick photo. I'm sure a photographer that likes working in abandoned spaces would love this spot but I'm not one of those photographers and didn't have much luck coming up with any compelling compositions.

I mentioned the view of the Ivanpah valley from here. These days that view is entirely dominated by solar power facilities. There are a few different fields of photovoltaics which don't look too different from a crop field as far as visual impact goes. What is impossible to miss are the three concentrated solar thermal plants. They are impossibly bright and what is more mind boggling is that the intense glare on the towers is actually from surfaces that are as black as can be practically made. There is a ridiculous amount of light focused on the towers. It is pretty much impossible to capture this with a camera, you just kind of have to see it, but I gave it a try anyway.

Too Bright
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While renewables are certainly a sensible thing to pursue and solar generation makes a lot of sense where there is a lot of sun I consider this to be one of the bigger threats to the deserts these days. There has been a period of proposals for solar facilities pretty much damn near everywhere in the past decade. Fortunately many have been headed off, including one in the Broadwell Valley which for the moment is now protected in the Mojave Trails National Monument. I am happy to see that the Ivanpah Valley is now sprouting a number of photovoltaic fields. Once you've ruined one viewshed you might as well just pile it all into that one location instead of spreading into other valleys.

With a little bit of regret of missing another night in the desert I headed off to Vegas. In the end that proved to be a fortuitous plan as it gave me the opportunity Friday morning to change the truck's storage location to a more secure spot and by coincidence have lunch with my brother and his wife who happened to be passing through Vegas that day.

I was fortunate to have nearly perfect weather the whole week and I was glad that I took a relaxed approach to my itinerary. I'll definitely be back again in the coming years. After all I will eventually need to get to the top of Cowhole Mountain!

 

Sliders Ordered!

Well after the last trip I've decided that I'll finally install sliders. I've had the truck shift sideways unexpectedly a few times when negotiating a tight spot but fortunately no contact or damage so far. This trip though I realized another issue - because I don't have sliders and know the truck might shift I'm giving obstacles a very wide berth and that has led to the other side of the truck getting off the road!

Earlier in this thread a bunch of folks gave helpful input on sliders so I was already thinking about sliders in the future. Well, as Hudsucker would say - "The Future Is Now".

So what did I choose? Well it pretty much all came down to logistics more than anything. There are lots of really good choices in the market right now so I could select based on ease of getting them on the truck despite me living on the other side of the country from the truck.

The biggest decision was weld vs. bolt on. When I lived in CA with the truck that would have been a real choice. One advantage of weld on is they are a bit lighter because they don't need the extra frame plate that bolt on have. Now that I only work on the truck while on a vacation the logistics with weld on is a bit more cumbersome - coordinating the typical uncertain lead times with sliders, getting welding scheduled, painting the welded areas and so forth. Nothing major but definitely not as fast as "bolt and go". There are now a lot of good bolt on options that are very strong and don't require any drilling at all making installation logistics pretty trivial. Lastly I don't actually ever "slide" with the sliders nor am I even likely to jack the truck from the sliders so the ultimate in strength isn't necessary.

So once decided on bolt on it was time to choose a vendor. Again this came down mostly to logistics. I wanted the sliders already finished - powdercoat being the common option offered by various vendors. Shipping powdercoated parts rarely ends well. Ensuring they ship at the right time and to a place that can receive them for me is a hassle. I could also save a bit by doing local pick up. So that meant picking a vendor I might be near at some point in the near future. Now within those constraints I wanted something that was truly bolt on with no drilling required and that had a kick-out.

In the end the "winner" was Pelfreybilt because the sliders met my general requirements and I'll be near San Diego in March to pick them up with time to install them all in one go. Things worked out nicely in that they had a sale going right now too. They claim the pair weighs about 100 lbs, so not too much more than bolt on (hopefully I'll remember to weigh them and their hardware prior to install for reference).

So come March the truck should have a bit more armor. Last major mod? I'd say yes, but then of course I still visit TW so there's always a risk there will be "just one more thing".

UPDATE SEPT. 2018 - Pelfrey is dead, filed chapter 7. As of this update appear to have left a lot of people having paid but with no product.

 

I just got their aluminum IFS skid.

 

Having sliders is a strangely comfortable feeling.

 

...good choice on purchase sliders, and like your choice of vendor, i have weighted my truck down with all their armor product, steel and aluminum, except for my BAMF sliders..

 

I think I'll be getting sliders before any other armor for a few reasons: I have a long bed. Tire lines can take care of many obstacles, but you better have something between the tires. When I get the Prinsu rack on, I'll want something to stand on to access it easily.
Mine will likely boil down to logistics. I have the terrible misfortune of living between Relentless and BAMF.

In other news, my Amerex B410T and Bracketeer are in transit. I sincerely thank you for your homework on that. Crucial safety tool that could be needed at any time, regardless of location or circumstances.

 

I just ordered a set of BAMF sliders. They had a 25% off sale hoing untill the 25th, and it was too good of a deal to pass up. I'v been looking at them for some time, and they appear to be the only no-drill bolt-ons that MIGHT work with my aluminum BudBuilt skids. I'm getting them powder coated locally. Pics will follow, but the lead time is long.

 

Considering that I purchased a full mid-travel King setup last spring and it is still sitting in the garage...I'm not too worried about lead times at this point. I'm also not buying anything else substantial until after I install that suspension. Which reminds me, I still need to purchase a few more bits for that.

 

@scocar if you have a spare evening after work sometime don't forget to install that supercharger too.

 

+1 DMB

Seriously, with the longer commute, etc. etc. etc., unless I buy a DD daddy wagon a la A4 2.0T sometime soon, that $4k may be recycled into the new cap I don't have yet either. I'm already thinking about getting another set of wheels to mount some Michelin AT2s on for friendlier daily pavement pounding.

 

Binoculars Sale!
Eagle Optics closing, good stuff from $40 to $120

I keep meaning to write a post on binoculars because I consider them mandatory in the desert. They are just plain fun in the daytime for exploring your surroundings while at a lunch spot. They can help identify interesting things in the distance you might decide to try to drive or walk to. Many people don't realize it but they are frankly amazing for looking at the night sky (see near the end of this previous post).

Essentially all binoculars are manufactured in China these days. In the past that was considered a bad thing but honestly they've outpaced the Japanese by a significant margin now. Most of the Japanese designs are stuck in the 1990s optically while the Chinese manufacturers have been rapidly applying new materials and design techniques to make some exceptional binoculars on the high end (meaning binoculars more than say $700) that are actually optically better than anything the Japanese manufacturers (e.g. Nikon, Canon, Fujinon) are offering. Also it means the value you can get at the lower end is amazingly good.

What it also means is that "Celestron" or "Meade" or "Bushnell" 10x42 binocular you are getting is made by the same manufacturer in China with slightly different surface finishes and stickers on them. So you may find essentially the same binocular sold under multiple brand names and you'll also find slight variations in the optics (e.g. coatings) in binoculars that otherwise look about the same.

Now then, www.eagleoptics.com has been a vendor for a long time now and renowned for there excellent warranty and customer service. They have always had binoculars that punched well above their price - often their $150 binocular would be the same as the $300 binocular from a name brand. They are closing shop by the end of the month and are clearing inventory which is resulting in some pretty amazing deals. Note that while they say "All Sales Final" they have actually still been accepting exchanges for actually defective merchandise. Also note that Vixen Optics (a very similar company) will be providing warranty service after they close.

You can get a 8x42 or 10x50 porro prism for just $40 now! That's effing insane! These have a 65* apparent field of view, much better than the typical 45* that are in cheap binos. Some folks on an astronomy forum checked these out and considered them pretty impressive as a $120 binocular but at $40 it is a crazy good deal. (These are part of the Atlas Optics Eagle series)

Now "porro prism" binos are the traditional looking binos that have widely spaced objectives that don't line up with the eye pieces. Easier to design and build well but take up more space. There are also a variety of "roof prism" options available right now and these are more compact. 8x42 and 10x42 would be good choices. The Atlas Optics Radian has had lots of good reviews and is at $75 right now (probably at least $200 from another manufacturer). I picked up some Eagle Optics Denali 10x42s for $120 as my new "general purpose" binos that will live by the drivers seat.

8x42, 10x42 and 10x50 are all also wonderful for checking out the night sky. You want the larger apertures for night sky viewing. For day use only you can go with smaller apertures (26mm or 32mm) for an even more compact binocular and that's a good idea for something you hike with to observe wildlife. But if the binocular is mostly going to live in your truck and you camp under dark skies frequently then definitely go for a 42mm or 50mm binocular for better night viewing. (My night viewing binoculars right now are 63mm).

Anyway - some day I'll write more here about the binoculars in my truck and how I use them but since I think a lot of folks that read this thread explore the desert I wanted to mention this unusual opportunity to pickup decent binoculars at a really reduced price. If you don't already have something like a 8x42, 10x42 or 10x50 with quality wide field of view optics in your truck now is your chance for an early Christmas present!

 

Ken - Great find and thanks for letting us know.

Quick question on the fog-proofness of binoculars. Last binoculars I had was a long time ago and they were Bushnells. And they fogged up like crazy and drove me crazy.

I noticed that the Atlas Optics Eagle Series indicate spec waterproof, but no mention of fogproof. While the Atlas Optics Radian spec both.

I always thought waterproof also prevented fog. Do you know how fog is prevented in binoculars by any chance?

 

Great question!

Usually when binoculars are listed as "fogproof" what they mean is they won't fog internally. The binoculars are purged/filled with dry nitrogen and sealed so there isn't any water vapor on the inside to condense when you take them into cold temperatures. The Radians are nitrogen purged and the Eagles are not so that's why one specifies fog proof and the other doesn't.

Now nitrogen on the inside will do nothing to prevent the outside of the lenses from fogging. So it depends on where your Bushnells were fogging as to whether the Radians will perform better. If your Bushnells were fogging when you brought them from warm indoors into the cold outdoors that probably means they were suffering from internal fogging and a nitrogen purged binocular would do better (let's call this "winter fogging" because it would happen to you in the winter mostly). If on the other hand your Bushnells were fogging when you brought them from air conditioned indoors to warm and humid outdoors then they were likely suffering from external fogging and the Radians will likely do no better. We can call that "summer fogging" and it is a problem with no particularly good solution.

That air conditioning to warm moist outside air is a fogging nightmare for everything with no particular magic solution. In Guam my sunglasses do it every time I walk outside, especially from an extra cool machine room. Photographers that work in the tropics will often put their camera in a plastic bag before taking it outside and leave it in the bag for 15 or 30 minutes until the camera warms up. By putting it in the bag they trap dry airconditioned air around the camera that won't condense moisture. Once the camera lens elements warm up to the outside temperature they can be exposed to the moist air without fogging.

EDIT: I should add, nitrogen purging at least means that in "summer fogging" you'll only have a problem with external fogging. In really moist conditions you can have internal fogging problems too outdoors as well as having the internals fog when you bring them inside if that moist air got into the binocular.

 

I may have just ordered some nice binoculars...thanks for the tip!

 

...eh i just followed the leader and got a set too..my 1949 B&L 7x35 are ok, but...

 

Me three

 

After TW in general, you may be the next biggest threat to my wallet. Hard to resist the compact size an many features of those Eagle Optics Denali 10x42s.

 

Air Intake Rodent Control
December 2017

While in Saline I did a few minor mods. One was to discourage rodents from taking up residence in the air intake. I found signs of a brief stay by some sort of rodent when I changed the air filter in the past year. I suspect that was from when the truck was living in Pasadena but I have no real way of knowing. I picked up some hardware cloth at Home Depot before heading out into the wilderness.

It was interesting to better see how the stock intake is protected from water ingestion:

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Note the big "cup" that points down and to the front to prevent splashes from entering the intake.

​

View from the front again shows the intake is well protected from water when the truck is making forward progress. Backing up might be a different story though. Note the box shaped area there.

​

On the bottom of that "box" are a few drain holes. So it appears this box is designed so that small amounts of water that make it in will get trapped by gravity in the box area and then drain out the drain holes. All in all a reasonably well thought out design!

So, now to keep the rodents out. Before removing the intake I thought that maybe I'd cut a circle of screen and attach it somehow across the opening. Once I saw the design though I realized that would be awkward to do, but I saw an even easier solution. Instead I cut a rectangle of screen that was slightly longer than the distance to the first bend in the intake and was as wide as the circumference of the tube. I rolled that up into a cylinder and shoved it into the intake until it was wedged in good. At this point there was a fair bit of extra length still sticking out of the intake and I cut and trimmed that so that it was separated into three strips of appropriate length that I could fold back into a fairly stout cover.

Rodent "No Vacancy" Sign
​

That seems like it should discourage any rodent occupants from entering the intake. I'll probably check it in a few years to make sure the metal is holding up OK and it hasn't shifted or shaken loose somehow.

One note on removing the air intake. If you have a 2012+ you are also the lucky owner of the nearly pointless, fragile and constantly breaking outside of warranty secondary air pump. This marvel of engineering finds a new and inventive way to annoy by being in the way of one of the two bolts that hold down the air intake. Fortunately the pump bracket is only held down by three of its own bolts which are easily accessible (but naturally of a different head size than the air intake bolts so you have to go dig in your tool kit for that). Removing those three bolts and shifting the bracket slightly provides clearance to get to the air intake bolt.

I gave the remaining five feet of unused hardware cloth to Lee at the springs. He uses it a lot - most often to protect mesquite saplings from the burros.