AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

The map overlay in GE is just a feature of GE. I think it's called...wait for it...image overlay

As far as camping in parking lots - I've only done it once - this time. Seemed fine, since we were in the "Truck Lot" for the casino, and there were clearly about 50, 18-wheelers who were "camped" there as well and it was very well lit (and we camped under a light). We were surprised how many of them left their engines running all night. Luckily, we had earplugs.

WalMart still allows parking lot camping AFAIK at all WalMarts, but I've never felt right camping there - seems a little sketchy given usual WalMart locations and the knowledge that people might be camped there.

 

Mojave Redemption #3 - Cinder Cones and Sand Dunes

The night was chilly, but by using some Little Hotties inside our socks while we slept, we were able to stay nice and toasty in the tent. Still in the shade since we'd parked reasonably close to the hillside to shelter us from the wind, we walked out into the desert to enjoy our breakfast and soak in the long rays of the sun as it peaked over the southeastern horizon. By the time we were done, the sun was just starting to hit the tent, and as @mrs.turbodb got the kitchen put away, I stowed the tent for our days activities.

Retracing a few of our steps from our first Mojave Road trip, one of the things I wanted to see was something we'd completely missed in the dense fog the last time we were here - the collection of frogs (and other figures) near the Mojave Mailbox. Heading west from our camp spot, the first thing we came on was the turn-off to Marl Springs. I had thought we'd found the springs last time, but it turns out I'd simply found some other ruin along the Mojave Road, so it was nice to discover the mouth to an old mine shaft, the spring itself, and an old arrastre this time around.

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The spring, at Marl Spring.​

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An old arrastre, where donkeys would drag stones in circles to crush gold ore.​

From Marl Springs, it isn't much further to the Mojave Mailbox, and our only stop along the way was along the top of a low ridge where we'd transitioned from sun to pea-soup fog the previous year.

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And with that, we reached the mailbox - looking as snazzy as ever out in the middle of the desert. As always, we took a look through the various trinkets and left a note for future travelers.

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But that's not why we were here - we were here to see the collections of figures that have taken up residence behind the mailbox over the last several decades. There are several groups, the most famous of which are a group of frogs - but we explored them all, the trucks and gnomes also bringing smiles to our face .

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As it turns out, these collections are being removed by the National Park Service (NPS) in February 2020, and a sign at the location states as much. It's a bit of a bummer, really - the collections aren't really doing any harm, but of course, it's true that they aren't natural - so if you want to see them, there's not much more time to do so.

Well, until people start new collections I guess!

From the mailbox, we could clearly see that another place on our agenda was snow-free, and so without further ado we continued down the Old Mojave Road until we hit the pavement that is Kelbaker Road. From there, it was just a quick jaunt north to our turn off on the Aiken Mine Road towards the Cinder Cones.

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We had three stops planned here, but our first stop along this route was not for a cinder cone at all - rather, it was for a lava tube that's been made accessible for exploration with the installation of a metal ladder that ushers curious hikers down into the depths of the earth.

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The lava tube itself is formed when molten lava flows down a slope and its exterior cools enough to solidify. Inside this crust, the lava is still molten and flows through its own self-made pipe. In situations where the lava all drains out of the tube - and the tube isn't filled by a future flow - a hollow lava tube remains for future explorers to discover. In the case of this tube, two skylights (cave-ins) exist in addition to the main access - also a cave-in - making for some dramatic photos when the lighting is right.

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The tube itself isn't long - perhaps only a couple hundred feet - so we were soon off to our next volcanic destination - the Aiken Cinder Mine. One of several cinder mines in the 60-square mile region, it's one of the best preserved, having been abandoned in 1990 when it was no longer financially solvent. Prior to that, it'd been in operation for nearly 40 years, hauling out on the order of 1.28 million tons - the volume of a tall building - of cinder, used for construction in Las Vegas and southern California. Much of the mines machinery still stands dormant now 30 years later, as do 8 million tons of additional cinder that have been stockpiled around the property, waiting for the day that the price of the material might rise high enough to make its sale profitable. (from Hiking the Mojave Desert: The Natural and Cultural Heritage of Mojave National Preserve)

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The loading chutes at the Aiken Mine. Here, trucks would be filled with cinder blasted from the cone.​

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Machinery of the Aiken Mine.​

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Remains of an old generator used to run the Aiken Mine's machinery. At nearly 6' tall, this yellow engine is a beast!​

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Electrical control station for the various pieces of mine equipment.​

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The hopper and shaker used to seperate cinder by size before sending it to the loading chutes.​

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A gnome, whose white cape suggested he was hoping to start a new gnome collection, or bust!​

Having experienced some of the human interaction with the cinder cones, we decided next that hiking to the top of one would be a fun activity. We choose the youngest cone to hike, for no real reason except that it was the first one we came upon when approaching from the southwest! This cone, like nearly all the others, had an old road that traversed its sides, making the climb up much easier than if we'd had to navigate the cinder scree pile directly.

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As we made our way up, we didn't really have any idea what to expect - but as we rounded the cone and could see the western flank, it became clear that there was more than met the eye from ground level. For nearly a mile to the west, a lava flow that occurred from the base of the cone stretched out into the distance. Only some 10,000 years old, few plants have established themselves on the flow, making for a dramatic contrast with the surrounding valley.

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The hike itself was reasonably easy. At a little under a mile and ~400' of elevation gain we completed it in under an hour - including the time we were rock hunting and taking photos and joyously leaning into the 30+ mph winds at the top of the cone. And the views were great. We even spotted a group of Jeeps out exploring the preserve as we were on our way down.

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We'd eaten lunch out of the back of the truck prior to our little jaunt up the cinder cone, so upon our return we were able immediately escape our windy surroundings and start off towards our next destination. It was at this point - as I recall - that the idea of exploring the route I'd initially planned, but doing it in exactly the opposite order than I'd planned it, was floated. That meant we'd head south, towards the town of Kelso, to explore a few highlights in that area.

With the Providence Mountains rising tall and snow-covered in front of us, neither of us had any complaints as we drove the Kelbaker road towards Kelso.

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In fact, it turned out to be a race - as in the distance, we could see a long dark line - the 1:27pm Untion Pacific Los Angeles Limited - heading towards Kelso Station.

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I hoped to get there in time to photograph it coming through, but unfortunately we arrived just as the engines were passing through the crossing. By the time I jumped out of the truck it was too late to get anything but some freight cars making their way through, not to mention the fact that I was at completely the wrong angle! Win some - lose some!

Still, Kelso Station, which has been restored and is now the main NPS visitor center for the Mojave National Preserve didn't disappoint, its stucco walls gleaming bright under the early afternoon sun. The inside has been turned into a museum, and we spent a few minutes reading up on history of the area, and admiring the various stuffed wildlife that we might stumble on in the preserve.

Oh, and I asked a park ranger there if he knew whether there was snow at a few other places in the park, since I thought that might be something they were keeping tabs on, given the rarity of the white stuff here. Turns out nope - he was completely oblivious to the fact that there was snow anywhere or that it might be of any interest to visitors. "There's no snow here, I don't know about anywhere else." he said.

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From the station, our plan had been to go strait to the Kelso dunes, but as we made our way further south, @mrs.turbodb took a look at the map I'd printed out and remarked, "Hey, you know the Vulcan Mine is nearby, and might be at a low enough elevation that there won't be snow, right?"

It turns out I didn't recall that, but I was happy nonetheless, so a few miles later we turned east and headed up into the foothills of the Providence Mountains. The snow level was still right around 3500', and we hoped that the south-facing nature of the Vulcan Mine would mean that we'd be able to explore it even though we'd be reaching elevations as high as 4100'.

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As we continued up into the mountains, the road remained clear of snow and the Kelso Dunes rose up out of the valley floor in our mirrors. Before long, we'd arrived at the first of two access roads to the mine - this one allowing us to check out an old foundation that more recent visitors have started converting into a picnic/grilling area.

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The real reason for the trip to the Vulcan Mine - naturally - was to see the large pit that was excavated primarily between 1942 and 1947 by Henry Kaiser. He was the same man who would go on to start Kaisier Permanente Health Care, but at the time he was building ships for the US Navy to assist in fighting WWII. In 5 years of production, his company pulled 2.64 million tons of iron ore out of the area - double the production of all other California iron mines combined! So, we continued to the second access road and then headed out on foot to explore the pit and the kaleidoscope of colors still strewn around on the ground.

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Also plentiful were cholla cactus - their arms extended and glowing as they were backlit by the sun. We'd see these for our entire trip, and it's always hard to capture their sun-lit beauty - but I think this photo does a reasonable job of just that.

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Now, it turns out that my original plan had been to access the Vulcan mine from the eastern side of the Providence Mountains via a natural gas line road, and even though we knew that today we'd be headed back west towards the Kelso Dunes, we decided we'd check out the road to the east, just to see if it would have been passable. We first passed by the foundations of the old Vulcan Mine town site, and then reasonably quickly climbed a couple hundred feet in elevation as the snow increased dramatically.

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We soon came to the spot where everyone before us had turned around - the slippery incline and gravity too great to overcome. The snow was still only about 6 inches deep, so I figured we might as well give it a shot ourselves. The first attempt got us within 100 feet of the summit, and the second within about 30 feet. Surely a third attempt would allow us victory - but we decided that there was no real reason to tear up the road any more than we already had - after all, we'd be heading out the opposite direction anyway.

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So, I backed down to a turn around and we set off for our final destination of the day - the Kelso Dunes.

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It was 3:45pm when we arrived at the dunes, only 45 minutes until sunset - and we had a decision to make: should we try for a quick hike up the dunes, or should we just soak them in from below? Well, even though we presented it to ourselves as a decision, it never really was one - we were going to go for it! So, the question then became: are we going for the top, or do we just want to get into the dune field? The answer to this was less clear if you were @mrs.turbodb. At any rate, we set off at a good pace, still undecided... stopping here and there for a few seconds to really soak in our surroundings.

Upon reflection, perhaps it wasn't really "soaking."

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The higher we got, the more the wind picked up - the sand whipping at our legs, both of us glad for the log pants we were wearing. Soon, we had a decision to make - push on to the last ridge, or call it a day and start back towards the truck? Unable to agree, we were able to agree that I could make a run for it. So, I found a place where I could get up into the last rays of sun and @mrs.turbodb snapped a few shots as I conquered the backbone of the Kelso Dunes.

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Now, with limited light, we booked it back down, along with just about everyone else who was out on the dunes for sunset. About a total elevation only 600 feet higher than we'd started, the Kelso Dunes aren't as dramatic as the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley, but they are a worthy trek nonetheless - one made even more worthwhile if you can experience the booming of the dunes, a phenomenon that has been observed at only about 30 dunes around the world.

Just as we reached the bottom of the dune field, the sun set over the Granite and Old Dad Mountains to our southwest, the warm orange light giving way to a pinkish purple hue behind the Providence Mountains to our east. Here, we really did spend a few additional minutes to soak it all in.

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Ultimately we made it to the truck and then just a short distance to our camp site for the night at the base of the dunes. As we got setup, the sky - above the dunes and above the Granite Mountains - put on its own show, full of dramatic colors combined with a moon-star combo that couldn't be beat.

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A full day of exploring behind us, we bundled ourselves up for a couple hours in the truck prior to climbing into the tent. There, our conversation focused on our plan for the following day. Our conversation with the ranger at Kelso Station left us wondering - would we once again be stopped in our tracks by snow, or would we have another great day in the preserve as we'd had today?

Only time would tell, but that's part of the fun, isn't it?

 

Those sunset pictures are magnificent (as always).

 

Me as well. Thats the location of my PTSD wind storm one weekend in February where the tent felt like it was going to rip off. Always a great sunset in that spot.

Pictures and trip are great as usual.

 

Mojave Redemption #4 - Hidden Mines and Highway Robbery

Our location at the Kelso Dunes was the first where I thought there'd be a chance of a nice sunrise, so I'd set my alarm for 6:00am to try and catch the orange on the horizon. It was of course quite chilly at 6:00am, and so I had the bright idea to just take a photo with my phone out the door of the tent, rather than climbing down the ladder to fetch the Canon 80D - that I shoot with - from the truck.

Well, the photo came out so poorly - compared to what I'm now used to - that I'm not even going to share it. But hey, I stayed warm and got another hour of sleep!

As the sun crested the horizon - or at least our horizon for the morning - we did finally pull ourselves out of bed, happy to see that the breeze we'd had during the night was successful in keeping the tent totally dry. And waking up to the illuminated dunes and Devil's Playground wasn't anything to complain about!

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Not having to wait for anything to dry out, we made quick work of breakfast and camp tear-down, and we were soon on the road and headed south. Our goal for the day was twofold - visit cool places, and stay out of the snow (if possible). Our first cool place - Hidden Hill, home to the Hidden Hill Mine and Golden Queen Mine - was between 3300' - 3950', so we knew it'd be a good indicator for the remainder of the day, where we'd be spending some time between 4000' - 4700'.

Hidden Hill Road is accessible from Kelbaker road, just south of Granite Pass, which afforded us an amazing view of the Granite Mountains, still very snow-covered from the storm a few days earlier. Even with a full day in front of us, we spent a bit of time soaking in the views here - first in front of us, and then in our mirrors as we made our way east.

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It's probably worth mentioning here - and maybe a few other places in this series of stories - that the roads in the Mojave National Preserve are generally in amazingly good condition. As I recall, we were still aired up at this point, and only aired down a couple times throughout the entire trip as we encountered individually rough roads, or wanted to increase our speed. At any rate, heading east, we had a few miles to travel towards the south end of the Providence Mountains before we came to an old windmill that marked the entrance to the Hidden Hill area.

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The first mine we came to - a quarter mile or so further up the road - was the Golden Queen Mine. With one of the best-preserved mills in the area, it allowed us to see the path through witch ore flowed better than any other we'd encounter on the trip. Ore was loaded into the wooden hopper at the top of the mill and then fed down into a crusher (which is now gone). After being crushed, it would enter the triangular funnel to be fed into a horizontal cone-shaped ball mill at the next level of concrete foundation. After being further pulverized, it would drop into the final level of partitioned concrete vats, where the gold was separated from the rest of the ore using cyanide.

And, next to the mill are two large mine shafts and their associated tailings piles - all of it dating from the early 1900s.

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A view of the concrete foundations and vats, where cyanide was used to separate gold from the ore.​

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An old ball mill.​

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The Golden Queen's main mine shaft.​

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Looks legit. Safety was clearly the first priority here. ​

After exploring the Golden Queen mine and its shafts for a good half hour or so, it was time to check out the rest of what Hidden Hill had to offer - namely, the workings of the similarly named Hidden Hill Mine. Worked around the same time as the Golden Queen, the hiking trail starts from the Golden Queen's mill and works its way up the face of Hidden Hill to the north. This hiking trail was at one time a mining road, and while it still seemed like it could be drivable, there were two metal fence posts placed to block the way, which should be respected. Regardless, the hike passes by so many mine workings that walking is likely as fast as driving, so we were happy to set out on foot, the barrel cactus and yucca covering the hillside in a beautiful display of color.

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It seemed that every 50 feet or so we were stopping to investigate another working. Some were deep mine shafts, others were simple diggings. Still others appeared to be road cuts or ore chutes that material would be sent down in order to reach the mill. Wandering from working to working, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - this set of mines being one of our favorite even after visiting many more over the remainder of the trip.

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Remains of mine shaft reinforcements, now scattered down the slopes of Hidden Hill.​

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An old mine shaft, ready to be investigated!​

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The view out of the old mine shaft, @mrs.turbodb making sure I'm OK.​

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Inside the same old mine shaft - the intricate tunnel systems evident even in the first 50' of the shaft.​

Having completed our investigation, we made our way back down to the Tacoma - itself framed by views of the Clipper Valley to the south. And, as though we hadn't seen enough already, we discovered a new shaft on our way down, ripe for the exploring.

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A shaft from the Golden Queen Mine that I'd missed the first time around.​

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Having gotten an early start, it was still reasonably early in the day - perhaps 10:15am or so when we pulled out of Hidden Hill and towards our next destination - Fenner. See, with the original route I'd planned - essentially a single loop through the preserve - a full tank of gas plus 11 gallons in our (awesome) military Jerry Cans would have been just enough to get us through. But our current route had us doing two loops, and I knew that even though we hadn't tapped into our extra fuel yet, it wouldn't be quite enough to get us through.

But, as we pointed the truck southeast, I just happened to see something out of the corner of my eye to the north. I wondered out loud to my navigator about what it could be, and she made a quick pass through Hiking the Mojave Desert, and discovered that it was in fact another abandoned mine - the Big Horn Mine. A quick conversation later, and we were on our way on an unplanned detour - the best kind of exploring, really.

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The Big Horn Mine, it turns out, was a very successful property. Loaded with gold, silver, lead, and copper, the first shafts were sunk in 1895 and mining continued here on-and-off until 1943. Profitable nearly the entire time, its most successful shafts yielded quartz-gold veins 14 inches wide and worth over $500/ton in gold alone. That's over $5,000/ton in 2020 - ground hundreds of times richer than many of the best mines today.

As we reached what we'd seen from a distance - an old (yet newer than the mines) white house - we decided to check it out before continuing across the wash to explore the mine itself. The house was in reasonably good shape, clearly loved by several over the last few years, and a cabin that should be respected by any visitors. Outside, an old tow truck, full of holes from people with no sense of respect, overlooks the valley.

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A 16-leaf, "double-stacked-leaf-pack." When comfort is priority 53.​

Our cabin exploration complete, we headed to the mine at the rear of the claim. The road, while requiring HC 4WD, was still in reasonable shape and we were able to drive a loop up one side and down the other of the mountain - the inside of which is quite clearly a hollow maze of mine shafts that provided a not-so-small fortune in ore for its owners.

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The foundation for an old gold mill, and the fallen 80-foot wooden headframe of the Contention Shaft.​

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Two 55,000 gallon water tanks that have seen better days.​

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The Contention Shaft, covered with rusted grating by the National Park Service, had an opening 12-feet square and extends down through more than 600-feet of tunnels.​

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Another shaft, cut into the Contention Shaft complex and covered by steel cable. I so wanted to lay on that cable, but refrained for safety sake.​

The Big Horn Mine exploration complete, it was time to resume our trek to Fenner for fuel. Some 25 miles away at this point, the road was long, straight, and boring as could be as it crossed the alluvial fan and Fenner Valley. We'd aired down by this point - having done so, as I recall, as we made our way to the Big Horn Mine - which allowed us to travel at 30mph or so. As such, it was lunch time when we arrived at what the owners called "The Route 66 Oasis," and we called "Highway Robbery."

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With prices like that, we got only as much fuel as I thought we'd need - 5 gallons - and had a quick lunch in the picnic area, before turning tail and heading back towards the preserve - the snow from the recent storm offering a view that not many get to experience.

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As we headed north on Essex Road, our ultimate goal for the evening was Hole in the Wall, but before that we hoped we'd be able to squeeze in a hike to the Silver King Mine, and an auto-tour of the Bonanza King Mine and nearby ghost town of Providence. If we could, it would be one of our most fully-packed days so far! Indications were good as we turned off onto Ranch Road - a private road that is extremely well maintained, and that allows easement access to the area we hoped to explore.

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Before long and after speeds upwards of 50mph, we found ourselves turning off of Ranch Road and at the wilderness sign that signaled the start of our hike to the Silver King Mine. A couple miles round trip into the foothills of the Providence Mountains, the hike up the wash is a pleasant one, and halfway to the mine we came upon what were once two "twin" cabins, one of which has now collapsed - time and weather taking their toll on the simple sheet metal construction.

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Further up the wash as we neared the mine shafts, I found the remnants of a quarried rock building one of the more interesting - and unique - things that we'd see in our explorations. The sheer amount of work that must have gone into quarrying and then shaping these enormous stones is unfathomable - even if the building was, as it appears, never completed.

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Shortly thereafter we found ourselves at the Silver King Mine shafts, all of them unprotected by any sort of fencing or screening, a good indication of the low levels of travel that these mines see compared to others in the preserve.

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One of the tunnels was accessed via a weathered gangplank that made its way across a deep shaft. Safety first!​

And, like many of the mines we'd see on these trips, the views from the Silver King Mine of the sprawling valley below were spectacular even under overcast skies. We took our time walking back to the truck, making an unexpected discovery along the way.

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Unexpected. Unspent and left laying around in the desert. Sigh.​

From the Silver King, the Bonanza King Mine would have been easily walkable. With a bit more time, I'd recommend making a loop hike out of the two mines, rather than driving - doing so would allow more time to take in the surroundings, and the elevation gain of the entire walk would be minimal. We however only had a couple more hours of light and were unsure at this point where we were going to camp for the night, so pointed the truck towards the Bonanza King and pushed forward.

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With more than 20 workings, the Bonanza King Mine extends for several miles along the East Providence Fault Zone at the base of the Providence Mountains. Of these workings, there are two that I would recommend checking out in detail. The first is the main mine shaft. This thing is huge - literally truck-size - and extends deep into the mountain side. With such a wide mouth, plenty of light spills in, and we were able to make our way several hundred feet down the tunnel (walking) before turning around - a much different experience than most other mines we visited. And, regardless of weather, this is always an interesting experience - for us, the ~55°F air was warm and inviting. During summer, the same temperature would surely be welcome relief from the suns hot rays.

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The second interesting bit of history here is the old stamp mill built on the side of the mountain. While it's falling apart before our eyes, it is still one of the preserve's best examples of a mill - most of the others removed as part of decommissioning a mine. If you should visit, take some time to walk around the ruins, but be careful to stay off the actual debris - by doing so you will help to preserve it for future visitors.

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Just around the corner from the Bonanza King Mine is the ghost town of Providence. Not much of this town - which shares the same name as the mountains in which it resides - remains, but it was once bustling with activity from the surrounding mines. As at the Silver King Mine, the buildings here were built from quarried stone, and as of this writing it is clear that someone is in the process of restoring - or at least reinforcing what is left of - the last of the standing walls.

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With that, we'd completed our last set of mines for the day, and stretched the Tacoma's legs a bit on our way out to our next destination - Hole in the Wall - nearly 20 miles north and 1500' higher in elevation.

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Now, Hole in the Wall was a place we'd visited on our last trip along the Mojave Road, but at that time it had been raining, and we'd been unable to explore it as much as we'd hoped. Specifically, I was interested in doing the Ring Loop hike, and also in checking out the petroglyphs that I had heard were nearby. As often seems to be the case, we pulled into the parking area and made ourselves at home next to another Tacoma.

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And with that, we set off on the Ring Loop hike. This is a mile-or-so long trail around a honeycombed mesa that is highlighted by a short slot canyon where stainless steel rings have been bored into two dry falls in order to make them climbable for hikers. Hiking the trail in a counter-clockwise direction, that meant we'd be climbing down the rings - fun, but I think I'd do it the other way next time.

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After making our way through the slot canyon, the walls opened up to a honeycombed amphitheater, where we'd later hear a pack of coyotes howling to themselves, their echos carrying on into the night. But for now, we paused along our route to explore the sheer walls with our eyes, finding interesting holes and formations everywhere we looked.

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Our remaining daylight limited, we continued around the remaining three quarters of the hike, discovering along the way the petroglyphs that had eluded us previously. Less spectacular than some we've seen in Death Valley National Park to the north and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to the south, we were still glad to have found them, if only to say we had!

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Soon enough we found ourselves back at the parking lot, just as the sun dipped below the clouds, a brilliant splash of orange perfectly painting the geologically striped Woods Mountains to our east for no more than 30 seconds or so!

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While on the Ring Loop hike, we'd spotted an ideal spot for camping just to the south of Hole in the Wall, and we made our way that direction so we could get setup and start dinner before the sun set completely. It was perfect timing as it turned out, a break in the clouds along the horizon providing an amazing show for us as the sun lit the sky from below. Combined with the snow-capped mountains, and tasty grilled hot dogs, it was a great way to end another fun day in the Mojave Preserve.

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Here, we were at a little over 4000 feet - so we braced ourselves for cold as we climbed into bed. As with the days before, we'd squeaked by with minimal snow, and hoped that the locations we'd planned for the following day would be free of the white stuff by the time we got there. It was a pipe dream really, because we were headed to 6000 feet. Little did we know the excitement that would provide!

 

@turbodb Dan, do you recall if you had to modify these RuffStuff mounts to make them work for your application. Their website shows them as being designed to angle inwards about 10°. If yours were that way, what did you have to do to get them to sit square to the axle tube?

 

THIS IS SUCH MUCH GOALS!!

 

Yes, definitely had to modify the lower mounts. just had to use a flap disc to grind a little bit off of one side of the curve that fits the axle.

Edit: just remembered that I cover that here: How-To: Toyota Tacoma Rear Shock Relocation - Determining Leaf Spring Cycle and Mount Positioning

Preparing the Lower Shock Mount
RuffStuff R1988-8 lower shock mounts come with a 10º angle fabbed into the mount when it is mounted to the axle. We want to remove that angle for installation on a first gen Tacoma axle.

1. Use an angle grinder and flap disk to remove material on the "longer" radius-ed edge of the lower shock mount until it's the same as the shorter radius-ed edge, and extends straight off of the rear axle when held in place.

 

FWIW Mike,

I used those same mounts, and only had to do a slight bit of work with the flap disk as I put them so one side is on the tapered portion of the axle. So the fact that they're supposed to be angled, actually helped me keep them straight, if that makes sense.

 

Thanks. Would you describe the mounts you used as a good choice? Would you do the same thing again if the need arose?

 

That does make sense. Your referring to where the tube gets slightly larger right?

 

No. Where it goes to a smaller diameter. Just outboard of where Dan put his in the picture above.

 

Yup, were talking about the same spot. I just didn't describe it very well.

My main concern was how much time and effort would there be to make these usable. Sounds like it would be minimal. I love the beefiness of the design.

 

Yeah, these mounts were great. I'd use them again for sure. The modification was easy. Way easier than how we had to modify your shock tower gussets, etc. Only took 2-3 minutes per mount I'd say the first time. Second time was even faster. Mounts are super sturdy too.

Which hike?, there are several that day . Both "sets" are reasonably far out of your way, and in opposite directions.

 

Thanks!

Did you get a chance to measure the angle of your shocks? I'm guessing not or I'm sure you would have said something.

 

Yeah - lava tubes and Ring Loop trail are further away from each other than they appear, just due to how the roads work in the Preserve. If I were you, I'd do lava tubes, a cinder cone, the Aiken Cinder Mine, and a quick stop in Kelso. But, if you can do the Ring Loop, that'd be cool too - just play it by ear when you get there.

Of course I didn't get a chance. I'm so old that I promptly forgot.

Just ran out and put the compass up to them now. It's something between 10° and 15°, a hair closer to 15 than 10 if I had to put money on it. That's with no weight in the bed at all (except tent), and nothing on the rear bumper - as weight is applied, they'll get just a bit closer to vertical - but still not closer than 10° I bet.

 

I have been told that less than 20 degrees is best. Those sound perfect. Thanks for checking it for me.

 

The Ring Trail is fun but it's more fun than interesting. I wouldn't go to far out of my way to do it though.

 

Mojave Redemption #5 - Into the New York Mountains

It seems that after several very cold nights, we were both starting to get used to the temperature and though it was cold, we were both cozy under the covers for the duration of the night. And, having gone to bed with a few clouds in the sky, I set my alarm early in hopes that a few would stick around until morning when they'd once again be illuminated by a sun that seemed to hug the horizon through the entirety of the day.

And sure enough, the long rays of the winter put on quite the show - even if the clouds had mostly cleared and it was a short one!

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We breakfasted and packed up, today a special day on this far-from-normal trip to the Mojave Preserve. Today, we were going to attempt the exploration of Carruthers Canyon. Located in the New York Mountains, this was the single place in the preserve that I was most looking forward to exploring, its description in Hiking the Mojave Desert intriguing me for some reason. Reaching elevations of 6000 feet, I knew there was no possibility that we'd be able to camp there as I'd hoped, but even just hiking the canyon was sure to be a special time.

As we ventured north on Essex Road, it quickly became clear just how close to the snow line we'd camped the previous night. The entire desert was covered in snow at elevations as low as 4500', but at least the road - which could have been a sloppy mess - was frozen at this early hour, making travel much easier than it'd be later in the day.

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As we turned onto the Old Mojave Road for a short stint east, conditions got even whiter. Nothing that caused any trouble for the Tacoma, but enough to make us wonder what we'd find at our destination for sure.

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The whiteness - we decided - was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it had the possibility to severely limit our ability to explore and see cool things. On the other, boy, did it make the landscape beautiful! It's not often you see a Joshua Tree framed by a snow-covered mountain!

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It turns out our short stint on the Mojave Road took us by the rock house at Rock Canyon that we'd investigated on our last adventure through these parts almost exactly a year earlier, and we figured a quick stop just to see what it looked like in the snow was in order.

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The New York Mountains, rising in the distance, were our next destination.​

As you might expect, turning off the main drag onto New York Mountain Road resulted in the snow level getting significantly deeper. Traffic had gone before us, but it had been light - two, or perhaps three vehicles over the last several days. We pressed on.

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Higher and higher we pushed until we reached about 5200' - the highest we'd been since the snow by nearly 700'. As we'd experienced at the Colosseum Mine - but now several days later - the snow was 10-12" deep and we found the truck struggling a bit for traction through various washes where the drifts were even deeper. Still half a mile from the end of the road and beginning of the hike, I realized it was a fools errand to keep going.

But we weren't beat! We found a nice place to park and made the decision to travel the rest of the way on foot - there was just too much cool stuff to see for us to turn around now!

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Carruthers Canyon, so close. We'd walk from here.​

Entering the canyon, the reason it's so special is immediately apparent - the ground here is a giant field of Cretaceous quartz monzonite (think orangish granite), which has been erroded into countless hoodoos. One of the first that explorers encounter is Easter Island Rock, named for its resemblance to the carved heads found on the far away island. Balanced high above the trail, it seems to defy gravity as it overlooks the mouth of the canyon.

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We pushed on, the snow getting deeper - @mrs.turbodb following in my footsteps as I used my Muck boots to compact a path. The views were spectacular.

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This was not at all what we'd expected, and the snow kept us from exploring as thoroughly as we may have otherwise, but it was still a magical experience. As we continued up the canyon, Foot Rock rose out of the snow.

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Chilly out here with no socks.​

After a slow mile of climbing up the canyon, we reached the apex of our hike - the Giant Ledge Mine Camp. We'd planned to continue further, but that was when we'd be hiking on solid ground - today was no day to crest the top of the canyon, its ridge shared with Keystone Canyon to the north.

Instead, we investigated what we could at the old camp. Everything covered in snow, there are surely things that we missed - just another reason to return under more "normal" conditions. Still, an old car, stove, and what appeared to be a 1906 water source were fun discoveries to make.

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Remnants of an early overlander.​

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Having explored as much as we could in the snow, we headed back down Carruthers Canyon to the waiting truck - wondering how long it would be before the snow would be gone and we could return. And, as we made our way back out to Ivanpah Road, we stumbled upon something we'd definitely not expected to see out here in the middle of the preserve - CalTrans!

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It turns out - unsurprisingly - they were not here to check on the road conditions to make sure that we'd get through without issue; rather, they were checking up on a plot of land that was part of a restoration project the company was undertaking to offset a project elsewhere in the state. As the man and two women returned to their truck, we had a fun conversation about the road conditions - they hadn't expected any snow - nor my stopping to capture a photo of their vehicle in the middle of the Mojave. With that, we bid each other safe travels and continued on with our day.

For us, that meant continuing north on our counter-clockwise loop of the preserve, fingers crossed that our next destination would be clearer than the last. In fact, while we'd originally planned to visit Keystone Canyon - just north of Carruthers - at nearly 6800' and on the north side of the range, we decided against it, instead opting to investigate the historic ghost town of Vanderbilt.

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Our first stop in the area was at the foundation of the old Boomerang Mine Mill. All that's left of what must have been an enormous building, the stonework here was impeccable, and for some reason I can't fully convey, there was only one way to really capture the moment.

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Vanderbilt was once acclaimed as the richest gold property in the eastern Mojave, and was worked on and off for more than 100 years. For much of that time, it supported a lively town and several mills and mines. A railroad was even constructed to haul out the riches (Hiking the Mojave Desert). Of the mines there, the Boomerang Mine was one of the more successful, and had the added benefit of being a hike, so after a quick lunch of PB&J, potato chips, and an apple, we set out to find the main shaft and headframe.

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Many of the mine shafts in the preserve have been covered by the NPS in order to keep visitors from a nasty spill - or rather, to protect the NPS from the gratuitous lawsuit that might result - but doing so is much harder with an intact headframe still guarding the opening. Still, one can still make out the grating lying on the ground around the headframe, the result of a nefarious visitor cutting away the work of the NPS, once again allowing access down into the shaft.

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I only made it a few rungs down the ladder before returning to solid ground - neither @mrs.turbodb nor I wanted to test the structure any more than that. A bit more looking around at the tailings, and we headed back the way we'd come - there was still much more of the Vanderbilt area to explore.

It turns out that we'd parked the truck - or rather, given our remote location, we'd simply left it in the middle of the road - right next to the workings of the Gold Bar Mine. Consisting of a couple shafts and the ruins of several old rock buildings, there was less to see here than there'd be at the Boomerang Mine - especially with the large metal grate that blocked access to the mine shaft.

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The remains of an old water tank and headframe from the Gold Bar Mine.​

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Perhaps the most interesting find at the Gold Bar Mine was an owl pellet that @mrs.turbodb spotted on the grate covering the shaft. Old and weathered, it was at this point a pile of bones, hair, and some yellow teeth from the owls previous meal.

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We continued on, winding our way through a maze of roads that led up to the top of a nearby hill to what was likely the center of Vanderbilt. Even here, interspersed among the various foundations, there were mine shafts - deep enough that the diminishing echos of a rock dropped in never seemed to end - none of them covered. Definitely not a place to wander around at night! However, of more interest to us at this site was a dugout built into the top of the hill. Likely used as cold storage, it was in remarkably good shape and sported a view that today is dramatically different than when it was built - the Ivanpah Power Plant glowing bright to the north east.

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Our final destination before leaving Vanderbilt was a quick visit to the Darling Mine. With one of the most well-preserved headframes we would see - and the mine shaft below it covered by a grate - it was a good representation of the work that had been undone at the Boomerang Mine. Especially interesting here was that on closer inspection, the steel rail at the top of the headframe was clearly worn away - witness marks from the thousands of buckets that were once drug over it, their ore dumped down the still-intact shoot and moved to one of the nearby mills.

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By now it was mid-afternoon, and we spent a few minutes trying to figure out where we should camp for the night, and what we would try to tackle - at least to start - the next day. A look out across the Ivanpah Valley suggested that south side of the Ivanpah mountains might be snow-free enough for us to explore - so we made the decision to look for something there, nestled in the long alluvial fan that spread out into the valley.

Knowing that we didn't have far to go meant that we could take a few more minutes as we headed down out of Vanderbilt - and that was just fine with us. The access road from the north is actually along the old grade of the California Eastern Railway, and as such is an engineering feat worthy of a closer look. Trains, unlike humans, donkeys, and automobiles need a much more gradual grade when changing elevation, and as such, the stretch of rail that climbs through the New York Mountains near Vanderbilt takes a circuitous route that looks much like a boomerang when viewed from above. Even so, it is a series of road cuts blasted through the hills and berms built up across washes - meticulously created stone culverts placed strategically to prevent the washes from affecting the line.

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Following the railroad grade north, we were nearly to the Ivanpah road when we passed the entrance to the Goldome Mine. A more contemporary mine, the Goldome was in operation until 1994 when the California Desert Protection Act suspended mining activity and transformed the East Mojave Scenic Area to into the newly protected Mojave National Preserve. It stood, largely unchanged for over 20 years, until it was vandalized in 2017 by the group INDECLINE.

The gate to the mine is now open, and we decided to spend a few minutes looking around.

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Note the "art" is across several storage tanks, which forms a complete picture from the front gate of the property.​

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The "art" is a combination of spray paint and negative space, the sheet metal of the building cut away to create the black areas.​

Just as we arrived, another group of explorers - in two Tacoma's (Alvin @w3tw0rks, Stan @kalieaire) and a 4Runner (Victor @.45 JHP) pulled in as well. As we all walked around the old buildings, taking in both their contents and what visitors had done to them over the years, we were also - naturally - checking out each other's rigs. "Your truck sure seems familiar." said Victor, and it wasn't long before we got to talking about TacomaWorld and the blog, and sure enough, trip reports! Totally awesome what a small world we live in!

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While cute, the irony of spraying this on a building was clearly lost on the vandal.​

Our exploration of mines and the Mojave's history complete for the day, we bid farewell to our fellow adventurers and finally made our way to Ivanpah road and towards the base of the Ivanpah mountains to the north. As we did, we crossed the present-day rail grade owned by Union Pacific - just in time to see the lights of an engine approaching from down the line. I don't know what it is about trains, but everyone I know has some sort of fascination or nostalgia for them, and we are no different. We hung out at the crossing for a few minutes until the train rumbled by us, its horns blasting as though there was some risk that we'd venture onto the tracks.

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It was a short train - or perhaps empty - two engines the fewest - by a factor of three - we'd seen on any train in the last several days. And as it continued to rumble on, we pulled away towards the alluvial fan that led up to the New Trail Mine - the alluivial fan that we'd call home for the night.

It didn't take long to find a spot along the road that was reasonably level and would afford us great views of the Ivanpah Mountains and Valley, as well as the New York Mountains from where we came, and while I got the tent setup, @mrs.turbodb scanned the New York Mountains looking for roads that may not be accessible now, but could be in the future!

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Eventually the sun set over the Ivanpah Range, once again lighting the clouds and casting a purple hue over the landscape. The desert seems to excel at these colors - more so than other landscapes - for what reason, I have no idea.

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Neither of us complained as we worked together to make dinner - tacos and guacamole, enjoyed as we looked out over the valley. The meal was especially sweet since we knew that it wouldn't be our last in this vast preserve - tomorrow's first destination clearly accessible another few miles up the road.

Content with that knowledge, we read our books and futzed around until 8:00pm - the time, on this trip at least, we turned to pumpkins - when we climbed up into the tent in search of another good nights sleep. We had no idea at the time, but it would be one of our most pleasurable days as we made discovery after discovery.

Well, except for the first discovery... but that's another story.

 

Excellent trip report thus far!

@turbodb I recently acquired an Exped Megamat Duo for use in my CVT RTT. I wanted to see if you had any tips and tricks as far as its use goes while out on the trail.

Thanks!