I guess I will start this bad boy off! First off, big thanks to all who planned this; Lance, Ryan (sorry you couldn't make it), and Ken for all the GPS data. Also, thank you to everyone for helping me keep an eye on Jack, he can be too quick for just one person to watch him sometimes.

Me and Jack left SLO at 10 am Thurs. morning and made it to Panamint Springs Resort by 4 pm.

Saturday morning we all (Good Times, Paddlenbike, Scottiac, Surfrunner, XPLORX4, Sonny, Expat, and I) went to Darwin Falls and watched the kids and Sonny play in the water. Then we headed over to Ballarat and hung with the locals for a little while. From there we headed to Goler Wash, where we made it about 100 yds, before XPLORX4's alternator quit. A quick switch of batteries and we were on our way to Barker's Ranch (Manson Cabin). From this time on, any time we stopped we either switched batteries or hooked up jumper cables to charge XPLORX4's battery. Made for some interesting parking jobs and odd looks from passerbys. From their we headed out and Brian (Surf4runner) showed us how to take a 2wd through some gnarly stuff. We stopped at the Geologist's cabin and said hello to the ttorra people and were off to Warm Springs Mine. There we camped for the night and had an awesome potluck.

 

Sunday morning had Paddlenbike, Scottiac and friends head out early to do some hiking, while the rest of us got in some high speed runs to the pavement. We hit up Badwater basin, Devils golfcourse, Artists palette, and stopped for lunch at Furnace Creek. There they called all around to try to find an alternator. We left there and headed to Stovepipe Wells where we said goodbye to Expat and Surf4runner. I was planning on camping but I had no idea that the campground there was a parking lot with no shade, so me and Jack got a room and hit the pool. Later that night we went back to Furnace Creek for dinner with the rest of the group, when Jack had a total melt down and we had to bow out for an early night.

 

Monday morning Jack and I went for a solo run up Grotto Canyon while the others were getting ready. I highly recommend checking this place out, especially if you hike and climb. On the way back I ran into Photog and we went back and met up with goodtimes, sonny, and xplorx4. We said goodbye to sonny and we headed off to Augeberry point for a great view. ON the way down goodtimes got a flat and we had a hell of a time changing it. That is a whole other story in itself.

Finally from there we headed up to the Charcoal Kilns which is a very cool sight to see. We didn't have time to go further to check out the campsites higher up the mountain, so we headed back to Furnace Creek to camp. Once we got there, I decided that I had had enough, the thought of setting up camp just to take it down to leave in the morning didn't sound like fun. I hung out till they pulled the alternator and Ken drove them to Pahrump to pick up the new one. Me and Jack said our goodbyes and headed home at about 8pm and I pulled into the driveway at 3am. We had a blast and I can't wait to go again. I am sure that I missed some highlights, but hopefully others will chime in with their stories.

 

Panamint Springs Resort


Zac and Jack hike to Darwin Falls


Darwin Falls


"My stick!"


Airing down and heading to Ballarat


Into Goler Wash

 

Mark (Expat) and his son, Sam


Posing (looked better from the other angle)


2nd, 3rd, and 4th gen. 4runners


View from overlook above Mengel's Pass and gravesite


My copilot/radio tech (I had to wrestle the handset from him if I wanted to use it)

 

Scottiac coming down the overlook




Badwater Basin, if you look in the upper right of the pic you can see some white lettering, that is Sea Level


Recharge it

 

End of Grotto Cyn.




Posing IFS Flex




Changing a tire


ONe of the charcoal kilns


Sunset and time to head home


The rest of the pics can be seen here
http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...%2007/?start=0

 

What in the World?

 

This is after the jack had already slipped once. The winch line to my 4runner kept the front end from lifting up and the winch line to the pathfinder steadied it side to side. We also had to put a strap on the axle so it would stop drooping.

 

great pics, thx for sharing. i wasnt able to take time off for this due to a ski trip earlier in the month.

next time i am going for sure.

 

Cool pics...I need to get out there one of these days.

Lance having tire trouble....again

 

Great pics Chris! We had an excellent trip and excellent company, as usual.

Scottiac and I (and Audrey and Julie) drove into the park early Friday morning to visit Eureka Dunes. Hiked to the top and waited for an F-16 to buzz us, only to have one shoot into the canyon on our way out.


Left Eureka enroute to Panamint Springs Resort via Steel Pass. The beginning of Steel Pass has some narrows that are fun and later the road turns into a sandy wash with plenty of "whoopty doos" (however you spell that)...I hit the first couple at a lower speed and liked the way they felt so I buried the throttle for the third and fourth ones only to find the fifth one out of phase. I suppose the new suspension should be settled-in now. Scottiac did something similar--my peripheral vision caught "something significant" happening behind me; I look and see the front end of a 4Runner in the air with dirt trailing off the A-arms. A few seconds later I hear an "ouch" broadcast over the CB.


Camped at Panamint Springs with the group that Friday evening.

Saturday morning we hiked to Lower and Upper Darwin Falls:


Following the hike we headed out to Ballarat to visit Potlicker the dog and the "interesting" guy running the place. He pointed to a truck and told us to go check it out, "it belongs to Mansen," he says. Sure it does...

Had issues with my friend's alternator on his Pathfinder in Goler Wash. We had to switch batteries back-and-forth using Lance's dual battery setup. It's amazing how long a truck can run with no battery. I ended up driving to Pharump to get a replacement alt later in the trip. Stopped at Mansen's cabin and had a seat in his favorite chair.


Continued on over Mengel's Pass to Warm Springs where we would spend the night.


On Sunday our group headed out to visit Badwater, Devil's Golfcourse, Artist's Pallete, up to Rhyolite (in Nevada) and drove down Titus Canyon, which is now completely graded. On our way to Devil's Golfcourse we came across a vehicle versus motorcycle accident. It wasn't pretty, luckily the paramedics arrived within a minute's time and we got out of the way.

Devil's Golfcourse. (Golf would be a serious nightmare here.) Seriously though, Scottiac found a Titleist while hiking around out there. Or wait, it might have been a TopFlite, can't remember.




Found a nice shady place to stop to figure out what piece(s) had been rattling for the past 100 miles and were ready to fall off while Audrey made us wraps for lunch. The windshield washer reservoir was the culprit. Those bolts are now marinating in Lock-Tite.


Titus Canyon:


Monday we got up early with the plan to Hike Red Wall Canyon, near the end of the Titus Canyon trail. We weren't smart enough to take the GPS with us, so we ended up hiking a canyon we will now call "Not Red Wall Canyon." Following the hike we visited the charcoal kilns and had plans to hike Mosaic and Grotto Canyons. We ended up stopping along the way and helping an older couple change the tire on their Chevy Trailblazer rental car. They couldn't figure out how to get the spare out from under the truck, blah blah blah, so we remedied the situation and hit Grotto Canyon to do some bouldering. Grotto is awesome. Scottiac showed us how it's done and kept us alive. This hike would be the only time our tow strap was used on this trip.


While hiking in Grotto I heard someone walk up and ask Audrey "is that your 4Runner down there?" My first thought was someone had smashed the windows and taken everything inside. It ended up being Brian (photog) who hiked up to meet us. I would have liked to chat with him more, but he was there with others and just stopped in to say 'hi.' Glad he did!

Headed home on Tuesday after hiking the lower portion of Mosaic Canyon.


Note the elevation:


We went from -282 ft in elevation to 8372 ft (and snowing) in a few hour's time:


Thanks to everyone for making this another great trip.
Ken

 

Sweet. Looks & sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

great pics looks like you guys had a fun time!

 

Great Pics I can't wait to take my kidos camping like that.

 

Somewhere on the Goler Wash/Warm Springs Canyon route we hit a pretty healthy speed:

 

(hey boy ) great pics! ill have mine this weeekend to add.

it was definetely a blast! it was our first time in the valley.

 

nice pics, i gotta go next year

 

Pretty fast there, Ken. A little faster than stock suspension, eh?

Thanks for sharing.....

 

awesome pics... goler wash and steele pass are my favorites in DV... looks like you had fun