Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Sorry, the interwebs don't translate sarcasm well. The military usually goes through various uniform changes fairly regularly. It's become more frequent since Gulf 1 in 91. Once the Marines went to MARPAT everyone else wanted a piece of the action. Gotta love lots of government contracts. But hopefully it is US workers making the goods.

 

It could be worse. You could have something like the North Koreans where everyone gets a medal so you can tell when they’re coming.

 

Latest road conditions. Looks like we are having a decent El Nino year. Could be a rough next 6 months on the roads in the southwest.

 

I'm really liking the picture of the North Pass washout! Certainly not big enough to keep a lot of folks out, but at least it will stop a Prius or BMW. Might even stop a Forester/CRV. Now if Inyo County will just leave it alone...

Sounds like Lippincott is closed to most folks as well. Now we just need a good washout on South Pass...

 

This one? I like it too.

 

Yep, that’s the photo.

Unfortunately it isn’t particularly deep so resourceful old hippies might repair it with minor road building. That’s all well and good for the old hippies but that’ll let loose the IG and FB crowd too.

Fingers crossed for more rain!

 

If it keeps raining into the fall we might even get a super bloom.

 

From the CalTrans website this evening. WTF is going on in this state?
SR 168
[IN THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA AREA & SIERRA NEVADA]
IS CLOSED FROM 0.6 MI EAST OF WESTGARD PASS /AT BRISTLECONE RD/ (INYO CO)
TO THE JCT OF SR 266 (MONO CO) - DUE TO FLOODING - MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO USE
AN ALTERNATE ROUTE

 

Needed even more in Shasta/Trinity and Lake/Mendocino counties.

 

Looking at raindar I don't see any precipitation in the area right now.

 

I think many people have regrets about sharing nice spots. Five years ago I told ONE guy, a good friend and neighbor, about a spot I hadn't fished since maybe 1990. Beautiful, magnificent alpine lake that requires a difficult hike.

I had went up there twice in a month, I was the only fisherman on the lake, did see one guy descending as I was ascending. I even told him repeatedly, "This is for you only, you can't spread this around."

Two weeks later he says, "We're going to X Lake, you want to go, show us how to get there?" As soon as I heard "We're going" I knew I f'd up. The "we" was three other guys.

I knew all of them as clean fishermen, fly-fishers, but I knew that was the end of that lake as a pristine spot. It was. I couldn't keep my mouth shut, Dan couldn't keep his mouth shut, the three other guys couldn't keep their mouths shut.

Went there a few weeks ago there was 18 people fishing the lake, two of them hauled float tubes up there. Should have kept my mouth shut instead of bragging.

 

The reality is it's not you or whom ever you told. There are just a shit ton of people and they all have Google Maps too.

 

Maybe so. But I'll keep my mouth shut from now on about some spots.

 

Well damn, I didn't know the LEO satellite Iridium technology was revived. I was working for Motorola in '97 when they tried the original Iridium deployment. My boss was recruiting people for an operations center (which was in Japan). Fell apart very quickly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation
https://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-iridium-5615034/

Interesting how succesful it is now, a massive project 20 years ago and a massive project to revive it. Interesting (to me, anyway) the original 66 LEO satellites are still operating.

 

Heck I've got the upcoming holiday weekend off and temps in certain areas are trending down. Maybe I'll go study in DV for my classes.

 

Thanks. I need to get down there sometime. It's close and there's a ton of stuff there and in the Panamints.

 

I was last out there during spring break, and want to go back this November, too. Sounds like it will be busy during Thanksgiving though. Has anyone been in the Owlshead Mtns area lately? Im trying to go to places I havent seen there yet, and was thinking of taking the road west of Saratoga Spring- it appears to go through parts of the northern boundary of Fort Irwin though, so is it closed at this part or can you go all the way west to Owlshead Mtns?

 

Be careful out there.
http://www.kolotv.com/content/news/...uana--plants-in-Inyo-Mountains-492653761.html

 

It's probably the most isolated part of the park. Been all the way to the end of the road three times. After getting far enough N/W of Ft. Irwin/ Randsburg Rd. I never saw another soul.
The only part of the Owl's Head Mtns accessable by road is the far south western portion. It dead ends at a defunct microwave tower. A 60 mile round trip from Harry Wade.

 

Yikes!