Went to see the mountains today. Stayed 99% on paved roads, but it still felt so good to be in my natural habitat. Lots of locked gates this time of year.
Didn't take any truck pics until I was leaving and stopped at the base of Kern Canyon. The gateway to the South Sierra.
California... My electric car was charging 200 miles away from these turbines and solar farms and this pipe carries my tap water hundreds of miles from the base of a glacier. I saw a guy towing a Lotus with a Rivian going to Willow Springs. It's cool here. :cool:
I grew up in rural Colorado, and I still think California has something special. I can limp. It's worth it.
Real quiet on the trails today. Must be a football game or something on.
Amazing place. I spent Summer Solstice there back in 2017 and have been trying to get back up there ever since. Backpacking the Lost Coast is a bucket list item for sure.
Good? Yes.
But not unstoppable. Ask me how I know...
But honestly, these Falkens are my favorite AT in the snow that I've ever ridden. Much better than the reformulated KO2s of the past decade that turn rock hard in the cold. ATrac can also work real wonders that even a locked diff might...
I went up to Calveras County to settle a bet over who's frog jumps the farthest. Old Dan'l Webster showed them all what's up.
Afterwards, I took my daughter up Carson Pass to do some sledding.
Lastly, we rounded out the trip with a New Year's Feast, fit for for a king.
Good times...
I should've guessed there'd be some IH fans on this forum. Here's a better pic of the truck in question.
Look at those rust free fenders. It's probably been living the good life in coastal California for the past 50 years or so. And here's a shot of my old beast. It didn't look as good as the...
My first car was a '73 Scout II. This one, at a park in Santa Barbara on Sunday, was a much later diesel model. I don't know them well enough to tell which variant, but some are apparently quite rare and desirable, so this was a cool survivor to see in stock form. It looked tiny though, which...
I did my first dry wash with the ceramic spray before going out for the night. This stuff is awesome. Wiped down the dust, but also hit a couple spots of tree sap as well. No water, just spray, wait, wipe.
It looks like the Guinean flag.
I just continued this conversation with a client all morning. I showed him some examples of my recent night photos, particularly the one above where my running boards and interior are lit up but don't blow out or clip despite exposing for the night exterior. That really should be an impossible...
Since I've now thoroughly hijacked this thread, let's keep it going...
That's my aforementioned "Museum of Obsolete Technology." I've actually used a decent number of those devices professionally. The bottom right corner holds my trusty Nikon FG, given to me by my aunt as a High School...
Awesome.
I spent a few years and six figures earning a photography degree back at the turn of the century. One of my favorite techniques was shooting star trails because it meant driving to the mountains and spending all night playing with my camera toys. I've even used an intervalometer and...
Picked up some new products for matte paint at the neighborhood detailer's supply store. Also super pumped to have a neighborhood detailer's supply store; it carries Chemical Guys products and just opened in the last year. I got a ceramic spray for the Lexus and holy smokes this stuff is cool...
Trona Pinnacles.
Weird place. I've been wanting to check it out for a long time. I came in from the south on an easy-ish sand trail that would've been a challenge in a crossover or Subaru. When I arrived I saw the RVs and Sprinters and indeed a few Subarus that had come in from the...
A reasonable response, for sure.
Part of the reason I keep going back to the same spot is that I know the obstacles and have a baseline to compare to when testing out a new rig. This was my spot back when I had low clearance cars and really pushed my limits, but now I just bump across those...
So that post has me thinking. I know I've posted that area before, even that specific canyon, but I've been going up there for about twenty years. It never gets old for me. Almost every car I've owned has made it back there. Here are just a few examples from a 10mi radius of the pics above...
Another fun day hunting for fossils in the Cuyama Badlands.
I still have no idea what I'm looking for, but spent a great couple of hours walking around smashing rocks open with my kid. I'll call it a success, even if we didn't unearth any dinosaurs.
On the way out, I snapped a cool shot...