My girlfriend had an open weekend so we decided to plan a trip. We thought about Sequoia National Park but it had too much snow. Next we thought about hiking San Gorgonio as training since we’re doing Whitney at the end of this month. That fell through so we decided to go to Death Valley. I have been there a few times and I had a general good feeling for the area. We decided to camp Friday night at Eureka Dunes, drive through Steel Pass and stay at the hot springs on Saturday, then drive home on Sunday.
Well things did not go to plan. We drove up to Big Pine and headed east on the 168. I had google mapped the area so I would know how to get to the dunes at night. Well, the directions I made were pretty shoddy. Instead of taking the longer more obvious route, I had used google maps to print out a more direct route that used more dirt roads. This was a bad idea. Around 12am we hit Saline Valley / Waucoba Road. This is the dirt road turn off that I had chosen to take.
Fast forward 45 mins later and I notice that we’re not at the Dunes and we’re heading south instead of east. We wind through North Pass and I realize I’m now going to have to look for an unmarked dirt road that will lead us 4.4 mi off the main road to the hot springs. The dunes is now out of the question for Friday night. After what seems like an eternity we see the road and head in. As we start to relax since we know we’re close to home we come upon a group of burros. I have heard these elusive animals but never seen them. It was nice to have the opportunity to view them. We get to the hot springs set up camp and take a soak in the springs. The bats were out in full force and the clear sky led us to some enjoyable stargazing. The sky was so bright with stars that I was having trouble finding anything other than the Milky Way and the big dipper. I guess my astronomy skills are poor. Note for Joey and Mark: There was no arguing about the number of observed shooting stars.
Saturday afternoon we take an easy hike. We see a burro close up on the ridge which was another nice treat. I always wondered where they went during the day. We get back to the car, take a soak and plan on heading through steel pass to eureka dunes. We are now doing the trip backwards due to my poor navigation.
Here’s where the duck nomination may come in. I turn the key and the battery is completely dead. And when I say that I mean the voltmeter reads 0 with no electrical response whatsoever. I have had a weak battery for a few weeks. I had fixed a brake pedal issue by replacing a screw with the proper rubber plug on the physical pedal that touches the brake switch. Even though the battery wasn’t 100% it had still served its purpose for day to day driving. It seems that driving for 3 hours on dirt roads at SAFE speeds (not 70 mph) with my high beams, fog lights, and roof lights on I had drained the battery. The alternator was not able to keep up. During the previous night’s drive I had watched the voltmeter for this very reason and it had never faltered below 12V. How accurate is the stock voltmeter? And, is charging at 12V adequate? Does the truck need around 13 to be healthy?
I end up going over to a group of people and I ask for a jump. I offer beer to make it worth their while since they are comfortably relaxed and probably not in the mood to do work. One gentleman says he’ll help me. I tell them that the beer is cold and it’s guiness and immediately another gentleman jumps up and says his services are needed since he is an electrical engineer. They come over and jump my truck. The electrical engineer tells me to let my dead battery charge for 1 minute before trying to crank. I then get the truck started. He insists to check the gauges to make sure that it’s just a battery and not the alternator. I stupidly mention that I have a throttle and that I could keep that out while driving if necessary to keep the RPMs up. He immediately gives me a look that makes me feel like a dumb kid. He says that it would make my engine run rich and that I should never do that. Of course if I thought about it before blurting stupid s*** out I would know that. The two guys then tell me they had just finished backpacking for multiple days on the range between Saline Valley and 395 Lone Pine. They also said that last night they were on top of the mountain and saw me driving in at 2am.
The girlfriend and I end up driving out and spending the night in Mammoth at my parent’s condo. We had both had enough of our problematic weekend’s start. On Sunday we visited the Bristlecone Pine Forest and hiked around the old trees. We met a couple in a ford sport wagon and talked to them for awhile.
Lessons learned from this trip:
Well things did not go to plan. We drove up to Big Pine and headed east on the 168. I had google mapped the area so I would know how to get to the dunes at night. Well, the directions I made were pretty shoddy. Instead of taking the longer more obvious route, I had used google maps to print out a more direct route that used more dirt roads. This was a bad idea. Around 12am we hit Saline Valley / Waucoba Road. This is the dirt road turn off that I had chosen to take.
Fast forward 45 mins later and I notice that we’re not at the Dunes and we’re heading south instead of east. We wind through North Pass and I realize I’m now going to have to look for an unmarked dirt road that will lead us 4.4 mi off the main road to the hot springs. The dunes is now out of the question for Friday night. After what seems like an eternity we see the road and head in. As we start to relax since we know we’re close to home we come upon a group of burros. I have heard these elusive animals but never seen them. It was nice to have the opportunity to view them. We get to the hot springs set up camp and take a soak in the springs. The bats were out in full force and the clear sky led us to some enjoyable stargazing. The sky was so bright with stars that I was having trouble finding anything other than the Milky Way and the big dipper. I guess my astronomy skills are poor. Note for Joey and Mark: There was no arguing about the number of observed shooting stars.
Saturday afternoon we take an easy hike. We see a burro close up on the ridge which was another nice treat. I always wondered where they went during the day. We get back to the car, take a soak and plan on heading through steel pass to eureka dunes. We are now doing the trip backwards due to my poor navigation.
Here’s where the duck nomination may come in. I turn the key and the battery is completely dead. And when I say that I mean the voltmeter reads 0 with no electrical response whatsoever. I have had a weak battery for a few weeks. I had fixed a brake pedal issue by replacing a screw with the proper rubber plug on the physical pedal that touches the brake switch. Even though the battery wasn’t 100% it had still served its purpose for day to day driving. It seems that driving for 3 hours on dirt roads at SAFE speeds (not 70 mph) with my high beams, fog lights, and roof lights on I had drained the battery. The alternator was not able to keep up. During the previous night’s drive I had watched the voltmeter for this very reason and it had never faltered below 12V. How accurate is the stock voltmeter? And, is charging at 12V adequate? Does the truck need around 13 to be healthy?
I end up going over to a group of people and I ask for a jump. I offer beer to make it worth their while since they are comfortably relaxed and probably not in the mood to do work. One gentleman says he’ll help me. I tell them that the beer is cold and it’s guiness and immediately another gentleman jumps up and says his services are needed since he is an electrical engineer. They come over and jump my truck. The electrical engineer tells me to let my dead battery charge for 1 minute before trying to crank. I then get the truck started. He insists to check the gauges to make sure that it’s just a battery and not the alternator. I stupidly mention that I have a throttle and that I could keep that out while driving if necessary to keep the RPMs up. He immediately gives me a look that makes me feel like a dumb kid. He says that it would make my engine run rich and that I should never do that. Of course if I thought about it before blurting stupid s*** out I would know that. The two guys then tell me they had just finished backpacking for multiple days on the range between Saline Valley and 395 Lone Pine. They also said that last night they were on top of the mountain and saw me driving in at 2am.
The girlfriend and I end up driving out and spending the night in Mammoth at my parent’s condo. We had both had enough of our problematic weekend’s start. On Sunday we visited the Bristlecone Pine Forest and hiked around the old trees. We met a couple in a ford sport wagon and talked to them for awhile.
Lessons learned from this trip:
- Have adequate maps other than just death valley that show your whole route.
- If a battery shows signs of weakness, replace it before a trip to the middle of nowhere alone.
- Extra power loads on a stock truck should be studied carefully and taken into account (dual battery setup has now moved up on my list significantly) due to my extra lighting.
