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Thread: 5th Annual Mojave Road Trip - April 15-17, 2016

  1. #1

    5th Annual Mojave Road Trip - April 15-17, 2016



    A huge thanks to everyone for coming out! Sorry for the late report!

    As usual, we started off on Needles Highway. JC and I actually met up a few miles before the trailhead, and I waited while he popped into the gas station. This gave me a chance to clean my windows!

    We made it over the Dead Mountains pretty quickly and approached US95 while Shawna and Roy were stuck in traffic. We decided it was best to wait up for them before we moved across Piute Valley and up the Piute Range. This gave us some time for photos.

    JC sure has a clean 4Runner!



    Once Shawna and Roy got there, we spent way too much time catching up and got a move on a little late. No big deal though.



    Flowers were awesome!


    Fort Piute now belongs to this guy:



    And then we came to this:


    Well, this isn't good...


    Spent a few minutes and decided on an alternate route on the map. We later learned that there is an approved detour down a powerline road and Lanfair Rd. This is not ideal but it is the official detour. If you need details on our alternate route, PM me.

    Our detour took us through a ton of mines:



    We decided to detour south for a few reasons, but a big one was the weather up north in the mountains was starting to turn bad.


    By the time it was getting close to us, we were stuck in a wash:


    Not long after that, we returned to the Mojave Road and stopped by to visit the school bus. Savage Offroad has a pretty sweet new rear bumper for the 3rd gens too!!!


    Once we got to camp we got slammed by wind and a tiny bit of rain. We had to tie the tent to the vehicle to keep it from flying away, even with a few hundred pounds of stuff in it!


    Cabin:


    Troy rolled up just after the storm settled down.

    We were slammed by wind all day Friday, all night, and all day Saturday...
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  2. #2
    Saturday morning we awoke to more wind. Somehow Lance made it into camp without waking up any of us, even though I woke up for every gust of wind.

    It was so windy, I decided to cook in the back of the 4Runner. Not a bad view from my "breakfast nook"!


    After a few miles back on the road, we dropped into Watson Wash. It was a bit more washed out than it was 2 years ago. Everyone did great, including Lance's 100 series tank.



    At Rock Springs we ran into a group who had successfully crossed Soda Lake on Friday. They said it was muddy but passable.


    At Government Holes, we had found that the tree had fallen on the metal tank. At some point, someone installed a plastic tank inside so all is not lost.


    After Government Holes we ran into RobG on the road.

    Our original plan was to camp and the Thomas Place, but due to the 3-hour detour on Friday and 2 people coming in Friday night, we made the decision to make camp earlier. This turned out to be a great decision because the aforementioned group had sought refuge from the wind in the corral where we were planning on camping. It would have been very crowded!

    Not a bad view:


    We headed on up to Death Valley Mine and were greeted with this sign:


    We called BS but still did not trespass. Someone spent some money on the sign and a new lock on the gate. I'll be interested in seeing what happens with this. It is apparently only a few weeks old.

    Next stop was lunch at the Mojave Cross:



    From there it was 10 miles of those horrible whoops before we arrived at Marl Springs.



    Growing tired, we finally made it to the Mail Box. A few new shrines have popped up over the years:





    Next was the Lava Tubes and Aiken Mine...
    Last edited by Seanz0rz; 04-24-2016 at 02:17 PM.
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  3. #3
    Walking down into the Lava Tube:


    Because of the recent rains, there was no dust to kick up and make the amazing looking beams of light. It was still pretty cool though!


    The road up to Aiken Cinder Mine was a bit more washed out than I remember. We came across a very tired moto rider that had dumped the bike a few times coming down. We all felt bad for him.




    We headed to our camp next and found it... completely trashed.

    This is just a small portion of the trash:



    We had at least 1 full trash bag of trash and still didn't get everything.

    Saturday night was much less windy and a bit warmer. After a busy Friday, sleepless Friday night, and a packed Saturday, we all slept pretty well Saturday night!
    Last edited by Seanz0rz; 04-24-2016 at 02:23 PM.
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  4. #4
    Sunday we set out having decided to attempt to cross Soda Lake.

    Our first destination was the cabins and mines in the Old Dad Mountains.





    Troy Tested, Troy Approved:


    The mines appear to be pretty extensive, especially for the area:


    Troy got some flying in:


    This place really deserves a day trip, maybe this fall!


    Next was the lake... We decided to take it very easy and cautious. Most of that was unnecessary.

    Reflecting on the profound words contained within the Traveler's Monument:


    We encountered just a small amount of sticky mud on the lake. Not at all what we were expecting.

    Onward to Afton canyon, we ate lunch under the tracks then continued on to the buried rail cars:


    And Afton Canyon:



    The water crossings were proving to be very disappointing before we got to the big one... I didn't get any pictures or video worth posting, but I know others did!


    Here are all of my pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHskyH5ghu

    Post up your thoughts and pictures!!! This was a really great trip with an amazing group. No break downs, no catastrophes. Everything went as close to planned as possible, and much of that is thanks to the amazing people along for the ride! Thanks guys!
    Last edited by Seanz0rz; 04-24-2016 at 02:35 PM.
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  5. #5
    Always enjoy seeing the pictures and listening to the stories of the trip, thank you again for sharing, hopefully sometime in the future I will be able to join you all for this trip! Guess I need to get an overland build started on the new 4Runner....

  6. #6
    Sean, I always enjoy your trip reports and photos; thanks for posting!

  7. #7
    Thanks for sharing Sean. Looks like a great time. I'd like to go back soon.

  8. #8
    Really nicely summarized Sean! Thanks for sharing the pictures. My 4runner wasn't so shiny at the end of the trip, but Goodtimes overall, no pun intended Lance!
    -Jc1996 SR5 4WD 5SPD 4RunnerStock till 213,000 milesSonoran SS rear brake line|Sonoran diff drop|Sonoran Panhard drop bracket|SAW 2.5 C/O's|OME891-N86|Magnaflow 24|Deckplate Mod|Trueflow Airfilter|BruceTS Rear Bumper|Airaid MIT|Shrockworks Front Bumper|Trail-mart 67 sliders

  9. #9
    Yeah, sorry about the pinstripes! When I still cared, I used the orange tube of ScratchFix. Worked pretty well.

    Thanks guys. My pleasure to share what little wheeling I do these days. It would be great to host the NorCal crew again!
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  10. #10
    it was friggen fun! I enjoy the multiday trips a lot, especially when I dont have to plan them lol. Thanks Sean

    No pics but reposting the video from my "RC plane" here
    https://youtu.be/Vt2jvYLt060

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