Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Well, which one of you bought Cerro Gordo? It’s in escrow now.

 

I have the same reply as when my wife asked me if I impregnated Jennifer Gardner. Wasn't me.

 

Was back in Death Valley area over the weekend. Did the Pleasant Valley - Briggs Cabin Loop at Ballarat. Had a concern about the Chicken Rock obstacle so I started the loop by entering at Pleasant Valley and when I got to the rock I would be headed downhill.

Evidently when the woman in the pink/digital camo jeep rolled into the canyon part of the road was taken with it. Someone very recently took a rock drill to break away part of the rock. Not sure what the "plan" was as the line now is to keep one side on the rock and the other set of tires 1'-1.5' lower & pitched towards the canyon.

I picked the wrong line (should have measured and not eyeballed it) and tried to drive around the rock. I caught my mistake though and was able to drive the front wheel back onto the rock and kept the back tire on the rock the whole way.

My Tacoma is stock height and scraped the rear bumper slightly as I came off the rock. I took 2 pics but was too occupied while on the obstacle.

 

I've not done that road. Looks sketchy as carp.

 

I should have mentioned I stopped in at Miller Towing in Lone Pine to have a nail in a tire repaired. Talked to "The Guy" who does most of the DV jobs. Asked specifically about Chicken Rock and he said I shouldn't have any problems with it. He said it's mostly Jeeps, he thought the wheel base was off for that particular obstacle. I told him I was planning to drive down and not up it. Not sure if that has any influence on his answer.

I think I paid too much attention to the shelf created by the removal of part of the rock. Had I picked a line to keep both tires on one side on top of the rock, I wouldn't have had a problem.

Here's a uTube vid of a Pinzgauer on Chicken Rock before the removal of rock and you can see what's now missing. After he clears the rock the camera swings around to see the pink camo jeep being pulled out of the ravine. The wooden bridge with a 3 ton limit has also been removed and filled in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44P0u_HPN24

 

I heard from a semi-reliable source that there is a bidding war happening for Cerro Gordo and the price is around 3mil. Assuming this is true, it would very likely be mining companies trying to increase their holdings. A Canadien company performed some prospect/assay work not too long ago, looking at zinc and gold. I hope it doesn't go this way, there is no telling how things could go up there.

 

Well probably most folks have already noticed given the wide coverage in the media that the "High on Life" morons that were convicted of multiple violations across the NPS and other federal lands a few years back finally discovered what karma is when they fell off of a waterfall in British Columbia and were killed:

https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/jack...cle_1de8ae93-ff18-5caa-b3dc-25109dce7690.html

Details on their particular Death Valley violations:

https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/high-on-life.htm

 

Goodness yes, certainly not happy to see anyone end up dead! I know it is easy to think certain people might "deserve" something like that, but really no it is just bad all around and the people that really end up suffering are their loved ones.

And yes, glad no one else was injured or killed as a result. As we've just seen with the spelunking soccer team frequently one person's bad judgement results in the injury or death of people trying to save them.

I'd like to think this particular tragedy might make their Instafans think twice about what it really means to appreciate the natural world but I suspect that's unlikely...

 

Karma at its finest. They apparently didn't learn a thing from their past indiscretions.

What really bothers me about all that is that they had a "successful" YouTube channel and clothing business....implying that enough people were either indifferent toward or supportive of their actions to make them enough money to keep it going. That's the truly sad part.

 

Yeah, one of those articles mentions a guy that went outside the boundaries and fell into a hot spring in Yellowstone in 2016 and died. If it were a kid I'd feel sad for him/her, not really knowing any better but a grown ass man? Good riddance.

 

I admit I have a morbid fascination with those kinds of facts, lol. I guess a lot of people do if they've made books on it.

When I was in the Mammoth area a couple months back, we were at the many hot springs sites and there were a few groups of people that had hopped the fence/ropes and ignored the many signs warning prosecution and danger of death, so that they could walk up next to the springs. So many idiots out there.

One sign had info on it stating that over a dozen people had died there since the 70s from getting too close to the springs.

 

It's the: 'I'm so bad ass nothing can touch me!', syndrome. With a lot of ignorance thrown in.

 

I'm with you!

 

A popular one for awhile in Yosemite was for people to try to “safely” approach the top of falls by being on a rope and belay. The water is “only” a foot deep or so at the top of many. Unfortunately the water is very fast moving and the polished granite very slippery. So the person on the rope slips and falls into the shallow water. They get a quick and deadly lesson in hydrodynamics when the force of the water combined with the tension on the rope smashes their face and body against the bottom. Their belayer discovers the hydraulic force of the water is substantial and their 180 lb buddy is now applying several hundred pounds of force on the rope making it impossible to real him in. While everyone at the falls watches in horror and can do nothing the guy at the end of the rope drowns in less than 12 inches of water. After awhile the belayer is forced to cut the rope, body goes over the falls and SAR gets to spend a few days searching for it.

It has been years since I’ve been at the top of Nevada Fall but even a decade ago there were signs everywhere and hundreds ignoring them swimming at the top of the falls. Every year a few go over on average.

 

Ill be making the fastest uturn ever Ken Block style, ain't messing with the cartels trying to protect their cash crop..

 

Hmmm, the perps should be put in those plots they tore up in the park.

 

How in the world is that even profitable after its been legalized?

 

Permits to grow cost money.

 

Not taxed. No permit fees. I’m sure there’s more.

 

I just hiked Hanaupah this past February. It was really choked with brush in spots but there was lots of mostly open space with plenty of water nearby. Thinking you could do a grow there and not have it be discovered seems pretty darn clueless. While "remote" it is a pretty frequently visited site. At enough altitude and with the water and beautiful narrows further up canyon that I'm not surprised there were some summer hikers that quickly stumbled upon this.