Death Valley '07 Planning Thread

[Tanto]

Event: Death Valley 2007 Dates: March 16 (Friday) - March 20 (Tuesday) Imporant Information Regarding this gathering: This is a family trip. As such, I'm sure it would be appreciated by most if not all of us that there not be any recreational drug use, drunken stupidity, lewd and crude behavior and language, gun play, fireworks, etc. An entrance fee is required, and is expected to be paid when we are within a reasonable proximity to a NPS fee station. Unless some of you are passing thru DV on your way to the Friday meeting spot, the closest one will be in Furnace Creek when we get there. Those who don't have an annual pass should expect to pay $20 (per their own vehicle) at that time. There are restrictions on Overnight Group Camping and Campfires. Read this page for details. This is not a professionally sponsored or organized trip. It is simply a shared itinerary for a gathering of people with a common interest, and who will probably be doing the same things for a certain period of time. All attendees understand and agree that they assume full responsibility for their own actions and vehicles, and agree to hold harmless any organizers, trail spotters, real or perceived, from any liability whatsoever. Tread Lightly Bring WARM clothing as the temperature and possibly high wind can really drop the temp fast 5 gallons of extra gas will be HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for everyone. CB communication mandatory Bring a little firewood for the cabin on Saturday night. The cabin is small so 2 or 3 bundles of wood should be sufficient. Attendees Tanto +1 (02 Tacoma 4x4 Friday - Tuesday) Good Times +1 (03 4runner 4x4 Friday - Tuesday) Good Times' Guest + 1 (05 Pathfinder 4x4 Friday - Sunday) Photog (04 4runner Monday - Friday) Slosurfer +1 (93 4runner 4x4 or 07 Tacoma 4x4 Friday - Tuesday) surf4runner +2 (4.5 yr old son) (02 4runner 4x2 Friday - Sunday) expat (04 4runner 4x4 ? - ?) Paddlenbike +1 (00 4Runner 4x4 Friday - Tuesday) jsnby + 1 (92 4runner 4x4 ? - ?) Tentative Scottiac +1 (97 4runner 4x4 Friday - ?) XPLORX4 +1 (97 Pathfinder 4x4 - Fri - Tues) Frank +1 (53 Jeep - Friday - Tuesday) Interested... DrBeau Smiling_Jim Tofer deathrunner tacoclimber ecchamberlin salad_man MikeAWood Caravan Options to DV: XPLOR4 - San Jose @ 8-830am Friday paddlenbike - Sacramento 8am Friday slosurfer - San Luis Obispo 8am Friday expat - Agoura Hills @ 4pm Friday Tentative Good Times - Los Angeles Friday Night @ 9pm ETA: 1-2am jsnby - Los Angeles Friday Night @ 9pm Tentative ETA: 1-2am Tanto - Leaving from San Diego @ 8am Friday ETA: 3pm. Camping Location(s): Friday Night: PSR (Panamint Springs Resort) Satruday Night: Back country Sunday Night: Stovepipe Monday Night: ::TBA:: Back country (Alternate route - Panamint Springs Resort) Friday night camping location in PSR: (Restroom / showers located across from site #19) - Camp details for PSR at the bottom of this post #14 taken #15 expat tentative #16 surf4runner #17 Good Times + Guest #18 Tanto #19 slosurfer #20 taken driveway into campsite #21 Contact Reggie_00 to reserve this site #22 open #23 open driveway to rv site Sunday night lodging at Stovepipe Good Times - Stovepipe Wells Village XPLOR4 - Stovepipe Wells Village Organizer's Comments: This event will not be strictly a wheeling event. We will be exploring sites and also conducting geo cache hunts. Exploration may include hikes up to 1 mile (approx), climbs and bouldering. If you spot a location you would like to see please inform the trail leader so the group can make a pit stop and take photos and explore. This entire event will be based on member participation so please feel free to do your part and stop everyone in their tracks I will be providing an ammo can so we can bury/hide a Yotatech dedicated geocache at one of our stops. I have to do some research and make sure we hide this geocache somewhere a geocache does not exist. If you can bring an item to donate into the can that would be greatly appreciated. I need a pen and a notepad to include so we can keep track of who's visited this Yotatech geocache. This geocache will be placed somewhere outside of the National Park as we are not allowed to place any geocache on NP land. Dress appropriately for all weather conditions. The desert can be deceiving so please make sure to wear layers. Pot Luck Dinner: Saturday March 17 @ Campsite. Please bring ample food to cover a few additional members outside of your party. Don't forget to bring your own chairs / tables / utensils / drinks / firewood. Itinerary: 16 - Friday Arrive and sleep at Panamint Springs Resort (PSR) campground or lodge 17 - Saturday Meeting junction 1 @ PSR 8:45am Meeting junction 2 @ Ballarat 10:30am (22.9 miles from Hwy 190 and 3.4miles from paved road) Route = Panamint Valley Road - Indian Ranch Road - Jail Canyon - Wingate road - Goler Canyon Gas: Panamint Springs Resort Camp Location: Geologist Cabin Sights: Darwin Loop (approx 30 miles) - Difficulty: Easy - Moderate Jail Canyon (5.6 miles) - Difficulty: Moderate Lotus Mine Newman Cabin Barker and Myers Ranch - Lunch Carl Mengel's Grave Mengel's Pass - Difficulty: Difficult / Moderate Russell Camp Mengel Cabin Greater View Spring Geologist's Cabin 18 - Sunday Depart Geologist Cabin @ 9:30am Routes = Goler Canyon - Warm Springs Canyon - Warm Springs Canyon Bypass - West Side Road - Johnson Canyon or Trail Canyon Gas: No gas stations available until Sunday night (Furnace Creek / Stovepipe) Camp Location: Stovepipe Wells (Lodge / Camp) Sights: Warm Springs Mine Two unknown mines Grantham Mine Johnson Canyon (10 miles) Beyond the end of the road a 1.5 mile hike leads up the canyon to Hungry Bill's Ranch, with its rock-walled terraces and fruit trees. Continue on foot up the south fork another .5 mile to several old mining prospects. Hungry Bills Ranch Site (1.5 mile hike from Johnson Canyon) - 0.5 miles to several old mining prospects. Trail Canyon Trail (12 miles) - Lunch[indent]Climbing up the eastern flank of the Panamint Mountains, this road leads to a spring and old mining area at the forks of the canyon. Although some old maps show the road connecting with the Aguereberry Point road, that section was officially closed to vehicle traffic after a wash-out made it impassable. Artists Palette Loop This is one of the most colorful sites in Death Valley. The rocks exposed here belong to the Miocene Artist's Drive formation. The formation consists of a lower sedimentary member with volcanic tuffs dated to approximately 13Ma and an upper member composed of pyroclastic deposits, sedimentary deposits and basalt flows. The whole formation exceeds 4,000 feet in thickness (Wright, et. Al., 1991; McAllister, 1970). The lower pyroclastic member and the upper sedimentary layers are the most colorful throughout the formations outcrop extent. The varied colors are due to trace elements within this predominantly volcanic formation, especially those associated with the more felsic rocks. At the GPS coordinates location, one can get a good view of the Black Mountains frontal fault which is oblique (right lateral and normal) slip. At this point, you are standing within a small north-south oriented graben (Miller & Wright, 2004). Hole in the Wall (4 miles to the "hole" and 2 more miles to road's end) The road begins 5.5 miles east of Furnace Creek Inn on Highway 190 and traverses east up a rugged gravel wash. After passing through the 400 foot deep gap called Hole-in-the-Wall, the road becomes rougher (4x4 required). Echo Canyon (10 miles) - Difficulty: Difficult The road begins two miles east of Furnace Creek Inn along Highway 190. The road tends to have deep gravel and is quite rocky three miles from the highway (4X4 required). The Needle's Eye, a natural arch, is located within the canyon narrows. The Inyo Mine is up the right fork nine miles in and contains several old structures and remnants of mining equipment. The left fork continues past other old mines eventually becoming very rough 4x4 and exiting the park in Nevada. Inyo Mine / Schwaub Ghost Town (located on Echo Canyon) and Lees Ghost Town (Time permitting) Those leaving will split off at West Side Road 19 - Monday Depart Stovepipe wells @ 9:30am Gas: Stovepipe Wells in the morning (Scotty's Castle gas station currently has no gas right now) Camp Location: White Top Mountain (Tent camping) Sites: Sand Dunes Keane Wonder Mill and Mine (3 miles) Chlorine Cliff (14 miles) Difficulty:L Moderate Titus Canyon (27 miles) - Difficulty: Easy Scotty's Castle Ubehebe Crater (10 miles) - Lunch Ubehebe Crater is the largest of several maar craters in the immediate area. A small quantity of basaltic magma encountered underground water producing a series of phreatic eruptions that are recorded in the black layers of pyroclastic ejecta seen across the crater from the parking lot. The next largest crater, Little Hebe, can be reached by a short, steep walk up to the right (south). Ubehebe itself is about ? mile across, 500 feet deep, and is early Holocene in age (Sharp and Glazner, 1997). The colorful rocks that make up the crater walls below the basaltic ejecta are sedimentary deposits of fluvial and/or lacustrine origin belonging to the Navadu formation and range from 6.2 to 12.1ma (Klinger, 2001). Note that the banded orange layers across the crater are in fault contact with the yellow rocks on the left. Ubehebe Crater and its sister craters sit near the junction of several fault zones. The Tin Mountain fault extends southward from here forming the right hand slope of Tin Mountain. The valley extending south from the craters towards the Racetrack (Site CM2) is a graben and the Tin Mountain fault forms the west boundary of that structure. The main trace of the Death Valley Fault zone, which trends north-south, lies just to the east of the craters and is quite visible as a chain of pressure ridges as one drives north towards Ubehebe from the south. It may have last moved within the past 300 years (Klinger, 2001). South of the craters lies the Oligocene-Miocene Ubehebe Crater fault (which is normal) and the Ubehebe thrust (Wernicke, et. Al., 1993). These faults lie between the craters and the base of Tin Mountain and be reached by a moderate hike from the Racetrack Road about 4 miles south of Ubehebe Crater. Teakettle Junction (25 miles) - Optional Lunch Racetrack (optional) Lost Burro Mine The cyanide dump deposits indicate that this was a gold mine. The one remaining building is rapidly falling into disrepair. Most of the tilted rock is the Lower Mississippian Lost Burro Formation. The Tin Mountain limestone lies above that and the Devonian Hidden Valley dolomite lies below. The Lost Burro Mine was operated in the early 1900?s when most of the gold mines the Death Valley area were active and it was again operated in the 1930?s up to World War II. Only a small amount of gold was extracted from near the contact zone between the limestone and injected Mesozoic plutonics. White Top Mountain (13.2 miles) This is one of four places in this guide that offer a great view of Death Valley. When you make the left turn at Lost Burro Junction, you are at the north end of Hidden Valley which is a bolson. The view on the way up from here includes views of the Stovepipe Wells area. At the top, the view towards the Grapevine Mountains is very impressive. The massive folding, the colorful Paleozoic sediments and the fans and bajadas of northern Death Valley are all visible. The view to the west is blocked by higher mountains. En route to the summit you will pass through Ordovician, Devonian and Mississippian age sedimentary rocks, mostly shale and limestone. These rocks are much younger than the pre-Tertiary rocks that dominate in the central and southern parts of Death Valley. At the summit some unusual Mesozoic plutonic rocks with beautiful feldspar crystals form the road cuts near the point. 20 - Tuesday: Depart White Top Mountain @ 9:30am Gas: None available until return to PSR Sites: Hunter Mountain to Panamint Springs (42 miles) The broad summit of Hunter Mountain is probably an uplifted Tertiary erosion surface cut into the Jurassic pluton that makes up the mass of the mountain. The rolling upland surface is dotted with pinyon-juniper woodland and weathered boulders. While most of the pluton is granitic, there are some rocks from the contact aureole on the northeast side of the pluton which are visually unique leucomonzogabbro. Boulders from this part of the pluton can be found in northern Chicago Valley east of Shoshone. Even allowing for significant fluvial/mudflow transport, much of this current separation must have been accomplished by late Tertiary extension. Places of interest on the upland area include an old abandoned log cabin located off a side road 5.2 miles from South Pass to the south just east of the western summit and a great view of central Death Valley and the isolated Sand Flat bolson can be seen from a hill at 7.3 miles from South Pass. This is just where the road drops off steeply down to Goldbelt. Ulida Mine Ubehebe Talc Mine Keeler Mine Quackenbush Mine Lee Mine Santa Rosa Mine White Swan Mine Alliance Talc Mine Silver Dollar Mine Talc City Mine Communications: CB Channel 16 FRS = Ch 4 Sub 4 (for exploration by foot) Ham Radio = 146.430 Please email goodtimes (at) chaosedition.com or private message "Good Times" with your contact info (name, username on forum and forum name, contact number, email address). This will ensure that I keep an accurate head count. Directions: To Panamint Springs Resort (PSR) Driving From Las Vegas (175 miles) From 15 Freeway, just south of Las Vegas, take Highway 160 West to Pahrump. Just 3 miles past the intersection with Highway 372, turn left on Highway 210, called 'State Line Road,' and proceed 27 miles to Death Valley Junction. At Death Valley Junction, highlighted by the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, make a quick "right-and-a-left" on Highway 190 toward Death Valley and Furnace Creek. Remain West on Highway 190 for 93 miles to Panamint Springs Resort, passing Dante's View, Zabriskie Point, Furnace Creek, the Sand Dunes, and Stovepipe Wells Village. Directions from San Diego area (350 miles ~6hrs): Take the 15N -> 395N -> 190E which takes you right to Panamint Springs. Once you get on the 395N hit up the nearest gas station when you get to half a tank as there is some serious spacing between gas stations and DEFINITELY gas up before you hit the 190E as there are pretty much NO gas stations until you are in DV and arrive at Panamint Springs! Driving From Los Angeles (235 miles) From the 5 Freeway North (Golden State Freeway), a few miles past its juncture with 405 Freeway, stay right for 14 Freeway North (Antelope Valley Freeway). After 70 miles, passing Palmdale, Lancaster, and Rosamond, the 14 Freeway North continues on to become Main Street for the town of Mojave. At the end of town, turn right to remain on the Highway 14 North. After 40 miles, Highway 14 North merges and becomes Highway 395 North. Continue another 45 miles to Olancha, turn right onto Highway 190 toward Death Valley. The next 15 miles proceeds northeast along the shore of the once great Owens Lake, then merges with Highway 136, and continues east another 25 miles to Panamint Springs Resort. Alternate Route: If your coming via 395 take the Ridgecrest turn off from 395(It's well marked) and follow that into town. The first gas station you come to is a Shell (just outside of town) skip it, it's one of the most expensive in town. The next one is an Albertsons gas station just about a mile past the Shell station. This one is usually one of the two cheapest gas stations in town. After passing the Albertsons (you will be on China Lake BLVD, 395 turns into this as you enter town) you will go thru several intersections a couple of stop signs and a couple of lights. When you get to the intersection of China Lake BLVD and Ridgecrest BLVD (Bank of America on one corner, Denny's on the opposite) take a right on Ridgecrest BLVD heading East on 178 (this isn't very clearly marked in town) this will take you straight to Trona, about 28 miles (there is a gas station in Trona but I don't know what time it closes). If your coming via 14, take the 178 turn off going East, NOT the 178 Lake Isabella turn off. You will hit Ridgecrest in about 12 miles (go thru Inyokern). When you get to the second stop light in Ridgecrest you will have to turn right(South) on to China Lake BLVD(just after the turn is a Shell station, but just past that on your right is a local station called One Stop, cheapest gas in town). Continue South untill you reach the intersection of China Lake BLVD and Ridgecrest BLVD(about 2.5 miles), turn left(East) on Ridgecrest BLVD and head out towards Trona. Fill tank in Ridgecrest, then stay on 178 thru Trona and into Panamint Valley. About 9-10 miles past the turnoff to Ballarat (it will be on your right, but stay on the 178 a.k.a. Trona-Wildrose Rd.) you will turn left on to Panamint Valley Rd. and take that about another 10+ miles until it dead ends into the 190, make a left (going west) on the 190 and PSR is two miles up the road, campground on the right, resort and check-in on the left. Camping Location(s): Friday Night: PSR (Panamint Springs Resort) Satruday Night: Back country at Geologist's Cabin Sunday Night: Stovepipe Wells Monday Night: Back country at White Top Mountain The "hotel" rooms at PSR are about 50-100 feet from the campground at PSR. Just a heads up, they are not AAA accomodations. If you mean the "adopt-a-cabins", they are spread out thru the Panamints and Death Valley, and are on a first-come, first serve basis, and will very likely already be occupied as it will be a busy time of year. We should be in the area of some if we b/c camp in Butte Valley area Sunday night, and can check them out anyways, JIC. Those of you not staying Sunday night risk the chance of being pretty far into the trail by Sunday afternoon/evening, and will either have to backtrack or finish the trail to Badwater and take the pavement all the way back. As the Goler Wash/Mengel Pass/Butte Valley trail isn't difficult, it shouldn't be very tough to run some portion of it in the dark, as long as you tracked the trail with your GPS and are with another vehicle. PSR Campground Info: PSR's campgrounds are the only campgrounds in the entire national park with shower facilities for the guests, there are toilets and water, and firepits, however, only a quarter of the sites currently have benches, and these are "grab-n-growl", or first come, first served...Reservations can be made on line at www.deathvalley.com, or by phone at 1-775-482-7680... Click on "Reserve Your Room Online", then click on Online Reservations with the yellow icon on the left side of the page. When you reserve, you will be prompted for RV site, tent site, etc. $15/day for four people. Additional people are $2.50 each. I do not know what the max. # of people are, though. I reserved tent site #17/18, so try to get adjacent sites if possible. I'll also be sleeping in my truck, so I think the site will accomodate two trucks and a tent. Panamint Springs Resort is a pretty cool place to hang at. It is low key. It is not a zoo like Stovepipe or Furnace Creek. The accomodations aren't AAA, but the people are good folk, the restaurant food is good, there is a bar, and the location is great for our itinerary. I'm pretty sure there is decent back country camping close by, so please don't anybody panic if the campground gets full and you don't have reservations. That would be off the 178 Hwy. south of 190, 'bout 5 miles or so from PSR, and it would be on BLM land and not on NPS property. We can fine tune the details on that down the road. Stovepipe Wells Campground The Stovepipe Wells campground (first come first serve) Located at sea level, Stovepipe Wells has 190 sites with water, some tables, some fireplaces with the tent sites, flush toilets, and dump station. $12.00 per night. Stovepipe Wells Village (lodging - $111 per night) http://www.stovepipewells.com/ Phone: 760.786.2387 Fax: 760.786.2389 E-mail: reserve-spw@xanterra.com Reservations office hours of operation: 24-hours, daily. Resource Links: http://www.palomar.edu/geology/DVWeb.htm http://virtualguidebooks.com/SouthCa...athValley.html http://deathvalley.com/exploring/backcountry.shtml http://www.death.valley.national-park.com/sights.htm http://www.deathvalley.com/4x4_death_valley/ http://www.ubehebe.com/ http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/4x4/echo.html http://www.totalescape.com/active/ca.../NP/death.html Originally Posted by Tanto =====Original Post====== Looks like I'm not the only person on this board that is itching to go to Death Valley this year, so I guess I'll plan this one out. What I would like to hear from all of you is some areas you want to see and what dates are good for you. My vote is for the end of March. Anytime other than that and I definitely won't be able to make it and this is 100% definite. Please include 2 things in your initial reply: 1) Does the 2nd half of March work for you? 2) What would you like to see? In the other DV thread, it said that TTORA was doing a run on the 16-18th of March and I think it would be cool to do a joint run with them and then stay until the 20th and do our own thing. Let's hear it!

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[reggie 00]

1. Yes
2. Anything that's cool. Never been there. Manson cabin, any old ghost towns/mines.

Might have my son if he's up to going this time, so fam friendly.

[Tanto]

This would definitely be a stock-friendly, Family-friendly trip. The usual rules of any YT run would apply to include:

ALL drinking done at the end of the day
NO recreational drug use whatsoever
....and of course, Tread Lightly

I want to include as many people as possible on this run so the trails will be easy to moderate.

[Sleeper]

I'll see what's up as we approach. The second half of March sounds good. I never got to the "Racetrack" last time so I woud like to see that. Otherwise, I'm game for whatever.

[DrBeau]

Woo! Hopefully I can get this off of work. The 16th - 18th is perfectly in line with my Spring Break.

1) >above<

2) Um...I know there's stuff I'd like to suggest, but I don't have it readily at hand. There's a place that involves driving along the Nevada border just outside of the valley and up the backside of the mountains. The ride up is not too difficult, but the view at the top is spectacular. It's a view of the north end of the valley from the east (facing west). Ubehebe crater is also pretty cool (but all asphalt if you come from the highway; although it's on the way to Tea Kettle Jun. and Racetrack).

Woo...I'm already getting stoked about this trip! Hopefully I can make it.

[Bob_98SR5]

i am tentatively going to say yes

[Smiling_Jim]

If there is lots of fast cruising on the flats then maybe I should bring the Taco.

The crawler likes stuff that's steep and slow.

What do you guys recommend?

[sschaefer3]

Originally Posted by Smiling_Jim

What do you guys recommend?

That you make it a side option to run the hardest thing out there and I'll drive the Dana 44 4Runner over. But like he said, it likes slow and steep.

[Tofer]

my springs break is in april i think, but i'll double check and see if i can join.

[deathrunner]

I'd like to come out. Ryan, how far is the trek from SD?

[jsnby]

I'd like to see the manson cabin and the racetrack, but i'm only going to be able to go for the weekend. I hate being a contract-to-hire....i get no time off, no benefits, and I'm paid hourly

[jsnby]

Originally Posted by deathrunner

I'd like to come out. Ryan, how far is the trek from SD?

google maps is showing roughly 350 miles and 6 hours to the middle of the park.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...=UTF8&z=8&om=1

[DrBeau]

Originally Posted by deathrunner

I'd like to come out. Ryan, how far is the trek from SD?

It's quite a drive. I have family at the 15/395 junction, so I stay the night up there on the way up. Still, it's quite a drive from there.

Originally Posted by Smiling_Jim

If there is lots of fast cruising on the flats then maybe I should bring the Taco.

The crawler likes stuff that's steep and slow.

What do you guys recommend?

I don't know exactly what's out there for the crawler, but I've seen some built Jeeps out there...so there must be something. Unfortunately everything is very spaced out, meaning going from hard trail to hard trail involves a lot of distance driving.

[Good Times]

DV is more of an expedition trip rather than a rock crawling event. Most of this will be high speed action (meaning faster than 1mph). Expect average distances travelled in the 50-150 miles depending on the proposed route. So far the previous DV trips has all been very mild and 2wd friendly for the most part. There's one section that can be a bit rocky but a stock 4wd vehicle make it with no problems. (only if you go there)

The beauty of DV is that it has a lot of varying terrain depending on what elevation you are at. I personally won't be able to make this years trip due to the timing of the beast but I will offer my help to get you guys organized.

Since it looks as though you guys will be trailing off the TTORA trip I'd like to see what they're doing and figure out what would be nice for the other days out after that event is done.

[Tanto]

It took me about 7 hours with some traffic on the 15 and eating dinner. Had to stop twice to gas up on the way there since the area was remote and I didn't want to run out of gas somewhere so it would take about 5 hours driving straight through.

Sounds like Ubehebe Crater, Racetrack Playa, the Manson place, and the Ghost Town on the CA/NV border are the popular places so far. Good input so far, once we get some more input and get a good idea of what we want to do I'll start the trip's actual thread to make it easier.

[sschaefer3]

Originally Posted by Good Times

Most of this will be high speed action (meaning faster than 1mph).

Oh ok. That's not really for me then.

[sschaefer3]

Hey you know what? I sold a System 1.5 lift kit to a park ranger up there. I'll shoot him a line and see of there is anything for the "slow" people.

He'll know. I heard Surprise Canyon is right there, but as everyone knows that is closed.

[Tanto]

There is a rock garden not too far from Panamint Springs for the SAC rigs to play around on, but it'll be overkill for the trails we're going to run as a group. A guy with a stock '03+ 4Runner loaded to the gills with gear and his family did everything we did last year so yeah, it'll be pretty tame for the most part.

I would bring the Tacoma

[Tanto]

It was a great idea last year to have the last night of the trip in Furnace Creek. Pretty cool feeling when our caravan of dusty rigs rolls into town and everyone's like "where did THEY come from".....maybe that's just me

This trip will definitely show you the "real" DV other than the sugar-coated comfy living (relatively) of Furnace Creek.

[surf4runner]

count me as a definte maybe
march and any other time is good

[Tacoclimber]

Ryan, pencil me in. I can't totally commit at this point, because I'm not sure if I'll have the gas money for the trip, but if I can get it, and I can convince my wife, I'd love to meet you guys there. It's only about 5 hours for me, if I go through Mohave National Preserve on the way. I'm gonna see if I can talk a buddy or two into going with me, maybe we can split gas costs. Anyway, I'll post up when I know for sure one way or another...

I am sure hoping it works out, though. I've never been to DV...

[jsnby]

Originally Posted by Tanto

There is a rock garden not too far from Panamint Springs for the SAC rigs to play around on, but it'll be overkill for the trails we're going to run as a group. A guy with a stock '03+ 4Runner loaded to the gills with gear and his family did everything we did last year so yeah, it'll be pretty tame for the most part.

I would bring the Tacoma

I don't really think the point of DV is to go crawling....more for the scenery. I'm SAC and will be going...if there's a fun optional obstacle, I'm there, but I'm mainly going to see the lowest point in the US at the most beautiful time of the year.

[DrBeau]

The place I was talking about above is the Chloride Cliffs. Here's GPS Coords:

36*41'43.40" N
116*52'48.24" W

I also forgot...there's an "easy way" (the way I mentioned earlier) and a "hard way"...although I don't know if the hard way is very hard at all (never been). If anyone else is curious I can list out the "road" names.

[ecchamberlin]

I would really love to make this so I will keep an eye on this thread and see if I can work it out.

Always wanted to do this run after seeing the pics from last years trip.

[Sleeper]

If it's between a HUGE crowd at TDS (March 3/4) or just the boys for that weekend (March 16-20) I would have to go with the Death Valley trip hands down.