Topic: Death Valley

[donkeykong]

THis weekend me and carlos(burgtoy), Dean, and Bruce headed out to the desert with or trucks ready and our spotters riding shotgun.  We went to the southern tip of Death Valley, actually we only went into death valley for a short distance on one of the trails.  We camped at a ghost town called Ballaret.  Some know this town as it is also the place you would leave from to head up to Paniment City.  We had beautifull weather.  We had sun shine, rain, and snow....only in the desert.  We found several cabin including Briggs cabin, and we almost found Masons hide out but got a little turned around in the caverns and stop about 1/4mile short...thanks dean...just kidding. We also found several mines that were interesting but a little creepy...we all went in one and the turned off our lights...man it gets dark down there    We tried to do the South Valley loop but snow prevented that.  Over all the trip was great and everybody had fun.  Included below is several pics.   The orange truck is mine and the white truck is Deans.  The blue Landcruiser is Buce and My dad is driving the Jeep...Yes I know Jeep...But that little rubicon does pretty good.

[donkeykong [OP]]

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[donkeykong [OP]]

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[BigMike]

The orange truck is mine

Yeah right you cheater! We were supposed to "build" our rigs for this summer not buy them

Hey how come no one told me about this trip? I would have gone. Geeze, you guys don't want to get hammered by the Mighty 3RZ Power house, is that it?

Hey how did Bruce's 4.3 do? Did he get his engine troubles he had up at Bald Mtn sorted out?

Pics look great. It's been a while since I've been to Panamint Valley.. Hopefully someday Suprise Canyon will re- open.

BigMike

[donkeykong [OP]]

Sorry BigMike My dad was going to sell it, and I could not let it go out of the family.  Bruce's engine did good, he had one small problem with the fuel pump wire coming off, but got back on it.  He is having trouble with his transfer case, he can never keep it in 4wheel drive, so I think the plan is to change out that atlas and put in a toyota tcase with 4.7 gears.  As far as you not being invited you have to ask Dean about that, Angelo was going to go but had to back out at the last minute, to bad he missed a great weekend.  The Pictures were from my moms new Canon Rebel SLR.  THat camera is sweet, most of the pics were taken by David(trackvino)  Unfortunity I had to size them down to fit on the board as the originals are about 2megs each.

P.S.  If anybody is planning on going I highly recommend a GPS or very good maps.  There are a lot of trails and dead ends very easy to get turned around and end up in on privete property being chased off by a guy in a bulldozer....   ...that didnt happen to us

[ntsqd]

Over New Year's I went up Goler Wash, thru Striped Butte Valley, and down Warm Springs Cyn to West Side Rd. We made the side trip to Barker Ranch and I did it wrong, again. It's not the first obvious right, which goes up a narrows, but the second, which goes under/thru the Cottonwoods. We had nice weather the whole trip. 65-ish with little wind during the days except for one evening, maybe 30 at night. Some friends spent the first night at Briggs Cabin. Next time we'll cross over from Trona via Fish Cyn.
Used to be a guy out of the Bay Area who led trips out there every Prez Day weekend. Semi-frequent poster back in the ORC yota list days. Drawing a blank on his name. Drove a dark blue 3rd gen X-cab.

[donkeykong [OP]]

We plan on going back if not this spring deffinety next year, it was a really cool place to wheel, so uch to explore.

[4THEWKN]

Come on now !!!  Who was crying mommy mommy and wanted to go home, not me.... Those guys all girlymaned out of that  canyon when it got dark. You would of thought Charlie yelled Boo or something... HA HA   Man I have to say that was one of the best trips I've been on.  It took two visits to the carwash and about 3hrs of cleaning at home to get all the mud off. But I'd do it again in a heart beat....  Dean