Well, for last weekend before i sold the roof-top tent and rack off the Silverado i decided to put it on the K20 for a send off trip. -It didn't go well.
Let me start by saying the truck is fantastic, the more and more i drive it, the more and more i love it. We left Friday evening with about a thousand pounds of gear in the truck. It did fine, and maintained cruising speeds around 50 mph even up steep grades!
As for the trip itself- When we got to Anza-Borrego there were little to no clouds in the sky, and no rain or lighting projected where we were. After about an hour around the fire we noticed lightning in the distance; this should have been our cue to leave. We stuck around by the fire for another thirty minutes and deciding to go to bed after it began to sprinkle. As i was setting up the tent the lightning got closer, and it began to get windy. At this point i decided i didn't want to risk being stranded 3-4 miles from pavement if it were to rain, or become a general electric test facility using my K20 and tent as the test subject. As i was alerting the rest of the camp it began to down-pour like cats and dogs. Not once in my life have i ever seen rain like this.
We packed as fast as we could and at this point there was about an inch of water on the ground, and lighting was striking every 10 seconds or so around us. I decided that rather than attempting to escape in two wheel drive to spend the time locking the hubs in four. On slight incline out of camp it was slicker than a pig in slop. Any indent in the surface of the desert was filled to the brim, and washes were flowing like streams in spring. We had to cross one wash on the way to the road, and all the rigs in the group made it.
Unfortunately the troubles were not over when we reached the road. The road itself was buried underneath three inches of water and mud, making it difficult to get to somewhere with shelter from the lightning. We crossed few shallow wash outs in the road that came up about 2-3 feet. Getting close to our destination there was one wash out that would be impassible. I attempted to get through and when the water came up to about 6 inches below the hood-line before reaching the apex of the wash, i determined it wasn't worth the risk. One of my friends made a split second decision to try and make it. He didn't make and ended up floating down about 50 ft. (Very Lucky He Didn't Get Hurt).
As CCR once sang, "It'll rain a sunny day"
Here are some photos from that trip!
