AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

I love that you were in shorts and a T shirt washing your truck in December. Take that rest of the country.
AZ for the Win!

 

Yeah, that's why I used to run air shocks. Fun times when the truck was a work truck and DD - Pumping up the rear with air shocks.

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I was wondering about these with the new setup. Didn't go for them with the hopes that I'll tune them "right" eventually and be happy.

Totally. Was a really nice break from WA, that's for sure!

 

I'm gonna get a vinyl made for my new Fab company branding. FUKT haha

Im still bummed we ended up so far off on yours. Mine is an 1" off but I also measured it out with those old FOA shocks that were an inch shorter than my Kings, so that's kinda to be expected. Next time I'm renting a forklift so I can really flex things out beforehand.

 

With the small amount of travel we're talking here, and without adjustment to spring rate or damping, any valving will be a compromise of some sort. Make it plush for the street, it will blow through on big hits. Make it firm for big hits and it will be terrible on everything else. Sit it in the middle and it will be just decent for each end of the spectrum, which is where most people end up. I go on trips with linked/LT guys so I end up pushing my truck hard to have fun/keep up, so I'm a little more to the aggressive side of things. I've tried a few shocks and a few tunes with AccuTune since I'm buddies with them and they want to use my truck for a bit of R&D, and it seems to get better each time. Currently, I'm on their DD tune, which is pretty soft and plush over everything, but when I load it for a trip and/or head for the rough stuff, I can crank my DSCs and notice a difference. I did personally like my last tune slightly better, because the DSCs only have so much range, and because I have almost nothing for valving in the rear 2.5s (to make it this plush, plus DSC adjusters offer some damping vs a shock with no DSC just by design). If I really want to go fast, I can still blow through the travel pretty easily with the DSCs closed. On the last tune, they were getting too many complaints of a rough everyday ride (I thought it was just fine), so they developed this one to better cover the customer base. I liked the last one better loaded and/or at speed because it had a little more of a baseline to build on, so it was better all around for me, compromising for a slightly firmer DD ride. Even with these, I left them closed by accident as we left San Felipe on our last trip and I made it about 15 minutes on the highway before pulling over to open them up again, it was just too firm.

Do you have front plans (or already done?), because having a good balance front-rear makes a huge difference as well. If your front isn't doing it's part, it will make the rear work harder. I've heard good things about the ADS stuff.

 

This has likely been covered already- but I can't be bothered to read all 1800+ posts...

Make sure you measure the full droop, too- not just the point at which the freehanging axle comes to rest. Likewise, compression (of course with the standard expected loadout in the bed, and a forklift to do the compression, that should take care of itself)

 

Interesting. Will see how it goes. I'm sure I'll be happier than I was previously, regardless! And yep, front write-up coming as well.

Stay tuned

 

Another piece to this puzzle though is that I very the load in my bed by a lot, compared to you. You seem to use the truck for trips only, or with a very similar amount of load, so your valving won't need to change much to "cover the spread" if you will. I think you should be able to get to a good spot pretty easily.

Looking forward to the front write up!

 

Mojave Road Part 1 - We Head West
December 5-6, 2018.

Excited to test out the rear shock relocation I'd just completed with the help of Zane @Speedytech7, I headed north toward Las Vegas to pick up @mrs.turbodb who was flying in for a two-ish day trip along the Old Mojave Road - a historically significant trail through the Mojave National Preserve in southern California.

Passenger acquired, we made a quick dinner pit stop at The Habit Burger - a place we'd never been before but had heard had amazing burgers at drastically low prices ($3.50). The burgers were actually quite good - I'd recommend them over any other fast-food burger - and the fries were good too, though we felt a bit overpriced. We then headed south - our only goal for the evening to reach the beginning of the Mojave Road and find a spot to camp, given that it was already dark by the time we headed out.

It was 9:15pm when we arrived at the eastern end of Old Mojave Road, and we stopped just long enough to get a shot of...well, not much.

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We headed west - not more than a mile or so - until we found an offshoot with a nice area to camp. A bit exposed - we were in the desert after-all - but it wasn't supposed to rain and the wind wasn't too bad. It was over this mile that we also discovered that the shock work I'd completed the day before wasn't going to work for us on the trip - even over small bumps the shocks were bottoming out - only having perhaps 2" of up-travel with a fully loaded bed.

We were going to need to make a decision in the morning...

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The next morning we woke to overcast but dry skies, and the gentle breeze throughout the night had kept any dew off the tent - a great start to the trip. And the landscape was spectacular - in that desert-nothingness sort of way.

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With plenty of light, and knowing that rain was on the way, it was a good time to evaluate the shock situation. I laid out the Trasharoo under the back of the truck and scooted my way under. Yep, there was definitely a problem.

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I still didn't know why - I mean, we'd measured more than twice and (I thought) done everything right - but we quite clearly hadn't allowed for enough up-travel and the shocks were close to hitting their rubber bumps and bottoming out - even at rest - when the truck was loaded up.

There were two options - abort the trip and head home on the highway, or remove the shocks and run the Mojave Road with leaf springs only. The answer - to me - was obvious: adventure was waiting.

As @mrs.turbodb got breakfast (cereal ans strawberries), lunch (PB&J sandwiches), and dinner (roast turkey sandwiches) prepped, I set about removing the shocks. I knew it wouldn't be ideal for the leaf springs, but it'd be better than ruining a brand new set of 2.5" ADS smooth bodies! Back into a box they went, and the truck was once again drivable.

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Just as a few drops of rain started to fall, we began our journey west - excitement and anticipation of the unknown ahead!

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The Mojave Road has been used historically by Native Americans - Mojave runners were said to have covered upwards of 100 miles per day - but saw increased travel in 1848 and 1849 after the land was taken from Mexico and as American settlers headed west to California as part of the gold rush. Naturally, conflicts arose and the U.S. government began sending troops and building forts to protect travelers along the route. As we made our way to towards one of these forts - Fort Piute - we ran into the ruins of an old homestead - only the rock portions of the structures still standing.

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It wasn't long before we reached the remains of the old Fort Piute, part way up Piute Canyon.

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Built in 1867 to protect the mail route that ran along the Mojave Road, the fort was tiny - though it housed both humans and livestock. As often seems to be the case in the early American west, the mail route was changed to a southern route less than six months after the fort was completed, and it was abandoned. Built entirely out of stone, its walls remained mostly intact until 1930.

It's obvious why a fort was built here - Piute Canyon was beautiful this time of year, Willows and Cottonwoods a bright yellow even with overcast skies; the hillsides dotted with barrel and chollo cactus as well as two different yucca's - truly a feast for the eyes.

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I highly recommend making the couple-mile out-and-back hike up the Old Mojave Trail into Piute Canyon. There, the landscape continues to unfold, the red walls of the eroding canyon contrasting beautifully with the vegetation. It's an easy hike with very little elevation gain, but you want water in the summer when it's warm, I'm sure.

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Now mid-morning, we knew we had a lot of ground to cover if we were going to complete the road on our two-day schedule so we climbed into the truck and got underway. I'd heard that part of the road here - which skirts Piute Canyon - might have been washed out and require a re-route, and sure enough it wasn't long before we came upon some road signs suggesting possible trouble ahead.

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Ready to re-route if necessary, we pushed forward, climbing up and over the Piute Range with little trouble - the route perhaps a little worse for wear but clearly passable at this point.

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At the top of the pass, the landscape opened up - Lanfair Valley ahead. That's where we were ultimately headed, but it appeared to us that a short side trip might take us right by an old corral and perhaps give us a view into the west side of Piute Canyon something we didn't want to miss.

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From there, we continued west on the Mojave Road and into Lanfair Valley, on the lookout for a good lunch stop and apparently missing the old schoolbus and penny tree - just a couple of many reasons for us to return for another look in this magic place.

As we drove, the creosote rose around us, a few Dr. Seuss-ian Joshua Trees just starting to appear in the landscape.

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And then, a little way off the road, we saw what looked like the remains of a small tornado. More likely it was simply an abandoned homestead that had been vandalized by previous passers-by, but we decided to check it out anyway while we ate lunch. An old Ford pickup was now the centerpiece of this attraction, the old building and couple of RV trailers now little but rubble to be reclaimed by the desert.

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Our bellies full and with temps in the low 50's, we didn't linger long before getting back in the truck for our next stint of road. As the miles ticked away - more slowly than normal given the need to watch our speed due to the lack of rear shocks - we made our way across the valley until we saw a structure in the distance that we'd seen several times before on other trips.

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We've generally seen these in less-populated areas of Nevada I believe, and probably like many, concluded they were some sort of weather station (while thinking it would be cooler if they were a missle silo! :biggrin:.) I looked over at @mrs.turbodb and said, "I'm going to check this one out." - because really, there'd be no better time than the present!

Turns out - and perhaps everyone knows this already - that these are FAA air traffic control facilities, this one known as Goffs VORTAC. Perched atop one of the antenna, a red-tailed hawk flew off as I approached - no air traffic control needed for its flight!

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Happy to finally know what these structures were for - but a bit bummed that they weren't a super-secret, ultra-awesome missile facility, left unguarded for me to explore to my hearts content - we continued only a short distance before stumbling upon an old railway marker. The site of the old Nevada Southern Railway, it was another example of how harsh this environment could be to civilization - the company going bankrupt in 1895, only two years after completion and the line completely abandoned within 25 years or so.

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Now, as anyone who's traveled with @mrs.turbodb will know, she's a voracious "fact consumer" and always has several guidebooks around her on any adventure. This time was no exception and she'd been reading about a rock house that we just couldn't miss. So, when I saw a rock house not much further up the road, I was excited. "Too bad for you, but this isn't it." she told me. Turns out, this one wasn't mentioned by any of her books.

Naturally, we explored.

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At this point though, we only had about two hours of daylight left and decided (dare I say, again) that it was time to make some tracks so we'd reach approximately the halfway point for camp. That gave us a few more planned stops along the way, and we hoped the rain - which had held off for the most part all day - would hold off just a bit longer.

Pancake cactus and Joshua Trees now popping up more frequently around us, we pushed forward.

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We made good time for nearly 20 whole minutes. Really, I think it's impossible - if you're curious - to make good time on any trip like this. So it was that as we started our descent into Watson Wash, I had to stop. A relatively steep trail at this point, I can only describe the road as "mogul-y." I have no idea how it got this way, but I knew it was the perfect time to check out what was going on in the back of the truck from a flex perspective - because well, it looked like this:

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Boy, was I glad I stopped. The passenger rear was stuffed way up into the wheel well and it was clear by looking at this situation that the amount of uptravel I needed on the rear axle was way more than I'd thought when we tried lifting the rear axle with a floor jack. The axle had moved a good 3" further up and the bump stop was touching the frame rail. The leaf springs themselves looked OK too - slightly inverted, but not too shabby.

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I'd need to make sure, when I re-worked the mounts, that I could get at least to this point with the rear. I hoped I had enough room to move the upper mounts to accomplish that, but I was pretty sure I didn't. Oh well - now wasn't the time to worry about that - and we continued down the moguls to the bottom of Watson Wash and up the wash to Rock Spring.

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Rock Spring was another army post along the Mojave Road. It's military status started in 1860, and during the Civil War it was frequently outposted. In 1863, as an outpost of Fort Mojave, its detachment was to keep the fort informed "of any hostile movement that may be made within your knowledge." and the detachment was to send out "detached scouting parties" in order to "keep the road clear and open for travel in the vicinity." It became an official army post in 1866, housing more than 20 men and a post office for two years until it was abandoned in 1868 due to lack of water, scurvy, and desertion.

Today, not much remains of the post except for some rock walls and commemorative signage, though Rock Spring Canyon is still a pretty cool place to explore.

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On the hill above Rock Spring is the Rock House that @mrs.turbodb had mentioned, so we popped back in the truck for the quick jaunt up.

While fighting in World War I, Burt Smith was exposed to poison gas and was expected to live only a few months. The U.S. Army moved him to the Mojave Desert where he built Rock House in 1929 - hoping to prolong his life, if even for a short time. Amazingly, he lived here another 25 years before passing away in 1954. Then, in 1981, artist Carl Faber moved into and started rebuilding parts of Rock House, which is in relatively good shape to this day. He'd sell his art to passing 4WD traffic until eventually moving away in 2003.

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As we looked around, it was clear that a nail next to the back door was used as "the key," and we had a quick look around inside - a note from "Carl" pinned above the fireplace :biggrin:

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As two UTVs passed by in the distance - the first traffic we'd seen all day - we walked back to the truck as the wind started to pick up. It was getting chilly and the warmth of the heater was a welcome benefit as we closed the doors and planned our next moves. Two more stops we decided, and then we'd try to get to a place called Death Valley Mine for camp.

Our first stop was one I'd been looking forward to for some reason that I now can't remember - Government Holes. Turns out, these are just some wells drilled by the U.S. Government that have a bit of colorful gunslinger history to go along with them - but today they are mostly just a gathering place for cows to find a bit of water and take a dump!

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It's probably good that there wasn't much to see since that meant we didn't linger long - we were back on the road and headed west past the Pinto Mountains towards what looked like on the map - could it really be - pavement?

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No, there was no pavement here, just a well-graded road south - a bit of a detour off our path, really - to a place called Hole in the Rock. Not sure what to expect, I was mostly just curious what it could be, given that we'd planned to run a trail with the same name (though we didn't end up getting to it) on the recent F.U.Rain trip.

Unfortunately, just as we arrived and set out on a hike around this amazing rock outcropping in order to see the petroglyphs inscribed on the far side, it started to rain. Hard. We high-tailed it back to the truck.

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We drove through the rain for 45-minutes - first retracing our steps to Mojave Road, and then taking another spur - Death Valley Mine Road - north towards Cima and the Death Valley Mine.

We arrived in the dark - around 5:15pm or so - and knew that we'd have the place to ourselves for the evening, the rain likely deterring any other unlikely adventurers in this remote place. The rain still coming down and the wind picking up, we decided it'd be best to hang out in the truck for a bit - hopefully the cell would pass and allow us to get camp setup without getting too wet.

So we hung out reading our books, discussing the day's events, and planning our attack for the next morning. Though it was supposed to rain into the night, the weather report suggested that it could stop around 4:00am - maybe early enough to dry everything off if there was a bit of a breeze!



An hour later the rain let up and we popped out as planned. While I setup the tent, @mrs.turbodb put the finishing touches on our dinner sandwiches which we carefully ate - along with chips and dessert - in the truck (a special treat given it's status as a no-food zone).

And from there we decided there was no reason to hang out in the cold any longer - we climbed up into the tent and under the covers, the rain starting to pitter-patter on the rain fly once again. It'd been a long day, but a fun one - we'd seen so much and yet knew already that this was a place we'd be back to explore more.

And hey, we hadn't even gotten our first look at the western half of the trail - it was anyone's guess what was in store for us there the next day...

 

Using flutter stacks correctly can merit very very good all around results with no external adjusters.

 

i love this trail, cant wait to return later this year. Looking forward to your future pics.

 

Bringing back some memories from when I did this. Definitely need to go back again too!

 

@Speedytech7 a forklift, and breaking down the leaf pack is a little over thinking it man. A high lift or floor jack and tape measure are all you really need. Since im not good with words I hope this picture makes sense, even though you all ready figured it out maybe it will help someone else.

You can see how my mounts are pivoted 90 degrees from each other. I did this to decrease bushing wear and binding of the shocks. Max comp and droop I have 1in of travel left doing it this way.

 

Very true, which is why when you combine a flutter stack with DSC adjusters it lets you cover an even wider spread of situations.

 

Love these write ups. Thinking of heading out there in the next month.

 

thanks guys. It's a fun trail for sure, and like every other trail I run, it seems there's always more to see and I can't wait to go back. We stayed relatively close to the Mojave Road on this run-through, and there's so much more as you venture off into the rest of the preserve!

I see where this is all going...and then why not just go long travel? Gotta try to balance "everything" with "what I really need/will take advantage of."

 

yeah..except you have to run foxes to do that...

 

Mojave Road Part 2 - So Much Adrenaline I'm Shaking
December 7-8, 2018.

The rain did seem to tail off sometime in the middle of the night, and the breeze did definitely continue on into the morning. All of this gave us hope that we'd climb out of the tent to a similar situation as the previous morning - overcast, but mostly dry.

Nope.

It was overcast alright, but it was also super foggy. I mean, it was a pea soup-type fog that really felt like more of a windy drizzle. The tent was soaked, and we decided that we didn't even really want to eat breakfast it was so wet out.

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Instead, we decided to take a look around the Death Valley mine, the name alone intriguing enough to warrant a look.

Turns out that the east Mojave Desert didn't have too many crooks, but what it lacked in numbers was made up for by Dawson. A 32-year old gold mining promoter, he started a rumor in 1905 that he'd struck it rich in Death Valley in a place he called "Hidden Hell." He ran ads across the country promoting the discovery of a mother lode and sold some 2 million shares, despite the obvious absurdity of his story. In need of an actual mining operation to keep the share price up, he purchased a mine established in 1906 by J.L. Bright, which he promptly renamed the Death Valley Mine. The fact that this mine wasn't even a gold mine didn't worry Dawson one bit - the fact that the mine was now, miraculously producing a bit of silver as well, an added benefit!

In September 1907, Dawson and his brother ran off with the proceeds of the 2 million shares, and the mine fell into disrepair. It spun up again in 1915 by the Strawn family, and run until 1921 - but produced only $38,000 of silver before shuttering once again. The mine got one more chance in the 1950's, but as much of it had already been gutted, not much more came out of it at that time.

Since the mine fell into disrepair only relatively recently, many of the buildings are still in reasonable condition. The main house still sheltered from the road behind a screen of Joshua Trees; grape and melon vines growing on trellis' that covered attached porches.

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The interior too was in relatively good shape - the roof still protecting the contents from the brunt of the weather.

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Having once employed upwards of 100 men, nearby the main house were several structures that clearly supported mining operations. The remains of an old (and barely used) 10T stamp mill, miners quarters, a workshop, and a second house were all nestled in the surrounding landscape.

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While it was clear that some minor excavation and mining had taken place around these structures, the majority of the mining clearly happened several hundred feet to the northeast where tailings surrounded both a 30T ball mill and a bucketed conveyor belt used to pull ore from deep underground.

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But it wasn't until the very end of our exploration that we discovered what we'd read to be the main shaft. Apparently several hundred feet deep, pumps were required to keep water out and since they've ceased operation, only the 30 feet closest to the surface are visible.

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This was definitely a place that would be fun to explore again in better weather - many details likely still waiting to be discovered. For now though, it was time for us to get a move on - we had plenty to see today if it turned out to be anything like the day before!

So we put away the tent wet and headed back the way we'd come the night before - only this time in daylight. To our surprise (and delight), before long the fog and clouds started to clear - or rather, we realized that it was only the area in which we'd camped where there was a thick pea soup. Lucky us.

Regardless, as the skies turned blue and the sun broke through, we agreed that the surrounding landscape was the most beautiful we'd see on the trip - the vegetation various yellows, greens, and blues; their crazy shapes dancing against the sky.

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This too was the only place where we'd see three types of chollo cactus growing together - the segmented branches covered with spikes ready to jump out at passers by.

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Having skipped breakfast we were getting hungry and decided that once we were back on the Mojave Road, we'd look for a good spot to open up the tent (to dry it out), get our meals for the day prepared, and eat breakfast. And, though we were initially surrounded by a Joshua Tree forest as we turned onto the road, we could see it meander into the distance - giving us confidence that it wouldn't take long to find a suitable spot.

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It was just as we crossed the Kelso-Cima Road that we found a good place to pull over. Just past a Mojave Road plaque, the Joshua Trees had thinned dramatically and we had an amazing view of the Beale Mountains in the distance. In direct sun and with a reasonable breeze we couldn't have asked for a much better place to eat a late breakfast!

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Our bellies no longer grumbling, we continued on towards the Beale Mountains - the road a continuous series of "whoops" that kept our speed low, especially with the rear shock situation. But we eventually reached the Beale Range - it's rocky construction different than the others we'd seen so far.

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Making note of a few nice looking camp sites we continued on - the road once again full of whoops as we crossed the next valley towards Marl Springs and the Marl Mountains. Perhaps expectantly, any spring in an environment like this is likely to have an attempted civilization around it and Marl Springs was no different. Now just a low stone wall, it was clear that someone had tried to make it here for a time - who and when likely lost to history. A chipmunk now calling this area home.

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And then, as we crested the Marl Mountains - a dramatic change. The sun we'd so enjoyed was suddenly gone - a huge bank of fog pushed up against the western face of the range. I stopped the truck and tried to capture the transition.

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The fog quickly became pea soup and limited visibility of all but the closest objects; though this time - thankfully - it was not accompanied by a heavy mist.

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Bummed to be socked in, we continued on - hoping that any moment we'd pop out the "other side" of the fog to dramatic and amazing views of the desert valley in front of us. Alas, as we came upon the Mojave mailbox - something I'd been looking forward to probably more than any other waypoint, it was still foggy and glum - as it was through the cinder cones on the way toward Soda Lake.

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But then, as we put a bit of distance between us and the Marl Mountains, the fog began to lift again and the sky began to clear - the road, once again, stretching into the distance.

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It was at this point we had a decision to make. We knew we weren't going to be crossing the Dry Soda Lake bed given the rain that had fallen in the last 72 hours - the surface is muddy and treacherous enough that even in ideal conditions it's best to tackle with two or more vehicles in order to effect a recovery if the lead vehicle should get stuck. But we didn't know if we should take the nicely paved Kelbaker road into Baker or whether we'd find a more fun dirt trail closer to the edge of the lake.

Perhaps predictably, we opted to try the later - after all, even if we didn't find anything suitable, it'd be more fun and we'd get to see Cowhole and Little Cowhole Mountains, the latter of which was largely covered in sand.

Seriously people, you named a mountain "Cowhole" and thought it was a good enough idea that you'd do it again?

The two Cowhole's were essentially the gateway to the eastern edge of Dry Soda Lake and upon discovering ruins of the Green Rock Mill near the base of Little Cowhole, we decided that this would be a great place for us to eat lunch and get a view of the lake bed to the west.

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Already nearly 2:00pm, lunch was quick and we headed north on a road that our map suggested skirted the lake - thereby avoiding the muddy danger. Even so, the road did take us perilously onto the eastern edge of the lake bed, and we were careful to maintain speed and investigate especially-wet-looking areas before proceeding.

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Of course, you're reading this so everything turned out fine and within half an hour or so we'd made it to Baker, CA and I-15 West, which we traveled for a few minutes to the Rasor Road exit, just past the town with perhaps the coolest name ever: Zzxzy.

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Now, Rasor Road it turns out is the entrance to an OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) park and so as we made our way back to the Mojave Road, it was clear that there was a lot of traffic out here. Roads were 100 feet or more wide, and UTV tracks zipped off into the desert nearly everywhere. But it was still beautiful - Old Dad Mountain rising up in the distance.

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Rasor Road eventually met up with our route and just as we turned west toward Shaw Pass, a group of 10 long-travel Ford and Chevy PreRunner's came barreling towards us. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't pretty cool. Of course I can only imagine what tires like that do to your truck in the mud, so there's still no way that's in my future - my tires are already an inch further out than I'd like!

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We were now on the western-most section of trail, and the part that @mrs.turbodb's guidebooks had described as "deep, soft sand," that required "skilled driving" to "not get bogged down." All I can say is that this was the nicest section of road we'd driven all trip. The sand was firm and the driving was easy - no chance at all of bogging down.

Time to update that guidebook.

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With all the OHV traffic, the hardest part of this section was finding and staying on the trail as it wound its way up a mile-wide wash towards Afton Canyon. Luckily for us, a group of Jeepers who have adopted the Mojave Road placed cairns and large wooden posts every several hundred feet along the official road - so for the most part we were able to stay on-trail through this section.

As the afternoon turned to evening, we found ourselves at our first crossing of the Mojave River. I'd mentioned to @mrs.turbodb before the trip that there was a somewhat famous water crossing at the end of the trail, and when she saw the state of the river here, she was quick to ask whether we'd even be able to ford it at all.

I hoped that wouldn't come back to bite us.

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From there it wasn't long before we hit the first train trestle, essentially the entrance to Afton Canyon - the landscape starting to rise up and close in around us, reminding me of some of the geography I'd seen a couple months earlier in the Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon areas of our F.U.Rain trip. It was beautiful, especially as the evening light warmed up the landscape.

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It was about this point that I realized we had a decision to make - with approximately 8 miles to go and what I'd heard could be a sketchy water crossing at the end of the trail, we had three options:

1. Push forward and try to complete the trail (and water crossing) now, and camp in the primitive Afton Canyon campground - which was just on the other side of the crossing.
2. Continue up Afton Canyon and find a place to camp closer to the end of the trail so we'd have less ground to cover in the morning.
3. Find a place to camp near the mouth of the canyon, increasing our chances of morning sun to warm us up and dry everything out.

Knowing that I didn't want to attempt the water crossing in the dark, and being a sucker for the light of early morning sun, we decided to go with option #3 - but not before we captured a few sunset shots as the sun fell below the horizon.

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It was about this time - as we headed back toward the train trestle and we heard the rumble of an approaching train - that we realized we were going to be camped very near a train that ran quite frequently - once every hour or so. Luckily for us, as the first of many trains powered past, it was relatively quiet - the remote landscape and lack of railroad crossings negating the need for a the horn blasts we're all so familiar with around town.

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And so it was that as the last rays of purple light played across the sky, we found a spot to camp along the south rim of Afton Canyon, overlooking the western end of the Mojave Road.

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As I deployed the tent and @mrs.turbodb readied dinner, we weren't exactly sure what the next day would bring - but we were pretty sure it would start with an exploration around camp (we'd discovered some headstones nearby) and then hopefully a successful completion of the Mojave Road.

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We awoke the next morning just as the orange glow along the horizon was coming to its end, the sun nearly peaking out to start the day. To our east, Soda Lake and the Devil's Playground were partly covered in fog, eerie and beautiful at the same time. To our west, Afton Canyon awaited.

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And there, on the next knoll over, four grave sites. Likely old train workers we decided, the inscriptions on their graves suggestive of their love for the rails.

David M Conahey
Feb 1933 - Sep 2011
Much-loved husband, father,
grandfather and friend

T-Bone Albright (and wife)
Oklahoma to California in 1933
?? days 7 hours riding the rail

Ronald W Humeston
Feb 17, 1926 - Dec 1, 2008
Bitchen ~ Bitchen ~ Bitchen​

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It wasn't long before the sun lit the canyon walls on fire, soon helping to dry our tent as well as we ate breakfast and got ready for the day ahead. In the distance, an ATV - making it's way our direction.

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Agile and able to move quickly and obviously familiar with the terrain, the rider was to our camp 5 minutes later - wanting to verify that we weren't out hunting - this area one that he'd drawn a tag for and that he'd been scouting for the better part of six months. His plan - to get a big horn sheep with a bow - would be only the fifth time ever that had been accomplished in California.

We told him our plans for the day and he wished us luck before heading off in the opposite direction; we finished putting away camp a few minutes later and headed up Afton Canyon ourselves - the walls rising above us in the morning sun, the bright orange a confirmation that we'd made the right decision to camp rather than continue in the dark.

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As it turned out, the Mojave Road at this point was in amazingly good shape and we made great time blasting up the trickle that was the Mojave River - perhaps better time than any other section of trail in the last couple days. And then, with a mile or so to go, the road joined up with the rail line just as a train came barreling along!

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And then, we came to the crossing of the Mojave River that I'd heard so much about. It's not the river itself that makes the crossing hard - it's the fact that so many vehicles have crossed here over the decades, and so little trail maintenance has been done - that the road has been worn away, leaving a deep trough, 200 feet long through which all vehicles must pass.

I stopped the truck to scout it out.

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It was beautiful and scary at the same time, and there was clearly no "sanctioned" way around - the nearby stretches of riverbank roped off, and the drive along the train tracks and over the train trestle obviously illegal.

So I looked at @mrs.turbodb and said something to the affect of "It's either this or go back to Baker, so here goes nothing." As my adrenaline rose, the truck entered the water. 10 feet or so in we were already a foot deep. 30 feet in it was two feet deep and still rising.

I'd put the truck in 4Lo before starting across, knowing that I might need to use the gas to power through any mud and knowing that I needed to keep the revs up - if the engine were to stop, we could be in serious trouble.

At 60 feet in, the water was quite clearly up over the top of the tires and bottom of the doors on the driver side and I could tell it was even deeper on the passenger side - @mrs.turbodb now much more serious about the crossing than she'd been the afternoon before. And we were still getting deeper.

"Hope it levels out." I think I said out loud, "We're getting really close to the intake." My adrenaline at this point was high, but I kept my cool and made sure to keep a good bow wake in front of the truck.

It wasn't until about 80-90-feet in - well past the halfway point - that we finally started to climb out - the water having gotten only a bit deeper in those 20-30 feet.

To say I was relieved would be an understatement. As soon as we were up the berm on the far side, I was out of the truck with the hood popped. I wanted to take a good look at the intake to ensure that my air box and filter weren't both full of water. Luckily, while it was clear that a few drops - perhaps a tablespoon or so - had gotten in, it was relatively dry and there was nothing past the air filter.

And it was then that I noticed the water line on the side of the truck.

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Tape measure in my adrenaline-hopped-up-hand, I shakily measured the distance from the water line to the ground - 35-37 inches. Holy sh*t!

But we'd made it - and with minimal leakage into the cab - a bit of water on the passenger side all we could find. We soaked that up as much as we could with a towel and counted our blessings before high-fiving and heading out - less than a mile between us and the end of the tail.

As we drove out, two Jeeps - a Grand Cherokee and a Rubicon passed us on their way in and I wondered out loud what they'd decide at the crossing. Turns out my copilot was curious as well, so we stopped and watched to see if they'd plow right in or hesitate before making a decision. While the Rubicon was running 35" tires and would have likely been fine, the Cherokee was on 33's and sat much lower than our Tacoma - so when we saw them hesitate we decided it'd be a good idea to head back and let them know how deep the water was.

They were of course very grateful for this, and as we drove away, I joked with @mrs.turbodb that we'd know what decision they made if they came out past us as we were airing up! With that, we found ourselves at the head of Afton Canyon road - a sign warning that there was "NO OUTLET."

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True, I guess, unless you make it through the water crossing and along 150 miles of the Mojave Road.

And then, as we aired up our last tire and got ready to go, we were passed by two Jeeps, headed back to the highway toward Baker.

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Thanks for reading! Now get out there and drive the road for yourself, it's amazing!

Mojave Road [part 1] [part 2]​

Moar! trip reports​

 

Nah, not at all. I'm very surprised how hard I can push my fairly modest setup and keep up well enough with some pretty fast trucks. I've had a used long travel kit sitting on my shelf for 6 or so months, just debating if I want to open that can of worms and install it. I like having my truck working, and all my friends that go LT end up having more problems. More speed means more problems

Again though, your situation is different than mine. I vary the load in my bed and how hard I push the truck in different terrain enough that DSCs make sense to me. I go from an empty bed with 1 passenger to a full bed and 3 passengers, and street driving as my DD to running the mojave trail at high speeds. Anyway, enough sidetracking, back to the trip reports.

 

Looks like a blast, I want to go back and explore some of those places you hit. You didn't make it to the lava tubes? The roads around it were some of my favorite, smooth soft gravel S-turns you could really have fun with.

Our buddy in a stock ranger wasn't so lucky on the crossing... And then the bronco lost an axle shaft at about 70 on his semi float 9"...luckily all were ok.

 

Zy-ziks, where Zy rhymes with hi. Crazy. Was named that way on purpose apparently by the guy who founded it - Curtis Springer - as the "last word in the English language," hahaha. He founded it in 1944 to open a health spa, and it became sort of a hippie town with magical healing properties as I understand it. Then, in 1974, the federal government took it away (or rather, found that he had no real claim to the land (?)) as they were building out/reclaiming the Mojave National Preserve land. Strange.

Definitely a place to visit next time. So many of those places, everywhere we go .

Yeah, we missed the lava tubes. We passed by them in the dense fog and were really just hoping to get out of the fog and back into the sun (and my understanding is that the tubes are best in the sun when you can see shafts of light pouring in). Plus, we were in a bit of a time crunch and so left them as yet another thing to do on a future trip. Cinder cones too would have been fun I think, and are nearby.

Oh, to live closer to EVERYTHING.

Bummer about your crossing. Was definitely a stressful few minutes for us. After we were through, I told @mrs.turbodb - "Well, I was thinking about leaving you on this side and driving back through again so we could get photos...but we're definitely not doing that!"