13-14 Desert Season planning

[Seanz0rz]

The 2013-2014 Desert season is upon us.

I was planning a MRE trip in December. I will have to cancel that since no one wants to go the day after Christmas, and move that to the standard time of the annual MRE trip sometime in March. I will announce dates for that very soon.

I also want to go exploring sooner than that, in a prep for a new annual trip to take place in November every year. Maybe we will do some scouting trips soon. I will post them up a couple of weeks in advance. They will be either Saturday trips or Sat-Sun camping trips.

I was hoping to do some scouting on the Western side of the Mojave desert, and attempt to find a desert to coast route with as much dirt as possible.

Any other desert trips planned this season? post em up!

[troyboy162]

What do you have in mind so far?

[Seanz0rz]

I would like to check out the desert megaphone, and see if there is a way from there, across the active Union Pacific RR tracks, north up the old Tonopah & Tidewater railroad bed to the eastern side of Soda lake. I think a cool day trip would be to start at I40, head north up to the megaphone, then north still up to the proper Mojave Road. If you couldn't get across the UP tracks, you could parallel them west to the huge bridge that we pass under on the Mojave Road. From there, spend some more time exploring Afton Canyon, and exit on the I15.

One of the biggest unexplored areas for me is West of Fort Piute and East of the New York Mountains (I guess that whole area is Lanfair Valley, but I am not positive, I would have to look at a map). There is a TON of stuff north of the Mojave Road there, a few dozen old mines and towns, plus some other neat stuff. South, you have Hole in the Wall and a few mine remains and ghost towns.

And that is just off the top of my head for Mojave NP. There is so much to see in the Mojave Desert and up to Death Valley, along 395, etc.

Money is tight this winter, so I'm not sure how many trips I will get to go on. For sure, the big one in March, and I think I will put together a day trip or Saturday-Sunday thing to flush out some new and exciting routes in Dec, Jan, and Feb. I want to go in a couple weeks but I'm not sure that will happen.

[Seanz0rz]

I'm having a hard time routing from the megaphone east across the Bristol Mountains, Devil's Playground and Kelso dunes. There is a road that parallels the rail road tracks, but it looks pretty boring. This takes you up to Kelso, then it's pavement for a good while until you hit anything interesting again.

I think I finally figured out some more routes up around the cinder cones, which should be fun. Lots of exploring up there. This stuff is easier to check out on day trips, it is that eastern side that is more of a challenge, but I think there is a bit more out there.

[Jaydee914]

Keep us updated. I'm always down for a weekend or even a day trip!

[Seanz0rz]

Will do! I was thinking about going Thanksgiving weekend, since that is close to my b-day, but I'm not sure I'll get to do that. We'll see.

[troyboy162]

I'm hopefully going to be available weekends. I certainly will want to have some fun with the truck this trip home.

[Jaydee914]

Troy, when did you say you'll be back? I just met up with another 4Runner guy here in Costa Mesa who wants to get out there and I was thinking a quick Cleghorn run would be perfect to get him initiated.

[troyboy162]

I'll be back in a couple weeks. I'd be up for a cleghorn run! I might have to take it easy though. I've got a lot of work to do so the skid plates will be off.

[Seanz0rz]

I'd be down! I need a shake down run to isolate some problems.