Land Cruising Nevada 2015 "are you driving a Subaru or a land cruiser"

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concretejungle

concretejungle

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Just returned home last night from a really amazing trip out west in the 80 series. Again, i'm completely sold that the 80 is the best overlanding platform out there. Once i drove into the driveway Sunday night, late, i again thanked my 80 for taking me out to the western part of the country, then up to some of the most remote areas and then bring me home again. I love my truck.

For any of you guys who get the opportunity to make a trip out west, do it! You will not regret it. We are on this spinning rock for just a short time, so seize the moment!

Anyways, i wanted to post my trip report up. It's a little late now, so i'll just break the surface and finish it up a little later.

Thanks to the guys that i met out there: cruserdrew, TrickyT, desertdude, FJ60cam & jr., and espressoman.

We covered over 700 miles of off-road adventure and only touched pavement a few of those miles. Northern Nevada is a remote and amazing area. From what i understand it is the state (except Alaska) with the most public lands of any other state.

Our trip itinerary was pretty simple: start in sparks NV, head up and out to the black rock desert where the burning man festival is held, stop in and say Hi to Espressoman who is at a pottery sale at planet x pottery, then head deep into the northern nevada mountains looking for a small town in the Jarbidge (yes, the "r" is silent and invisible) and mosey out to Jackpot, NV where we would end our adventure.
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Well, i am seriously having an issue uploading pics. It says they are too big. So... i'll have to just type and you guys can imagine how cool it was. :)

Preparing for a big overland trip is very important. This is just my opinion so take it at that, but i feel that certain things are a must. There are some pieces of equipment that you just really need to make a trip like this happen. Here is a list of equipment that i personally feel is critical to a trip like this:

Fridge. No question, this is key. I have no idea how you would keep food cool so far away from ice for long periods of time. If you are eating ramen noodles and drinking water, i guess you don't need a fridge, but who wants to do that.

Winch. If you don't have one, at least have good recovery points and make sure you are with others who do have winches. Also, make sure they work before you leave on your trip. We had a case where one of the winches in the group would not reverse. Must of been a short in the controller box, but still, no bueno!

Maintenance. This is a must. When you are driving 13 hours, constantly, in the middle of nowhere, you want to be sure your bearings are greased and have proper pre-load, your u-joints are greased and in good shape, your lockers work, your cooling system is up to par and anything else you can think of. I always do a front birfield service, check brakes, grease drive-shafts and u-joints, oil changes, check oil in T-case and Transmission and diffs (change if needed), windshield wipers are key, plenty of windshield washer fluid is a must. You get the picture. If you think you should check it, check it!

Good tires. This is obvious but do you want to take off for 4,000 miles on worn out, dry rotted tires? Or, do you want to hit some mud with slicks?

Gas Storage. If you don't have an aux. tank, then have the ability to carry at least 10 gallons of gas with you.

Water. I usually will take several flats of water bottles, plus my 7 gallon water container. You will be amazed at how quick you go through water out there.

Radio. This is a must with the guys you are traveling with. Everyone needs a good radio to communicate with.
 
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Awesome trip and kudos to Alex (and Cam) for driving so far to go on a trip with us. Here's a pic that tells you a lot...

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Any good camping trip starts with good prep at home. Grocery shopping and hydration are key!

I have found that Graham Cave state park in Missouri is a great place to jump off the highway and camp. They have great showers, clean restrooms and a good flat place to stay. I've stayed there three times so far. This was a view outside the tent.

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After I woke up at Graham Cave and started to make some breakfast, i could feel the damp air moving in. The breeze picked up and I realized that the sun was not planning on coming out any time soon. I checked the weather app and the radar didn't look good. I pulled breakfast together quick, finished packing and just as i was tossing the kitchen tote box into the cruiser it started to rain.

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After leaving Graham Cave state park in Missouri, i hit I70 for a long haul. I was going to try to make this day a big day, so the next day can be easier.

I decided to take a chance at a KOA campground this night since i had never stayed in one before. I pulled out the trusty iPhone and searched for a KOA app... well what do you know, they have one. Downloaded it and searched KOA's near denver.

Found a KOA just before Denver and decided that was the target to aim for today.

It pretty much rained off and on that day the ENTIRE way. I was hopeing that the rain would let up and maybe i was just passing through a little shower.... certainly driving three states away would get clear of the rain.

Hit the KOA campground just before dark. Went in and asked how much. $35 i was told!! Holy smokes! How much was the spot for a camper with hookups?... $45! I said that's crazy since i'm not using any electricity and any water, nothing. She said she would give it to me for $30! wow, deep discount, anyways, i took it and just said screw it. I was looking forward to a hot shower, cook some food and get some rest. I might sleep in a little.

Right as i was walking away from the register she said to me "ummm sir, i have hearing aids so i can't hear it... but some guests say it's pretty loud at the camp since it's near the interstate, would you like a set of ear plugs?" i could only laugh at this point. I said to her "you tell me this after you take my money? Ok, sure, give me the ear plugs".... glad i had them. I might as well be camping in the middle of the interstate! This probably was the worst mistake of the entire trip to be honest.

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Host them on an external site, then link them here. Do you have Google Photos (google plus/picasa) or Flickr or anything like that?
 
I am needing some pics too. Especially the double rainbow at Wilson Res.

Taking the que from Alex:

For those of you skeptical about a fridge-there was no ice to buy. You need a fridge for a trip like this or you can't go. A cooler is only going to assure that you have room temperature soggy food floating in melted ice. Cam "organized" an IPA pass around, so every evening we'd have a different cold IPA out of the fridge and toast the day.(That's if you want another reason to get a fridge!).

Winch-I totally did not expect to winch on this trip. But given the mud, the rain, and the treachery of shelf roads, without working winches, Dan would still be out there in Subaru meadow mired to his axles. Not to mention Tom's truck would be at the bottom of that ravine outside of Jarbidge. Anyway, Cam's smittybuilt winch did not survive trip and failed on the first tug.

Radio-You need Ham radio for the terrain, where separation was common. Also useful for coordinating recovery efforts. I know Alex went home to study for his Tech test.

I did not expect the rain and the mud we experienced. It has been dry as a bone in California and I expected the same in Nevada. What we found was different-soggy ground, rain every day, hail, swollen rivers and miles of mud. It was awesome. At one point we were driving through a mud bog for a mile at 7000 feet-and amazingly, no one got stuck. That happened later.

I think 80% of Nevada is either BLM or National Forest, and in that, there are 1,000,000+ miles of dirt roads. It's remote, much of it still feels pretty wild. Lots to see and do. The wildlife was cooperative-Elk, wild horses, antelope, mule deer, great birds (including a golden eagle), very impressive.

I'll look forward to your story and pictures Alex. @FJ60Cam may have some to post too.
 
I took pics of the double rainbow, but only one showed the fainter 'bow...

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Cam, your 60 is beautiful. FZJ80 rims on a 60 might be my favorite combination.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
Cam, your 60 is beautiful. FZJ80 rims on a 60 might be my favorite combination.
Click to expand...

And interestingly, the color was such that from a distance it blended perfectly into the high desert landscape, and you could look right at it on the next ridge, and not see it until it moved.

Also Cam's motor ran super strong all week. It's a really nice swap and makes me want one.
 
Another phone pic, happy dawn. (We got rained on 15 minutes later)

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So I only am familiar with Photobucket. But basically you establish an account, upload your folder of pictures, and then go into the photobucket library, and grab the code for each picture, and post it here. Here's an example from last year using the "image" tab:

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I do have a gmail account! I thought about that late last night... does that mean i have a google drive i can use?
 
So if you have a Gmail account, you already have Picasa/Google Photos (it was recently rebranded, I still prefer the old picasa version).

Head over to http://picasaweb.google.com and check it out. You can upload your pics there and then link them to the forum post like Drew was talking about before!

Google gives you a couple gigs of free space, so more than enough to get you started at least.
 
I use my Facebook account. Take the photo on the phone, upload too Facebook, copy from FB and use anywhere. THe down side is that photos get dropped some times as they age. I also have a flicker account but that is more of a PIA for me to use. It is also different for me as I post a fair amount of photos for business and FB is the fewest amount of steps to get a photo I can use on forums.
 
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