Big50
Adventurer
The route:
The plan was to take the Mojave Road (more on the history: Mojave Road - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and then head north along Powerline roads into Vegas. We would then return via a mix of Powerline roads and other trials in the Mojave Desert. Each day would be roughly 170 offroad miles.
Special thanks to my buddy Matt for helping to plan day two's route even thought he had his own run to Death Valley the same weekned.
The run:
After having our fill at Thanksgiving dinner we finished packing our trucks and attempted to get some sleep Thursday night. I don't know about most of the guys but I didn't get much!
We had a total of 5 Ford Raptors for this run. All of us live in the San Francisco Bay area so we all met up around 5:30 am and started the 6 hour drive down to Barstow. As you can imagine, 6 hours of strait driving after very little sleep sucks! We began to get a little stir crazy as we got closer.
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IMG_2616 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
We finally arrived in Barstow and stopped to get some gas around 12:30pm. As we were getting on the freeway I see a our friends who were supposed to be on their way to Death Valley coming up much to my surprise. Of course all the guys in the group are in ah and starring at the built Long Travel Raptor. Problem was my buddy Matt was right behind the Long Travel truck in an F350 and trailer with a short merge. From there, Matt had to swerve to avoid us into another lane and nearly clipped some lady in a Ford Fiesta or something similar in size.
[/url]
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Matt quickly calls me up and my first question is, ****** are you guys doing here lol. Their run had started about 4 hours earlier. It turned out they were going to recover another friends truck after he rolled his truck. Thank god he and his passenger were fine. They cage Outlaw Offroad put in saved their lives.
Also, interesting/funny the rollover accident almost set of a chain reaction, which nearly resulted in another accident.
This of course changed the mood of the group but we decided to go ahead with our run. Mojave road starts off through the Mojave River bed. A lot of fun to drive through. Only tough thing is the ruts are really hard to see since they blend in. As, you can see the river crossing was pretty deep from the video below.
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IMG_2622 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Next up was Soda Dry Lake Bed.
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Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
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IMG_2633 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
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Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
It rained a week earlier and from where we were stopped we could see it got progressively worse. I pleaded with my buddy Andrew that we should go around since there is danger that you can break through the upper crust and pretty much be stuck until the lake bed dry's which could take weeks or even months. Of course, he insisted and I caved with the condition that he had to run it first. Big mistake lol. To this day I’m mad at him for going through the lake bed.
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IMG_2636 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
You can get a feeling of how big the lake bed is here. Andrew still looks far away even with my 35 optical zoom.
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IMG_2638 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
little video: MVI_2637 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Luckily enough, we all made it to the other side. It was pretty intense out there. It felt like driving on ice a couple times. I was nearly sideways at least twice but didn't dare let off the gas as I had to keep my momentum going.
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IMG_2639 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Andrew was the only one to get a flat on the run. Gave me a good opp to grab some pics.
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Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
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Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
My friend Tommy was pretty happy he finally gets to use his jack lol.
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IMG_2648 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
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IMG_2646 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
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IMG_2650 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]
IMG_2654 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
All was going well until I came up on a big wash out during a slight bend in the trail. I was going a bit to fast so I had the choice to try and swerve to stay on the trail to the left but if I didn't make it, it would have been very bad. I decided to lock up the brakes and aim dead center for the trench and hope I could stop before it got wide enough to swallow my truck. Luckily I stopped just in time. My front wheels were actually lodged in the trench on both sides.
[/url]
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr
Just shows how quickly things can go wrong in the desert. The trucks are very capable and can give a false sense of security.
Finally we made it to Vegas!
[/url]
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Got in around 10pm and met up with my wife who had flown out to meet us. I was a bit delirious from driving for nearly 18 hours strait. But I pulled it together and we went down for some beers and pizza, which tasted amazing after such a grueling day.
Saturday we relaxed; did a little gambling, etc.
The plan was to take the Mojave Road (more on the history: Mojave Road - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and then head north along Powerline roads into Vegas. We would then return via a mix of Powerline roads and other trials in the Mojave Desert. Each day would be roughly 170 offroad miles.
Special thanks to my buddy Matt for helping to plan day two's route even thought he had his own run to Death Valley the same weekned.
The run:
After having our fill at Thanksgiving dinner we finished packing our trucks and attempted to get some sleep Thursday night. I don't know about most of the guys but I didn't get much!
We had a total of 5 Ford Raptors for this run. All of us live in the San Francisco Bay area so we all met up around 5:30 am and started the 6 hour drive down to Barstow. As you can imagine, 6 hours of strait driving after very little sleep sucks! We began to get a little stir crazy as we got closer.
IMG_2616 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
We finally arrived in Barstow and stopped to get some gas around 12:30pm. As we were getting on the freeway I see a our friends who were supposed to be on their way to Death Valley coming up much to my surprise. Of course all the guys in the group are in ah and starring at the built Long Travel Raptor. Problem was my buddy Matt was right behind the Long Travel truck in an F350 and trailer with a short merge. From there, Matt had to swerve to avoid us into another lane and nearly clipped some lady in a Ford Fiesta or something similar in size.
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Matt quickly calls me up and my first question is, ****** are you guys doing here lol. Their run had started about 4 hours earlier. It turned out they were going to recover another friends truck after he rolled his truck. Thank god he and his passenger were fine. They cage Outlaw Offroad put in saved their lives.
Also, interesting/funny the rollover accident almost set of a chain reaction, which nearly resulted in another accident.
This of course changed the mood of the group but we decided to go ahead with our run. Mojave road starts off through the Mojave River bed. A lot of fun to drive through. Only tough thing is the ruts are really hard to see since they blend in. As, you can see the river crossing was pretty deep from the video below.
IMG_2622 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Next up was Soda Dry Lake Bed.
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
IMG_2633 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
It rained a week earlier and from where we were stopped we could see it got progressively worse. I pleaded with my buddy Andrew that we should go around since there is danger that you can break through the upper crust and pretty much be stuck until the lake bed dry's which could take weeks or even months. Of course, he insisted and I caved with the condition that he had to run it first. Big mistake lol. To this day I’m mad at him for going through the lake bed.
IMG_2636 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
You can get a feeling of how big the lake bed is here. Andrew still looks far away even with my 35 optical zoom.
IMG_2638 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
little video: MVI_2637 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Luckily enough, we all made it to the other side. It was pretty intense out there. It felt like driving on ice a couple times. I was nearly sideways at least twice but didn't dare let off the gas as I had to keep my momentum going.
IMG_2639 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Andrew was the only one to get a flat on the run. Gave me a good opp to grab some pics.
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
My friend Tommy was pretty happy he finally gets to use his jack lol.
IMG_2648 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
IMG_2646 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
IMG_2650 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
IMG_2654 by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
All was going well until I came up on a big wash out during a slight bend in the trail. I was going a bit to fast so I had the choice to try and swerve to stay on the trail to the left but if I didn't make it, it would have been very bad. I decided to lock up the brakes and aim dead center for the trench and hope I could stop before it got wide enough to swallow my truck. Luckily I stopped just in time. My front wheels were actually lodged in the trench on both sides.
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr
Just shows how quickly things can go wrong in the desert. The trucks are very capable and can give a false sense of security.
Finally we made it to Vegas!
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr[/IMG]
Got in around 10pm and met up with my wife who had flown out to meet us. I was a bit delirious from driving for nearly 18 hours strait. But I pulled it together and we went down for some beers and pizza, which tasted amazing after such a grueling day.
Saturday we relaxed; did a little gambling, etc.
