Mojave Road Dec 5th - 7th - Pics thread

[Berky]

I'm a little late, but here's some pictures of the run.

We headed out on Friday around 3:30 from Irvine, and thanks to traffic we didn't arrive at Fort Piute until around 10. We had checked the Mojave website before we left and the only mention of weather damage was that the road through the fort was a little washed out. Well I guess the decided to close the road completely through the canyon and signs were up stating that there was no camping or fires allowed.

We looked at our options and decided to back track to the Balancing Rock campsite. It was a little tricky to find in the dark with my Garmin leading me down non-existent roads, but we eventually found it around 11:30. The weather was great, mid 60s all night.

 

[Berky]

Saturday we really didn't have a set schedule, just a list of places to checkout. First stop was the petroglyphs.







Couldn't have asked for a better day



We stopped by the stone cabin. Interesting, but not much to see.

 

[Berky]

The favorite stop of the day was an abandoned mining camp just outside of Cima. We were waiting for someone to pop out of nowhere and chase us off, but that never happened. Some real Hills have Eyes stuff.











We stayed at Hole in the Wall campsite that night. It really is a great place to spend the night and the short hike around the area was nice.

 

[Berky]

Sunday we had to complete the road and get home so we rushed through a bit. The whoops on the road were kind of annoying and seemed never ending. We had to stop and check in at the mailbox and see the frogs. Also noticed that some people started to randomly place gnomes around the area.





Next we stopped off at the lava tubes. Only one person split their head on the low ceiling.





Some obligatory shots of the Raptors.

 

[Berky]

No pics but Soda Lake was somewhat dry. We were a little nervous at first, but went for it. There was plenty of mud to wash off after we made it to the other side. The run through the wash to Afton Canyon was also quite fun.

We reached the train tracks just in time to see a train with all kinds of military toys.





Stopped at Afton Canyon for some pics and a "Chris Angle"





When we got to the two water crossings. The first one wasn't bad, but the second one was a little deeper. Nothing we couldn't handle, but there was a Ford Ranger that submarined from going too fast and killed his engines electrical system (he got towed out by a friend)

Over all it was a good trip and would defiantly go again. The Raptor did get some damage. Hit a rock and bent my Method rim and ruined the alignment. Also received a crack in the windshield from a thrown rock from one of the guys in front of me. Just have to pay to play.

 

[Bigg50]

Sounds like a great time...thanks for sharing.

 

[MustangAndRaptor]

@Berky very cool. I have started looking at Raptors again the last couple weeks and wanted to see what kinda adventures the socal guys are getting into. If/when I do get one I would love to join you guys for something like this. I used to go to gorman with a couple buddies but I never had anything that was suited for offroading so I was always passenger. Really want to get into it myself.

Did you guys end up doing any shooting while you were out there? Yesterday I drosed a XDM .45

 

[mike.s]

Hey MustangAndRaptor, good to see another local. I'm over in Harbor City, ten minutes away.

 

[Berky]

@MustangAndRaptor So Cal Raptor guys seem to be pretty active. I have only done one event with they guys from the forum, and it was a great time. If you look at the upcoming events you will see all kinds of people putting runs together.

I mainly spend most of my off roading time in Death Valley, specifically Paniment Valley. Not so much the high speed trails, but more for sight seeing and exploring. Here is a photo album from the last trip. Panamint Photos by fordguy1965 | Photobucket We are planning on another trip next month. Once I have the details together I will put up an invite on the forum.

Congrats on the XDM. I got a Kimber Solo in jail right now. We didn't get to shoot in Mohave since it is a preserve. In Paniment its mainly BLM so we do plenty of shooting out there.

 

[AlpineM3]

Would love to join in on a run so keep us all posted Berky. I mainly explore the Mojave Desert, but would down to sight see Death Valley