Hoarder23's War Wagon build

Young girls like to learn stuff too @4x4_Angel isn't afraid to work on her truck

 

She banned?

 

Blue line is just some HTML or something

 

Oh. Fancy. Need to figure out how to do that.

 

Time for a photo dump of the last two months of truck stuff. I've been slacking on keeping this up to date.

 

The first weekend of November I headed south from Hanford to the Sherman Pass 4x4 Trail in the Sequoia NF near Kernville.
On the way up we found a creek for Belle to enjoy after a dusty ride south out of the valley.

The Sherman Pass 4x4 Trail is a very well maintained trail to Sherman Peak and tops out at 9843 ft, there's even a fancy weatherproof map of the surrounding areas trails in a box at the start.

It starts of steep, loose, and windy. I had to take a break because my truck overheated trying to keep me cool and drag me up a steep trail. The trail goes around the back of the ridge and then comes up to the highest point just right of the center of the pic.

The view from the top is great. I was able to see Mt. Whitney and Olancha Peak to the north.

I found some ice on the way down which is less impressive today but on Nov 3rd it was about 70.

The trail winds through the woods and it's a good thing the local club keeps it maintained because some of the fallen trees would have rendered the trail impassable.

A shot from the top of the paved Sherman Pass with Mt. Whitney way in the back.

 

Been trying to get Ms. Bree out here so I can build some bad azz sliders for her tundra. Never built any for a big truck.

 

Over Veteran's Day weekend I went and visited my sister and BIL while they were in Santa Cruz. On the way back I stopped at Pinnacles NP. The landscape is pretty amazing and the drive along CA 198 through the Diablo Range is quite fun if you want to treat your truck like a sports car.

 

Nov 15th I finished up my work trip and headed north towards Bozeman, MT to pick up my completed Go Fast Camper. My install appointment was on the 18th so I had some time to explore a bit so my planned route was from Hanford all the way north to Glacier NP and back down to Bozeman stopping at as many National Park service sites as I could fit in.

I crossed the Sierras via Tioga Pass in Yosemite. Saw this beast on my way through the park.

Coming out of the tunnel into Yosemite Valley is amazing. The last trip into the park I had gone to Glacier Point which doesn't take you down to the valley floor.

Continueing over the pass the views kept coming, saw the other end of the overlanding spectrum at one of the overlooks.

Stopped for lunch at Tenaya Lake, sat at a picnic table on a sandy beach a few feet from crystal clear water with views of granite peaks.

As you exit the park it crazy how quickly the landscape changes from granite to red rocks.

Spent the night in Sawtooth NF in NW Utah.

 

The campsite was unimpressive but did it's job.

My first view of Idaho was certainly an impressive one, even with the overcast weather.

I drove on fumes into Almo, ID towards the City of Rocks National Reserve and the only gas station in miles and was happy to pay $3.21, 18¢ less than the cheapest gas in Fresno I'd filled up on to start the day prior. City of Rocks was a common camping site for settlers traveling on the California Trail in the 1850s.You can also see the cause of all the scratches on the door from Belle.

The next stop was Hagerman, ID where I was checking out the Fossil Beds Visitor Center and noticed a blurb about the Owsley Bridge which crosses the Snake River. It rang a bell as there is a rubbing of the Bridge in my grandmother’s house as her maiden name is Owsley and the bridge replaced the ferry crossing her father and uncle ran in the beginning of the 1900s. While there I finally took the time to check my passenger LCA and yep it was cracked as well. I told myself no shenanigans until that side got changed but you know how those things work out. Also apparently ducks are big fans of the lakes around Hagerman, there were thousands.


Next stop was Craters of the Moon which is an otherworldly spot, a volcanic flow in the middle of the high plains.

I headed north via ID 28 towards Missoula and the terrain quickly changed to big mountains.

After stopping for dinner in Salmon I got a reminder about western wildlife when I came upon an elk just chilling in the middle on the road I was traveling 70 mph. Luckily I was paying attention and my brakes work good, she was unimpressed. I crossed into Montana via the Lost Trail Pass and found a camp site at the bottom of Lolo Pass. Belle curled up into a little burrito in our last night in a ground tent.

 

Lolo Pass was interesting and the USFS dude gave me the advice to cross over from the West side of glacier to the east via US 2 and get the view of the Rocky Mountain Front. On the way back north it started to rain and it rained all the way to Glacier NP. Between rain and fog there wasn't a lot to see.


About halfway through the pass the weather started to clear, even saw a rainbow at the continental divide. And the weather was great in East Glacier Park. I headed south via 89 and 287 with the amazing views of the Rockies I'd been hoping to see to my west. I’d highly recommend this route to Glacier to anyone making the trip. I even saw a dinosaur.

I spent the night in a hotel in Bozeman because hot water and a soft bed is kinda cool.

 

After the GFC install I avoided the typical parking lot photos because we've seen the camper and their lot. I headed for something more scenic near Yellowstone. An icy Forest Road near Emigrant Peak highlighted the lack of ability both me and Goodyear MT/Rs have in the snow. Scared myself a bit and had to use the trail tampons to get me up a section of the road that I shouldn't have attempted but I got some good pictures and that's what really matters, right?


Stopped in Yellowstone NP which is mostly closed this time of year. But I was close and have the America the Beautiful Pass, so why not?

Since I couldn't travel through the park I had to backtrack through Bozeman to get to Grand Teton. I had coordinates of a good campsite in West Yellowstone so headed there. When I got there it was occupied, windy and in the high 20s so I turned back to find something more sheltered. On the way back snow showed it's dominance again and I had a bit of an "off-road excursion". I wanted to go left, my truck decided it was going to continue straight. 4-Low and some locked diffs allowed me to get out of the ditch without having to put on my snow boots.

 

The first campsite in the camper was tucked away just north of West Yellowstone, I left tracks in virgin snow and didn't see another on my way out.

Headed south towards Jackson, WY and Grand Teton, also closed but worth the trip for the view.

The next stop was Fossil Butte NM in Kemmerer, WY.

After that I headed west towards Logan, UT and the Golden Spike NHP in Corinne which was going to be the first stop in the morning so I wanted a campsite not too far away. Was able to find a spot in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache NF overlooking Logan. There was even some cut firewood for a fire. And Belle managed to get back to her ratting roots and caught a field mouse.

 

Nice tent.

 

The wake up was grey and it started to spit snow but it was cool being on the edge of the slope looking over the valley.

Sometimes I'm ok with California being a nanny state, Utah is just ok with allowing the robot revolution to occur

The next stop was Golden Spike NHP on Promontory Summit where the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific joined their lines to create the Trans-Continental Railroad.

The weather turned and it was forecast for rain all the way south so I decided to just head home down 15. Next, a vehicular incident near Toquerville in the morning closed the right lane of I-15S causing delays that exceed 90 minutes. Despite that, it was still my fastest route home by 15 minutes. So things happened, tried a shortcut, got 1 mile to the next exit in about 2 minutes. Pushed my luck to Diamond G Lane which had a lovely sign about rodeo animals and fucking with them at your own peril. Many hours of solid rain had turned the dirt into a sloppy mess, put it in 4hi and slung mud for about half a mile until the fork I wanted was blocked off. Put it in 4lo and wandered back to pavement, warning the first truck but not the second. Got back on 15 and managed to end up a couple hundred yards ahead of the school bus I had been behind, so sort of a win.

The wreck that caused the traffic took out a long stretch of guard rail and they were just getting the trailer back out of the ditch. Hopefully someone left in a helicopter and not a white van. 12 miles, 2 hours, .5 stars.

My truck when I stopped in Vegas for gas after two hours of driving through solid rain.

And then 4 hours farther south in Riverside.

I think it's safe to say it was yucky when I told bro in his Sierra he wouldn't make it.

Back home, reasonably clean, and ready to get aired out.

Final Trip stats
5 days, 3260 miles, 7 states, 10 National Park Service sites, 4 cold nights camping, 1 cool new camper

 

When I got home I got another Duralast LCA to replace the passenger side. Changed the LCA and swapped out the front coilovers for the spare set so they could get cleaned up and revalved a bit softer. Safe to say bad things were about to happen on the passenger side. I don't remember seeing the same massive crack on the shock mount on the driver's side I removed.

Some pictures to appreciate how awesome San Diego is. Some snow capped mountains in the background after dropping Belle off at the Doggy Ranch in Alpine.

And two hours later at the ocean at Cabrillo National Monument. In the last picture you can see my office on NAS North Island.

 

I was finally able to capture a milestone moment on Dec 17th. 120k

 

Looks like a fun trip! The more I see GFC's the more I think I might want one...