LA(and AZ and SD too) ExPo Death Valley Trip

[ChuckB]

I'm so jealous, looks like an awesome trip! All of you are going to have to school me in the ways when we move back to SD.

 

[viatierra]

Here's a few from my camera:

On the road... Join us!

Some stylin camp coffee

Rhyolite:

Dorky favorite:

Ran into this LR3 with an awesome drawer system complete with walnut face and brass trim!

Richard enjoying Titus Canyon

Scotty's Castle

Here's what it's all about!

Bundle up in there... it's cold!

Camp Trevor after a long day of offroad rescue...

 

[viatierra]

Ubehebe Crater meets Expo:

Enjoying driver duty:

Miles makes a donation for the group at Teakettle Junction:

Racetrack

Trail fun

Okay, I had to sneak this because Dave's truck is the BOMB!

 

[viatierra]

The salt tram was gorgeous!

Saline Valley hot springs

Local hippie holdout who likes to feed coyotes

My truck's FIRST snow picture!

Crossing Hoover Dam in the middle of the night

The big drive was 100% worth the effort. We had a blast. Thanks again!

All my pictures are here:

I may post a few pictures from Christine's camera in a day or two...

 

[Spikepretorius]

Tell me, when you guys go on trips like this what is the average sort of distance (in miles or hours) you travel from home to get to these sort of trails.

You guys do such nice looking trips but as an outsider looking in I have no idea what sort of mission it is for you to head out into the wilds. For example where I live the nearest good trails only start at about 150km away so a weekend round trip (excluding the actual trail) would be 300km to 1200km.

 

[Redline]

Great fun shots Greg!

Many thanks to Trevor and all.

This was a much better experience than our last trip to Death Valley in October when it was 104-degrees at Furnace Creek.

 

[Gear]

Spikepretorius wrote - "Tell me, when you guys go on trips like this what is the average sort of distance (in miles or hours) you travel from home to get to these sort of trails."

Death Valley Expedition Portal Trip Breakdown

Total Jeep milage 1037 miles.

Day 1 -San Marcos, CA to Panamint Springs 284 miles - 5 hours 16 minutes drive time.

Day 2 Panamint Springs to Furnace Creek 128 miles - 5 hours 26 minutes drive time. Total time 9 hours 30 minutes. Travel on dirt trail.

Day 3 Furnace Creek to Furnace Creek 142 miles. This was the recovery of Gavin's(Fergie) Jeep WJ. Radiator was blown. The WJ was at the road at 3:15 pm.

Day 4 Furnace Creek to Furnace Creek - 81 miles. Shuttled Adam(Cowboy Roscoe) to meet the tow truck at the road/trail entrance. Dropped off at 8:21 am. Suspension problems.

Day 4-5 Furnace Creek to Panamint Springs via Ubehebe Crater, Racetrack, and Saline Valley hot springs - 177 miles over 2 days.

Day 5 Panamint Springs to San Marcos, CA - 254 miles

And one picture for the road. Dropping into Panamint Springs via the South Pass.

Oh and here is a map of Death Valley for more information.

http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/upload/DEVAmap1.pdf

 

[kcowyo]

Wonderful pics everyone. :clapsmile

Nice to see everyone working together, playing together and sharing a warm fire. Glad to see the trip came off safely for everyone involved.

Great idea making an ExPo contribution to the teakettle sign, very cool.

 

[Hunter]

Whoa... stunning.

Greg, I can now understand why you were like 6 year old before Christmas about this trip. Incredible pictures. I admit, I snaked the campsite picture and its my new desk top. Just so I can really rub in how bad I wanted to be there.

Sorry to hear about the raditor. That is a major drag but it sure was nice to read about hwo people helped him out. Shows this "newbie" to the site how great of group you guys are.

Thanks for the photos.

 

[Green Ganesha]

Thanks for Helping Build Such Great Memories!

I could not have asked for a more superlatively fantastic band of trailmates! Thanks to all of you who trekked to Death Valley and made last weekend's expedition such a great success, despite our mechanical setbacks. Thanks especially to all of you who helped minimize the impact of those setbacks, volunteering your time and energy to help get Gavin and Tiffany and Adam and Trisha back to civilization. Our group worked together like a cadre of old and loyal friends--when in reality most of us had never met before Friday. That cooperation and selfless team spirit impressed me to no end, and made me proud to be part of the Expedition Portal community.

Hopefully we'll be back together on the trail again soon.

I'm loving all the pictures, and some very impressive photography! Hopefully I'll find something of my own worth contributing.

 

[Green Ganesha]

Now, that's just half the story... Any word on how Adam is doing?

Apparently the tow-truck driver from Pahrump, NV, who offered to recover Adam's Durango from Butte Valley for $400, had NO IDEA what he was getting into. The slow extrication lasted until sunset, but was successful. The upper shock/spring mount's cracked chromoly tubing proved unfixable in Pahrump. So Adam and Trisha rented a car there and drove to Hesperia to borrow his fabricator's pickup and flatbed trailer. Turns out there was some reneging on the loaner truck offer. Adam rented a second car in Hesperia, and drove back to Pahrump to return the first. The wasted roundtrip did illuminate one useful fact: the Pahrump-to-Hesperia drive is something like 194 miles, just within his AAA 200-mile limit. Adam and Trisha are now both safely back in L.A., and the Auto Club was scheduled to move the Durango this morning.

 

[1leg]

I'm glad to hear Adam and Trisha got home ok.
I hope the rest of his week goes as planned.

 

[Green Ganesha]

The Margarita's and the quality of people couldn't be beat!

I should point out that Lindsay, Louis, and I remained at the hot springs, dispensing margaritas until early Monday afternoon, in the hopes that Elizabeth's lime-squeezing all-nighter wouldn't go to waste.

For the total trip, the ExPo crew (and assorted thirsty passers-by) managed to consume 17 liters of high-octane margarita. In addition to team FourByLand's consistent showing, thanks also to an impressive semi-submerged sipping marathon by KI6MHX, and an enthusiastic effort by the ViaTierra duo.

 

[viatierra]

high-octane margarita

Yeah, your margaritas need a neon warning label!

 

[Ursidae69]

I keep checking back to this thread to see the pictures. What a group of photographers! :costumed-smiley-007