Out and About in the Valley of Death/Expedition’s End

Day 24

Altitude: 3627 ft. Stoke level: 10 Temperature: 86-74 degrees Conditions: sunny, light clouds, light wind

Last night it got pretty crowded up here on the mountain. Folks kept coming in until dark. I had a happy family set up about two hundred yards away from me, it sounded like they were having a real good time. I didn’t stress about it like I usually would, as I was in a pretty good mood and had good sleep at the Sidewinder Camp. I got packed up and left around 9 o’clock.

The first order of the day was to go to the Visitor Center in Furnace Creek to get a park pass. When I rolled into town, I could see that there was a lot going on. Not only were there throngs of tourists everywhere, but there were a few booths set up selling goods. I’ve been here in the hottest days of summer and it was a ghost town then, so to see it so busy was quite a trip! I got out and checked out what was going on. It seemed that the whole month of November they have what is called “49er Days”, which I guess celebrates the legacy of the pioneers that gave the valley its name. There were some really nice blankets and jewellery on hand. There’s nothing that I need here, so I got back in The Beast and headed over to the visitor center.

*I’m glad the local artisans have a place to ply their wares.*

Of course the visitor center was mobbed like I expected it to be. The only other time I’ve seen it like this is when I came up for the first time back in ’15 to see the desert superbloom. I got my pass and bought a postcard for Bethan. I was told that to mail it I’d have to go a quarter mile down the road and post it at this place called ‘The Ranch’. I rolled down the road and the place was easy to find. It’s basically the downtown area of Furnace Creek. I’d been here before to go to the restaurant and bar, and there has been a huge facelift on the place in the meantime. I almost didn’t recognize it! It’s set up to be an adobe desert village, I really like their choice in architecture.

*I don’t remember this from last time! What a nice little oasis, it’s been a while since I’ve seen this much greenery.*

*There was a lot of new construction going on. There’s big money flowing into this place these days. Maybe because of so many tourists due to the pandemic? I don’t know.*

I found the little post office there and sent off my postcard. So the plan for the day was to hit a couple of places that I missed on my previous trip, then cut over back to the east side of the park. I was then going to head down to the trail I wanted to go on in the southern part of Death Valley. There’s a lot of cool spots to go to around Furnace Creek like Artist’s Palette, Zabriskie Point and Badwater, but I’ve been to those places before. I was interested in checking out the 20 Mule Canyon and Dante’s Point, as I’d missed these places on my first trip here.

Dante’s Point is the highest point in the park and is where they filmed a scene in the original Star Wars. It is the scene where Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobe are looking down at Mos Eisley and Obi-Wan says his famous “scum and villany” line. Yes, Death Valley is Tatooine! A lot of scenes from that movie were filmed here. I was stoked to see such an iconic view, so I headed off down the highway.

Along the way I arrived at 20 Mule Canyon. It’s a little detour off the main road that runs through a little side canyon. It took maybe 20 minutes to drive through. There were some pretty sharp corners to make in restricted driving space, but I managed all right. There was a lot of cool geology to see (like pretty much everywhere else) and it was worth making the little detour.

*Twenty-Mule Canyon made a nice circuit through some interesting terrain.*

After I had made the loop, I set my sights on Dante’s Peak. It was about 8 miles off the main road. I had heard that it was a really steep ascent, especially in the last quarter mile. It’s paved all the way, not any kind of crazy off-road, so I figured it would be fine. I headed out that way, and the road wasn’t a problem. It did get very steep at the end, that part was true. I shifted down to first gear and The Beast didn’t have any issues with it. I arrived at the top, and the view was just unbelievable! I got a little bit of vertigo looking at it.

From Dante’s Peak, you can see the whole of Death Valley laid out before you. The sign said that on a clear day, you can see a mountain that is 100 miles away. I can see George Lucas going up here and saying, “Yup, I need a shot of this in my movie!” Wise decision indeed. It was easy to find the exact view when I got up there. Luke and Obi-Wan saw what my featured image was for this blog post. After an Internet query, I saw that Furnace Creek stood in for Mos Eisley. What a thrill it was to be standing at the place of such a key scene in one of my all time favorite movies!

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany”.

*This cheeky little joker entertained the tourists with his antics up on the peak.*

I was completely blown away by the view. I can’t believe I didn’t hit it up the first time I was here! It was around 5000 ft., so it was a bit chilly. It’s probably the first time I’ve been cold in the daytime here. I lingered up there for a while, soaking up the view. When I had my fill, I made my way back down to the bottom of the mountain.

I wanted to head in the direction of Shoshone to get some fuel, then head down to the Exit Road. I saw on my map that there was a couple of ways to get there. One was the way I came in on, and the other was a dirt road that went almost directly there. It was a 26 mile stretch of trail that went down through Greenwater Valley. It looked like way more of an adventure than the sterile highway, so I decided to take the route. It started right at the base of the mountain I was on, so it was really convenient for me. I found the trail and it was in real good shape. I locked the hubs, deflated the tires and set upon it.

I really enjoyed my journey through Greenwater Valley. The road was great, the views were spectacular, and there was 0 traffic. Everywhere I had been to the park by this point had been chock-a-block with tourists, now there were no people whatsoever. The vast majority of tourists stick to the paved roads, it seems. As soon as you hit the gravel, everyone vanishes. It was pretty cool.

As I got to around 13-14 miles in (roughly the halfway point) I started looking for a place to spend the night. Around this point, the valley opened up and it was just beautiful. I had to stop somewhere around here! I spied a flat rocky spot right off the road, and I stopped to check it out. It seemed as good of a place as any, so I decided to park and set up camp.

Right away, I felt I had made a very wise choice in camping spots. It had the most solitude of any place I had camped so far in this expedition. There was no noise at all. No cars, no voices, no birds or bugs, and planes flew far away so you couldn’t hear them. It was like I was in a vaccum! I was 14 miles from a road and I saw only one car pass the whole afternoon/evening. At first, it kind of tripped me out. I love solitude, but not having people constantly interrupting that state is a strange feeling. As much as I loved it, I found it a bit odd.

Not having to mentally compensate for people entering my space was weird in a way I can’t describe. The last time I had been in a place so remote is when I camped in the middle of Mojave National Preserve 3 years ago. The people flying in the planes I could see off in the distance were probably closer to me than the next human being. It just blew my mind! As I got settled in however, I started feeling liberated from civilization. The feeling of freedom was intoxicating!

*It’s close to the road, but other than that it’s one of the best spots I’ve camped at on this expedition.*

I had finally located the place I was looking for on this journey. I’ve camped in so many different places on this trip. Some were better than others, but I never was really alone in any of those places. This spot was remote, and off the beaten path. It was a Friday in peak seaon, and no one seemed to travel this route. I don’t know why, it is beautiful and the road is easily navigable. It was a great spot to stumble into.

I had a stash of wine left and that tri-tip still to cook, so I poured some vino and started a fire in my grill. It’s not allowed to start fires where I was, but I really wanted to cook my tri-tip over open flame. I had a couple bundles of firewood (plus three nice chunks of hardwood I found alongside the road outside of Baker) that I was tired of packing in and out of the camper as well. After thinking about it, I decided to start up the fire. I had set up in an area with nothing flammable in a 15 foot radius, and there was no wind. I had my extinguisher at hand as well. I felt that I had all the necessary precautions to do it safely so I went ahead. At the first bit of wind, I had no problems with putting it out. I don’t want to set the desert on fire!

*It was a bit nippy at 3600 ft. altitude, so the heat from the fire was definitely appreciated.*

After I made a bunch of coals, I set up the rack and threw on my tri-tip. As I waited for it to cook, I did some stargazing. I started seeing some nice meteors zip through the atmosphere. Some burned for several seconds! I consulted my meteor shower app and found that I was smack dab in the Leonid shower! It’s one of the better meteor showers, according to the app. I believed it! I saw one about every five minutes or so. The shooting stars were amazing, but the whole night sky was beautiful as well. Death Valley is isolated enough so the light pollution is at a minimum. The stars were bright and filling up the sky. I have night mode on my phone and tried to take a few pictures. The results weren’t bad for a camera phone. I saw more stars in the picture than I could see with the naked eye.

I took a picture of Orion using night mode. Two-thirds of the stars in this shot couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. Someday I’ll have a camera that can photograph the Milky Way. For now, a phone will have to do.

It took a while, but my tri-tip finally got cooked and I tore it up! It was oh-so-good. I hated to break the rules and build a fire, but it was worth it to get that flame-broiled taste. If I’d had to cook it in a skillet, it wouldn’t have been anywhere as good. I was responsible with the fire and kept it in a container so it wouldn’t scorch the ground. I felt I did my best to keep it low impact.

All in all, it was a hum-dinger of a day. It was good to finally arrive at the ultimate spot for desert solitude. The whole trip led up to this day. I’m glad I decided to take the long way and experience this grand place. I might even stay an extra night, it’s pretty comfortable here! I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, I might just hang around.

Day 25

Altitude: 3627 ft. Stoke level: 4 Temperature: 78-54 degrees Conditions: sunny, clear, light wind

Wine causes the worst hangovers, and I had a doozy. I woke up around 8 when the sun got hot and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I couldn’t really do anything else, so I popped on some The Man in the High Castle and just chilled out. It was around 9:30 when I heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. There hadn’t been anyone by since sunset the previous evening, and that was the only person that had rolled through. Curious, I peek out the window and see it is a ranger truck. He passed by, but I see him come to a stop a few feet down the trail. “Uh-oh,” I think. “This is not good.” He backed up and parked across from me on the road. He got out and started to walk around my camp. I figured it’d be best to go out and meet him before he started banging on my camper, so I stepped out to see what he wanted.

He was a younger guy, maybe late 20’s to early 30’s. The dude seemed friendly enough, like most rangers I’ve met. He says, “Ok, there are two things here I’d like to discuss. One, you camped in a virgin spot, your tire tracks are the only ones I see here. Camping is technically allowed here but we only want you to camp in spots that have been used before. Secondly, fires aren’t allowed here. I see that you built a fire. I do give you credit in that you did build it in a metal container so it wouldn’t scorch the ground though.”

I just pled ignorance and he seemed to be cool about it. I understood that what I did was wrong, and he was right. I shouldn’t have built the fire. The parking situation was something that I had no idea about however. Well, now I know! I think that because I had my park permit and I kept the fire off the ground, he just gave me a warning. After running my ID and seeing that I was a law-abiding citizen he let me go. I had told him that the reason I was camped out here in the middle of nowhere was that I was on an expedition to experience desert solitude. When he left he said, “Enjoy your solitude out here!” What a cool ranger, he didn’t even make me move or give me a ticket.

I was glad that went well. The rest of the day was spent watching shows on my phone. I was in no shape to go anywhere. It was good to have one last blowout night out here on the trail, despite the hangover. From here on out, I would be trying to maximize miles instead of lounging around in places I found desirable. It was a good place to spend my last down day of the expedition. Tomorrow I want to head over to Pahrump, NV and get cheap gas & some other items. Also, it was the closest place I’d have 5G so I could upload my blog. After that, I was going to finally start on this Exit Road. It was going to be a full day.

Day 26

Altitude: -97 ft. Stoke level: 8 Temperature: 86-55 degrees Conditions: sunny, clear, calm

I got an early start and left Solitude Camp around 9. The remainder of the 13 miles out of Greenwater Valley went smoothly. I swiched back to 2 wheel drive and re-inflated the tires when I got back to the highway. First, I wanted to head to Shoshone and put a little gas in the tank. I was at a quarter full and I wanted to have a bit more before I headed over to Nevada. When I got to Shoshone, I saw that the gas there was almost 6 dollars a gallon! I had to have it, so I put in 40 bucks and it gave me a quarter tank.

While I was pumping gas & throwing away garbage, the lady on the other side of the pump backed up with the hose still in the gas tank and it popped off at the breakaway! I’ve never seen that happen in real life before. Fortunately, no gas sprayed anywhere. The woman was super embarassed and had to go take it inside to the attendant. At least she owned up to it though!

*Goodbye Greenwater Valley. It sure was a pleasant stay.*

The road to Pahrump was just outside Shoshone. The sign said that it was 30 miles distant, so that wasn’t too bad. The road was pretty much straight as an arrow, and around 45 minutes later I arrived in Pahrump. I’ve been there before, it wasn’t my first time. I think the town’s main claim to fame is that this is where Art Bell lived and broadcasted Coast to Coast AM back in the day.

As I started getting into the outskirts of Pahrump, I spied a gas station. Gas was 3.29 here! It was 5.69 only 30 miles away, gotta love Nevada! After I filled up, I realized I was famished, so I looked to see what what they had to eat in town. I was craving pizza, so I went over to Pizza Hut. There’s a lot of pizza options out there, but there’s something about that pan crust they have at Pizza Hut that I’ve always loved. When I get there, I see that it is closed for some reason. Trying to think of an alternative to pizza, I recalled hearing the McRib was back at McDonald’s. I went over to the local Golden Arches to see if they had it. Lo and behold, they did! I got a combo meal and took it back to my truck to eat it. I haven’t had one in like 3 years, and it was good as I remember. McDonald’s is crap, but that McRib is just divine!

As I was eating the McRib, I got a call from Captain Pack Rat. I had told him I’d swing by and see him and Party Wolf on my way back. He wanted to see if I still was going to roll by. I told him I had a couple days left in Death Valley and I wouldn’t be able to make it this trip. I’d come up and visit after I got back from Louisiana. We chatted for a bit, it was good to catch up with my ol’ lodge buddy.

I hit up Big 5 sporting goods and Home Depot for some supplies, then hit the road back over the state line to Death Valley. With a tank full of cheap gas and a McRib in my belly I was ready to tackle some trail! I got back to Shoshone and drove about another 45 minutes south. I finally reached the Exit Route trailhead, and switched the truck to off-road mode. I plotted my waypoints on my OnX app, and set off down the trail.

*A plaque giving the history behind the trail.*

There was a little side-trail leading to what was called ‘Saratoga Springs’ on the map, so I wanted to check that out. It was hard to imagine a spring out here in the desert, that’s something I had to see. So the Exit Trail was a really great piece of road, you can tell it is constantly graded to keep it clear. Unfortunately, as a result of the grading, sand is heaped along the sides of the road 3-4 feet high. There’s no way that you can turn off and park. As I rode along to Saratoga Springs, I began to feel uneasy. There were a lot of ‘No Camping’ signs everywhere. I had counted on finding a camping spot along the route. As it was getting along in the afternoon, I started to worry about finding a landing spot for the night.

*It looked like this pretty much the whole way down Exit Road. There was no way to turn off. Glad I didn’t run into anyone on this trail, it would have been tricky to let someone by!*

I put that out of my mind for the moment. I had this spring to check out first! I found the turnoff and headed towards the spring. As I got towards the end of the road, I started noticing all the tall grass growing profusely all over. There was definitely a little oasis here! I saw that there was a trail going in the direction of the spring, so I went to see if it got closer to the water. I ran into a couple of groups of hikers who told me the trail got close enough to check things out.

I walked down the trail that seemed to go towards the back of the spring. Along the way, I read a plaque that talked about how this was an important water source for all the overland traffic back in the old days. There was what was left of a old stone house on the way down, I wonder if someone lived in that or what? I could hear frogs croaking and see ducks swimming around, it’s amazing to see this out in the desert! It’s pretty neat how springs will flow in the middle of such inhospitable terrain.

*The stone house ruins and the springs up close.*

I would have liked to hike around the springs more, but I was wanting to get back on the road and make tracks. It was getting close to 3 o’clock and I hadn’t seen any spot to pull off and camp whatsoever on the road so far. I got back on the Exit Road and continued on my way. As the miles ticked by and the sun got lower, I really started to think that it was going to be impossible to find a spot for the night. There were little small pullouts, but they were deep in sand and I wasn’t about to turn my truck into that. Finally at around a half hour before sunset, I found a little turnout that looked promising. The ground there was very rough but stable. There was just enough room to back my truck in off the road, which I did. Thankfully I had found a spot before dark. It wasn’t the best spot, but not a single person passed by the whole time I was there! I set up camp and ate leftover red beans and rice, which were better the second time as they always are.

Yet another nicely isolated spot with a beautiful view. Death Valley looks good no matter where you are.

It wasn’t a bad camp for something I found at the last minute. It was just as isolated and peaceful as the last camp I had. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be there or not, but I planned to be out as soon as I could in the morning before the rangers rolled up. I did some writing and retired early, as I wanted to get an early start in the morning.

Day 27

Altitude: -226 ft. Stoke level: 8.5 Temperature: 87-57 degrees Conditions: partly cloudy, moderate-strong wind early, calm late

I got a good start this morning and rolled out around 9. The day before I had almost finished the Exit Route, so I finished up the last two miles and hit the highway. That had been a nice journey and the road had been in great shape, but the lack of good camping spots was a little disappointing. I liked the direction I was heading, and according to my maps I could continue my journey on the ‘West Side Road’. This road is the back road going up the west side of Death Valley. There were many off-roads heading into the Panamint Mountains that branched off this trail, so it looked like a great way to spend my last day of explorations in the valley.

*On the short stretch of highway linking the Exit Route and West Side Road were the ruins of this old mill.*

The West Side Road was in even better shape than the Exit Route. I decided I was going to take one of the side routes going up Butte Valley. There was an old abandoned talc mine up there, plus some old mine buildings to check out. The road was rated easy until about halfway, so it seemed to be a good destination to check out.

The West Side Road is in incredible shape. They are making good use of the park fees!

I saw the turnoff for Butte Valley, and I took a left turn headed for the Panamint Mountains. I immediately started gaining altitude, and soon started seeing some great views from this end of the valley. It’s such a better way to see it than from the paved road on the east side. That road is the main tourist route that goes to Badwater Basin, which of course is the lowest point in the US at 282 ft. below sea level. I camped for the first time below sea level last night as you can see.

*Looking back towards Badwater, and ahead to Butte Valley.*

The road to Butte Valley was a perfect 3/10. It was a lot more rough and rocky than the West Side Road, but it was well within what The Beast can handle. As the road was so rough, I couldn’t go more than 10 miles an hour. That was fine by me, I didn’t mind taking my time and enjoying the view. Every once in a while I’d stop, jump out and take pictures.

*As I entered the mouth of the canyon, I began to see the talc deposits on the hillside.*

After about an hour of steady climbing, I arrived at the mouth of the canyon. Since it was a canyon, I knew that there would probably be some challenges driving it. The canyon was wide, and the road was still in a good drivable state. I couldn’t miss the talc deposits starting to appear on my left-hand side. I started to look around for old mining equipment and sure enough, old rusted contraptions started to appear everywhere.

*They took out a lot, but they didn’t get it all. Wonder why? Maybe the price dropped and it wasn’t feasible to mine it anymore. At one point this was one of the most lucrative mines in the region.*

The road wound along the bottom of the canyon until I came to a fork in the road. It wasn’t on the OnX map, so I chose the right hand side and hoped that I was following the trail. Immediately the way got really narrow and rocky. I reached a point where it was really only wide enough for a Jeep to pass through unscathed. There were a couple of sharp ridges sticking up that would be unavoidable to run over in The Beast. If I would have had a spotter then maybe I would have attempted it. I got out and saw it didn’t get any better a few yards up the trail, so I decided to stop at this point and try the other path at the fork. Maybe the other way bypassed this rough part of the trail.

*A Jeep would make short work of this, but The Beast is a little too big to go through here. I didn’t want to risk the health of my tires.*

I backed up a couple hundred yards to the fork in the road, and I took the left path. I didn’t go up but maybe a hundred yards before I found myself in the middle of an old mining encampment. I found a sign that said this was the site of Warm Spring mining camp. The spring that the camp was named for still gushed forth and ran down the road that I came in on. I felt the water and while it wasn’t cold, it definitely wasn’t warm. Perhaps they should have named it Tepid Spring Camp?

*Another miraculous spring* *gushing forth in the barren desert.*

Looking over at the canyon wall, I saw the enterance to a mine. I walked over to inspect it. Unfortunately, it was gated off so you couldn’t go in. Probably for the best, as these old mines are super dangerous. Still, it would have been cool to go in just a little ways.

I ate some lunch and had a beer. It was so quiet and peaceful at this old camp. There was an eerie desolate vibe about the place as well. I really liked it! I thought about camping in the place for my last night, but I really didn’t want to make the hour and a half drive out of there in the morning. So I decided to poke around a bit longer to see what I could see before I made my way back down the mountain.

*The old corral is evidently still in use, as I saw horse shit all over the place.*

There were a couple of old houses that were used to bunk all the workers off to the side. I wanted to check out the interiors, but there were hantavirus notices posted warning not to go in there. Last thing I want to get is plague, so I just took pictures from the outside. In addition to the cabins, there was an old swimming pool there also. That was a good idea, you’ve got a spring running constantly so it was a perfect spot for a pool. I bet it gets hot as the devil here in the summer, so I bet it was nice to take a dip back when the pool was operational.

*The old bunkhouses and the now defunct pool. You could have had an awesome pool party back in the day up here!*

*This old piece of mining equipment was really well preserved. Note that the old hitching post for the horses* *is still there. Probably still in use!*

This nearly buried cave entrance had a toilet inside! Pretty good place for the bathroom. The place is really set up well for larger groups, there were lots of flat space to set up camp. There were a few picnic tables to sit on as well.

I had my fill exploring the camp finally, and with a heavy heart I turned around and headed back the way I came. I really liked this place, next time I come to Death Valley I’ll have to stay here at least a couple of nights. I headed back down the road, with my objective being a campsite I had spied on the way up. It was only a few minutes away from the West Side Road and still really private. When I got to the spot, I realized I had another hour before I needed to start looking for my camp. I decided to head back down to the road and head north. There were a few trails leading up into the mountains along the route, and I figured that I could find a better spot a little farther down the way.

*Panorama of the Black Mountains coming out of Butte Valley. Dante’s Peak is somewhere up there.*

The views kept getting better and better as I headed north. After a bit of traveling, Badwater Basin appeared on my right. It was cool seeing it from this side. I decided to head up this trail named Hanaupah Canyon Road directly across the valley from Badwater. The road was really rough, really only passable by Jeep. I made my way about a half mile up when I saw a turnout. I had to get out and move some rocks around, but it was a perfect space to park The Beast. I had a perfect view of Badwater Basin and it was gloriously private. Every once in a while a car would pass by on the road, but they were few and far between. No one was going to come up here and bother me.

*It’s so cool to be camped at the lowest point in North America!*

*There wasn’t much of a sunset unfortunately, but these distant moutain peaks looked beautiful in the evening light.*

It was a damn good campsite for my last night in Death Valley. For dinner I made carne asada tacos for my end-of-expedition meal. I was tempted to drink all the rest of my beers to celebrate, but I was pretty beered out. I knew the next day’s drive would be brutal even without a hangover, so I passed on doing that. I worked on my blog some and went to bed early so I’d be in the best shape for my return voyage.

Day 28

Altitude: 407 ft. Stoke meter: 6 Temperature: 82-64 degrees Conditions: calm, overcast early, clear after mid-day

I woke up around 7 and it was pretty chilly and windy. I had hoped to see a nice sunrise on my final morning. Due to overcast skies however, I was disappointed. By the time I was ready to break camp however, the it cleared up and it looked like it was going to be a nice clear day.

I made coffee and had leftover tacos for breakfast. When I was done, I packed up and headed out one final time. The plan was to finish out the West Side Road which ended on the highway a little outside of Furnace Creek. From there I’d head out of the park via Highway 190 through Olancha. When I got close to the highway I stopped to inflate my tires to highway pressure. There were some interesting formations on the ground all over the place. I looked it up on the map and it was named ‘The Devil’s Golf Course’. It was pretty aptly named, no one but the Devil would want to play golf there!

What a huge mudhole this must be when wet!

I made my way up to the highway and headed out of the park. I had forgotton how long it takes just to leave Death Vally, I didn’t get out until around noon. From there it was a seven hour run back to Santa Cruz. Thankfully I didn’t run into any crazy traffic or anything, it was a little stressful driving through Bakersfield though. I got back to Santa Cruz around 8, and pretty much passed out from exhaustion as soon as I took a shower and ate something.

*As I entered the 395 corridor, I had to stop and take a picture of the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. It was strange seeing snow-topped mountains after so long in the desert.*

At last, I have reached the end of my expedition. I spent 4 weeks on the road to the day, so this trip marks my longest expediton to date. I could have kept on going, I really would have liked to have spent another week in Death Valley, but it’s all good. I really enjoyed myself on this trip, it was also my most successful trip ever. Other than getting stuck that one time and the usual struggles with bugs and wind, I camped in comfort. Thanks to my 12 volt cooler, I was able to save so much money not having to buy ice. It was also useful for saving money on food.

Well, that about wraps it up! Thanks for all you for coming along with me on the journey! Now I’ve got to switch gears and get on a plane as soon as I have returned from the desert. I’m New Orleans bound! I’ve got to move my stuff out of storage in South Louisiana and move it up north. After that I’ll be spending some time up at the family farm for Thanksgiving. I haven’t been home since before the pandemic, so it’s time to go see the folks. All right, I’ll holler at ya’ll later!

Camping, Off-Roading

Rally to Death Valley

Day 21

Altitude: 1433 ft. Stoke level: 6 Temperature: 80-51 degrees Conditions: partly cloudy, calm early, moderate-strong wind late

I got up early and did some writing and blog editing before I broke camp. Afterwards, I checked the bond on my solar panel. It seemed to be stuck on pretty good. I took out my stainless steel zip ties and lashed the frame of my new panel to my rack. That will give me some added protection in case the adhesive ever decides to give way. I can’t be having my solar panel smash into someone’s windshield if it comes off as I’m going down the road!

Everything got checked out and packed up, so I finally got back on the trail again. I charted a course down Gold Crown Road. The road was nicely deserted and wide at first. After a few miles however, I came to my first obstacle. There was a culvert in the road that bridged a gully about 15-20 feet deep. I had about a foot on either side of my tires before I’d slip into the ravine. It wasn’t aligned straight with the road, so I had to back up and pick a better line. I’ve been through worse, but this was a bit stressful to navigate without a spotter. Right after this, I was faced with a hill that was kind of gnarly. The Beast and I were both capable of navigating this slope, but who knew what was on the other side of the hill?

*Not super challenging, but I really didn’t like the tilt on this hill.* *I’ve come close to rolling The Beast before due to misjudging slopes, so* *I try to look ahead for problems before they occur.*

I got out and walked up the hill to see what lay beyond. When I got up to the top I could see into the distance as the trail got narrower and rougher. It was definitely within my skill level, but my guts got in a knot thinking about the stress I’d have driving it. I decided to turn around and head back down. I wanted to see what was up the trail, but it just looked like more than I was willing to bite off at the moment. I had to go back over the tricky culvert again, which sucked. Since my daylight was running out, I made my way back to the general area I had previously camped. This time I chose a slightly better spot on the other side of the road however. I had a bunch of cardboard to burn, and this spot had a pretty nice fire ring already set up. I wanted to grill a tri-tip I’ve been packing around for a while as well.

Unfortunately, I never got to cook or burn anything. The wind came up pretty aggressively and refused to stop. I had to resign myself to eat cold food out of cans for dinner. Not the best meal by any stretch of the imagination. Some nights are like that out on the trail, especially when you have to cook your food outside on a propane grill. Wind really messes with the flame on the things, not to mention can even blow your whole grill over. That happened the first night I was in Anza-Borrego, fortunately no food was on it at the time, but it could have been a disaster!

I had many things to do tomorrow before I left town, so I got to bed early. My goal is to leave town no later than noon to get to the place where I want to be north of Baker. This damn time change has really screwed me up, now I have to start looking for campsites around 3 in the afternoon. It doesn’t give me a lot of time to explore unless I get up super early, which I am loathe to do unless absolutely necessary!

Day 22

Altitude: 668 ft. Stoke level: 7 Temperature: 79-60 degrees Conditions: clear, sunny, strong wind early, light wind late

The winds last night never let up, and it was quite chilly. When I got up around 7 it was nice and sunny, but the wind was still whipping around pretty intensely. It took longer than I would have liked to break camp, but I finally got out of there around nine. I got back to the highway and drove back into Joshua Tree to go to the only laundry in town. I’ve done my laundry there before, it’s not my first rodeo! It was insane how busy the laundromat was, nearly every washer and dryer in the place was in use. I guess they’ve got the monopoly on laundry in town, that’s where everyone has to go!

*I love this desert tortoise that sits outside the laundromat! I’ve taken pictures of it before, but I thought I’d be nice to take a new one for the blog.*

Finally, I found a couple of washers ready for use and I got my clothes on to wash. It took a couple hours to get everything clean & dried, and when I was done I hit up Home Depot, Walmart, Vons, and the gas station to get filled up on various supplies, water, gas and food. I had a huge load of garbage to drop off at the gas station, I kind of felt bad to fill up their can. Oh well, I was a paying customer so all good! By this point it was close to 2 o’clock, which meant it was too late to get up to where I wanted today. I had an alternate place to go though, a place called Amboy Crater. It’s between Joshua Tree and the Mojave National Preserve right off an old section of Route 66.

I’ve passed the Amboy Crater a few times on my journeys north from Joshua Tree, but always have viewed it from a distance. The crater is actually an old cinder cone that is left over from an eruption in the valley. The valley floor where it is found is absolutely flat, it must have been an old lake bed at one point. You can see Amboy Crater from miles away, it does look really odd on the horizon. It has a rather looming presence both far away and up close.

It sits on BLM land so it’s able to be used for camping. According to my app, the only spot where that was allowed was on the pavement in the overflow parking lot. I wasn’t thrilled to be camping on pavement, too damn civilized for me! Also there were busy train tracks close by, so it wouldn’t be quiet. It was the closest place I could get to in my timeframe where I wanted to go, so I really didn’t have a choice. Still, it would be really cool to set up camp there in the presence of interesting geology.

I headed back in the direction from which I came earlier. Back through 29 Palms I drove. I went and took Amboy Road north through Wonder Valley. I’ve been this way a few times before and it’s always cool how fast you can be in the middle of nowhere from the hustle and bustle of the Highway 62 corridor. The traffic, while light, was much more prevalent than in summer. There were lots of RV’s and campers for a Wednesday afternoon. They aren’t weekend warriors though, so they are all good in my book!

After an hour or so, I drop down into the Amboy Flats. I see the crater from ten miles away, it’s cool looking as ever! I took a left where Amboy Road meets good ‘ol Route 66 and went towards the crater. I found the road and went up towards the parking lot. Along the way, I spied the overflow parking and it wasn’t bad. There was no one there and there was a sandy spot in the back where you could back up to some cool-looking volcanic slag. I continued to the parking lot where there was only one car. The crater was at least a mile hike away from this point. Supposedly the trail goes all the way to the top as well so you can see down into the thing. I wasn’t about to attempt that now, so I took a couple pictures and headed back to set up camp.

I really like Amboy Crater. It’s got a really cool mysterious vibe. Plus there’s a whole bunch of volcanic rock around, presumably spat up out of the cinder cone many years ago.

Glad I got back to the spot when I did. Right as I got parked, some guy in a camper van pulled up and stopped. I could tell he wanted to park, but to his credit he went to the main parking lot and I never saw him or anyone else the rest of the night. As I got everything unloaded, the first of many trains came roaring by. I was only about a quarter mile from the track, so it was crazy loud! For some reason, it didn’t bother me as much as vehicle traffic does for some reason. Perhaps because the noise is more rhythmic? I’m not sure. I would definitely would have preferred to do without it, but what can you do?

*There was probably a train coming through every 20-30 minutes all night long. It didn’t bother me too much though, at least for one night.*

*There were some nice views around sunset.*

The winds were pretty gusty when I got there, but around sundown it completely stopped. Usually when the wind dies in the desert all the bugs come out to play, but this spot was remarkably bug-free! The conditions were just perfect. It stayed in the 70’s until long after dark. Since it’s so comfortable here, I thought that I might sacrifice one of my 5 remaining days to spend another night somewhere in the surrounding Mojave National Trails area.

After a whole lot of thinking, I decided I was going to proceed with my original plan to go up north. I’ve done enough sitting and chilling in places that I liked, now it was time to put some miles under the tires! I haven’t explored Death Valley in 5-6 years (I did drive through back in July 2018 and temps were 127 degrees, the hottest I’ve ever been) so I felt that visiting there would be the best way to end this trip. I had to drive all the way to the north end of the park to get a park pass to legally explore the southern end of the park. It would be a full day of driving to get up there, so I needed to get on it as quickly as possible. I’m looking forward to checking out what is called ‘The Henry Wade Exit Route’. It’s the way the 49’ers who gave the valley its name managed to get out when they first found themselves marooned there. It’s a new trail for me, so I’m ready to check it out!

Day 23

Altitude: 880 ft. Stoke level: 9 Temperature: 86-59 degrees Conditions: sunny, clear, light wind

I only had a couple beers and went to bed early, so I was able to get up around 8 feeling good about the day’s travels. I slept amazingly well despite the roaring of the trains. Good ‘ol earplugs come to the rescue again! I had thought that it would be cool to hike over to the top of the crater and take a look around, but I was ready to hit the road when I got up. I figured it would take at least 3 hours to go there and back, that’s a half day’s driving! At this point in the expedition, time is of the essence. I needed to get on down the road.

*Couldn’t resist a selfie with Amboy Crater.*

I got back on Route 66 and headed over to Kelbaker Road. Kelbaker Road is an old friend of mine. It goes up through the middle of the Mojave National Preserve and cuts over towards Baker. When I’ve explored the preserve in the past, this road would be my main re-supply route, so I knew it well. I drove north through the desert until I went under the I-40 underpass. After this point, I was back in the preserve. I had to holler! It was so good to be back. I wish I could have had more time or I would have stayed, I’m so fond of this place.

*I’ve always liked these rocks at this vista point. I always like to stop here when I’m coming in from the south and just take things in.*

About 20 miles in off to the left, you see the Kelso Dunes. They kind of look out of place, it’s like you took a detour into the Sahara or something! Like the Amboy Crater, this is something I’ve passed by a few times but never checked out. I decided to turn down the road towards the dunes to get a closer look. I drove about 3 miles in, and decided that was enough to get a decent picture. It looks like an amazing natural feature to hike up, again, like the crater. It would have been a cool thing to do if I had the time, but I just satisfied myself with a picture.

*The Kelso Dunes (somewhat) up close and personal.*

After I returned to the main road, it was a short distance to the old train depot at Kelso. It’s been there for a hundred years and used to be very important for freight being shipped up and down the line. It’s been restored in recent years and it is the Visitor Center for the preserve. It’s always been closed every time I’ve come through though, and this time was no exception. This time it wasn’t scheduled to re-open until 2023! Maybe someday I’ll get to check it out from the inside. Right as I was getting ready to leave Kelso, I messed around and broke my phone mount again! This is like the 4th or 5th time, it’s so bad. I guess it’s time to break out the Gorilla Glue again! I really need to break down and just buy a new one.

*I’ve always admired the architecture of this building. It’s a little bit of civilization in a vast expanse of nothing.*

*These cinder cones heading out of the preserve look like Amboy Crater’s siblings.*

Continuing on my journey, I eventually made my way to the odd little town of Baker. It’s a weird crossroads of a place off the 15 between LA and Vegas. It’s always going off everytime I’ve been there, lots of folks are always coming and going. I pulled into the 76 station for gas and I saw this insane looking craft parked beside the gas pump. It looked like a jet aircraft without wings! I pulled in close to the thing and got out to take a look at it. This guy who was sitting in a truck attached to the craft’s trailer jumps up and I ask him if I can take a picture. He agrees and we start talking.

The guy tells me that he is a 4 time world champion land speed racer by the name of Jim “Jet” Neilson, and he’s been marooned with his jet car in Baker after his last race this past summer. He doesn’t have anywhere to go until his next race in Dubai in a few weeks. When he’s not racing, he lives down in Panama. Something must have gone seriously gone sideways in his life I gather, but he’s making the best of it. He can’t leave his rocket car, the same as I couldn’t leave my Beast out in the middle of nowhere. In the meantime, he is just hanging out at the gas station in Baker selling autographed t-shirts and talking to people. I imagine he’s had to cut some kind of deal with whoever owns the gas station.

The dude is pretty cool, he starts dropping names immediately. He claims to have grown up with Kurt Russell and acted in one of his movies. He’s also good friends with Vince Neil and some other rock n’ roll guys and actors. I guess jet car racers are just another kind of entertainer, they all run in the same circles…especially in this part of California. He told me that John Fogerty and Steven Tyler had both stopped to get gas and wound up buying shirts from him. The guy pulled out his phone and showed me pictures, and he wasn’t lying! John looked healthy, but Steven is looking pretty skinny these days. Steve was also holding a couple of Yorkie dogs in his arms, it was pretty funny! Jim said they were both super cool, and really admired his rocket racer. I liked the guy so I bought a t-shirt from him for 20 bucks. The shirt was pretty badass, and he even signed it to boot. I could have talked to that dude for a while, but I was already behind so I hopped back on the road.

*The fastest man in the West! The engines on the thing are from a F-4 Phantom and it can go 400 miles an hour.*

I still had another hour and a half journey up to my destination. Needing to get a pass for the park, I was going to have to drive a long ways up Highway 127 to get to Death Valley Junction. From there, I was going to have to enter from the east side of the park on the 190 and find a kiosk to print me out a paper pass. I’d have to then double back and re-enter the park on the southeast border. It’s a pain in the ass, but all the infrastructure for permits is in the north of the park. When you are on park property you’ve got to have it. It’s pretty expensive as well, 30 bucks! It is what it is though, sometimes you’ve got to pay the troll his toll.

Highway 127 went through some interesting terrain. You can barely make out the Panamint mountain range in the left background some 50 miles distant.

I was running low on smoke, so I saw that there was a dispensary up at Death Valley Junction. I was intrigued that there was a dispensary out in the middle of nowhere so I had to go check it out. It’s called ‘DVJ Fine Cannabis’ and it is a huge grow house complex out in the middle of the desert. I pull up and it is surrounded by high fences like it is a government building of some sort. There is a tiny trailer out front so I assume that’s the business end of the place. When I step out of the truck, I get a big whiff of ganja. I’m a couple hundred yards away and it is thick! They must have mad crops in there!

I go in and it’s pretty casual. Nothing is out on display, you have a whiteboard featuring the menu options and you order from there. You say what you want and the gal goes and gets it from the next room. The prices are really reasonable, particularly to be that far out in the desert. When I mentioned this to the budtender, she told me that it was because they grow on site and cut out the middleman. I got an 1/8th of small bud Wedding Crasher for 27 bucks. It’s usually 30, but I got 10 percent off because it’s Veteran’s Day. Right on!

The dispensary fortress and the buds. They weren’t really that tasty, but they were potent & dense. Funny how they are posted up right outside Death Valley so all the tourists can be sure they can get their blaze on when they visit!

After picking up the produce, I headed into the park. I knew that there was an automated kiosk about 20 miles down the road where I could pick up a pass. When I reached the spot where I could get it, there was a sign on the machine that said since it was Veteran’s Day, no fees were required that day. That’s cool and all, but I’m still going to need a pass for tomorrow and the days after. Since it was 3 o’clock already and I needed to stick around to get a pass anyway, I decided to go a few miles down the road to a spot where I had camped before.

It’s up a rough 4×4 road called ‘Inyo Mine Road’. The road is a 6/10 difficulty on my OnX so it’s beyond my capability to drive it fully, but the first couple of miles going in is pretty tame. There’s a lot of places to camp that gives great views of the valley below. Way back 5 or 6 years ago I almost got bit by a sidewinder up here, so that’s why I informally call this place ‘Sidewinder Camp’. Also the last time I was here I found myself in a biblical horde of flying grasshoppers, so the spot has a pretty interesting history for me. I have a soft spot in my heart for the place, I’ve had good times here back in the day.

I turned off on the road and drove up. You can’t camp a mile coming in from the highway, so I had to go up a bit. I looked around and found a spot that looked reasonably flat. I got camp set up and wrote on the blog for a while before I got around to making dinner. Tonight I was going to put some effort into supper and make some red beans and rice! As the sun set I broke out the camp kitchen and got to work prepping yellow and green onions, bell pepper and andouille sausage. I remarked on just how nice it was here in Death Valley as I cooked. There was a very light wind, hardly any bugs, and it was warm enough to be comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt after the sun went down.

For the first time on this trip, I wasn’t setting up in a sand pit. This area is very rocky, so not having sand get into everything was a plus. I got everything cooked up and sat down to eat in the moonlight, and let me tell you it was amazing! It was probably the best meal and locale I’ve enjoyed on this whole expedition. It’s rare that everything just lines up perfectly on a trip such as this. Good food and great surroundings are always something to celebrate when you’re out roughing it in the wilderness!

*The mountains to the east were nicely illuminated around sunset.*

It was a very interesting day all around. I’m right where I want to be at the moment. After I get my pass tomorrow, I can either go over towards Pahrump and run this trail over on BLM land, or I can just go ahead and jump on down to the south end of the park and get started on that trail down there I want to do. Decisions, decisions! I’ll have to sleep on it. I’m down to four nights left so I have to really make my days count. Wherever I wind up, I’m glad I came up here. Death Valley has such a raw beauty that you can’t find anywhere else. It’s actually comfortable this time of the year, which is something I can’t get over. I feel I’m at where I need to be, glad I made the effort to return here.

Camping, Off-Roading

Beware the Desert Sands

Day 17

Altitude: 1410 ft. Stoke level: 2 Temperature: 81-54 degrees Conditions: sunny, clear, light wind

I was awakened by dawn by the sounds of artillery from the local Marine base and the hot-doggin’ OHV people. The explosion sounds I can live with, the mechanized whining of motorcycles, dune buggies and 4 wheelers, I cannot. There was not going to be a scouting mission to the next BLM parcel, I saw that this whole area was dirt central. I was glad to escape this noisy, kangaroo rat infested place. My stomach issues from the day before still persisted, which really dragged me down.

I decided that I was going to go over to the trail that I had marked as a route I wanted to take while I was here. I needed to stop and pick up a few things down in Yucca Valley, so I went and did that. In the process I uploaded my blog and downloaded some podcasts. The traffic was horrible, I felt like I was back in Santa Cruz! I’ve never seen it like this in the times I’ve been here. I’ve never been in this area during peak season, so I guess this is what it’s like. I have also heard a lot of Angelenos have moved here during the pandemic, I can definitely tell. My desert hideaway has been blown up!

I went over to the Visitor Center and it was just chaos. People were everywhere, I’ve never seen anything like it. On a Friday morning as well! There was a ranger posted up at a table out front and I went to talk with him about getting a park permit. The trail I wanted to run runs through Joshua Tree National Park, so to be legal I needed a permit. The ranger was very helpful in pointing out that the trail I wanted to run was on BLM land and ended before I got on park property. I wouldn’t need a permit to run the trail because of this. According to my maps, he was wrong, but if he said it was ok to camp without a permit I was going to run with it.

It was good to be back in Joshua Tree proper, but man o man, were there crowds! It was just ludicrous. It was with great pleasure I got out of town and headed to my destination off Highway 62 in the direction of 29 Palms. Thankfully, as I got out of town, the traffic got down to a normal level. I rolled through 29 Palms and it was the same as it ever was. I stopped at the Statler Bros. grocery and grabbed a few things. I was really craving pickles so I grabbed a jar of Kosher Dill spears and ate a couple, as well as a swallow of juice. I guess my body needed the electrolytes or something. Who knows?

I headed out of town about 10 miles or so to the east. I found the road I was looking for. It was named ‘Gold Crown Road’ and it led to the ‘Old Dale Road’ I was looking for. I turned off on it, deflated tires and locked the hubs. This was going to be a challenging road, so I needed to go in prepared. As I drove down the road, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t bad at all, at least at this point. I saw all kinds of places I could camp, and as I had full bars of 5G, I should find a spot here and continue up the road tomorrow. It was around 3 o’clock when I started to scout out a camp for the night.

There was a track leading off the road that looked promising, so I headed off that way. The ground looked rocky and solid, so I had no qualms about driving around on it. I was at an area driving around about a quarter mile off the road when disaster struck. One moment I’ve driving around on solid ground, the next three tires are completely stuck! I leap out and assessed the situation. Immediately upon exiting the truck, my foot falls through the ground about 6 inches. It seems that I have run upon a desert trap! On the surface it seems normal, but it is just a thin layer on the ground. For a depth of about six inches or so it is empty space, and underneath it is powder sand. I just drove right into a batch of this nasty stuff.

I’ve never seen anything like this before in the desert. Three out of my four wheels were deep in sand, and my one wheel that was on solid ground wasn’t going to free me because I don’t have differential lockers. Even with half-deflated all-terrain tires and four wheel drive, The Beast got stuck like a duck! In all the time I’ve had this truck I’ve never been stuck like this. Fortunately, I was prepared for this kind of mishap. I got out my traction boards and hi-lift jack and got to work.

*If you look at the footprints around my truck you can see the crust that my tires fell into. It was a tar pit of sand!*

*This is what it looks like when the desert fucks you.*

I soon realized that I had made a grave error in only having two traction boards. What I had thought when I ordered them is that if two wheels out of four can grab ahold of something, it can get me out of anything. That thinking was oh so wrong. When all 4 wheels are compromised, you need 4 traction boards. So all of my wheels were spinning like mad. I tried 4 wheel drive to get out but that just made things worse. I realized that with two traction boards I needed to put them under the back two wheels and try to escape this trap with two wheel drive.

I brought out my hi-lift jack and jacked up the back end, then slid my traction boards underneath the rear tires. I got my shovel out and cleared as much of the sand around my tires as I could. I got behind the wheel and reversed until I ran out of board. I repeated this process 4 or 5 times and finally, I got free! I was so happy, I was beside myself. It took me around an hour to get free, I still had plenty of time to make camp.

*I was finally free from the sand trap!*

After getting all my off-road gear packed back up into my truck, I was so happy to be free from the trap that I made a critical error. Instead of reversing in the tracks I had made to that point, I tried to turn around. Guess what? I got stuck again! This time it was even worse than before. All wheels were a foot deep into sand. My tailpipe, which is usually a foot above ground, was only an inch off the sandy surface. I had to dig out a hole just so my truck could exhale. It was messed up! I almost called it quits for the night but I felt I couldn’t rest knowing that my truck couldn’t go anywhere. So I got my traction boards and shovel back out and got back to the grind.

*I only had one hard point on the rear of The Beast, so that’s where I had to go when jacking the bastard up.*

This stuck point was so bad. I tried to jack up the truck but the weight of the truck kept pushing the base of the jack into the sand. There is actually a slot built into the traction boards meant for a jack base, but as I needed the boards for traction I couldn’t use it for that purpose. It was a brutal ordeal, I would jack up the truck as high as I could, put the boards under the tires and reverse. I’d get about 6 inches and then have to do it all over again. It was infuriating!

During this process I really screwed up. I had left my jack engaged while I tried to reverse. I heard a clank and rushed to the back to see what was the matter. The rail on the high-lift jack had plunged into the back door of my camper. I tried to go forward to release the pressure and since I was in a hole, I couldn’t do it. I went back to the jack and tried to lower it, but the end of the jack dug into my back door on my camper and opened it up like a can opener. Not only did that happen, but it ground against my rear-view camera mounted in my bumper and took that out as well. I finally wrenched the rail out of my door, but the damage was done.

Fortunately my door was still able to open, close and latch properly. As for the camera, it only worked around 20% of the time so no big loss there. It was probably a wiring problem before, now I’ve got to install a whole new system. There goes another couple hundred bucks. I had long hated where they mounted it in the first place anyway. Next time I’ll get it mounted anywhere than right over the hard point.

So inch by inch, I kept jacking up the truck and sliding boards underneath the tires. By this point, the boards were pretty much ruined and my tires had big chunks of rubber taken out of them. I tried to be careful as I could to not spin out, but it didn’t matter. Finally, after two hours of getting filthy and sweaty, I finally emerged from the second trap and had all four tires back on solid ground. By now it was almost sunset, I had been dealing with stuck issues for 3 hours.

I felt that this area was cursed, so I blazed back to the main road to find a place to camp that I know wouldn’t give me any surprises. I got to a spot only about 100 ft. from the main road and set up camp. I was so tired and dispirited that I didn’t bother cooking supper, I just made a sandwich. Oh well, the trip had been trouble-free so far. At one point something was bound to go wrong. I was glad I had managed to free myself rather than try and get hauled out, but it came at a cost. In the future I’ll be sure to take 4 traction boards with me, as well as the kind with replaceable studs. I also need to have a base for my jack so it doesn’t sink in soft sand. Sometimes the only way to learn is doing it the hard way. Every time I go on expedition I recognize the gear I need to have to do this properly, and this time was no exception.

*At least Venus and the Moon looked really nice rising over the desert at sundown.*

Day 18

Altitude: 1410 ft. Stoke level: 5 Temperature: 84-51 degrees Conditions: clear, sunny, light wind

Today I was just going to take it easy. I was still rattled by the events of the day before so I just wanted to hang out and get myself ready for the solar panel installation. My birthday was tomorrow, and I wanted to have my new panel up and running by then. After I got up, I brought out all my solar equipment to get things assembled. Unfortunately, the directions were really unclear on how to mount the thing properly. I got on YouTube and watched some instructional videos, and everybody did it differently. I got frustrated and started pounding IPA’s, hoping for some liquid clarity. I soon got pretty buzzed and it got real uncomfortable trying to do this in the heat of the desert sun. I finally just gave up and passed out for a while.

Around sunset I woke up and felt a little bit more clear-headed. I drank some Arizona Green Tea and that helped some as well. By this point I was pretty familiar with all the nuts and bolts I needed to use, and I slowly started to figure out what I was doing. I got brackets on the thing and hauled it up on the roof. Next, I had to connect the wiring and hope I had gotten the right parts. Amazingly, I was right on the money with getting all the parts I needed for the wiring job. Now all I had left to do was apply the bonding tape. This part was critical, because the space I had to install the panel only has about a half inch on either side clearance. If I didn’t get it exactly right, the panel would not lay down properly when I lowered it to a flat position. This would cause it to be exposed to the windstream and threaten to rip it off as I was going down the road. Once the mounting tape encounters a surface it pretty much is stuck there permanently, so I had to get it right the first time.

*Installing a solar panel in the dark is fraught with difficulty.*

I climbed up my stepladder and took a deep breath to steady my nerves. I then placed the panel down as lightly as I could and checked the sides. I was over one one side a bit too far, so I wrenched up the panel and adjusted it. I checked it again and I had done it! I had my clearance on both sides. The panel wasn’t able to be budged after this, so I got real lucky it hadn’t stuck the first time. I mashed it down all around so I’d get a good bonding. I was overcome with relief. It took me from 5:30 to 9:30 to get it installed, it was quite the ordeal. Now all that was left to do was wait until morning to see if the panel was fully functional. I should have tested it before I permanently bonded it to my roof, but I didn’t think to do so. I guess I’ll see in the morning if it is any good or not. Fingers crossed!

Day 19

Altitude: 1410 ft. Stoke level: 9 Temperature: 82-55 degrees Conditions: clear, sunny, light wind

Happy Birthday to me! The first thing I did when I woke up around 8 was to check my voltimeter. I was pulling 5 amps and the sun was barely up! GREAT SUCCESS! As the morning wore on, my voltage and amperage kept rising. Around noon I was pulling 16 volts and around 9 amps. This new solar panel was savage! Usually around that time with my one fixed solar panel, I’d pull around 13 volts and 3-4 amps so this was a vast improvement. Being able to tilt the panel towards the angle of the sun is a game-changer. I bought another set of tilt brackets for my fixed panel, but I’ll worry about that some other time. I’m pulling all the power I need for now. It didn’t take very long at this rate to fully charge up my battery. It’s such a relief to not have to worry about power issues any more. I was thrilled, it was a great birthday present to myself!

The rest of the day I drank a bunch of IPA’s and watched 90’s grunge videos on my phone. Now and then I’d talk & text with people who wished me well. It would have been nice to be in a better camping spot, but as I stated before, I needed to let my panel adhere for at least 24 hours so I couldn’t go anywhere. That was fine by me, I really enjoyed my day. I spent it the way I wanted to in a place I dearly love.

*It was very satisfying seeing my new panel installed and doing its thing.*

Day 20

Altitude: 1410 ft. Stoke level: 2 Temperature: 80-56 degrees Conditions: clear, sunny, light wind

I paid today for the revelry I had yesterday. I had a king-hell massive hangover. The concussions from the bombs being dropped at the nearby Marine base rattled my truck and rattled my head. It got hot and I was miserable. I was going to head further up this road I’m on today but I could barely stand up without feeling I was going to pass out. Looks like I’ll be spending another day at this camp. I just chugged Gatorade all day and kept trying to nap just to not feel like garbage for periods of time.

I really hated to lose another day, as I’m entering the final week of my expedition. I took advantage of the downtime and thought about how I wanted to finish this trip up. I had planned on heading up to Mojave National Preserve and maybe running the Mojave Trail again. It’s a pretty technical trail however, and I really don’t want to be stressed out the last few days I’m here in the desert. Using my OnX app, I took a look at some trails up in the lower part of Death Valley National Park that I’ve never been on. I’ve explored up the area around Furnace Creek quite a bit, but I’ve never been in the southern end of the park. The trails are marked 1-3 difficulty on a scale of 1-10, so that sounds perfect for what I want to get into.

I think tomorrow I’ll head up this road I’ve been camped alongside the past 3 days and spend one more day in the Joshua Tree area. After that, I need to do laundry and pick up the supplies I need for this final push. I’m hoping that this expedition will get back on track and I’ll finish it up in grand style. I just got to watch out for that desert sand in the meantime!

Camping, Off-Roading

UFO’s, Foxes, and a Damn Good Campsite

Day 7

Altitude: 855 ft. Stoke level: 10 Temperature: 79-64 degrees Conditions: sunny, clear, calm

Today was probably one of the finest days I’ve ever had out exploring the desert wastes of California. I finally managed to get the motivation to pack up my campsite and head to town. I had some shopping to do as well as to upload my blog. As cellular signal in town is lacking, I needed to find a place with wifi to upload. I was craving a cheeseburger, so I found this place named Carlee’s that had both wifi and burgers! They had green chilie cheeseburgers (my favorite) so I ordered one. I ordered mine medium-rare and it came out pretty rare, but that was fine by me! It was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had, and the beer-battered fries were top-notch as well.

I managed to get my blog uploaded, got a few groceries and topped off my tank before heading out of town towards the east side of the park. I wanted to find a place to camp close to Font’s Point so I found a dispersed campground called Arroyo Salado close by. I found the campground completely deserted, which is a big reason I love exploring during the week! I followed a trail off to the side which led to a little nook which contained a couple of campsites with fire pits. I knew that this was the camp for me so I parked and set up shop.

*Looking west back towards Borrego Springs. The mountains in the background were where I saw the weird light flying around later that evening.*

I made a fire and got prepared to grill a steak over the coals. It was a calm clear evening with only the slightest bit of wind blowing. The temperature was perfect, I didn’t need the fire for warmth but it was nice to make a fire for the first time on this trip. It’s a pretty busy air corridor as I’m pretty close to San Diego and a few military bases, so there were a lot of aircraft flying around the sky. They are pretty easy to identify, with their red & green lights blinking and straight flight paths.

*Nothing better than making a nice fire out in the desert.*

As I was grilling my steak, I saw a light appear over the mountains to the west. At first I thought it was a plane, even though I didn’t see any navigation lights on it. It was flying south to north in a straight line when suddenly it started to make huge loops and move in really odd ways. The speed at which it was making these maneuvers was impossible for a normal aircraft to make. I must have watched it for a minute when I realized I needed to be recording what I was seeing, so I pushed record and filmed what I saw.

It was an incredible thing to witness! It was easy to see with the naked eye but when I reviewed the film, the results were inconclusive. The mountains were set in relief by the light pollution coming from San Diego, so I had a visual reference to see the erratic motions of the craft. In watching the video though, you just see a light in the darkness. The camera can’t pick up enough light to show the mountain range in relation to the unidentified light. As I’m tracking the object with the camera, you can’t see the relative motion. I got on Google Photos and applied image stabilization which helped, but it blurred the light too much with visual artifacts. I then processed it with full brightness which helped see the motion of the object somewhat.

I can see it move around in loops and odd directions, but I don’t know if anyone else will be able to. Still, I saw what I saw, and this is the evidence I gathered. If I see something like this again I’ll stay zoomed out and not follow the light with my phone. It was a really cool thing to witness, that’s why I like stargazing out in the desert, you never know what you’ll see! The lack of light pollution results in an amazing display of stars & the Milky Way at night, so even without UAP’s flying around there is so much to see out here in the darkness.

At the end of the video, I stopped recording and tried to reacquire the light again with my naked eye. Within moments it just vanished, never to appear again. What it was, I’ll never know. I’ve never seen anything so brightly lit up move with such agility. It must have been moving hundreds of feet in the blink of an eye, moving at high rates of speed. There’s no way it was a manned craft to move so fast. The closest thing I can compare it to is an insect flying around a light source at night. Its movements were just so random! Plus it was lit up as bright as an airplane, so who knows what it was? It certainly was an exciting thing to see!

As I was trying to come to terms with what had happened, I saw movement from around the front of my truck. I shone my headlamp on the visitor to find a desert fox staring at me! It turned tail and ran away, I chased after it to look at it better. Every now and then my headlamp would illuminate its eyes with a blue reflection. It would have been pretty spooky if I didn’t know what I was looking at! With the UFO and now the fox sighting, I felt incredibly blessed by my choice in campsites. That, along with the delicious cheeseburger I had earlier and the perfect conditions gave today a 10 on the Stoke Meter without question. Days like this are why I go through so much trouble and expense to do trips such as these. So far this expedition has really delivered, I hope it keeps going this way!

Day 8

Altitude: 855 ft. Stoke level: 9 Temperature: 84-70 degrees Conditions: sunny, clear, calm

I woke up late after staying up most of the night hoping the UFO/UAP would make another appearance. I orginally had intended to go explore Font’s Point while the crowds were away, but I didn’t want to take a chance on having someone claim this excellent spot while I was away…so I stayed put. I drank many beers while watching the video I made the night before. I did everything I could to try and show what I saw with my naked eye on video, but no matter what I did I wasn’t impressed with the results. With brightness cranked to 100% you can see the grain behind the image and that kind of gives perspective to the motion of the craft. In the end I was disappointed that it didn’t show what I saw with my eyes exactly, but it’s better than not having a video at all.

I made my first big blunder of the expedition so far. I noticed that my cooler was having trouble staying below 40 degrees during the heat of the day (it’s set at 32 degrees, actual temperature is 5-7 degrees above what the display reads). This is on ‘Eco’, which is the most energy-efficient setting. Usually this is fine at night and uses very little power, so it’s my go-to setting. I decided to set it to ‘Max’ setting to see how that worked out. At first, it worked out great, the temperature started to drop back down into the 30’s. I then made the critical error of passing out most of the afternoon. When I woke up around sunset, my energy meter showed I had way overblown my energy budget for the day. My solar battery was dangerously discharged. I had used more power than I had taken in during sunlight hours. I have to be careful about discharging my battery more than 50% in a day, it’s harmful to it if I dip below 12.2 volts. I got right to 12.2 at the low point last night because of my flub, that can’t happen again. I’ll have to take my chances at the ‘Eco’ setting and hope that nothing gets too warm & I get food poisoning.

It turned out to be another perfect night condition-wise. I made a big batch of Mi Goreng Indonesian noodles with snow pea pods, mini corn and fried spam. It takes a lot of prep to make such a meal, but it was worth it. As I cooked, I’d occasionally drop bits of food in the sand which I would throw away towards the perimeter of my campsite. At one point I thought I saw movement and shone my light in that direction. It was the fox, it had returned!

This time it showed no fear of me, and I got good film of him. He was running around gobbling up all the bits of food I had dropped making my noodles. At one point it got within 5 feet of me! I had never been so close to a fox before. At one point I thought he might possibly try and bite me, even though he showed no aggressive behavior and wasn’t foaming at the mouth or anything. He was just a brave little fox. I was honored to be visited by this desert animal. The desert appears to be barren but obviously there’s a lot of life out there running around. I take care on where I walk because I know there’s sidewinders and scorpions out here roaming around at night as well. Still, seeing some wildlife so close was a real treat. As I say in the video, it was a real ‘National Geographic’ kind of moment!

As far as sighting any mysterious crafts, I did witness a strange blinking red light going back and forth across the mountain in roughly the same spot as the object the night before. It would jump around a bit, but nothing like the object did the night before. I made a video, but it really didn’t show that much. I reckoned it could have been maybe a search-and-rescue helicopter looking for someone. I stayed out until around 10 o’clock but didn’t see anything else. There were little moths flying around everywhere, they constantly would fly into my eyes & ears. Eventually I got fed up with the bugs and decided to retreat into the relatively bug-free environment of my camper for the remainder of the evening.

As for tomorrow, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. The week is starting to wind down once again and the weekend warriors will soon be back. I really want to explore Font’s Point before the crowds show back up, but when I’ve found such a quality campsite I’m super hesitant to leave. I want to explore new places, but finding new campsites day after day is sort of a ‘hit-or-miss’ proposition. My main reason for coming down here is desert solitude, and not having to drive around having to burn expensive gas is a huge plus. Wherever I’m at on Friday is where I’ll have to spend the weekend though. I’m in no hurry to go anywhere, but if someone shows up at the other campsite here (weekend warriors love to get up in your space) it’s going to totally ruin this spot. It’s such a lovely campsite, free from the human stain. If a bunch of loudmouth yakkers show up it’ll piss all over my solitude. So I’ll see how it goes. It’s great not having a schedule and being able to do as much or as little as I want!

Day 9

Altitude: 855 ft. Stoke Meter: 9 Temperature: 90-70 degrees Conditions: sunny, clear, slight wind

Nothing really happened today. No foxes or UFO’S made an appearance. It was a real hot day, and I was just completely drained. Still in high sprits though! I’ve always wanted to watch Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle so I started watching episodes of that show today. I’m pretty impressed with it so far. I’ll definitely be leaving my camp tomorrow. It’s been a great camp, one of my all time favorite places actually. It’s time to make tracks however. I need to let my solar battery recharge, I had another low voltage situation last night. When I’ve got the 12 volt cooler plugged in all day it can’t recharge properly under load. A few hours running off the starting battery should remedy that.

I’ve got a full plate planned for tomorrow. As it is Friday already again, (can’t believe I’ve been here a week!) the weekend warrior plague will be drifting back into town. I need to go do town stuff, as well as upload this blog, check out Font’s Point, and scout out another campsite. It’s going to be a busy day!

Camping, Off-Roading

Operation Desert Solitude Begins

Day One of Operation Desert Solitude

Altitude: 2905 ft. Stoke level: 10 Temperature: 71-56 degrees Conditions: partly cloudy, light wind

It was such a huge relief to finally hit the road at long last! I managed to get out ahead of a run of bad weather hitting the Monterey Bay, which was nice. For at least the next 3 weeks or so I’ll try my best to outrun Autumn weather by heading south. I left town on a good note, actually. I had a great conversation with a captain Bethan referred me to up in Anchorage, a fellow named Thor. Captain Thor told me he’d be glad to take me on as deckhand for the next summer season. The season would run April to August, so at least I’ve got employment locked down for that point in the future. I’m looking forward to getting in some good commercial fishing experience. It’s going to be a long cold winter in the meantime. Oh well, best think about that later.

It was so good to hop on Highway 25 and make the run down into San Benito county. When I hit Tres Pinos I know I’m home, it’s always such a welcome feeling. The trip was uneventful, and it was a nice day weather-wise. I got really lucky on my arrival to the campground, my favorite spot was available! There’s only 6 camping spots up at Laguna Mountain, and my favorite spot has the best views in my opinion. It kind of has its own secluded driveway as well, so it’s the most private. When I’ve got my spot locked down I know I’m gonna have a real good time! I got my camp set up, which took quite a bit of time since I had a lot of new gear to integrate into my camp plan.

Out of all my new kit, my 12 volt cooler has been of particular interest to me. I love the thing, it’s got enough room to fit a couple gallon jugs of water with room to spare. It’s a miracle how something can just sip current, yet still be able to keep ice cold temperatures at the same time. Even though it sips power, it still is a steady drain on my power systems. I can power it by the main truck battery when I’m on the road, so no problem there. The issue is whether or not I can keep it going all day with just the solar battery. With the sun so low in the sky this time of year, it’s hard to get a good charge. Together with partly cloudy skies, it’s gonna be difficult to keep it going. I wanted to make this upgrade in tandem with upgrading my electrical system, being able to charge my house battery via the alternator would be a huge help right now. I had to choose one or the other so I chose to have the 12 volt cooler. We’ll definitely see if this was a wise decision on my part. So far so good though.

*My new BougeRV cooler, with and without the insulated cover.*

Another upgrade I’m really appreciating is basing all my propane needs off of a 20 lb tank. No more having to deal with those little 1 lb propane canisters! Now I can power my in-camper catalytic heater, my new stove, and this neat little gadget called a ‘Mister Heater’ by merely swapping out hoses. It’s a much better way to do things than the way I was doing it before. The Mister Heater is a infrared heating element that threads on top of my propane tank. Once it is installed, you just light it up and it makes a great heater! I got this for occasions when I want heat at night but can’t make a fire due to restrictions.

*I’m really loving my new Coleman camp stove. I’ve always wanted a proper two-burner. Got a new T-Fal 12 inch non-stick skillet to use on it as well!*

I had a really good first night out here at Laguna Mountain. I stayed up till probably 4 AM drinking wine and enjoying the nice clear evening. At one point I turned on my new survival radio to run through all the available bands. About the only thing on was really maniac strange Mexican music and Christian rock. Radio around here really sucks, ha ha! It’s fun to play around on my new Kaito radio. I’ve got a 25 foot wire antenna to put on the thing, so maybe after I do that I’ll pull in some interesting stations, who knows.

Day Two

Altitude: 2905 ft. Stoke level: 7 Temperature: 72-59 degrees Conditions: partly cloudy, moderate breeze

My stoke meter slid 3 points due to a massive hangover. I’m still in really good spirits though. The cooler ran like clockwork all night and into the day. I don’t know what kind of charge I’m going to have left come sundown. I might have to pull the plug tonight, only time will tell. I’ve got only some ham, cheese and mayo that can spoil. I kind of saw this thing coming so I intentionally left out a lot of fresh food until I can see how this cooler situation pans out.

Not really doing too much today at all. Before I left, I downloaded ‘Squid Game’ off of Netflix and have been watching that all day. It’s a pretty messed up series, but wildly entertaining! I’ve got to get up early for the journey down south tomorrow, so no partying tonight. It’s going to be a 8 hour run down my least favorite stretch of road in all of California…I-5. Plus I’ll have to skirt nasty LA traffic, I’m not really looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to being at my destination however!

Day Three

Altitude: 3292 ft. Stoke meter: 6 Temperature: 73-61 degrees Conditions: mostly sunny, clear, windy

Well, the cooler barely used any power at all last night, and it held barely above freezing the whole time. I don’t think I’m going to have any problems keeping it on 24/7, especially now that I have arrived down at Anza-Borrego. The forecast is for clear sunny skies the next few days. I should be able to get a pretty decent charge for my battery on a daily basis while I’m down here. Gotta love that desert sun!

It was a taxing trip down from San Benito county. I left a couple hours later than I would have liked, for starters. It was a pretty good trip until I got to LA county. From Pasadena to Temecula it was nasty. I spent 4 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic, it was pretty rotten. I took the most direct route, but next time I think I will drive out of my way to completely bypass the outskirts of LA. Other than the insane traffic, it was a good drive. It’s been a while since I’ve driven such a distance. It feels good to get some miles under my tires!

Since I left so late, my arrival time here in Anza-Borrego was due to be right around sundown. My cardinal rule about desert camping is to set up camp no later than two hours before the sun sets, so I was nervous about my late arrival. As I made my way into the home stretch of the park, I remarked on how similar it is here to Joshua Tree. The rocks are smaller (but still have that Joshua Tree look to them) and there’s no Joshua Trees, but other than that the scenery and vibe is the same.

The sun fell behind the mountains a good 30 minutes before I arrived, so there was barely any light when I got to the campground. I chose to camp at one of the free dispersed campgrounds since I wouldn’t have time to scout out a place in the desert. Anza-Borrego has miles of off-road you can camp off of, the only limitations are that you can’t park more than a car’s length off the road and can’t set up camp 100 feet from a water source. After this first night I plan to camp well away from the public, but for now I’ll have to deal with being around people.

This being a Friday night, I was well aware that the weekend warriors would probably be infesting my chosen campground. Indeed they were doing so, I found out upon my arrival. All the spots were taken, but I managed to find a little nook that had been overlooked. I had enough room to back up my truck to a private space, and that’s all I needed. I set up my stove and heated up some canned menudo for dinner. The wind was gusting and made setting up camp difficult, but I’ve been through worse out in the desert. I’m surrounded by people, this seems to be a pretty popular campground. I want to be far away from people as possible, for tonight I’ll just have to deal with it though.

Tomorrow I plan to hit up the visitor center and see what they have there. I’ll probably focus on finding a good remote camping spot way off of the beaten path. I can wait until Sunday or Monday to actually start seeing the sights. With so many people around, I imagine a lot of the good spots to go check out will be totally inundated this weekend. I don’t mind staying out of the way until the crowds have passed. I’ve liked what I have seen so far, can’t wait to fully explore this place!

Day 4

Altitude: 1013 ft. Stoke level: 7.5 Temperature: 82-64 degrees Conditions: clear, sunny, strong winds

After a good night of sleep, I got up around 9 AM and broke camp. My mission today was to check out the town of Borrego Springs and get myself acquainted with the place. I also wanted to see what the park vistor center had to offer. I had to descend from the top of the mountain down to the valley floor where the town and the rest of the park was located. The winds continued to blow unabated. I got to a vista point and took a couple of pictures, the winds were so strong I had to hold my phone with both hands to keep it from blowing out of my grasp!

*Great views of Borrego Springs and of Anza-Borrego from the highway vista point.*

When I got down into town, I saw that they were having a small festival going on called ‘Borrego Days’. It was set up inside a small park in the middle of the town’s only roundabout. It looked pretty fun, they had all kinds of festival food stands and live music. I had a lot to do so I didn’t stop to check it out. The first thing I went and did was get gas. Gas is extremely expensive here, I put in 50 bucks worth and it gave me a little more than a quarter tank. Now I remember why it costs so much money to explore the desert! I checked out a few shops for various items and they were just as expensive as the gas. Things are even more expensive here than they are in Alaska! Cellular internet was pretty crummy so I got a 10 dollar margarita at a local Mexican restaurant to use their wi-fi. It wasn’t much better than cellular, but I was able to take care of internet stuff.

It’s good that I don’t use diesel! Eight dollars a gallon is insane!

After I got fueled up, I made my way over to the Anza-Borrego Visitor Center. I was pretty impressed with it, they had some nice exhibits. Probably the highlight was the mammoth skulls and fossils they had on display, as well as a replica of a tortoise shell that was the size of a 4-wheeler. I guess back in the day the desert was more like a savanna. There were many species that lived here, including sloths, saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, camels, and zebras. Before all the megafauna existed there was an inland sea here so there were a lot of ocean fossils on display as well.

I asked a ranger where a good place to get away from crowds would be, and he told me to head up to the north end of the park to a place called Coyote Canyon. As it was getting rather late in the day I finished my business in town and proceeded to head that way. I only made it about 45 minutes up the road when I saw an inviting turn-out that looked to be a good place to camp for the night. I didn’t want to be fumbling around in the dark for a campsite so I decided to stop for the day. I’m right off the road (which is the only legal place to camp) so it’s not as private as I would like. Still, it’s a far better spot than I was at last night. Other than the occasional Jeep roaring by it’s pretty isolated. I even have a bit of 4g Internet here which is a bonus. The wind keeps on blowing steadily however. All night long my truck keeps rocking back and forth. It’s warm though, and inside my camper shell it’s pretty cozy.

*My landing spot for the night. It’s soothing to hear the wind blowing the ocotillo* *branches around.*

Tomorrow I plan on driving further up the canyon and check out what’s further up the road. There’s a 55% chance of rain on Monday so I need to keep an eye on these washes to make sure I don’t get stuck in a bad spot anywhere around here. Flash floods can get pretty crazy out here in the desert. After Monday the weather’s going to be nice so I’ll start checking out some of the more popular spots then. As for now I’m going to continue my exploration of this canyon and hope a lot of the weekend warriors start filtering out tomorrow.

Day 5

Altitude: 1013 ft. Stoke level: 8 Temperature: 84-60 degrees Conditions: sunny, light clouds, light wind

All morning, traffic streamed out of the canyon. I didn’t leave my spot until around 11 as I wanted to give the weekend warriors time to filter out. I set a course on my new OnX off-road app and headed up the canyon. I made it up a couple of miles, and in that time I had to pull over to let traffic by several times. The road narrowed quite a bit once I got past my camping spot so it was really aggravating having to let people pass. Not only was the road narrowing an annoyance, but the road became really rocky and sandy. Even with deflated tires and 4 wheel drive engaged it started to get challenging to drive. If I didn’t constantly have to dodge traffic it would have been fine but with so many other vehicles coming the opposite way it got really annoying really fast. Driving a big truck like The Beast off-road is hard enough without having other people to dodge! After a couple of miles, I got fed up with the situation and returned to my camp of the previous evening.

*This was mounted to a rock at my campsite. Turns out back in 1775 this spot was the route used by Lt.Col*. *Juan Bautista de Anza to deliver settlers through this region.*

Since I wouldn’t be going anywhere, I decided to get uproariously drunk. I decided to assemble this grill I got so I could build a fire in it, but never got around to making the fire due to wind. I felt like talking to somebody so I gave my nephew a call and had a really nice conversation with him. During the call I fell out of my chair and dumped a full Solo cup of wine all over me. I got pretty scraped up from this, all in good fun though. The last thing I remember is flopping into my bed sometime around midnight and I passed clean out.

Day 6

Altitude: 1013 ft. Stoke meter: 7 Temperature: 77-59 degrees Conditions: sunny early/rain late, strong wind

Another morning, another hangover. This one was pretty rotten. I woke up and couldn’t find my glasses anywhere. I looked for like 3 hours and couldn’t find them for the life of me. After searching all over my camper and cab, I decided to check my campsite. I found them buried in the sand a few feet from my camper door. I must have been wrecked to not have noticed that they fell off of my face last night! I washed them off and they were fine, no scratches on them or anything. No harm, no foul! I was pretty banged up from falling over last night though, my elbow and knee were scraped up pretty badly. All par for the course when I’m out on expedition!

I had a decision to make. Should I stay and rest up from my debauch the previous evening, or should I hit the road and start seeing more of the park? I was torn, as I wanted to do both things equally. After much debate, I decided to take it easy and not deal with the aggravation of packing up camp and rolling back through town. I would need to stop at the market in Borrego Springs and I just couldn’t handle the thought of grappling with civilization today. I’m not in a huge hurry, but weekday time is precious to me. The time outside the weekends are prime exploratory time. I don’t like to contend with the weekend warrior crowd so I prefer to roam around during the week.

The weather was another factor to take into consideration. The remnants of the storms that pummeled Northern California were making their way down to the desert in the evening and I wanted to be in a good spot in case it got bad. So the rest of the day I just recovered and waited for the rain to arrive.

The winds kept picking up as the evening wore on. Soon my truck was rocking and rolling from the gusts. The temperature dropped and I started up my heater. Rain started to fall eventually, but it never got too heavy. Eventually the storm blew through but the wind never died. It’s been steady the whole time I’ve been here actually. It makes building a fire or even using my stove almost impossible. Hopefully I can find a spot with more protection, this wind keeps things cool but is a huge annoyance.

I’m going into town tomorrow to resupply and then go to this place called ‘Font’s Point’ that has been called “California’s Grand Canyon.” It’s the most popular view in the park. Hopefully there will be some good spots over there for camping. The road over there has been rated a 3 out of 10 on the difficulty scale, so The Beast should be able to handle it without issue. It’s been nice hanging out in Coyote Canyon but the show must go on!

Camping, Off-Roading

I Dig My Rig

For this post I’d like to go into my camping rig. I’ve been camping and exploring in my truck (that I have affectionately named The Beast) for as long as I have owned it, going on 6 years now. We have had many off-road adventures and been to some truly epic places.

Over the years I would upgrade a little here, and a little there. Every time I went out I constantly thought of things I could use to inprove my overall camping experience. It wasn’t until last December when I had to move into my truck that I seriously got about making some major living improvements. My situation was pretty bleak so I needed to make quality of life adjustments right away.

First I did my best to plug the cracks to stop the wind from blowing through. Next I installed curtains for privacy and shade and installed a cargo net to keep my gear off the floor. The first week I absolutely froze, it was horrible. I realized I needed a heavy sleeping bag so I got a nice model from Coleman rated down to 4 degrees below 0. That bag was heaven-sent, it made sleeping outside in the 30’s tolerable.

At the time, I was sleeping on air mattresses that would constantly leak and grow mold in the damp environment, so the next big improvement I made was to get a metal cot frame and 7 inches of memory foam on top. This was a huge upgrade for me and well worth the money. It’s a twin XL frame which is long enough for my body. My ankles hang off a normal twin. It also allowed me to stow my four bins of camping & off-road equipment underneath my bed. This freed up a ton of room. I have two bins dedicated to my kitchen supplies, of which I added a lot of stuff to. I got collapsable bins for dishwashing purposes, I really like how they just open up and then collapse so neatly.

Back when I was in Louisiana last year, I had bought a power box for my trolling motor battery. It came with fuses and two 12 volt plugs built in, so I brought it with me here to California to use as my secondary power supply. I would just recharge it every 3-4 days with a battery charger. This grew tedious, so I installed a 100 watt solar system.

It’s been great fun to play around with. Not wanting to drill holes in my roof, I installed my solar panel with 3M heavy duty mounting tape. It is supposed to be like a metal weld in strength, but I attached metal zip-ties from it to my roof rack for peace of mind. My old trolling motor wet lead-acid battery wasn’t up to snuff so I bought a top of the line 300 dollar AGM sealed lead acid 100 amp hour battery that should be good for 5-10 years. I also got this Bluetooth module for my solar controller so I can monitor my system in real-time. It also graphs my daily usage so I can see if things are running optimally at a glance.

*A closer look at my 12 volt system with 500 watt inverter.*

With my setup I can charge my devices, run my weather station, my two mini-swamp coolers, and my LED lights. Utimately I want to get a 12 volt refrigerator to save me from the tyranny of constantly having to resupply my ice chest with ice on the trail. I had placed two orders on Ebay for a cheaper model of cooler that fell through with not enough time left to order another for my trip. It’s a bummer, but when I get back from Alaska I will get a good quality model that will be a better investment than the cheaper model would have been.

The only things left to do is to get some kind of reservoir and water pump installed for water, a water purification system, an electric shower, and a cell-phone booster. After this, I think I’ll be set. As far as off-road gear goes I just got this nice 150 dollar air compressor which is a necessity for off-road travel. My last one was a cheap 35 dollar piece of junk. I do want to get some traction mats and a hi-lift jack for getting out of sticky situations. A winch would be nice, but you can get a kit for the hi-jack that basically does the same thing.

My truck needed a lot of work done after a time of not being financially able to take care of needed repairs. I fixed the brakes first, and then replaced the left ball socket & left tie rod. I then got a new set of All-Terrain light truck tires and replaced the linkages on my sway bar. It’s good to be rolling with a truck at 100%. The Beast & I are rip-roaring ready to go out into the wilderness for sure!

So that about wraps it up. It’s been the greatest thing to slowly build up my rig from miserable to somewhat baller! I made a truck bed into my own little bedroom. I can’t wait to get out and get off-road with my new setup. It gets really hot and really cold with barely any in-between, but I have really come to enjoy sleeping out in it. I can’t wait to sleep on a real bed when I am up in Alaska though. It’s been a year and a half since I have slept in a real bed and my back could really use a break!

	The Dogfish on Goodbye Fireweed, Hello Fall
	Jacob on Goodbye Fireweed, Hello Fall
	The Dogfish on Kickin’ it in Kenai
	The Dogfish on Kickin’ it in Kenai
	ainswca0 on Kickin’ it in Kenai

Tales of the Dogfish

Where Man fears to tread, the Dogfish boldly swims…

Tag Archives: off-grid

Out and About in the Valley of Death/Expedition’s End

Rally to Death Valley

Beware the Desert Sands

UFO’s, Foxes, and a Damn Good Campsite

Operation Desert Solitude Begins

I Dig My Rig