The Mojave Road Jan 7 & 8 2012 Trip Report: Very picture heavy!

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BigJ

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For a thousand years, the Mojave Road served as an important trade route and thoroughfare for Native Americans, Spanish missionaries, explorers, colonizers and settlers. On January 7 and 8 2012, the Road’s history of peace calm and quiet was shattered by a raging horde of eight fire breathing Raptors! This is their story.

(Insert dramatic movie trailer music crescendo here) :)

The Road is one of those trips that has a little bit of everything; there are slow rocky parts to idle over, fast sandy stuff to blast thru, whoops long and big enough to push the limits of your suspension mods and driving skills, and salt flats wide open enough to let any Raptor bump its speed limiter. Throw in several man made landmarks and natural sights to see along the way and you’re starting to get a sense of what the Mojave Road is all about. If you've never been, this trip is well worth making time for and experiencing yourself.

For me, the drive down to Laughlin is a long one. I left mid day Friday and pulled into town around 8pm. I stopped along the way only to fuel up and grab a couple obligatory sunset shots

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The next morning I got up early to ensure I had more than enough time to set up at the meeting spot and wait for everyone to arrive. As it turns out, I blew it and ended up on the wrong side of where I needed to be (don't ask :shocked:). It was 7am, meeting time was 730am I was 60 miles away via pavement... or 25 miles away via the sandy stuff. Guess which way I went :)

I pulled into Mile 0 (the meeting spot) on the Colorado River 5 minutes late sweaty and white knuckled, but otherwise no worse for the wear. I was greeted by DynoDynge and Miss Dynge, and we spent a few minutes saying hello, and airing down as we waited for everyone else. And we waited. And waited... I looked at my mobile phone and it read 8:50am. Whoa? Was I late? Did everyone leave without us? Where did that extra hour go? I mean Dyno and Miss were fun to talk to and all, but time hadn't flown that fast...

A few phone calls later, I had talked to most everyone else and they were in fact on their way, my phone was in fact incorrectly picking up Arizona time and all in fact was ok. A bit later bstoner arrived (left) with RPG’s Corey and Rowdy (middle) and lined up with DynoDynge (right).

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Shortly after that Outlaw Raptor and xjrguy showed up and we were on our way to meet with MarkT and lvdesertdawg (who were waiting for us 30 miles up the trail), making 8 the magic number for the total Raptor count on this trip. bstoner took point and led the way, I took the rear to make sure no one was left behind and the rest filed in as we headed out.
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Once we were together we headed out to our first stop, Fort Piute.

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See that dust trail down there? I think that was a group of Chevy guys who were running the road too, about an hour behind us. They were some cool cats, as somewhere along the way DynoDynge had lost a very nice custom (aka expensive) hitch component. Those guys found it, picked it up, held on to it, tracked us down at camp later that night and handed it back to him. Talk about a classy thing do to.
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Here I am (take a guess which one) flanked by Corey on the left and bstoner on the right.

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Then we made our way thru Lanfair Valley to the lunch break stop, the petroglyphs at Indian Well.

Along the way to the Well, part of the trail has you cut across a deep wash that is bordered by thick brush and cacti. With 8 trucks on this trip, you might imagine that we tended to get somewhat spread out from time to time. And that works just fine as long as the #1 rule on a trip like this is followed: never lose sight of the guy behind you. The idea being if you lose sight of them, you stop and wait. The guy in front of you sees you stop and he stops, and all the way up the line until the lead stops and the caravan is paused waiting together.

Unfortunately, thru that wash we did lose sight of each other and as a result we ended up in two groups. And of course, one group made a wrong turn and got completely off course. Im glad to say we all stayed calm, got on the radios and worked it out (not after a dozen three point turns though :p).

Alls well that ends well, but it was a very good reminder and example as to why a rule like that is so important, and how everyone needs to follow it at all times. Lose sight of your trailing man for even a minute and bad things can happen. I'm glad to say other than a few briefly frayed nerves, this time it wasn't a big deal. I'm also glad to say we learned from that little hiccup as a group, and we didn’t get separated or lost again anywhere along the rest of the trip.
 
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BigJ

BigJ

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So with the oops for the trip out of the way, we carried on to the Well, had lunch and spent some time exploring.
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After lunch, we made our way thru the Joshua Tree Forest, stopping at the railroad remnants and Rock Spring, the largest watering hole on the Road.
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From left to right: lvdesertdawg, DynoDynge, Miss DynoDynge, BigJ, xjrguy, bstoner, Outlaw Raptor and his son, Rowdy, MarkT, Miss xjrguy, RPG and the xjrguy's furry kids. Joey of Outlaw Raptor is behind the camera.
 
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BigJ

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From there it was over Ceder Canyon (the high point of the trip, cresting at 5k feet), across Kelso-Cima Road, and into Mojave Camp, the final stop and camp spot for the night. We settled in and bundled up as the 35mph winds blew everything and anything every which way.

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The next morning we packed up and headed on. Our first stop for the day was the Mojave Road Mailbox.

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From there, made our way to the lava tubes.
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This is one of my favorite pics from the trip. That's MarkT standing there; it looks to me like it could have been a scene pulled from Raiders of the Lost Arc or somethin.
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After the tubes, it was a only matter of heading over Seventeen Mile Point and down into Soda Lake.
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BigJ

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At the south end of Soda Lake is Traveler’s Monument. The tradition is that you grab a small rock from somewhere along the lake’s border, and drop it off at this spot. Doing so earns you the right to climb the pile and view the plaque at its center. Can’t tell ya what it says though... that’s something you’ll just have to find out yourself when you join us for the next run ;)

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After making our way thru the sandy shores of what once was Soda Lake, we headed into and thru Afton Canyon, the final highlight of this already memorable trip

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And that was that! We paused at the Afton Canyon rest stop to air up, slap some shoulders, shake a few hands and give hugs as we said our fare wells. From that last spot its a simple matter of picking up Highway 15 and heading home from there.

All in all it was another fantastic time spent with truly good folks, together enjoying one of our national treasures in some of the world’s most advanced production trucks. It can’t get much better than this!

Thanks to all who made it out! A special thanks to bstoner for taking point and helping bring everyone thru safely. And another hearty thanks to xjrguy and DynoDynge who even on the freeway after having said goodbyes were keeping an eye on me in the rear, and who both stopped to make sure all was well as they saw me roll off the freeway, out of gas. To me that was just one more example showing the kinds of quality folks these trucks and this environment brings together.

So, where to next?? :)

PS: Another big thanks to Joey of Outlaw Raptor, who took several of these action and group shots. Great job dude!
 
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LVdezertdawg

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Big J,

Outstanding write up and pics!!!! It was very fun and I definitely improved my driving skills. thanks for putting it together. I will get some video posted later this week.
 

CineSLR

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This ladies and gentlemen is what the Raptor is all about!! Looks like a blast! Sure wish there was something HALF as interesting in this neck of the woods. Great pics! Great times!

Patiently waits for the Texas Raptor Run...
 

Movinon

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Thanks for the pics!
I will make one of those trips in 2012 for sure!:waytogo:
 

GRT4DRT

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Great write-up! Look forward to more "Raptor Expeditions"!
 

bstoner59

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You're awesome Big J! Thanks for getting us all together and for the wonderful write up!! I am looking to do an AB run soon!!!
 
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