nckwltn
Explorer
Read the parallel trip report from bikerjosh
--Day 1--
After a really great weekend of overlanding through Death Valley back in November 2013 I couldn’t wait to get away from Los Angeles and out to the desert again. I also knew that I wanted to share the experience with some friends. Ideally, they would get hooked on overlanding, and provide more opportunity to get out of the city!
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been regularly mountain biking on the trails in the mountains around the San Fernando valley with Link (short for Lincoln). I’ve picked up on Links enjoyment of nature, spectacular views and just “getting away from it all”. He was the first person that came to mind when the next DV trip planning discussion begun with bikerjosh. A few weeks before the excursion was set to depart, Link mentioned that perhaps we should also invite his long time friend and business partner Rhett. After a little finagling around their work schedules, and some convincing of their wives, all were cleared to go off the grid for the weekend.
Bikerjosh had organized another action packed trip for the weekend, like any good trip to Death Valley, there is always more to do than can be fit in a single weekend. To fit as much in as possible we were set to meet up at 8am, at a point 3 hours north of LA.
The drive up from northern LA would take at least 3 hours, but as suspected Link and Rhett both arrived a few minutes after 5am. We quickly packed everything into my ‘99 Montero (with the winter package) and attempted to make a quick stop at the local McDonalds for breakfast sandwiches, hash browns, and coffee. After what was literally a 20 minute wait in the drive through we were on the road. Knowing we had to pull off a 3 hour drive in about 2.5, the only thing we wasted heading to the rendezvous point was fuel economy.
The meetup location was the former Manzanar internment camp visitor’s parking lot, located just a few miles north of Lone Pine, CA. Manzanar, originally opened as “The Owens Valley Reception Center” and later officially named Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of 10 camps where American citizens of Japanese descent were interned during the World War 2. Two thirds of those interned were American born citizens. Manzanar, at it’s peak, held just 10,000 Japanese with over 90% of the incarcerees being from Los Angeles. In the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, the scene where Daniel arrives at Miyagi’s house to find Miyagi drunk, and in his military uniform, Daniel reads the following telegram after Miyagi passes out in his bed.
Today the Manzanar National Historic Site is maintained by the National Park Service. The park is open year round, but hours vary depending on season.
We arrived about 30 minutes late at the rendezvous point. It was good to see a couple of guys from my previous trip out to DV. PTB, bikerjosh and 4wheelsgood were all waiting in the parking lot. Riding with bikerjosh was Chris, the only one I hadn’t met before. After sharing introductions with each other, we realized that standing out in the windy 50 degree weather wasn’t what we came to do. So our convoy of four vehicles, seven men, and 1 dog set out across 395 eastbound toward the Inyo mountains and the Reward Mine.
The entrance to the mine is just a few miles east of Manzanar and can be reached by just about any vehicle with more ground clearance than an average sedan. Reward Mine is very unique. The main entrance is 8-10 feet wide, and around 7 feet tall. There is more than enough room to drive just about any rig into the mine about a quarter of a mile. Bikerjosh and Chris had visited the mine during the previous day and learned he needed to remove a spare tire and jerrycan from his roof rack to be able to fit. There isn’t a lot of extra room above the roof of your vehicle, but I know that my power antenna extends an inch or two above my roofline, so I turned on my radio, put the volume down, and proceeded into the mine.
We drove in just about as far as we could go, everyone exited their rigs and we began to explore several of the off-shoot passageways. I believe the area you can drive into, is actually one of the lower levels of mine serving as a place to drop mined out rock and then be able to shuttle it “easily” out of the mine. There are actually several levels of the mine, and through several of the vertical shafts we could see up what seemed like a hundred feet, or down around 30 feet.
Unloading to head into the mine
Chris telling a story before we enter the mine
Heading into the Reward Mine
Rhett exploring the mine
After driving out of the mine, Link, Rhett and I drove over to the edge to get a picture with snow-capped the Sierras behind us.
Kind of a bummer to see such litter. These are the kinds of things that get these areas closed down to public access.
Talking about the mine before heading to Papoose Flats
Back in 395 and heading north, our convoy made an unexpected stop along the side of the road. Looking forward to the lead vehicle, I see bikerjosh with his hood up. Showing the universal sign for breakdown, I walk up to the front to find Chris fiddling with a crankshaft position sensor plug. Bikerjosh’s 4runner has been throwing some intermittent codes that he had yet been able to track down. Although the issue surfaced a only couple more times throughout the trip, it wasn’t anything that little jiggling and about 5 minutes of waiting didn’t fix.
After a quick stop in Big Pine to top off our tanks, we hit Big Pine - Death Valley road and headed east. Initially we had planned on making our way up to Mazurka peak coming back down through Papoose Flats, but that loop was going to be about 7 hours. Furthermore on the way down from Mazurka, we expected to see some snow covered, and quite steep downward grades. So instead we turned off of Death Valley road to come up the back way to Papoose Flats.
The idea was to come up the backway to Papoose Flats, have lunch, then turn around and make our way over Steele Pass and down to Palm Springs in the Saline Valley. Just a few minutes on the trail to the flats, we ran into our first team obstacle. PTB found himself driver side down in a pretty significant washout. The total depth of the washout from the surrounding trail was easily two and a half feet deep. At one point, PTB was just a few inches away from adding some desert-rock pin striping down the drivers side of his LR3.
Patrick assessing the situation after getting out of his rig
Everyone looking on as PTB notices how close he is to getting some new pin striping
Everyone jumped out to help cut the washed out are back a little and make the trail more passable. After a little digging, and packing a few holes with nearby stones, PTB and his LR3 powered out of the rut like it was never there. This was going to be an ongoing theme for the weekend. The LR3 just moseying up and down everything we came across with little to no effort. I’m sure much of that could be attributed to PTB and his choice of driving lines.
Chris helping ease the path for PTB
After everyone drove through the big washout rut, we continued up the trail. A few miles up, we came across a quarter mile section of climb on the north side of a slope. This left us with a fully snow covered trail surface which at times pitched away from hill. This meant that if a rig were to start to slide, it would be sliding over a very unforgiving edge. After scoping out the trail, and making a few snow balls (something I haven’t done in more than 3 years since moving to Los Angeles) we decided it would be best to turn around and not attempt to get up the snow covered road. 4wheelsgood was especially concerned as he had no lockers, and had to make up for that with a little speed and momentum. Both of which could be a problem here.
One of the things that I find absolutely amazing is the number of open and abandoned mines that exist throughout the Death Valley area. Even with a modern day 4wd vehicle, many of these places are 2+ hours away from the nearest sign of civilization. What did these miners eat while they were up here? Where did they get water? How long were they camped out until they had to return to some kind of town to resupply!? A totally different way of life. This is something the modern citizen in the United States can’t even fathom.
--Day 1--
After a really great weekend of overlanding through Death Valley back in November 2013 I couldn’t wait to get away from Los Angeles and out to the desert again. I also knew that I wanted to share the experience with some friends. Ideally, they would get hooked on overlanding, and provide more opportunity to get out of the city!
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been regularly mountain biking on the trails in the mountains around the San Fernando valley with Link (short for Lincoln). I’ve picked up on Links enjoyment of nature, spectacular views and just “getting away from it all”. He was the first person that came to mind when the next DV trip planning discussion begun with bikerjosh. A few weeks before the excursion was set to depart, Link mentioned that perhaps we should also invite his long time friend and business partner Rhett. After a little finagling around their work schedules, and some convincing of their wives, all were cleared to go off the grid for the weekend.
Bikerjosh had organized another action packed trip for the weekend, like any good trip to Death Valley, there is always more to do than can be fit in a single weekend. To fit as much in as possible we were set to meet up at 8am, at a point 3 hours north of LA.
The drive up from northern LA would take at least 3 hours, but as suspected Link and Rhett both arrived a few minutes after 5am. We quickly packed everything into my ‘99 Montero (with the winter package) and attempted to make a quick stop at the local McDonalds for breakfast sandwiches, hash browns, and coffee. After what was literally a 20 minute wait in the drive through we were on the road. Knowing we had to pull off a 3 hour drive in about 2.5, the only thing we wasted heading to the rendezvous point was fuel economy.
The meetup location was the former Manzanar internment camp visitor’s parking lot, located just a few miles north of Lone Pine, CA. Manzanar, originally opened as “The Owens Valley Reception Center” and later officially named Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of 10 camps where American citizens of Japanese descent were interned during the World War 2. Two thirds of those interned were American born citizens. Manzanar, at it’s peak, held just 10,000 Japanese with over 90% of the incarcerees being from Los Angeles. In the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, the scene where Daniel arrives at Miyagi’s house to find Miyagi drunk, and in his military uniform, Daniel reads the following telegram after Miyagi passes out in his bed.
Today the Manzanar National Historic Site is maintained by the National Park Service. The park is open year round, but hours vary depending on season.
We arrived about 30 minutes late at the rendezvous point. It was good to see a couple of guys from my previous trip out to DV. PTB, bikerjosh and 4wheelsgood were all waiting in the parking lot. Riding with bikerjosh was Chris, the only one I hadn’t met before. After sharing introductions with each other, we realized that standing out in the windy 50 degree weather wasn’t what we came to do. So our convoy of four vehicles, seven men, and 1 dog set out across 395 eastbound toward the Inyo mountains and the Reward Mine.
The entrance to the mine is just a few miles east of Manzanar and can be reached by just about any vehicle with more ground clearance than an average sedan. Reward Mine is very unique. The main entrance is 8-10 feet wide, and around 7 feet tall. There is more than enough room to drive just about any rig into the mine about a quarter of a mile. Bikerjosh and Chris had visited the mine during the previous day and learned he needed to remove a spare tire and jerrycan from his roof rack to be able to fit. There isn’t a lot of extra room above the roof of your vehicle, but I know that my power antenna extends an inch or two above my roofline, so I turned on my radio, put the volume down, and proceeded into the mine.
We drove in just about as far as we could go, everyone exited their rigs and we began to explore several of the off-shoot passageways. I believe the area you can drive into, is actually one of the lower levels of mine serving as a place to drop mined out rock and then be able to shuttle it “easily” out of the mine. There are actually several levels of the mine, and through several of the vertical shafts we could see up what seemed like a hundred feet, or down around 30 feet.
Unloading to head into the mine
Chris telling a story before we enter the mine
Heading into the Reward Mine
Rhett exploring the mine
After driving out of the mine, Link, Rhett and I drove over to the edge to get a picture with snow-capped the Sierras behind us.
Kind of a bummer to see such litter. These are the kinds of things that get these areas closed down to public access.
Talking about the mine before heading to Papoose Flats
Back in 395 and heading north, our convoy made an unexpected stop along the side of the road. Looking forward to the lead vehicle, I see bikerjosh with his hood up. Showing the universal sign for breakdown, I walk up to the front to find Chris fiddling with a crankshaft position sensor plug. Bikerjosh’s 4runner has been throwing some intermittent codes that he had yet been able to track down. Although the issue surfaced a only couple more times throughout the trip, it wasn’t anything that little jiggling and about 5 minutes of waiting didn’t fix.
After a quick stop in Big Pine to top off our tanks, we hit Big Pine - Death Valley road and headed east. Initially we had planned on making our way up to Mazurka peak coming back down through Papoose Flats, but that loop was going to be about 7 hours. Furthermore on the way down from Mazurka, we expected to see some snow covered, and quite steep downward grades. So instead we turned off of Death Valley road to come up the back way to Papoose Flats.
The idea was to come up the backway to Papoose Flats, have lunch, then turn around and make our way over Steele Pass and down to Palm Springs in the Saline Valley. Just a few minutes on the trail to the flats, we ran into our first team obstacle. PTB found himself driver side down in a pretty significant washout. The total depth of the washout from the surrounding trail was easily two and a half feet deep. At one point, PTB was just a few inches away from adding some desert-rock pin striping down the drivers side of his LR3.
Patrick assessing the situation after getting out of his rig
Everyone looking on as PTB notices how close he is to getting some new pin striping
Everyone jumped out to help cut the washed out are back a little and make the trail more passable. After a little digging, and packing a few holes with nearby stones, PTB and his LR3 powered out of the rut like it was never there. This was going to be an ongoing theme for the weekend. The LR3 just moseying up and down everything we came across with little to no effort. I’m sure much of that could be attributed to PTB and his choice of driving lines.
Chris helping ease the path for PTB
After everyone drove through the big washout rut, we continued up the trail. A few miles up, we came across a quarter mile section of climb on the north side of a slope. This left us with a fully snow covered trail surface which at times pitched away from hill. This meant that if a rig were to start to slide, it would be sliding over a very unforgiving edge. After scoping out the trail, and making a few snow balls (something I haven’t done in more than 3 years since moving to Los Angeles) we decided it would be best to turn around and not attempt to get up the snow covered road. 4wheelsgood was especially concerned as he had no lockers, and had to make up for that with a little speed and momentum. Both of which could be a problem here.
One of the things that I find absolutely amazing is the number of open and abandoned mines that exist throughout the Death Valley area. Even with a modern day 4wd vehicle, many of these places are 2+ hours away from the nearest sign of civilization. What did these miners eat while they were up here? Where did they get water? How long were they camped out until they had to return to some kind of town to resupply!? A totally different way of life. This is something the modern citizen in the United States can’t even fathom.
