stioc
Expedition Leader
Welcome RyIrish. I haven't been here in a couple of weeks and was in DV earlier this weekend with several folks from both SoCal and NorCal.
A quick trip report from the trip. I only did two full days as opposed to the planned 4 days by the group but we covered a lot of ground on the first two days and I got to see the part of DV I hadn't before. Thu evening we arrived at the Pinnacles and camped there for the night. Fri we ran Pleasant Canyon starting at Ballarat. The trail had everything from long winding inclines to a few technical passes to lots of narrow passings through the desert bushes which continuously scraped paint and kissed roof racks. We successfully negotiated a narrow bridge and the turn before the bridge and made our way down to see the Briggs cabin which was quite nice. We started making our way out to Golar Wash as the sun was setting. Needless to say we ran late and made the decision to camp just before Mengel Pass as it was too sketchy to pass in the dark and most of us were feeling pretty beat. Kirk and Nick went back into town and to send the word to the Fri group of the schedule delay. The next morning (Sat) I assessed the truck and found both of my CV boots had split and were leaking grease pretty much everywhere under there. I guess the constant up and down on the trail in 4wd (and 4lo) pretty much the whole trail they gave up. Decided to duct tape (Dennis thanks for the duct tape) them to hold whatever grease was left in there and run Mengel pass. It started out easy but had a few technical sections. One of which claimed my plastic hubcap from getting the wheel a bit too close to a large rock. That was the only bang/hit carnage on my truck despite being the only guy on anything less than 33" tires. Interestingly enough I heard several bangs and scrapes from some other trucks with larger tires and more ground clearance. After Mengel pass we stopped at the Geologist cabin and headed to Warm Springs. After warm springs I decided to call it a weekend and head home once we hit West Side Road since we'd done that part of DV before. The group continued up towards Furnace Creek to meet up with the rest of the group. We bid our farewells on the CB and headed home. Great weather, friendly folks, good camping, moonlit nights - couldn't have been a better trip!
The truck worked great other than the CV boots but what do you expect from 13+yr old rubber boots- no big deal. The gas can carrier worked perfectly without ever scraping etc. The fridge slide, the quick pullout table in the storage platform were used extensively and even to my own surprise they worked flawlessly. I did notice the gas tank once again had a lot of pressure after running for a while, if I attempted to loosen the gas cap the gas would start pouring out. I need to track this down, fix the CV boots and at some point fix the oil leak I talked about previously and I think that's about it.
Camping at Trona Pinnacles (Cannon S100, Aperture priority, 10sec exposure - the rest are iPhone 5S pics):
Ballarat:
The most photographed PowerWagon:
Pleasant Canyon's narrow trail picking up lots of pinstriping:
A couple of moderate level obstacles due to steep drop and sketchy trail near the edge:
Bridge near Briggs Cabin:
Briggs cabin:
Making our way down to Golar Wash:
Charles Manson's hideout:
Butte Valley:
Geologist cabin:
A quick trip report from the trip. I only did two full days as opposed to the planned 4 days by the group but we covered a lot of ground on the first two days and I got to see the part of DV I hadn't before. Thu evening we arrived at the Pinnacles and camped there for the night. Fri we ran Pleasant Canyon starting at Ballarat. The trail had everything from long winding inclines to a few technical passes to lots of narrow passings through the desert bushes which continuously scraped paint and kissed roof racks. We successfully negotiated a narrow bridge and the turn before the bridge and made our way down to see the Briggs cabin which was quite nice. We started making our way out to Golar Wash as the sun was setting. Needless to say we ran late and made the decision to camp just before Mengel Pass as it was too sketchy to pass in the dark and most of us were feeling pretty beat. Kirk and Nick went back into town and to send the word to the Fri group of the schedule delay. The next morning (Sat) I assessed the truck and found both of my CV boots had split and were leaking grease pretty much everywhere under there. I guess the constant up and down on the trail in 4wd (and 4lo) pretty much the whole trail they gave up. Decided to duct tape (Dennis thanks for the duct tape) them to hold whatever grease was left in there and run Mengel pass. It started out easy but had a few technical sections. One of which claimed my plastic hubcap from getting the wheel a bit too close to a large rock. That was the only bang/hit carnage on my truck despite being the only guy on anything less than 33" tires. Interestingly enough I heard several bangs and scrapes from some other trucks with larger tires and more ground clearance. After Mengel pass we stopped at the Geologist cabin and headed to Warm Springs. After warm springs I decided to call it a weekend and head home once we hit West Side Road since we'd done that part of DV before. The group continued up towards Furnace Creek to meet up with the rest of the group. We bid our farewells on the CB and headed home. Great weather, friendly folks, good camping, moonlit nights - couldn't have been a better trip!
The truck worked great other than the CV boots but what do you expect from 13+yr old rubber boots- no big deal. The gas can carrier worked perfectly without ever scraping etc. The fridge slide, the quick pullout table in the storage platform were used extensively and even to my own surprise they worked flawlessly. I did notice the gas tank once again had a lot of pressure after running for a while, if I attempted to loosen the gas cap the gas would start pouring out. I need to track this down, fix the CV boots and at some point fix the oil leak I talked about previously and I think that's about it.
Camping at Trona Pinnacles (Cannon S100, Aperture priority, 10sec exposure - the rest are iPhone 5S pics):
Ballarat:
The most photographed PowerWagon:
Pleasant Canyon's narrow trail picking up lots of pinstriping:
A couple of moderate level obstacles due to steep drop and sketchy trail near the edge:
Bridge near Briggs Cabin:
Briggs cabin:
Making our way down to Golar Wash:
Charles Manson's hideout:
Butte Valley:
Geologist cabin:
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