My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

So one of the things I like to do when I'm wild camping is clean the place of trash and dismantle firepits. I guess I'm into keeping wild places wild. Typically I'll leave with a couple of grocery bags of trash, maybe 4 at most. It seemed odd that I had the whole place to myself and it was covered in trash and **** paper. I've never hauled out anything like this in all my years of camping. What a sad statement on mankind it is. I filled my Jeep twice and took it to the dumpster.....2 miles away.....



Anyhow, after 4 days in the wild, I decided to head into Las Vegas.....

 

[unkamonkey]

Good for you for picking up the trash, I've been doing that for over 50 years. I go out camping, 4 wheeling or even out on my motorcycle I end up picking up trash somebody left there.

I've come home with the back of my 3B packed full of trash more than once.

You can have Vegas, I've been there, bought the beer mug and gave it away.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

There was a time that I thought that picking up trash was uncommon, but I've come to realize that lots of people are into it. Of course that's a great thing.....

Regarding Las Vegas, I feel the same. I needed to replace my Fitbit as the band wore out and it was held to my wrist with duct tape. I couldn't stand the thought of it failing.....as of this morning I'm 102 miles short of walking 4,000 miles in 2016. It's been a goal for awhile now. In addition, the remote for the truck's key was failing so I needed a Chevy dealership.....

While in Vegas I made the mistake of looking for a hotel room. As everyone knows, they're really cheap there. I ended up staying 2 nights for $45 (with free breakfast included). Cheaper than many campsites I think. But I was happy to leave yesterday and spent the night along Highway 93, about 50 miles south of the city.....



We had rain for most of yesterday but it looks like the skies are clearing a bit this morning. Nice mountain views looking west.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

In my last post I mentioned "clearing skies" but that didn't actually happen. I've been amazed at the amount of snow and rainfall that has occurred since I left Montana. I had hoped to spend a few days and nights in the mountains after leaving Las Vegas but with the nearly nonstop deluge of rainfall, I changed plans and pulled into another casino parking lot to wait the weather out. So now I'm hanging out in Laughlin, Nevada and plan to be back on the road early Monday. Last night the skies finally cleared and this morning the sun is out nice and bright.....







Yesterday I did some searching around for a hot shower and the best I could do was Davis Camp on the east bank of the river. I think it's a county park and for $7 you get a day pass which allows you to use their nasty showers with lukewarm water. It was better than nothing, but just barely. On the bright side, the park is located on the Colorado River, so the dogs swam and our evening walk was awesome.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Two weeks on the road and finally had an opportunity to get the the kayak in the river. The skies were blue and temperatures were close to sixty degrees. There's an excellent boat launch / park in Laughlin that was donated by one of the casinos. I was told that the casino donated between 8 and 9 million dollars for the land and the improvements. Just re-enforces my believe that it's the casinos that win and a good reason not to gamble. Anyhow, I made my way up stream as far as I could go as there's Davis Dam upstream of Laughlin.....





Spent the rest of the day hanging out, long walks as I pursue my 4,000 miles.....

The following day was time to get back on the road. I went to hook up the Jeep but the battery failed me. So I made a stop in Bullhead City, Arizona to purchase a new Interstate battery. My 5 year battery only lasted 3.....



Then we drove south on Highway 95 and finally made it to California. I made a wrong turn and found myself on the infamous Highway 66. Continued south to Vidal Junction, then west onto Highway 62 where we found ourselves in a nice spot in the desert on BLM land.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Camping in the desert is so nice.....



The walks are great as well.....



The soft colors of the morning sun rising over the mountains were really nice.....



But now it's time to head west.....

 

[Maml]

Wow! Such an awesome blog, thank you for taking the time to share your adventures. I just read all 788 posts - took a few days; but glad I did!

Something my wife and I have wanted to do for a while now... travel across the States in a camper van.
Bit of a logistical issue; coming from South Africa - but we'll get there.

Take care & all the best for 2017!

Mike


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Thanks Mike.....I appreciate the feedback. I'm curious, have you guys ever hiked the Hoerikwaggo Trail, between Table Mountain and Cape Point ? I've always wanted to travel to South Africa and visit the mountains and do some diving as well. Seems like an amazing country that you live in.....

As I continued my drive south and west through California, I made a fairly quick visit to Joshua Tree National Park. Honestly, more than anything, I just wanted to use their dump station. It's beautiful, but as you may know, I don't spend much time in the national parks.....



We camped just south of the entrance sign to the park. I think it may have been BLM land but I'm not certain about that. Anyhow, it worked perfect for us as we avoided the campground fees and we had our open spaces.....



The following morning I drove into Coachella to use my Starbucks Rewards before they expired. I actually needed a few things before I go off the grid so Walmart was included in that trip. Then it was southeast as we drove along the eastern shoreline of the Salton Sea.....

And here's something I never knew. Always learning when you're traveling.....

"One of the world's largest inland seas and lowest spots on earth at -227 below sea level, Salton Sea was re-created in 1905 when high spring flooding on the Colorado River crashed the canal gates leading into the developing Imperial Valley. For the next 18 months the entire volume of the Colorado River rushed downward into the Salton Trough. By the time engineers were finally able to stop the breaching water in 1907, the Salton Sea had been born at 45 miles long and 20 miles wide – equaling about 130 miles of shoreline. "

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

I decided to spend last night in a campground since they wouldn't allow me to simply use their showers. As I said, I plan to go off the grid for a bit and I want to start out as a clean man. We're camped close to the shoreline and it's not crowded (like Joshua Tree National Park) so it's worked out fairly well. Lots of coyotes here and they were incredibly active last night as they passed through the campgrounds. We finally found 70 degrees yesterday.....oh so nice ! Last night's sunset was great so I'll share some pictures of that. We're headed south today.....

Well, XP won't allow me to upload pictures ? Hmmmm.....it's acted really strange since I purchased the iPhone 7 in Utah.....

 

[chet6.7]

70,a cold one,and a sunset.:coffeedrink:

 

[Maml]

Thanks Mike.....I appreciate the feedback. I'm curious, have you guys ever hiked the Hoerikwaggo Trail, between Table Mountain and Cape Point ? I've always wanted to travel to South Africa and visit the mountains and do some diving as well. Seems like an amazing country that you live in.....

Thank you Jerry - no problem.

I live in KwaZulu Natal, which is on the Eastern coast; so most of my hiking has been limited to the Drakensberg.

That said, the Western Cape is stunning & you won't go wrong with any trails in that Province.
Lots of really great dive spots too, depending what you're looking for.

Thank you, yes SA has it's challenges but balanced with the variety of natural wonders & down to earth characters who make it special.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Currently hanging out in Slab City, California. Internet service is very random here so I'll update as the possibilities arise.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Salvation Mountain.....what a tourist trap this had become ! The parking lot was packed. Who'd have ever guessed that could happen ? Not me obviously.....







My first impression of Slab City was "Oh my God, what a ****hole" ! But as the days and nights have passed, so have my initial negative thoughts. Once you're able to see past the piles of trash and the stench of it, the near constant fires that burn most anything that's lieing around throughout the "city", the vagrants and their homesites that litter the place, and the sounds of generators and loud music.....well, I've found this place to be special in its own way.....

I once read on XP that a good travel journal never starts with Day 1, Day 2, and so forth. That being said, I think there's an exception to every rule, and I think this may be the exception. The reason I say that is because every day I spend here, I see myself (my opinions) changing drastically. Maybe telling my story this way will help you understand how that happened.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Day 1: Slab City.....as I said earlier, my first impression was pretty bad. As you enter the complex you'll notice the Christian Club building to the left and an abandoned trailer / work of art to the right.....





As I drove further in I began to see what Slab City is really about. Lots of trashed trailers and motor homes, people living in tents and in their cars, burned out trailers and cars, and tons of trash. It was pretty disgusting in my opinion. I found myself a spot at the end of the entrance road.....it was fairly quite and away from most of the residents.....



When I hit the sack that first night, I thought this isn't for me. I'm leaving tomorrow.....

Day 2: Slab City.....I've been having problems with keeping my batteries charged this entire trip. The winter days are short, so the lights come on early and can be on for hours each evening. My 60 watt solar panel wasn't cutting it and the generator isn't working again. So there's a guy here that does solar panel installation and we had been trading emails about my rig so I went by to see what he could do. He ended up installing an additional panel adding 165 more watts. In addition to that, I changed out some of my light bulbs to LED and that's reduced my energy needs as well.....





I spent most of Day 2 with Mike (the owner) and Billy (his tech.). These guys were great and not only gave me an education on solar but also on Slab City. What a difference that day made for me. Things began to change.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Day 3: Slab City.....since I do walk a lot, I had been exploring Slab City on days one and two, but I'd decided that today would be the day that I'd get out and meet some new people. There's really plenty of options when it comes to that and I found plenty of friendly folks here, actually more than most any place I travel. There's entrepreneurs here so you can hang out at places such as these (the library was by far my favorite):









What I realized after a few days here was that I had come to judge. And that just wasn't appropriate. First off who am I to judge these people? They're living their lives the way they choose. I'd never do that when traveling in a third world country, and Slab City is almost that. Once I was able to change my thoughts and ideas, to become a part of the place, I began to enjoy myself. I spent most of the afternoon of Day 3 at the library with some pretty interesting characters.....