Trans NV 2008

[dlbrunner]

Thursday was a good day. Hey, it's vacation, what day is a bad day? Niki was a little tired, not too motivated:

The night before we discovered a group of people camped at our usual spot, so we said hi, and made tracks back to the alternate. 1dlb (first dry lake bed). Woke up to this:

and this:

Another:

Black and white, artistic stuff:

 

[dlbrunner]

Take care to notice: most of the time our trucks are aligned North to South. Provides good shade in the morning whe you sleep on the west side of the truck. (Old desert trick)

 

[dlbrunner]

Nevada is a good place. We decided early Thursday that we must complete our trek to California. Paul was supposedly going to meet us in the afternoon. We finished the transit:

677 miles total. (including the pavement)

Cool shot of some rocks:

After the Cali border the trip was done; however, thursday night was reserved for spreading my old dog's ashes. Friday, some friends were supposed to meet up on blue wing flat.
I was done. Needed a nap I guess:

 

[dlbrunner]

On the way back from Cali, we stopped at Planet X. (gentlemen, if you ever need to pick up a gift to bring the little lady, this is the spot. Bring your wallet)

After the transit, we stopped in Bruno's and grabbed lunch. Say hi to chuck the bartender if you are ever in gerlach.

On the way to Cali, we played on the main entrance to the first dry lake bed. I built my landcruiser to handle this hill. Rob is in 4low, granny, double locked. no hands, no feet:

Show off. This was the one hill I was worried that no locker would stop us. I did it in my old truck with a little speed. Turns out an unlocked rover can make it with a little skinny pedal:

Coming out of the springs (randon shot):

 

[dlbrunner]

Friday, all day, and night was the creciendo of the the trip. Things fell into place once again. I have a bunch of pics of Friday. gotta sort/post.

Can't post, must sleep.... "She can't handle it Captain!"

almost a 1000 photos from the week, epic.

So as we all read this, I have hatched another plan, or two. First, in order to to the Trans NV in "cool" style; ie two track, and other various two track, it will take 2 weeks. It would not be possible unsupported. I have a feeling the mileage would be close to 1000. At least 1 refuel would be mandatory. Cooling and food would be an issue for sure, Fridges would be mandatory. Fronm this trip, Grady and I are working on two others, the first is the "Trans AZ" This would be a transit from UT to Mexico via dirt. we are looking at the east side of the state. the west side is appealing, but there is that big problem of the colorado river......

The second route is a little more arduous and not yet been completely researched. Think Canada to Mexico.........:bigbossHL:

 

[dlbrunner]

Forgot to mention. I tracked the entire trip via SPoT. so if any of the names I use are confusing, they can easily be found.

I'll try and get a screen shot of the map with the SPoT breadcrumbs....

 

[dlbrunner]

Almost forgot, Paul showed up (tan v8j40): I also remember a friendly bet we had on what time Paul would show. I won

Niki was sniffing around the crazy Geologist camp:

 

[red rover]

Dammit, duncan. Get off the phone, and finish the narrative...or I will...and you know I will give the politically incorrect version, and my writing skills have been known to be quite detailed!!!!!! Bwa hahahahahah!!!!

Yeah Rob, I think we may need to fill in a couple of the "Gaps" that Druncan may be tempted to leave out! Like how Nikki almost jumped ship to run down that herd of cattle... :cow: And dinner! You forgot about the chicken that I slept through! :chowtime:

Let's see how he finishes this thing up.

G

 

[SOAZ]

Forgot to mention. I tracked the entire trip via SPoT. so if any of the names I use are confusing, they can easily be found.

I'll try and get a screen shot of the map with the SPoT breadcrumbs....

Great pics and a great trip report! :truck: :Wow1:

 

[dlbrunner]

Pics uploading.....

Sunday night, after the crossing of the Mary's river, we slept up on a ridgetop. That was the night we had the couscous chicken. It took a while to get it all together, but it started well. Grady (redrover) managed to have a couple beers and promptly fell asleep. Our efforts to rouse him from his bag to eat were to no avail. I followed Flouner's recepie, not exactly, but it turned out AWESOME. It was an instant favorite, quick, easy, and tasty.

Yeah there are some gaps in here, but I disavow any goings on that I don't report. Thursday and Friday in particular. Hey it was a long week. :sombrero:

 

[dlbrunner]

Drum roll please!

Friday started out pretty rough for me. Thursday afternoon we headed back to 1dlb to wait for Paul. I knew that night I would be spreading some ashes, so I started imbibing, heavily. Rob you will have to fill in the details of the wager on Paul's arrival time, as they are a little hazy for me.

The ride up to the top of the blackrock range was Sonoma's last one, Rob drove, with girl in the middle and me riding shotgun. The winds happened to be perfect that night.

I woke up sunbeat, hungover, filthy but on vacation! We sat in the shade as long as we could:

Our destination for the night was Blue Wing Flat, south of the Jungo Road. Again we would pass through trego. I needed another bath.

Black rock springs: In the foreground you see the source, much to hot to get in. Really the best time of year for this hot spring is in the winter. This has been a New Year's campspot for some time:

A quick photo stop and we headed back out onto the playa:

We stopped in Trego again, I had to take a bath since I was getting re-introduced to a hot chick. 5 minutes after I got into some clean clothes, I got filthy. Murphy's law.

During our stop in Trego, one of the frieght trains rolled by at about 60 mph. the horn was blazing. Turns out one of my good friends from college was driving that train. Hopefully not high on cocaine. We ran into a couple on some dirt bikes.

Next stop, the Lava Beds

 

[dlbrunner]

We left Trego and headed south to the Lava bed entrance. there is a little cabin that I discovered right before I moved to Phoenix. It is well maintained and looks to get some use. It was getting hot out, easily topping 100 degrees. We decided to hole up for a couple hours, and get down to blue wing about 4 ish. we did not anticipate the other group to meet us much before 7.

Another shot of the cabin:

The lava beds is one of my absolute favorite geologic features. Every time I have been there it just gets better. Sunset is really sweet, the light dances off the rocks and the colors are truly amazing.

These 4 spires in the distance are cooooooooool:

Close up:

Neat little natural arch:

 

[dlbrunner]

At the end of the Lava beds we came across Elephant arch:

Close up:

We finally made it down to Blue wing flat. I stayed close to the trucks. Paul went out for a drive and managed to get a flat on the playa:

Suddenly, we saw something on the horizon....A mirage perhaps....

Rob and Grady took off to check it out.


One of the best photos I think:

Another:

the land sailors were cool enough to let Rob and Grady take one out for a spin:

 

[dlbrunner]

Rob and Grady got back to camp and the waiting game began.

Rob you will have to properly identify the young guy, I think it is Luuuuuuke, but I am not sure.

Me tending the prime rib:

Great shot of the camp:

The Sunset was incredible, all the extra particulates from the fires made the lighting just wild, Kristine and molly:

After a great dinner and beers, little pyromaniac #$%@# brought out the fireworks.
Disclamer: Special care was taken to ensure no fires would start. Bluewing is a good choice since the playa sees little wind when the sun goes down, we were several miles from all shorelines. The next day we completely policed the area for shell remnants. Besides a few small burn marks, we left the area the way we found it. In addition, we did not dig a fire pit, they can scar the flats for a long time. We packed out all the coals from the fire too.

Short Video:



Thanks for looking everyone! i hope you enjoyed. I'll have some epilogueish comments later.

In the meantime: :safari-rig:

 

[DsrtSage]

aye

good job dunc!!