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Panamint Mountains - (South Park and Pleasant Canyon)
May 12 & 13 2007
By: Roberto L. Miranda
Attendance:
Bob & Linda (Jeepfrog & Pollywog)Jeep - TJ-Rubicon
Bruce Jeep - YJ
Scott Williams Jeep - TJ
Steve & Lisa Jeep - TJ-Rubicon
Roberto Miranda Lexus LX 450
Enrique Giner & Andre Range Rover
First of all, I need to formally introduce Enrique to the group. My first off road trip was about 15 years ago or more. He is responsible somehow for what I’m doing today. He was driving an FJ-40 and I went with Raúl Ortiz (another old friend) as a shut gunner on his CJ-5. The never end fight about brands was always present, but we had a great time. I lost contact with him after he moved to the States, but somehow we are in contact again and we realized that we both live in Orange County, California. So the journey continues, he did some modifications to the Range, like the lift kit and mud tires and then we did some test on the rig. Fix some issues and it was time to show it up in a real run.
We meet at Norco I-15 at 6th Street at the gas station on Saturday May 12, 2007 6:30 am as planned. We had breakfast at Kramer junction on 395 N and then we did a final gas stop at Trona about 10:30 am.
We did the air-down ritual at Ballarat ghost town, we had the drivers meeting there and we hit the South Park Canyon road. I already did this loop back in March of 2005 with the NorCal group, so I was confident enough to explain Enrique some details about the trail, specially Rover’s hill, the telephone pole bridge and how narrow the trail is at chicken rock.
Please take few minutes (20+) and watch the video at http://www.snookoffroad.com/video_DV2005_high.htm so you will know from where the name comes from. BTW, what a prediction Jay, Devin already have two kids!!!
Welcome back, I was telling you that we were ready to try Rover’s hill. Bob went first and he did it with no problems. Scott was stuck and he was strap to the top, same as the Discovery dude. Bruce took the by-pass; his handy strap was used in the recovery maneuver. Next in line was Enrique, with open differentials, so my advice was to not lose momentum at the top of the hill and to stop if the wheels were spinning, but wheeling is like riding a bike, once you learn, you won’t forget, so he crown the hill. At my turn…I already installed the lockers so I pushed the switch to On and easily climb the hill as well as Steve. Finally, I did some easy test to the lockers man!
Our next stop was a nice cabin called Briggs Camp. I have no words to describe how well equipped it was and it belongs to each taxpayer. The Adopt-a-Cabin program really takes care of this one. All you can imagine, you ask for it and it was there. I’m serious, even all kind of garden tools, solar panels that provide electricity, a car stereo installed on the wall, running water, and the patio…oh the patio, with some grape’s tree and plenty of shade …we selected the patio to have our lunch break, there is no better place to do that. The guestbook was full, so please bring one next time you go there.
Minutes later, we continue the journey and stop again to inspect the telephone pole bridge, built thanks to the Adopt-a-Trail program and volunteer workers and off road clubs. I’m not sure which one was in charge of this project, but thanks to them, the bridge was fine. Per the sign, the maximum allow weight is 3 tons, Enrique and I are on that range not to mention all other stuff that we add to the rigs, but we went trough without issues. We didn’t hesitate to ask for a spotter at Chicken rock, it’s a really scary part of the trail.
We enjoy the dusty ride and the beautiful views. We saw another group coming down hill. We stopped as they had the right of way. There was an 80 in that group, so we smile at each other, what a girly guys…
We camped near Rogers pass between 7,300 and 7,500 feet high. As soon as the sun sets, the temperature drops drastically, but in a manageable way. I had troubles with my grill. It was too windy, so it was hard to keep the flames up to cook my dinner, but I figure out and solved my problem.
The next day, after having fast breakfast, we packed all our stuff and other trash found in the area, leaving the campground clean.
On the second day, the main attraction for me was the magnificent speech provided by Bob about the mining history and how all those equipments worked with the available resources of those times. I can’t remember the dates as well as Bob, neither the procedure to obtain gold during different periods of time, but I will remember this trip.
We returned to Ballarat ghost town via Pleasant Canyon about 2-3pm as was planned and arrived home about 6-7pm.
Many people ask me about cost of doing these trips, so I have some number for you:
10$ breakfast, 5$ ice, 160$ gas, 25$ car wash, less than $200 in total.
No damage to the rig, just scratches…it is an expected damage to the paint of course…but damaging something it is a possible high expense to consider.
I’m not considering camping equipment as well as rig modifications because they are based on a long term use…I hope…
In addition to that, the food cost for the trip is exactly the same as the food cost anywhere else, so can’t be part of the off-road only expenses.
Roberto L. Miranda
photos??? they are coming...
May 12 & 13 2007
By: Roberto L. Miranda
Attendance:
Bob & Linda (Jeepfrog & Pollywog)Jeep - TJ-Rubicon
Bruce Jeep - YJ
Scott Williams Jeep - TJ
Steve & Lisa Jeep - TJ-Rubicon
Roberto Miranda Lexus LX 450
Enrique Giner & Andre Range Rover
First of all, I need to formally introduce Enrique to the group. My first off road trip was about 15 years ago or more. He is responsible somehow for what I’m doing today. He was driving an FJ-40 and I went with Raúl Ortiz (another old friend) as a shut gunner on his CJ-5. The never end fight about brands was always present, but we had a great time. I lost contact with him after he moved to the States, but somehow we are in contact again and we realized that we both live in Orange County, California. So the journey continues, he did some modifications to the Range, like the lift kit and mud tires and then we did some test on the rig. Fix some issues and it was time to show it up in a real run.
We meet at Norco I-15 at 6th Street at the gas station on Saturday May 12, 2007 6:30 am as planned. We had breakfast at Kramer junction on 395 N and then we did a final gas stop at Trona about 10:30 am.
We did the air-down ritual at Ballarat ghost town, we had the drivers meeting there and we hit the South Park Canyon road. I already did this loop back in March of 2005 with the NorCal group, so I was confident enough to explain Enrique some details about the trail, specially Rover’s hill, the telephone pole bridge and how narrow the trail is at chicken rock.
Please take few minutes (20+) and watch the video at http://www.snookoffroad.com/video_DV2005_high.htm so you will know from where the name comes from. BTW, what a prediction Jay, Devin already have two kids!!!
Welcome back, I was telling you that we were ready to try Rover’s hill. Bob went first and he did it with no problems. Scott was stuck and he was strap to the top, same as the Discovery dude. Bruce took the by-pass; his handy strap was used in the recovery maneuver. Next in line was Enrique, with open differentials, so my advice was to not lose momentum at the top of the hill and to stop if the wheels were spinning, but wheeling is like riding a bike, once you learn, you won’t forget, so he crown the hill. At my turn…I already installed the lockers so I pushed the switch to On and easily climb the hill as well as Steve. Finally, I did some easy test to the lockers man!
Our next stop was a nice cabin called Briggs Camp. I have no words to describe how well equipped it was and it belongs to each taxpayer. The Adopt-a-Cabin program really takes care of this one. All you can imagine, you ask for it and it was there. I’m serious, even all kind of garden tools, solar panels that provide electricity, a car stereo installed on the wall, running water, and the patio…oh the patio, with some grape’s tree and plenty of shade …we selected the patio to have our lunch break, there is no better place to do that. The guestbook was full, so please bring one next time you go there.
Minutes later, we continue the journey and stop again to inspect the telephone pole bridge, built thanks to the Adopt-a-Trail program and volunteer workers and off road clubs. I’m not sure which one was in charge of this project, but thanks to them, the bridge was fine. Per the sign, the maximum allow weight is 3 tons, Enrique and I are on that range not to mention all other stuff that we add to the rigs, but we went trough without issues. We didn’t hesitate to ask for a spotter at Chicken rock, it’s a really scary part of the trail.
We enjoy the dusty ride and the beautiful views. We saw another group coming down hill. We stopped as they had the right of way. There was an 80 in that group, so we smile at each other, what a girly guys…
We camped near Rogers pass between 7,300 and 7,500 feet high. As soon as the sun sets, the temperature drops drastically, but in a manageable way. I had troubles with my grill. It was too windy, so it was hard to keep the flames up to cook my dinner, but I figure out and solved my problem.
The next day, after having fast breakfast, we packed all our stuff and other trash found in the area, leaving the campground clean.
On the second day, the main attraction for me was the magnificent speech provided by Bob about the mining history and how all those equipments worked with the available resources of those times. I can’t remember the dates as well as Bob, neither the procedure to obtain gold during different periods of time, but I will remember this trip.
We returned to Ballarat ghost town via Pleasant Canyon about 2-3pm as was planned and arrived home about 6-7pm.
Many people ask me about cost of doing these trips, so I have some number for you:
10$ breakfast, 5$ ice, 160$ gas, 25$ car wash, less than $200 in total.
No damage to the rig, just scratches…it is an expected damage to the paint of course…but damaging something it is a possible high expense to consider.
I’m not considering camping equipment as well as rig modifications because they are based on a long term use…I hope…
In addition to that, the food cost for the trip is exactly the same as the food cost anywhere else, so can’t be part of the off-road only expenses.
Roberto L. Miranda
photos??? they are coming...
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