MuddyMudskipper
Camp Ninja
Redline said:
Well at least you've been busy.:jumping:
LA(and AZ and SD too) ExPo Death Valley Trip
- Thread starter Fergie
- Start date
Well at least you've been busy.:jumping:
Robthebrit
Explorer
nwoods said:Rob, your images are stunning
Thanks man!
That image is kinda weird because of the shadow of the person with the red light. I think it was Miles who went down there with a flash light so the camera would focus, it was really dark and I couldn't see anything to manually focus but the moon was out. The light coming the left side is two people walking down the access ramps with head lamps.
The moon was creating a crazy amount of light all weekend.
Rob
cowboy roscoe
New member
Warms Springs Canyon: The Untold Story (Adam and Trisha survive)
It all started out so innocently. Trisha and I had a great trip with the group down the Panamant Valley and over Mengle pass.
As we all know in upper Striped butte valley, Gavin and Tiffany broke down. Checkout this cool shot of the group decending from Warm Springs Canyon.
The break down meant that the next day would be a day to recover them, back up Warm Springs Canyon (WSC) again. No worries. This would be Trisha and my second and third trip along WSC. The trip in was uneventful and the trip out, after a very pleasant lunch at the pass, promised to go smoothly, with Gavin rolling like a champ down WSC.
The fates would not have it that way. Less than a mile from the pass, I heard a sound from teh front end that did not sound right -- a screech evocative of a sort of tearing metal sound. We stop to check it out. This is what we found...........ouch!
It appears that my fabricator was distracted from his duties and did not fix a previously failed weld.
Well to say that this was a tremendous disappointment is a tremendous understatement. The frustration is still hard to comprehend. I was and still sit in awe of this let down. There are lessons to be learned here.
So at this point we aren't going anywhere in the Durango. Jerry came back up from following Gavin and Trisha and I loaded essentials into Trevors D90 and we sat tandem on 1leg's bed. It was a fun ride out.
At this point I must stop to say that the support and consideration shown by Justin, Miles and Jerry was tremendous. You guys really made a very uncomfortable situation very livable. Trisha and I owe you big and look forward to opportunities to express our gratitude.
Saturday night, we got a list of tow trucks in the area that had been compiled by Ian and Tiffany (thanks guys!). We started making the calls (each about $4-$5!). Of all the options, it seemed the least intrusive was a 4x4 tow truck out of Pahrump.
Sunday morning, Justin, Miles and Jerry shuttled us back down to the trail head at WSC! Well if we liked the way it looked the first, second and third times we saw it, maybe we would the fourth and fifth?
Through the bracing morning wind appeared Jimmy, a head band wearing Philly boy with a Ram 3500, a great big smile and Sirus satellite radio. Jim, uses his Ram for "off-road Recovery". That means pulling cars back onto the road once they have gone off-road. He had a great attitude, old school Motown hits pumping non-stop, a cigarette constantly burning and absolutely no clue what he was getting himself into. Well before the now familiar Warm Springs cabins, he was starting to ask himself if he had made a big mistake.
It was clear that Jim's estimate of 30 min to one hour was not going to work. We climbed into his cab at 8:00AM. We reached the Durango just before 11:00 AM. The 30 min "hook-up" took two hours and the three hour descent took over five!
Trisha helped too.....
We dropped the Durango a couple of times and worked all sorts of road building projects to get the ungainly two-vehicle centipede down safely. It was a great deal of work and even though Jim would later admit to being fairly scared, he always kept a good face on. Jim was a saint, a very big guy, with a great big heart. If you are ever in need of a tow in the Pahrump area (I dearly hope this never befalls you) call Jim (Autoworld - 775-727-8000)
So now it is night time ~ 6 PM and we are in Pahrump, Nv.!!!! We looked for something to do......
Not finding anything tempting, we slept.
The next morning we discovered the city that is Pahrump.
Jim couldn't get a temporary weld in place so we decided to trailer it down to the fabricator. We unloaded essentials and said goodbye to Jim.
On to Hesperia....
But no trailer (or truck rather)!!! It seems, inexplicably, that when the fabricator seemed to be saying to me that I could borrow his truck, what he was really saying was you _can't_ borrow my truck??!!?! Well, at this point, there was not much of an intact relationship to work with. I had been let down at every step.
Thankfully, I had noted that the trip was a mere 191 mi. This meant my AAA Platnum 200 mi. tow, would cover me.
We are almost done.... All we now need to do is, rent another car in Hesperia, drive back to Pahrump, return first rental car (no out-of-state returns with Enterprise) and drive back to Altadena!
Thankfully, our familiarity with the drive allowed us to drive each leg in about 2:10, with no tickets.
Tuesday at 1:00 AM we finally were back in our own bed. Tired, but definitely feeling we had had an adventure. We were very sad to miss visiting with everyone and look forward to share more of the mainstream trip next time.
Fin....
It all started out so innocently. Trisha and I had a great trip with the group down the Panamant Valley and over Mengle pass.
As we all know in upper Striped butte valley, Gavin and Tiffany broke down. Checkout this cool shot of the group decending from Warm Springs Canyon.
The break down meant that the next day would be a day to recover them, back up Warm Springs Canyon (WSC) again. No worries. This would be Trisha and my second and third trip along WSC. The trip in was uneventful and the trip out, after a very pleasant lunch at the pass, promised to go smoothly, with Gavin rolling like a champ down WSC.
The fates would not have it that way. Less than a mile from the pass, I heard a sound from teh front end that did not sound right -- a screech evocative of a sort of tearing metal sound. We stop to check it out. This is what we found...........ouch!
It appears that my fabricator was distracted from his duties and did not fix a previously failed weld.
Well to say that this was a tremendous disappointment is a tremendous understatement. The frustration is still hard to comprehend. I was and still sit in awe of this let down. There are lessons to be learned here.
So at this point we aren't going anywhere in the Durango. Jerry came back up from following Gavin and Trisha and I loaded essentials into Trevors D90 and we sat tandem on 1leg's bed. It was a fun ride out.
At this point I must stop to say that the support and consideration shown by Justin, Miles and Jerry was tremendous. You guys really made a very uncomfortable situation very livable. Trisha and I owe you big and look forward to opportunities to express our gratitude.
Saturday night, we got a list of tow trucks in the area that had been compiled by Ian and Tiffany (thanks guys!). We started making the calls (each about $4-$5!). Of all the options, it seemed the least intrusive was a 4x4 tow truck out of Pahrump.
Sunday morning, Justin, Miles and Jerry shuttled us back down to the trail head at WSC! Well if we liked the way it looked the first, second and third times we saw it, maybe we would the fourth and fifth?
Through the bracing morning wind appeared Jimmy, a head band wearing Philly boy with a Ram 3500, a great big smile and Sirus satellite radio. Jim, uses his Ram for "off-road Recovery". That means pulling cars back onto the road once they have gone off-road. He had a great attitude, old school Motown hits pumping non-stop, a cigarette constantly burning and absolutely no clue what he was getting himself into. Well before the now familiar Warm Springs cabins, he was starting to ask himself if he had made a big mistake.
It was clear that Jim's estimate of 30 min to one hour was not going to work. We climbed into his cab at 8:00AM. We reached the Durango just before 11:00 AM. The 30 min "hook-up" took two hours and the three hour descent took over five!
Trisha helped too.....
We dropped the Durango a couple of times and worked all sorts of road building projects to get the ungainly two-vehicle centipede down safely. It was a great deal of work and even though Jim would later admit to being fairly scared, he always kept a good face on. Jim was a saint, a very big guy, with a great big heart. If you are ever in need of a tow in the Pahrump area (I dearly hope this never befalls you) call Jim (Autoworld - 775-727-8000)
So now it is night time ~ 6 PM and we are in Pahrump, Nv.!!!! We looked for something to do......
Not finding anything tempting, we slept.
The next morning we discovered the city that is Pahrump.
Jim couldn't get a temporary weld in place so we decided to trailer it down to the fabricator. We unloaded essentials and said goodbye to Jim.
On to Hesperia....
But no trailer (or truck rather)!!! It seems, inexplicably, that when the fabricator seemed to be saying to me that I could borrow his truck, what he was really saying was you _can't_ borrow my truck??!!?! Well, at this point, there was not much of an intact relationship to work with. I had been let down at every step.
Thankfully, I had noted that the trip was a mere 191 mi. This meant my AAA Platnum 200 mi. tow, would cover me.
We are almost done.... All we now need to do is, rent another car in Hesperia, drive back to Pahrump, return first rental car (no out-of-state returns with Enterprise) and drive back to Altadena!
Thankfully, our familiarity with the drive allowed us to drive each leg in about 2:10, with no tickets.
Tuesday at 1:00 AM we finally were back in our own bed. Tired, but definitely feeling we had had an adventure. We were very sad to miss visiting with everyone and look forward to share more of the mainstream trip next time.
Fin....
MuddyMudskipper
Camp Ninja
Holy Cow! Sorry to here about your multiple hitches. It was a pleasure meeting you and Trish. I hope we can hit a trail again sometime with more auspicious circumstances.
FourByLand
Expedition Leader
Adam, Sorry you guys didn't get to make the last leg of the trip... Maybe next.
I look forward to following the build of your next vehicle.
:costumed-smiley-007
I look forward to following the build of your next vehicle.
:costumed-smiley-007
FourByLand
Expedition Leader
Hey Adam pass this on.
:wings:
:wings: