Topic: Mojave Road East to West 1-3 Oct, 2010

[mark1107]

Paul I will be there. Companion or no companion. Maybe Friday, more than likely Saturday. If I bring a guest, I will let you know the name ahead of time.

Mark

[Rexterra]

We might make it again, that is iffin you want us! 
I'm gonna try to make this one too Paul.

[SuperSlideStyle]

We had lots of fun running this Xcursion with everyone last year.  I mght be able to make it, don't know yet.

[NUBEX]

Hello everybody,

Me, my wife (and maybe my son) would like to join in for the first day of this trip.  We have to be back home on Saturday.
This is weird - Friday only - but I don't want to wait: we must get out there off road with people that have done this before, and learn by participating, or else I'm afraid that we might get in some hard situation when we will be on our own.   

We are new to all of this off road stuff: got an xterra a few weeks ago but never been off road with a proper vehicle (we ventured onto mountain and desert unpaved roads with regular cars and vans; got to some pretty scary places,but not further than that).

Based on your published guidelines, I got today a fire extinguisher, a D-Ring Receiver Hitch attachment and ordered an air compressor and a 20' tow strap. On Oct 1, I'm planning on getting a 10000lb winch from Harbor Freight, the cheap one they have.
If nothing comes up, hope to meet you all in Needles.
over.

[Paul]

You're not going to need the winch this trip.

Save the money and get a five gallon water and a five gallon fuel can - both for comfort's sake. This is the longest off-road trip we take and if you're going to do the east to central you end up pretty far off the beaten trail from the nearest gas station at Barstow. It's not at all impossible to make it on one tank of gas but the prudent thing is to carry extra if you can. I carry extra on this trail and the Bradshaw as they're two pretty long trails and not having to worry about gas is just a good thing. Extra water is always nice to have in the desert. I keep my cans filled around the house too for the unlikely earthquake. If you're camping on Friday night don't forget an airbed ... makes young and old bones happy!

If you make Friday and can stay with us for some to most of Saturday you're going to have two choices to bail out - either leaving early on Kel-Baker road or it's possible that we make the journey all the way to Acton Saturday night and camp in a semi-dry campground. They'll have pit toilets and last time I was there they had water. The day time temperatures are going to be a wee bit warm so we'll stay in the trucks for a long day crossing the Soda Lake and into the Acton canyon area. If we can make the campground by 6:00 PM we should be golden.

I'm going to check the depth of the water and see if the camp ground has potable water this coming Sunday in prep for the club's run the following week.

[NUBEX]

The winch goes on sale for 299$ on Oct 1. I don't need it for this trip, and I won't have it.  I don't know why I even mentioned that...
Will bring water.
How low is the expected gas mileage on these off road trips? How far can you get off roading on one tank?   
Maybe we will camp, maybe not: depends how tired we will be after the Friday.

I thought we can split at the Saturday meeting point (Kelso - Cima crossing), near the Friday night campsite.  Is this not advisable?

Of course I would prefer to stay the whole weekend, but we had previous conflicting plans.  Now I'll be happy if I can just make it on Friday.
What or when will the November xcursion be?
over.

[Goldfish]

Welcome to the club Nubex. Look forward to meeting you on the Mojave Trail.

Paul: Looks like I will be joining you on Friday morning. What time are we meeting in Needles?

[Kyle J. Thompson]

Paul- I am in for sure we wouold meet you friday, and we could convoy from riverside if you like, Cutter is comming if he is  invited, ill bring snacks so the "bear" doesnt grab at food any chance he has. I may bring a Passanger, a buddy from my fire training program if thats ok.

I got a mobile dual band 2m/440 radio and will have it installed this weekend, but I dont have an SWR meeter powerful enough for the radio, its for CB, I am able to adjust power settings, As in 50 25 5 watts, i got a mount similar to yours, and an antenna, do i need to tune it? or will it be a pretty well tuned system?

If you have a SWRmeter that would work could you bring it and tune it then with me?

[Paul]

We can drive out from Riverside, it's a good long drive out to Arizona/Nevada.

Dogs and friends are always invited, just remind them of the rules (like drinking alcohol on the road and trails are forbidden).

I've got an amateur radio SWR meter and will try to remember to bring it along. You'll have to bring the hex wrench for the antenna and a hack saw (might not need) to trim the bottom of the adjustable portion of the antenna if we have to shorten the antenna. Most antennas are pretty close out-of-the-box.

[Paul]

I need a count on the trucks going as if I recall correctly there is a $50 permit fee for more than 8 trucks that I'll have to get busy with ASAP.

Please copy and paste, adding your name to the list. Thank you.

1. Paul
2. Kyle
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

[NUBEX]

I need a count on the trucks going as if I recall correctly there is a $50 permit fee for more than 8 trucks that I'll have to get busy with ASAP.

Please copy and paste, adding your name to the list. Thank you.

1. Paul
2. Kyle
3. Z (nubex)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

[Goldfish]

I need a count on the trucks going as if I recall correctly there is a $50 permit fee for more than 8 trucks that I'll have to get busy with ASAP.

Please copy and paste, adding your name to the list. Thank you.

1. Paul
2. Kyle
3. Z (nubex)
4. Goldfish
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

[scottmen]

I am going to come out.

1. Paul
2. Kyle
3. Z (nubex)
4. Goldfish
5. Scott (scottmen)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

[boats]

I wish i could go on this run. I don't get back from Afghanistan until late October or early November. Maybe i can catch the next one.

[AV Xterra]

You're not going to be able to get stuck on this trail. 

This is a really easy trail that requires only a bit of 4WD help in some of the loose sandy places. If you air down and watch your line you'd likely make it in 2WD. The challenges of this trail are the rather deep water crossing at Afton Canyon and the extreme distances involved. We'll need 6-8 hours a day driving the trail to make the distances. With the water crossing just let some idiot go first (me!) and follow my line and speed. The idea is to build up a wake in front of your truck so the water doesn't pour into the engine compartment. I've crossed there about seven or eight times and each time its a hoot.

We're not all shellbacks Paul.