Topic: * Rescheduled *: Mojave Road West, Central, +

[Nissanpatrol]

okidoki. I was ready for my first trip with the club. Is ok lets see next one.

[Rexterra]

Please keep me informed! I was in the Mojave Desert last weekend (March 27th) and would love to run the Mojave Road with you guys! No snow, right?  HaHa

[fleury123]

brian , any thoughts on anew date. I am chomping at the bit as I am getting ready to deploy again.

[ilovemud]

hey everyone,
 just thought id post up and say hi. im pretty interested in this run. ive made some recent upgrades on the x and im looking to try them out. although im a little hesitant until i get new shocks. if anyone has any ideas for me thatd be great but i guess im itching to get out with yall seein as its been forever sonce my last run with the club. and my last run didnt exactly end well. so i gotta redeem myself. anyways if we can pick a date for this before it gets way tooooo hot that would be sweet.

[tlynch]

Can this trip be made on one tank of gas?
thanks for the info!

[XterracerX]

Depending on your ride, I was able to do it last time with the group with a full tank right from the trailhead to finish. I believe we did close to 150+ off-road miles in that 2-day venture.

But my confidence was brought about by the strong support of the club... and extra fuel in Oz's truck. 

My X is a 1st gen... Supercharged... (premium gas only).

But as always, as a golden rule, come prepared.

[tlynch]

Thanks I guess all wait until I figure out where I am going to mount some spare fuel.

[Paul]

I'm posting from 'Vegas.

Drove by Afton and took a look at the water crossing and it didn't look bad.

Further down the road Soda Dry lake isn't.

[topcat]

I am dying to go on this run!  Any idea of when it will happen yet?

[GUANO]

I lived in vegas for 12 years.  Have you taken the Wheeler Pass from Indian Springs (north of LV) into Pahrump?  It's an exciting drive.  The pass on the LV side of the mountain is EXTREMELY rocky.  all loose boulders - i made it up in my last truck, a 2WD tacoma with the rear locker - but barely made it - and spent several slow hours trying to make it up one small section.  Once you get to the Pahrump side the main road gets smooth and wide and pretty fun to drive fast on.  Also on the Pahrump side there are a large number of roads that open up to you that allow for some exploration - and there is some good exploring to do, there are some old mills and other things to look at as well as some fairly difficult trails.  When I was like 13 we went in a group of 60's-70's heavily modded pickups and went on a nasty trail up there - had to push over trees.   There are also wild horses up there and we saw a heard of at LEAST 300 large elk about 7 years ago, but never again since then.  The horses are pretty tame and will come up to the vehicle although caution should be observed, there are several small herds and sometimes you can can see the 2 males fighting - Discovery Channel style.

[Goldfish]

That sounds like a great trip Guano. You should get it organized. I would love to go.

[GUANO]

I'm not sure when I'm going to be heading towards Vegas again - but every time I do i try make a Wheeler Pass run.   I was trying to get out of Vegas for a long time so I'm not really in a hurry to get over there again.   

My only problem with the place is there is NO WATER!   So if you go camping you'll have to bring your own.  It was awesome being that the place was so close to Vegas that it was prefect for day runs and there are also a lot of trails up there other than Wheeler pass and some of them can be pretty challenging, for instance there is a 500ft gorge that you have to to descend and ascend on one of the trails, I saw a large lifted suburban stuck in the bottom of it with all 4 wheels off the ground, stuck on the front and rear bumpers, the descent and ascent I would say is a 15% grade, straight up, no switchbacks - The 500 foot proving ground .   There is also some awesome geology up there as well as different habitat types.   You start off in the at the bottom of the desert and work your way up into pinions and sagebrush (high desert) and there is some areas that are full-on alpine and it's funny because that mountain range is completely separated from any other alpine range for quite some distance.  The alpine areas are not on the main wheeler pass, but once you get over to the west-facing side of the range you can find some trails that lead into some alpine areas.

Here is a video I found on wheeler pass, check it out:   http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-115675295219226467#

From living there for so many years I pretty much know every trail within 150 mile radius of Vegas excluding Death Valley and Dumont area (other than the dunes, been there.)

High Sierra's are my location of choice.  I'm def going to plan a 3-4 day trip to take a tour of some of my favorite trails along the 395 between Bishop and Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side of the Sierras some time this year.    I know of some pretty epic places that are always close to water.  I'm also all about off-trail driving and camping as much as possible when it's legal, some of the best places to camp have no roads and you have to make your own fire ring.  There is also lots to discover up there such as arrowheads, old homesteads, precious stones and ancient alien technology.   I have some great pics of my last trip up there in my prerunner Tacoma - and there were some places I just couldn't make it to with just a rear locker.  If anyone wants to go this year let me know.  I'd like to get out and practice the traditional nav methods as well... topo/compass, sextant, stars, pure reckoning .