bob91yj
Resident **************
...as I remember it!
MattO, and Machelle and I headed out from Santee Friday morning. A rather uneventful drive to Ballarat where we found Brad and his brother Nathan.
The plan was for some friends of Nathan to meet us at 9AM Saturday morning and travel with us through Goler Wash/Striped Butte/Warm Springs, camp Saturday night at Warm Springs, where we would meet another of Nathan's friends Teresa and her son Dexter.
The group consisted of Nathan, Larry and Bob, all on Kawasaki KLR 650's, MattO in his built YJ, Brad in his new to him AWD Chevy Astro van, and Machelle and I in our LJ. We were informed that Larry's bike was so new that it still had paper plates on it, and he was a seasoned street rider but new to the dirt. Bob and Larry were there on time and we headed off to Goler Wash. Matt noticed right off that Larry seemed to be having some issues with the bike, deep sand/gravel seemed like a challenge for him. Soon after entering Goler Wash we hit a small waterfall that none of us remembered being there. Nathan was leading, and chose to push/man handle his bike up the obstacle. At some point Larry fell while pushing the bike, thought he might have dislocated his right shoulder, but wanted to press on anyway. We figured out a way to strap the other two bikes up the obstacle using Matt's Jeep, then it came time to get the Astro van up. Brad pulled up to the obstacle, and with a good dose of throttle popped the van up the obstacle. We were all shocked that he got it up so easily.
Larry really struggled with his bike, getting off of it on several occasions...keep in mind Larry is 54 years old, maybe 6'4" tall, and 350 pounds. We finally started making some good time, then Larry fell again going up a hill on Coyote Canyon. He was still on the ground when we all got there, in obvious pain. Larry is a retired paramedic, he was fairly certain he had damaged some ribs, but was able to breathe OK, so didn't think he'd punctured a lung. After a lot of conversation talking about what our options were, we decided to leave the bike there, put Larry in Matt's Jeep, head on in to Warm Springs, then run Nathan back to retrieve the bike in one of the vehicles.
That was a solid plan for about 5 miles, when Nathan crashed his bike. We got the bike off of him, when he tried to stand, it was obvious that he'd either severely sprained his left ankle, or broken it. Now we had a real problem with the bikes...until Nathan hopped over to his bike on one leg, climbed on, and took off...nothing for us to do but follow him.
We ran into Teresa and Dex a few miles before Warm Springs. Once we got to Warm Springs, Bob elected to continue on by himself to get back to the campground where he and Larry had left their trucks, then come back and get Larry. We made camp at Warm Springs, got the injured riders as comfortable as possible and settled in for the night.
We thought Bob was going to come back in the truck for Larry either Saturday night or be there by 9AM Sunday morning. For what ever reason that didn't happen. We finally left Warm Springs around noon. Nathan insisted he could still ride, although we had to rig a strap from his tank bag to the gear shift lever...he could downshift with his injured ankle, but couldn't up shift, pulling on the strap enabled him to upshift.
We all caravaned out to the Coyote Canyon/West Side Road intersection. Here we decided that Larry and Dexter would swap seats, Teresa and Larry would take her truck back to the pavement, and Nathan would follow them on his bike. The two Jeeps and the Astro van would take the West Side Road, and we would all meet again in Furnace Creek, hopefully finding Bob and the truck somewhere along the way. That plan worked to perfection! I love it when that happens.
Matt, Brad and I were hauling the mail on the West Side Rd and made great time. The road is graded almost pavement smooth.
Once in Furnace Creek, we found Bob and he and Larry headed back to their campground. Bob had made arrangements with the Park Rangers to give him a ride in to get Larry's bike out the next day. Nathan refused to cut the trip short so we loaded his bike into the back of Teresa's truck, Nate hopped (pun intended) into Brad's van and we all headed out to Scotty's Castle. Scotty's has been on our itinerary for years, never made it there for one reason or another. We finally made it. It's a neat place for sure, glad we finally got to see it. With our late start and Nathan stuck in the parking lot we elected to not take the one hour tour.
After Scotty's we made a quick stop at Ubehebe Crater...it's a giant hole in the ground, again, worth seeing.
The plan was to find a place to camp along the road to the Racetrack (moving rocks). There just isn't anywhere to camp along that road. We finally ended up camping in the small circle area at the trail head for Lippencott Mine Rd. We got camp set just as it got dark, got a visit from a Ranger that said we were cool to camp there, just asked us to restore the area where our fire was/not leave a fire ring.
Monday morning we packed up, said our goodbyes to Nathan, Teresa and Dexter, who crammed themselves into Teresa's Xtra cab Toyota pick up and headed back out to the highway the way we came in. The three of us left in the two Jeeps and the Astro van headed down Lippencott Mine Rd. We made it down and out Grapevine Canyon with no problems. We went back to civilization via Panamint Springs...$5.69/gal for 89 octane.
I decided to blindly follow my GPS directions once we hit the highway, I led MattO and Machelle and I on a tour of Ridgecrest on the way home, which was the wrong way to begin with. Trip home was relatively uneventful until the final hill (literally) before I was home. Check Engine light came on a couple of weeks ago for a cat converter code, I cleared it and it came back after a few days. I figured I'd get it taken care of after this trip. Pulling the LAST hill on HWY 52 coming in to town the CKENG light comes on, then starts flashing, and the Jeep starts losing power. I made it to the top of the hill, started coasting down the other side, flashing stops and the engine started responding normally again. Taking it in to the dealer for some warranty emissions work!
Trip notes...
There is no gas in Trona, there is gas in Red Mountain or Ridgecrest.
Weather was near perfect, just below freezing at the Racetrack at night, warmer at Ballarat and Warm Springs, high 60's to low 70's during the day.
I'll get some pics up soon.
MattO, and Machelle and I headed out from Santee Friday morning. A rather uneventful drive to Ballarat where we found Brad and his brother Nathan.
The plan was for some friends of Nathan to meet us at 9AM Saturday morning and travel with us through Goler Wash/Striped Butte/Warm Springs, camp Saturday night at Warm Springs, where we would meet another of Nathan's friends Teresa and her son Dexter.
The group consisted of Nathan, Larry and Bob, all on Kawasaki KLR 650's, MattO in his built YJ, Brad in his new to him AWD Chevy Astro van, and Machelle and I in our LJ. We were informed that Larry's bike was so new that it still had paper plates on it, and he was a seasoned street rider but new to the dirt. Bob and Larry were there on time and we headed off to Goler Wash. Matt noticed right off that Larry seemed to be having some issues with the bike, deep sand/gravel seemed like a challenge for him. Soon after entering Goler Wash we hit a small waterfall that none of us remembered being there. Nathan was leading, and chose to push/man handle his bike up the obstacle. At some point Larry fell while pushing the bike, thought he might have dislocated his right shoulder, but wanted to press on anyway. We figured out a way to strap the other two bikes up the obstacle using Matt's Jeep, then it came time to get the Astro van up. Brad pulled up to the obstacle, and with a good dose of throttle popped the van up the obstacle. We were all shocked that he got it up so easily.
Larry really struggled with his bike, getting off of it on several occasions...keep in mind Larry is 54 years old, maybe 6'4" tall, and 350 pounds. We finally started making some good time, then Larry fell again going up a hill on Coyote Canyon. He was still on the ground when we all got there, in obvious pain. Larry is a retired paramedic, he was fairly certain he had damaged some ribs, but was able to breathe OK, so didn't think he'd punctured a lung. After a lot of conversation talking about what our options were, we decided to leave the bike there, put Larry in Matt's Jeep, head on in to Warm Springs, then run Nathan back to retrieve the bike in one of the vehicles.
That was a solid plan for about 5 miles, when Nathan crashed his bike. We got the bike off of him, when he tried to stand, it was obvious that he'd either severely sprained his left ankle, or broken it. Now we had a real problem with the bikes...until Nathan hopped over to his bike on one leg, climbed on, and took off...nothing for us to do but follow him.
We ran into Teresa and Dex a few miles before Warm Springs. Once we got to Warm Springs, Bob elected to continue on by himself to get back to the campground where he and Larry had left their trucks, then come back and get Larry. We made camp at Warm Springs, got the injured riders as comfortable as possible and settled in for the night.
We thought Bob was going to come back in the truck for Larry either Saturday night or be there by 9AM Sunday morning. For what ever reason that didn't happen. We finally left Warm Springs around noon. Nathan insisted he could still ride, although we had to rig a strap from his tank bag to the gear shift lever...he could downshift with his injured ankle, but couldn't up shift, pulling on the strap enabled him to upshift.
We all caravaned out to the Coyote Canyon/West Side Road intersection. Here we decided that Larry and Dexter would swap seats, Teresa and Larry would take her truck back to the pavement, and Nathan would follow them on his bike. The two Jeeps and the Astro van would take the West Side Road, and we would all meet again in Furnace Creek, hopefully finding Bob and the truck somewhere along the way. That plan worked to perfection! I love it when that happens.
Matt, Brad and I were hauling the mail on the West Side Rd and made great time. The road is graded almost pavement smooth.
Once in Furnace Creek, we found Bob and he and Larry headed back to their campground. Bob had made arrangements with the Park Rangers to give him a ride in to get Larry's bike out the next day. Nathan refused to cut the trip short so we loaded his bike into the back of Teresa's truck, Nate hopped (pun intended) into Brad's van and we all headed out to Scotty's Castle. Scotty's has been on our itinerary for years, never made it there for one reason or another. We finally made it. It's a neat place for sure, glad we finally got to see it. With our late start and Nathan stuck in the parking lot we elected to not take the one hour tour.
After Scotty's we made a quick stop at Ubehebe Crater...it's a giant hole in the ground, again, worth seeing.
The plan was to find a place to camp along the road to the Racetrack (moving rocks). There just isn't anywhere to camp along that road. We finally ended up camping in the small circle area at the trail head for Lippencott Mine Rd. We got camp set just as it got dark, got a visit from a Ranger that said we were cool to camp there, just asked us to restore the area where our fire was/not leave a fire ring.
Monday morning we packed up, said our goodbyes to Nathan, Teresa and Dexter, who crammed themselves into Teresa's Xtra cab Toyota pick up and headed back out to the highway the way we came in. The three of us left in the two Jeeps and the Astro van headed down Lippencott Mine Rd. We made it down and out Grapevine Canyon with no problems. We went back to civilization via Panamint Springs...$5.69/gal for 89 octane.
I decided to blindly follow my GPS directions once we hit the highway, I led MattO and Machelle and I on a tour of Ridgecrest on the way home, which was the wrong way to begin with. Trip home was relatively uneventful until the final hill (literally) before I was home. Check Engine light came on a couple of weeks ago for a cat converter code, I cleared it and it came back after a few days. I figured I'd get it taken care of after this trip. Pulling the LAST hill on HWY 52 coming in to town the CKENG light comes on, then starts flashing, and the Jeep starts losing power. I made it to the top of the hill, started coasting down the other side, flashing stops and the engine started responding normally again. Taking it in to the dealer for some warranty emissions work!
Trip notes...
There is no gas in Trona, there is gas in Red Mountain or Ridgecrest.
Weather was near perfect, just below freezing at the Racetrack at night, warmer at Ballarat and Warm Springs, high 60's to low 70's during the day.
I'll get some pics up soon.
