The Adventures of Chungus (1 Viewer)

[Roketdriver]

After a little bit more driving, I found an established campsite and parked for the night. This was the view from the nearest hill:

The following morning I began my descent to below sea-level. With the forecast predicting highs in the 90s, I was apprehensive about not having AC. At the same time, I knew this would be a good thing as it would reduce my chances of overheating. Not that it's ever been an issue, but it can't hurt to play it safe in environments like this.

I was not prepared for what came next.

What I had thought would have been an inhospitable wasteland, was instead blooming. Shrubberies with little yellow petals covered the valley, with the occasional flowering cacti. My timing couldn't have been any better.

This section of dirt road was pretty loose, sandy, and a fun mix of washboard and bumps. I had my tires in the 20psi range since leaving pavement the day prior. The new Baja Boss treads continued to impress. Aside from three vehicles coming from the other direction, I had the place to myself. With earplugs in, driving with the windows down was enjoyable but dusty.

Up next was a short leg of asphalt, a stop to refuel and get my park pass, followed by more dirt until I was past the halfway point between the northern and southern points of Death Valley.

 

[Roketdriver]

A recurring theme of this trip up to this point had been incredible campsites. DV was no exception.

I set my alarm for 2AM so I could get in a little bit of astrophotography. This was the first truly clear night of the trip and being able to see the Milky Way with the naked eye left me in awe.

I got a few more hours of sleep after the photo session, but was still up at sunrise to keep the trip moving. I had a lot of ground to cover and didn't see any need to dilly-dally.

As I went through Nevada I detoured around Vegas and checked out Lake Mead.

Shortly after crossing into Arizona I found a little bonus trail that took me along a dry creekbed that was completely criss-crossed with trail threading and ambiguous signage. I was able to successfully navigate with the help of some map reading and got to see some fun rock formations.

Before I crossed into Utah, I made a pit stop at a gas station that advertised "LOTTO - GUNS - AMMO - BEER". While grabbing an ice cream sandwich, I noted that they did, in fact, have all four in stock. The establishment is now #1 on my list of most 'Murican gas stations I have ever been to. What a time to be alive.

 

[Roketdriver]

Once in UT, I made a beeline for a campsite that I visited on my last trip to the state.

I was grubby and gross from the last few days of dusty driving, and had been really looking forward to swimming in the falls. Upon arrival I realized that would not be safe.

What had been a meandering creek last time I was here was now a raging river. I didn't even want to hazard walking across to get a better angle at the falls. I did manage to get in a frigid sponge-bath further upstream, which was refreshing but not the dunk I had been looking forward to.

I let myself sleep in a little bit to recover from the day prior then headed into town to a little souvenir shopping.

When in Southern Utah...

I got to meet a few of the MORR team and was allowed to poke around the yard and shoot some photos. Super nice folks. They were filming while I was there so I did my best to not interrupt or get in their way. If you're trying to get your hands on some Matt's schwag, this is a way more cost-effective option over needing a rescue.

But most importantly - I got to pet the dogs.

As badly as I wanted to hit the dunes at Sand Hollow, it wasn't on the itinerary for this trip (on purpose). I had some new territory to discover.

I turned to the south and east once more and started trucking towards Lake Powell.

 

[Roketdriver]

The road to the north rim of Lake Powell was incredibly diverse in terrain, ranging from what I can only describe as loamy loose dirt, which then transitioned into a rocky ascent, which dropped into another canyon before spitting me out into a great open expanse.

By this point in the trip, the rig had become a wee bit dirty.

After a bit more driving, I departed from the main road and found myself at the lakes edge.

This wound up being my favorite campsite of the trip.

 

[Roketdriver]

On my way out the following morning, I snapped what wound up being my favorite gratuitous glamour shot of the LX from the whole trip:

"Nothing to See Here" Point wasn't too shabby either.

As the road curved to the north, it began to narrow into a trail that had seemingly been carved into the edge of a cliff. There were a few dicey spots with small rock slides, which led to some lovely pucker-inducing off camber moments. The difficult portion was capped off with a decent size rock step. I had to stop at the top to recompose a little before continuing.

The trail took me along the top of a ridge for quite some time. It was the perfect morning for some easy dirt road cruising.

The trail began to drop in altitude and I found myself in yet another dry-ish riverbed.

 

[Roketdriver]

After reaching the end of the dirt, airing up, and eating some lunch, my journey on pavement resumed as I passed through Capitol Reef.

From there I pretty much just hauled my way back to Colorado. I stopped just past Cortez that night - the plan was to camp on BLM land but I made the frustrating discovery that it was all locked in by private land. Not cool. I wound up stealth camping at a hiking trailhead that night and bailed out early in the morning so I could schlep home, take a shower, and let the truck rest.

3,300 miles of driving later, Chungus was back in the driveway.

 

[FMC80]

Fantastic storytelling, photography, and adventure! Thank you for sharing!

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

I agree. Great photography! I'm looking forward to reading about the next adventure.

 

[Roketdriver]

Fantastic storytelling, photography, and adventure! Thank you for sharing!

I agree. Great photography! I'm looking forward to reading about the next adventure.

Thank you both! I really enjoyed getting to share the experience, thanks for reading.

There's a whole bunch of stuff to catch up on in this thread, let's time warp back to the day after my road trip.

I hop into the truck to take it to the wash, and it won't crank. The voltage on the dash read "dead battery". With the assistance of a jump pack it came to life.

The battery that the used dealership had put in for me quit with nearly exactly 70,000 miles of use on it. It had fulfilled its contractual obligation and went into immediate retirement. So a new battery went in.

While the hood was open I threw in a new OEM air filter.

The next thing that was noteworthy was getting out to wheel with a few fellow 80 owners. We did this in May for an issue of a magazine I contribute to. Some of you may recognize these rigs.

It was a super fun day, I learned how to take the "rock buggy" line on one of my favorite trails, got the LX plenty dirty, and it was nice to wheel with a group for a change.

I wheeled quite a bit that summer.

One of the more rewarding trail runs happened late in June, when I tackled the southern half of a narrow and slick track. I did a few rear bumper Tupperware slams and found the sliders once or twice, but tyhe subsequent view and night of camping was well worth it. I never got footage from the bystanders, but I recovered a very lifted RWD van from this river. They made it 96% of the way then got hung up on a rock. A gentle kinetic rope pull was all that was needed to dislodge it.

A few days later I took some relatives on their first ever 4x4 ride. I chose a less spicy and more scenic trail. My sister-in-law's comment was "They just let people do this?"

Heck yeah they do.

 

[Roketdriver]

Found a few muddy spots and big puddles in July.

It got put to work again as a chase vehicle for a very fun photo session.

When August rolled around, I hit the Alpine loop with some friends. We spent three days wheeling, fixing my buddies 4Runner on the side of the trail, ate excellent camp meals, caught a meteor shower, and found where rainbows end.

Oh, and an impromptu Tupperware delete. I dragged this corner across a rock, dragging the tailpipe and breaking an exhaust mount in the process. A bit of baling wire was enough to keep the pipe from flopping all over the place for the remainder of the trip.

ope

 

[Roketdriver]

It was September 2nd, when riding into Leadville my phone blew up as I came back into cell service, people checking in on me for reasons I did not yet understand. The thing about all of the adventures covered in this thread, is that the soundtrack of each one has been Jimmy Buffet's discography. I spent +10,000 minutes a year for the past two years listening to the man's music as I drove all over the country, according to Spotify I'm the top .005% of their fans. When I checked the news and saw that the old man had gone incommunicado, I was devastated.

Before I knew it, fall had passed and we got our first snowfall. I decided I needed to cram in a few more camping trips before the season ended.

This past weekend I made two day trips to my favorite area, did some fun snow wheeling, and spotted over a dozen different moose. Once we get some more frozen precipitation, the snow may become too deep to traverse, even with the tire chains.

All in all, it's been a pretty good year. Happy Toyotathon and a very Merry Lexus December to Remember Sales Event to all.

 

[Roketdriver]

Started prepping for the next adventure with an almost 250k mile service. Replacing just about every coolant hose (I can skip the PHH today since I did that already), deleting the rear heaters in the process, new heater valve, doing a valve cover gasket, and to cap it all off, a "while I'm in there" tuneup. All OEM parts from the dealership, sans the heater delete bypass hose which I had to get shipped from Japan. I can share part numbers when the spreadsheet is in front of me again.

Naturally I had to get this done the weekend following a major snow.

It's been a mix of smooth sailing and "f*** this stuck hose". Haven't broken anything yet (knocked on wood as I wrote that). I probably have a few more hours of wrenching energy left for the afternoon, I can button everything up tomorrow if needed.

Once everything under the hood is done, the rear driveshaft is coming out for a rebuild and new swaybar bushings will go in. Ideally on a less snowy day.

 

[Roketdriver]

Picked the tools back up this morning and started with the spark plugs. They were nasty but none of them fought back:

Valve cover came off. Everything looked happy inside.

Replacing all the seals and gaskets could have been worse. Everything was brittle as heck.

With the valve cover back on, I completed the tune up with a new cap, rotor, and plug wires.

From here, more new hoses and a new heater valve went in.

After lunch I should have enough time to get the remainder of things buttoned up. Looking forward to having this job done.

 

[Roketdriver]

Between the last post and this I knocked out the remainder of the work under the hood, got the rear driveshaft rebuilt, and dropped it off at the dealership to get the rear pinion seal taken care of. While in the service bay, the tech noted that both my front main and oil pump seal are leaking - a problem to be dealt with in a few weeks. They also pointed out I'm due for another knuckle service, so an order was placed for those components.

Most importantly though, I added an aerodynamic boat anchor to the roof.

I got a screaming good deal on a CVT Mt Hood RTT of the large single-channel variety. It's been affixed to the roof with 3 Rhino Rack Crossbars. I have to say that the speed penalty of this addition has already been felt greatly climbing mountain passes. On inclines where I used to struggle to maintains speed, I now lose speed.

But I think the aero penalty is well worth it. After a quick night in my favorite wooded area, I now understand the appeal of roof mounted sleeping accommodations. Setup and packing is super quick, comfortable mattress, nice ventilation, feels sturdy, and most importantly - I got the stamp of approval from my partner. After a lifetime of ground tents, hammocks, and sleeping in the trunk, this is a very welcome elevation to the camping setup.

With the shakedown concluded, I'm feeling ready to leave for a big trip next week.