Death Valley Trip Report (1 Viewer)

[bpenn1980]

Part I (Day 1)
With rain imminent for the duration of our trip and a sore throat lingering from the weekend we still decided to pull the trigger and go on the trip. It had already been raining almost straight all weekend and it rained our entire drive north up to the Panamint Valley. We drove across the (wet) lake bed to Ballarat and stopped by the store to chat for a few minutes. He advised us not to attempt Goler Canyon and Mengel Pass. Ever the optimist, I dont think I heard that bit

 

[bpenn1980]

Part II (Day 1)

The drive down toward Goler Wash was uneventful except for one spot of mud which didnt pose any serious problems. Approaching Goler I felt some apprehension, but felt we should at least see how washed out it was. By this point our dogs had already had enough of the washboard roads and my pointer assumed her favored position for the remainder of the off-pavement portions of our trip. Our other, smarter dog, made great use of the dog beds haha

 

[bpenn1980]

Part III (Day 1)

We wound our way through the lower turns of Goler and approached a small shelf. This would turn out the be the only significant challenge of Goler Canyon. We stopped off at the Barker Ranch for a quick look around. I noticed some dripping transmission fluid at this point. It was coming from a spare bottle a keep between the battery and the headlight frame. I didnt think too much about this at the time and just turned the bottle a half turn so it would stop leaking. After our brief stay at Barker Ranch and my retelling of the German family's remains that were found a few miles down the road, we were off and over Mengel Pass. The pass was not extremely challenging, though there were some tricky tire placement spots and some slow crawling to avoid and bouncing and damage. By the time we dropped down into Butte Valley we were VERY glad to have put that behind us. It was nearly 3pm and we quickly made our way over to the Geologist Cabin. It had already be claimed by a group of guys out who graciously let me poke my head in to take a look at the cabin. We back tracked slightly to Stella's Cabin and claimed it as ours. We didnt take any pictures at this point because I had forgotten to charge the camera and it was raining still so we were busy making preparations before dark fell. I got a fire going and put our precooked chilli in a pot of water on the wood burning stove to heat. The cabin was leaking through the stone wall and it made for a fairly eventful night. A piece of the rear wall broke away at some point in the night and nearly gave me a heart attack. I didnt sleep too much after that

Sorry, no pictures of the pass or Stella's Cabin.

 

[bpenn1980]

Part IV (Day 2)

After a long raining night we were thankful for the first light and quickly broke camp. I heated up our precooked breakfast hash and we had some coffee and hot chocolate. I set up the radio while I was waiting for the truck to warm up and made a contact off the Big Bear Sugarloaf repeater from the door step of the cabin. I havent checked the topography or the mileage, but that was a pleasant surprise. Driving out past the Striped Butte we were greeted with a beautiful view of the valley. On the drive out I noticed the steering was very hard and was quite difficult, but in the rocks and sand I attributed it to the terrain. Once the canyon opened up, we blasted out across Death Valley to the 178. I stopped and got a nice work out with the bike pump airing back up to 30psi
As soon as I turned out onto the highway I realized instantaneously that my front locker was still engaged! I turned back around to the dirt road and begain trouble shooting. I replaced the ABS fuse cycled through a few low/high gear shifts, turned the truck on and off, banged on the solenoid with a BFH and still nothing. I was getting pretty bummed at this point so I busted out the FSM and tried disconnecting the locker. Whether it was a combination of those or just disconnecting the locker, the problem was resolved and we continued on our merrty way.

Before long we were at Badwater, then the Devil's Golf Course and drove the Artist's Palette loop. We stopped at Furnace Creek for our permit and had a mighty fine hot lunch courtesy of the burrito and wrap stuffed onto my dirty leaking valve cover. Fueled up and were on our way past Stovepipe Wells and up and over Towne Pass to turn south into the Panamint Valley again! What a drive over the pass. The clouds were hugging the pass close and blowing like crazy. It was pretty cool.

We pulled into Minnietta Cabin happily discovering it was unoccupied, fully decked out in Christmas decorations and had a beautiful tar roof to keep us dry. For a few minutes in the afternoon the sun poked out just before it dipped behind the mountains and we enjoyed a nice drink from the porch taking in the view.

 

[bpenn1980]

Part V (Day 3)

After a very nice evening at the cabin, some delicious stew and french bread, and a comfortable nights rest we were back at it. Making our way to Panamint Springs we fueled up and headed toward the Saline Valley Road. The road wasnt terrible, but it was still raining and visibility was a concern at times, so it was slowish going. After a while we were gaining elevation toward the split toward Hunter Mtn/Saline Valley. Snow was on the ground and sticking, but the rain was keeping it in check. Progress was slow and I was further concerned by my Fujitsu tablet pc (and topo GPS software) that ****ped out on us. Its amazing the comfort that technology can bring. Somehow, knowing exactly where you are makes everything a little less stressful. Without our eye in the sky to give us turn by turn directions I was more concerned. Just as I was contemplating our abort I saw headlights coming down the hill in front of me. I backed up to a turn and was blown away to see a Toyota corolla running street tires come cruising down to me. They were going to try for the hot springs the day before but decided to make camp for the night before going further. In the morning they (correctly, I believe) decided to turn back. Pretty balsy stuff. Seeing the REI crew in the corolla gave me a little more comfort and we continued on. Crossed paths with a couple guys in a built toyota pickup, they told me the turn off for Hunter Mtn was only a couple miles further. Concerned that Lippincott may be washed out, I thought we'd try Hunter Mtn instead.....

I'm not sure how many miles we made it, but we busted through many low hanging iced trees, bent my antennae, and finally decided to throw in the towel once we were in 6" snow and I couldnt see dirt below the snow anymore. We saw a Mtn Quail running up the road in front of us and I let the dogs out to play for a bit before we turned around. We made it into Saline Valley without incident and much to my wifes dismay, we made it up and over Lippincott without much trouble at all. There were some tight turns, but I couldnt tell which turn was the wash out corner everyone mentions. Dropping down from Lippincott to the Race Track was very beautiful.

Pictures
1) Tracks the corolla left in the snow
2) Just after we turned around on Hunter Mtn
3) Finally arrived at The Race Track

 

[bpenn1980]

Part VI (Day 3)

We pulled up to the Race Track right as a Porsche Cayenne was pulling out. I noticed the dash lights dim slightly right as I shut off the truck...hmmm, but didnt think too much of it. I retrieved our hot lunch from the valve cover and took a nice walk out onto the playa, which amazingly was quite dry. It started raining again, so we went back to the truck and prepared to head out to the crater and Scotty's. Oh $&%^, the truck is dead....like completely, no lights, no nothing dead. My concern meter popped a bit, but I didnt want to freak out before giving it the ol college try. Luckily I discovered the issue relatively quickly. Sometime on day 1 my battery bar started throwing the retaining nut and by day 3 it had backed off completely and managed to bounce around enough to disconnect the negative terminal. Thankfully it explained the broken trans fluid leak and my GPS failure. What I forgot was that after disconnecting the battery that the truck wouldnt idle properly, so that first drop to 200rpm freaked me out and we boogied on out toward civilization. It wasnt until we got closer the the Ubehebe Crater that I remembered that fact and I relaxed again. The crater itself was completely full of fog and you couldnt see anything, so I used the time there to pump up my tires with my bike pump again

 

[bluto]

Brad, awesome you gave it a go and appreciate the trip report.

With the front locker situation - you turned off the lockers, the light indicator did turn off accordingly, but it mysteriously turned itself back on (the front locker) at some point? Or the front lockers did not turn off, even though you switched it off, and the lights were off too?

Hope to make it out there.

 

[bpenn1980]

Part VII (Day 3)

We stopped off for a tour at Scotty's Castle. If you havent done that I recommend it, and if you're interested in some really cool engineering stuff, I would take the underground tour. We didnt take that tour, but it sounded awesome. They generated their own power, which is outstanding for such an old building.

After Scotty's we had a gut check and decided that another night in the rain wasnt in the cards for us, so we drove out to Beatty, NV for a glorious Motel 6. We saw a wonderful double rainbow around Titus Canyon on our drive out. Pretty cool experience in Death Valley. I took a last shot across Death Valley toward Stovepipe Wells and we headed east.

Day 4

After Motel 6 we drove back to see Rhyolite, but decided to skip Titus Canyon for another trip. Instead we headed south from Beatty on the 95 and got to see the Armagosa River in full flow. I was glad to have seen it like this, because I'm certain it doesnt do this very often. We turned south at Lathrop Wells and stopped at Death Valley Junction to the the Armagosa Hotel and Opera House. You should look it up if you've never heard of it. A woman in the 60's bought up an old Borax mining camp/town and turned the social hall into a performance hall, replete with murals and vintage seats. Oh yeah, its also haunted.

We continued our long trek south across the overflowing desert to Baker then up to Big Bear. I was thinking of popping over the check out the Mojave River at Afton Canyon, but decided to pass. It must be raging.

Merry Christmas everyone!
Brad

 

[Dan2722]

Great report.

I'm heading up there next month for the first time and can't wait.

 

[SD_rdcruzer]

Very cool. Thanks for the pictures and the report.
Haven't been to DV since about '86. It would be nice to go back sometime soon.

 

[SoCal_80]

Great report! Thank you for sharing and we all need to get together soon! Maybe another PM day at my place???

 

[Brentbba]

Great pics and write up Brad. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

 

[SOCALFJ]

Great report and thank you for the snow shots. We are headed that way in a couple days and i hope to make it through. 33's, locked and loaded with chains. As long as my diff clears im good

 

[bpenn1980]

Brad, awesome you gave it a go and appreciate the trip report.

With the front locker situation - you turned off the lockers, the light indicator did turn off accordingly, but it mysteriously turned itself back on (the front locker) at some point? Or the front lockers did not turn off, even though you switched it off, and the lights were off too?

Hope to make it out there.

Option B. I turned them on at some point while going over the pass, then turned them off, the light turned off, but the lockers remained engaged.

I'll have to dig into it further to find out what happened. They stayed engaged until I unplugged them I think, either that or it was related to putting the ABS fuse back in and completing a couple engine cycles. Not sure.

 

[bpenn1980]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Hope everyone had a safe and joyful Christmas.

Dave, you'll be fine I think. I'd only worry if it turned to ice. We probably wouldnt have had any problems going all the way, but losing the gps was a game changer. I had both sets of chains as well, so I felt confident of forward momentum, just not confident of direction!

If anyone is interested in Death Valley history, I can strongly recommend Richard Lingenfelter's "Death Valley and The Armagosa". Though there is A LOT of detailed mine related dates and names that you can get lost in, you also get to hear the sometimes amazing stories of the places and people. For instance, Wells Fargo refused service to Panamint City because it was co-founded by stagecoach robbers and harboured some other unsavory characters. Or Anvil Spring got its name when a group who sponsored a prospector's endeavor got sick of him playing games with them and decided to abandon him, but not wanting to carry their anvil back to civilization they pushed it into the spring so the prospector couldnt use it either. Pretty cool stuff. I got to page 243 out of 467 before the trip and I plan on finishing the rest before our next visit.

Something I learned on this solo trip: lockers are awesome
Seriously though, being able to go from 4-High to 4-Low then on to Rear-Locker and Front-Locker, and potentially putting on chains after that gave me nice peace of mind that I had lots of reserve "ability" in the truck. If 4-Low wasnt cutting it I had several levels deeper to dig. The whole trip would have been much more stressful if 4-Low were the limit of the trucks traction since there is no buffer after that and we were all alone. I'm so happy I've never had to use momentum and the skinny pedal to get where I want to go. Then again, I dont go up the faces of cliffs and giant boulders either