Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Rad, watched all of that. Thanks for sharing.

 

yeh..IIRC he flew a SuperCub. guessing, and of course have no clue, He had so much experience, and plenty of power, nothing could go wrong..probably made only one mistake.

yeh, interesting I always thought Galen Rowell was the pilot, just He and His Wife...

occasionally hear a Paramotor in my backyard muni airport...they seem to 'tread air' pretty well without going anywhere.

few years ago i watched on youtube a guy in his SuperCub land on chickenstrip, soak, takeoff and fly up the saline fan toward the pass, approach and land on a big butte, set his camera down...then make several passes, touchdowns, take-offs...was a great perspective of flight...and i ignored the FACT that he was an idiot, despite all his money.


CARBON CUB..not SuperCub

 

Galen's wife was the pilot. She wrote a book called Flying South: A Pilot's Inner Journey. Talented in her own right.

 

Ouch. I was sorry to hear about the deaths.

I thought at the time that Steve Fosset would somehow show up alive.


link to incorrect landings in DV
https://youtu.be/eMMmu35yjF4?si=SLHvNSA-MseFlb0n

 

I should have been more specific. Barbara was the pilot in their relationship. The day they were killed, someone else was piloting the aircraft.

It was funny you say that about Fossett. I think many thought the same thing.

 

Santa Maria 4 Wheelers have cancelled their Panamint Valley Days event.

https://cal4wheel.com/panamint-valley-days

Due largely to the current park closure and the need to schedule so many things in advance.

 

About a decade ago a guy used to climb with did the first crossing of the Sierra's via parasail. Sequoia Kings LEO tried to arrest him because they didn't believe he launched from White mountain. Luckily he had GoPro footage and the cops backed off. He launched from outside the park and landed outside the park. Cops saw him flying over the park and followed him to his landing zone. lol

 

I was thinking more about this. Had this group done their annual event they could have found out a lot about the status of different roads in Panamint Valley. It's unfortunate they didn't do their trip.

 

The problem is logistical. They have porta potties and a ton of stuff they need to get there. Since there are no guarantees parts of the park they want to go are open, it’s probably better for them to cancel and avoid the expense—most of which probably comes from registration.

 

Yep. Also, if the Inyo County Road Department is to be believed the organizers can't even get into Panamint Valley at the moment since not only CA-190 but also Panamint Valley Road and Trona Wildrose Road are closed. Sure, 190 is suppose to open about four weeks before their event but I haven't heard any estimates for the county roads. So besides the potential that little to none of the park will be open, they probably can't even guarantee they'll be able to access their site, much less get a whole bunch of stuff delivered and setup before the event.

 

I did one group tour in this event last year. They do go in the park for several tours and it’s all above board; they get permits even though the main camping area is outside the park. So I don’t think the choice to cancel is theirs, though I suppose they could have restarted from scratch to go to legally open locations. But there may not be much, or at least much of interest. Even last year there was a lot of last minute rerouting needed because of last year’s storm damage.

 

The west approach to Cerro Gordo was made passable to 4x4 vehicles this morning. We are gonna have guys up there tomorrow to confirm.

 

Inyo and Mono road dept put out closure signs if their trucks can't get through. I've seen plenty of closures where an experienced driver and a stock truck would make it through no problems. I've also seen plenty of closures that shut down my wheeling rig. The reality is the only way to know is to drive past the closure and see. But that can lead to a healthy ticket especially if your from out of the area.

 

Just make sure they take the 4x4 truck and not the 2wd. Thanks for the info and nice to see you posting. If only once every 2 years. lol

 

He lives!

 

Tried to drive up to Cerro Gordo mine this weekend. We can confirm that the road IS passable by 4x4 vehicles But ONLY to vehicles and personnel working the road and building construction are allowed up it. The road is closed and the town is closed for repairs. They do not want anyone on the access road during repair ops. We were turned around as soon as we got done airing down and preparing for our ascent up. No biggie, we'll wait for it to open up fully and try again. Apparently lots of folks were headed that way, we encountered 5 SxS's and another Jeep that were turned around as we were headed back to the pavement. It wasn't a complete failed trip, we had refreshing ice cream shakes at lone pine and a quick shot up the road to Copper Top barbecue for some tasty Tri-Tip. Here's the price of gas in Lone Pine in case anyone is headed that way.

 

hoo boy great time to be puttin in a supercharger! thanks for report on the cerro gordo access, was thinking of using that to access saline valley later this week, sounds like a no-go

 

We came across a road worker/Guard at the intersection of 136 and 190. This guy had the LONELIEST job in the Death Valley area, in the middle of nowhere with just a truck loaded with water and food and a pop-up for shade. Real nice talkative guy willing to tell you the status of the closures at length. He confirmed what the sign at the Visitors center in Lone Pine stated, Death Valley and all access roads still closed.