5 day expedition, May or June 2009
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- #106
One of the more pic-laden trip reports. Saves you from a bunch of spell-checking, eh?;p Anyhow, here I go.
Two days before the run, I made an executive decision that we would leave Tuesday evening, instead of Wednesday morning. I knew that getting a group up to Cerro Gordo was gonna take some time, and I wanted to have time to explore AFTER visiting the ghost town, so having a Wednesday jump off from in the desert increased our odds.
What I hadn't counted on was the incredible winds we faced getting up there. I slowed to 40 before crossing the railroad bridge just south of Mojave, as the truck was trying very hard to make a right turn where there was none!
We all took turns jumping in the air and seeing how far the wind would move us before we landed. The reports were that sustained speed was above 40, with gusts as high as 80mph! FAWK!
I had an either-or plan for Olancha or Bonanza, weather depending. Having been thru a windstorm at Olancha 5 years ago, I figured Bonanza HAD to better than the open dunes. Boy was it ever. The breeze in Bonanza was not more than 5mph. HONEST! It was SO NICE, we elected not to set up in the Joni Jac cabin, but instead out under the stars, sans even tents!
Sunrise was early, and even with John taking a solid hour to visit Mark in Bickel Camp, we were still under way by 8:15. Back on the highway, the wind was still pretty bad, and it was a slow drive to Olancha. BTW, the gas station has reopened.
We stopped at the old kilns at Keeler, where we got a lot of good photos, some of which John posted. The road to Cerro Gordo is well marked, right next to the kilns. Morgan and I took a short hike to explore one of the older wagon roads to the north of Cerro Gordo. It looks like the original route around the lake, and has several sections of stacked rocks under the roadbed to support that possibility. THe trucks heated up very quickly making the climb, but nobody had any real issues and soon we were in the ghost town.
As much as it hurt to follow the rules, we did not trespass anywhere it was posted, and just took some photos of the buildings from the road. The road we had wanted to take north from the town was blocked by a locked gate, so we went on over the top of the mountain and started decending towards the White Mountain Talc City road. We had a couple of spurs on our map to check out, and one of them provided a most excellent vista, with John's FJ40 perched out on the abandoned ore shute.
Arriving at the cutoff, we turned north, doubling back up the mountain towards the crest. We went as far as the Bonham Mine claim, where several goat trails beckoned us. We took one of them for quite some ways, only to ultimately turn around well before reaching it's end. It, and the other ridge road next to it will have to wait for another trip. It was time to wend our way back down the canyon and start looking for a campspot. On the way down we spotted the cool PowerWagon in the ditch that John posted the picture of.
We also solved the mystery of the western half of the Lippincott Road, the one that supposedly leads from Saline up into the Inyos. Right on que, we found the old two track leading east from the Talc City road. We all decided to go for a short hike to see what we could see. The road bed was very soft, meaning it had not been driven on for a VERY long time. After half a mile, we determined that it would take approximately 2 miles to reach the vista, and we did not have the time to commit to the hike, so we turned around and headed on down the road.
John wanted to push on towards Lee Flat, while I preferred looking for a spot closer to the mountains, knowing that this would probably be our ONLY night for cool weather camping on the trip. As luck would have it, we shortly found a turnoff heading west, to Conglomerate Mesa, and a campspot just the right size for our group. Of course it only took John about 10 minutes to find our slithering neighbors!
Two days before the run, I made an executive decision that we would leave Tuesday evening, instead of Wednesday morning. I knew that getting a group up to Cerro Gordo was gonna take some time, and I wanted to have time to explore AFTER visiting the ghost town, so having a Wednesday jump off from in the desert increased our odds.
What I hadn't counted on was the incredible winds we faced getting up there. I slowed to 40 before crossing the railroad bridge just south of Mojave, as the truck was trying very hard to make a right turn where there was none!
We all took turns jumping in the air and seeing how far the wind would move us before we landed. The reports were that sustained speed was above 40, with gusts as high as 80mph! FAWK!I had an either-or plan for Olancha or Bonanza, weather depending. Having been thru a windstorm at Olancha 5 years ago, I figured Bonanza HAD to better than the open dunes. Boy was it ever. The breeze in Bonanza was not more than 5mph. HONEST! It was SO NICE, we elected not to set up in the Joni Jac cabin, but instead out under the stars, sans even tents!
Sunrise was early, and even with John taking a solid hour to visit Mark in Bickel Camp, we were still under way by 8:15. Back on the highway, the wind was still pretty bad, and it was a slow drive to Olancha. BTW, the gas station has reopened.
We stopped at the old kilns at Keeler, where we got a lot of good photos, some of which John posted. The road to Cerro Gordo is well marked, right next to the kilns. Morgan and I took a short hike to explore one of the older wagon roads to the north of Cerro Gordo. It looks like the original route around the lake, and has several sections of stacked rocks under the roadbed to support that possibility. THe trucks heated up very quickly making the climb, but nobody had any real issues and soon we were in the ghost town.
As much as it hurt to follow the rules, we did not trespass anywhere it was posted, and just took some photos of the buildings from the road. The road we had wanted to take north from the town was blocked by a locked gate, so we went on over the top of the mountain and started decending towards the White Mountain Talc City road. We had a couple of spurs on our map to check out, and one of them provided a most excellent vista, with John's FJ40 perched out on the abandoned ore shute.
Arriving at the cutoff, we turned north, doubling back up the mountain towards the crest. We went as far as the Bonham Mine claim, where several goat trails beckoned us. We took one of them for quite some ways, only to ultimately turn around well before reaching it's end. It, and the other ridge road next to it will have to wait for another trip. It was time to wend our way back down the canyon and start looking for a campspot. On the way down we spotted the cool PowerWagon in the ditch that John posted the picture of.
We also solved the mystery of the western half of the Lippincott Road, the one that supposedly leads from Saline up into the Inyos. Right on que, we found the old two track leading east from the Talc City road. We all decided to go for a short hike to see what we could see. The road bed was very soft, meaning it had not been driven on for a VERY long time. After half a mile, we determined that it would take approximately 2 miles to reach the vista, and we did not have the time to commit to the hike, so we turned around and headed on down the road.
John wanted to push on towards Lee Flat, while I preferred looking for a spot closer to the mountains, knowing that this would probably be our ONLY night for cool weather camping on the trip. As luck would have it, we shortly found a turnoff heading west, to Conglomerate Mesa, and a campspot just the right size for our group. Of course it only took John about 10 minutes to find our slithering neighbors!
- Thread starter
- #107
We actually put on our jackets that evening, as the temps ultimately dipped into the '60s. We kind of made an early night of it, having been up til 1a.m. getting to Bonanza the night before. Oh, and John gave me a second cool Leatherman tool as a belated birthday present. Thanks again John!
Thursday morning nobody was rushing, and breakfast was a slow and indulgent affair. It was well past 9a.m. before we were packed up to leave. John came over and, on a whim, suggested we plot a course by coin toss, with heads meaning to make right turns, and tails left. Well tails it was, and we made our first turn off the Talc City road east into the Nelson Range. There was a LOT to see up there that we didn't get to, but the approximately 25% that we did see was really cool. We took a very arduous hike up behind Nelson's cabin to an old tram footing, without discovering the purpose of it's high origin. There was a trail over to a well marked on our map that we did not take, and a visible pipe from a second water source we did not investigate. A spur trail to the north may have intersected with Lippencott, but we did not explore that either.
Instead we made our way around the north side of the range, ending up on an incredible vista overlooking BOTH Saline Valley and the Racetrack in DV. That was the breaking point for me, and I had to bust out the cellphone and call Joey to tell him what a loser he was for not seeing this!
Thursday morning nobody was rushing, and breakfast was a slow and indulgent affair. It was well past 9a.m. before we were packed up to leave. John came over and, on a whim, suggested we plot a course by coin toss, with heads meaning to make right turns, and tails left. Well tails it was, and we made our first turn off the Talc City road east into the Nelson Range. There was a LOT to see up there that we didn't get to, but the approximately 25% that we did see was really cool. We took a very arduous hike up behind Nelson's cabin to an old tram footing, without discovering the purpose of it's high origin. There was a trail over to a well marked on our map that we did not take, and a visible pipe from a second water source we did not investigate. A spur trail to the north may have intersected with Lippencott, but we did not explore that either.
Instead we made our way around the north side of the range, ending up on an incredible vista overlooking BOTH Saline Valley and the Racetrack in DV. That was the breaking point for me, and I had to bust out the cellphone and call Joey to tell him what a loser he was for not seeing this!
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- #108
Even though we'd only had breakfast a few hours earlier, we couldn't tear ourselves away from this incredible view, and ended up hanging around long enough to take in an early lunch as well.
Back down in Lee Flats, we decided to check out the Santa Rosa mine before heading into Panamint Springs. Axing Darwin from the itinerary left us with a lot more time for exploring, and we would need it, as neither of the first two roads over to Santa Rosa materialized. We backtracked once, we backtracked twice, and finally made the cut that took us high up into the canyons once again.
I chose to hike the road above the mine while John, Morgan and Lili went into the Santa Rosa. They said it was HUGE, with several chambers big enough to put 10 trucks in. I have only seen chambers like that in Warm Springs, but having seen it, I know it is possible. I wish I had gone with them.
6 p.m in Panamint Springs at it's still 98 degrees! Of course we knew the gas was going to be !!!!! $3.39/ gallon, and I was happy to pay it. $4 for ice. Fine. $3.35 for a Mountain Dew. NO WAY!!! And no scorpion lolipops either.
We were at the Minnietta by 7:30 p.m. which gave us enough time to check out the cabin before starting dinner. The outdoor bbq/firering was well stocked with wood from the recent FOPLC gathering, so we did not end up using much of ours. In a bed of coals we cooked up some fine sausage and sweet potatoes.
We watched vehicles crossing Panamint Valley in the distance. There were a LOT of trucks near the Briggs mine and heading up Goler. Probably Barker Ranch lookie-loos.
The air was virtually still, which didn't bode well for staying in the cabin, so we slept outside, taking our chances with the bugs instead. They were merciless.
Morgan, Lili and I got an early start and hiked up the nearby road and goat trails to explore a half dozen mineshafts before we had to run off and meet Dusty. I figured we could make it from Minnietta to Panamint Springs in 45 minutes, as we had the night before. What I hadn't counted on is that the Nadeau Road is a FAR CRY from a road, and it took an hour+20 to get back to the resort. Of course Joe was there, patiently waiting on the patio. He got to watch us all eat breakfast, and we didn't get back out of there til 10:30.
Back down in Lee Flats, we decided to check out the Santa Rosa mine before heading into Panamint Springs. Axing Darwin from the itinerary left us with a lot more time for exploring, and we would need it, as neither of the first two roads over to Santa Rosa materialized. We backtracked once, we backtracked twice, and finally made the cut that took us high up into the canyons once again.
I chose to hike the road above the mine while John, Morgan and Lili went into the Santa Rosa. They said it was HUGE, with several chambers big enough to put 10 trucks in. I have only seen chambers like that in Warm Springs, but having seen it, I know it is possible. I wish I had gone with them.
6 p.m in Panamint Springs at it's still 98 degrees! Of course we knew the gas was going to be !!!!! $3.39/ gallon, and I was happy to pay it. $4 for ice. Fine. $3.35 for a Mountain Dew. NO WAY!!! And no scorpion lolipops either.
We were at the Minnietta by 7:30 p.m. which gave us enough time to check out the cabin before starting dinner. The outdoor bbq/firering was well stocked with wood from the recent FOPLC gathering, so we did not end up using much of ours. In a bed of coals we cooked up some fine sausage and sweet potatoes.
We watched vehicles crossing Panamint Valley in the distance. There were a LOT of trucks near the Briggs mine and heading up Goler. Probably Barker Ranch lookie-loos.
The air was virtually still, which didn't bode well for staying in the cabin, so we slept outside, taking our chances with the bugs instead. They were merciless.
Morgan, Lili and I got an early start and hiked up the nearby road and goat trails to explore a half dozen mineshafts before we had to run off and meet Dusty. I figured we could make it from Minnietta to Panamint Springs in 45 minutes, as we had the night before. What I hadn't counted on is that the Nadeau Road is a FAR CRY from a road, and it took an hour+20 to get back to the resort. Of course Joe was there, patiently waiting on the patio. He got to watch us all eat breakfast, and we didn't get back out of there til 10:30.
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- #109
Now we were in 'cruise' mode, conserving gas to maximize our exploring potential up in the Panamints. John made a detour into Ballarat for a bit, and then we were off, up South Park. Everyone's engines could feel the double whammy of the steep grade in the now-noon heat of the desert. Eventually the walls of the canyon closed in around us, and the temps started to drop. The stairsteps were challenging, but gave no one an issue. I stalled a couple of times before I remembered to bump up the idle.
Soon enough, we were in the wonderful oasis known as Brigg's Camp. The cabins were every bit as nice as reported, and the veranda extremely refreshing. We all took turns washing up, and took our time unpacking. Time basically became non-linear for a while after that, and at some point we all just started pulling out stuff to make a huge potluck dinner.
[to be continued]
Soon enough, we were in the wonderful oasis known as Brigg's Camp. The cabins were every bit as nice as reported, and the veranda extremely refreshing. We all took turns washing up, and took our time unpacking. Time basically became non-linear for a while after that, and at some point we all just started pulling out stuff to make a huge potluck dinner.
[to be continued]
It was a good thing I didn't go on several fronts. I really wanted to go and my wife was especially upset at me. I think perhaps I ruined a trist
Thanks for the report.