The Adventure Brigade, Garrett, Samantha and Crazy Dave

The Mojave Road: It's quite beautiful. It's a magical place to go. I'm not sure I'd want to go alone unless traveling on established roads, but the well prepared traveler and a second vehicle can have a grand time.

This time: NINE vehicles and SEVENTEEN travelers.

This was to be the first hardcore trip with the van. I had previously taken it to the hot springs with no problems so what could possibly go wrong?

Half of the group went out to the first campsite on Friday morning. The rest of us met around 7pm on Friday night after work at my house in the marina. We got situated and loaded and we were off!
We get on the 15frwy to go over the pass and lo and behold, Max comes on the radio, "Garrett, do you want me to give you a baja bump?" (for those of you unaware of a baja bump, it's when offroaders don't get out of your way...you come up behind them and "bump" them at insane speeds to tell them to get out of the way)
"Dang dude, I'm FLOORING it right now!"

About an hour later the radio cackles again, "Garrett, pull off at the next gas station."
We stop at the next exit and fill up our tanks. We've still got 120 miles to go. Max's Jeep is making a weird sound and he tracks it to the water pump. Great....we're heading to the desert. The LAST thing you want to fail is a water pump. It's way past closing time. Max decides he'll head into town first thing in the morning and buy a replacement.

We arrive in camp dead tired at 2:30am. The camp is pitch black and everyone is asleep. WTF is this???? Where's our greeting party? Where's my open beer being handed to me as I get out of the van? This is unacceptable.
Sam and I head over to Eric's tent housing Eric, Matt and Tyler. We call out to the dog and wake him up first knowing that he'll start getting exciting and waking everyone else up in the tent. We peek inside as Charlie comes out and see Tyler passed out fully clothed in his sleeping bag with his headlamp still on. Nice...must have been some night!
We get ourselves situated, have a few drinks with everyone who arrived and head to bead.

Saturday, 7am
YODELING pierces the air! I had heard some people walking around, and was half awake in the penthouse. As the yodeling starts from the truck speakers I roll over to Sam and she gives me a look. You know, the look like it's MY fault this is happening!? "Oh come on, you know we were loud when we got to camp last night. We deserve this."
Jeff decided to get revenge since he's an early riser on us late arrivals. It wasn't too bad though. Coffee and breakfast flowed freely and we all prepared. Max disappeared down the road to go to Autozone for his water pump. When he's back, we decide that the slow moving vehicles will start the trail since they should be able to easily catch up. Off we go with Max working and Charlie supervising (the dog). Eric hangs back in case they need a working vehicle.

First stop...a ghost town just off the trail. It's creepy.

We all comment on how unexpected well the van is holding up to the abuse of the trail. I've been hitting the front on some of the rocks so I go to investigate. Looks like my license plate is now my bumper skid plate and the spare tire skid plate is doing its job wonderfully! Nice!

We continue on to Fort Piute.

I don't have a lot of photos of Fort Piute as we took our quick tour and decided to keep moving. Max and Eric were visible in the distance kicking up dust making their way to us. A quick view with Rudy's binoculars told me they were HAULING to catch up. I was slightly jealous! It was 11am at this point and we decided that lunch could wait........as long as I had a banana! I felt much better with a banana and Stone Levitation Ale. BACK TO THE ROAD, MONGRELS!

Eric and Max had caught up by this point...Max had not only replaced his water pump but also suffered a flat tire trying to follow Eric. His tires were kinda OK to begin with so harassing them in that fashion probably didn't help. He showed me the 2'' gash in the tread. "WOW, you guys must have been MOVING to catch up with us here with a flat tire repair as well"

"Yea, I'm going to go your pace now," said Max.

As we came down the road, I began bottoming out on the smallest rocks in the road. Something wasn't right...DUH, I had aired down TOO MUCH and as we flexed the sidewalls of the tires, more air escaped and I was slowly going flat. Max helped me out with a quick air fill at the bottom of the hill.

We load up and head back down the Piute road and down the telephone road. We turned right to climb the Piute Summit. Everything began well. Tires performed and rocks got kicked up but nothing we weren't used to by now.

Bing, Bang, Crack, Bang....rocks over rocks we go. We skid out a bit on some loose gravel, but the van keeps up the pace. Squeek Squeek Squeek...."That's different," I say. I peer out the window down at my driver's tire as I climb the hill. "No worries, it's just one of the ugly hubcaps squeeking on the aired down tires!" That's when I heard a different noise. A ratlling. A quick inspection reveals no more hubcap. I peer in the mirror and see it rolling back to Max, conveniently coming to a stop at his driver's door.

"This is my prize now! I'm going to turn it into something for you," He jeers. "They were ugly anyways!" I retort. We realize that apparently Max and I have been making significant progress over the rest of the group as they are about five minutes behind us on the hill climb. WTF...I'm in a van, how is this possible? Max and Andy begin raving about how amazed they were at the traction of the van and driving going on.

All this is going on while the van idles on the hill. OK, well, let's keep going. We pile in and keep up the climb until BANG...."pfff pfff pfff pfff". Max comes on the radio telling me to stop. I just ran over a big rock which couldn't even clear his differential so he hit it too. We come to find that I use my exhaust pipe to go over the rock and bent it backwards creating a hole in a welded seam. Nothing major and nothing that can't be fixed back home. It's just REALLY annoying now and sounds like a tricked out Super Beetle.

We stop again wait for the group and watch them making slow progress up the hill behind us. Man, talk about a Billy Goat van!

That's when the second issue hits...."GURGLE". Confused, I get quiet and listen......"GURGLE POP", what the heck is THAT? Sounds like water.........."uh oh, Sam, get in the van now, we need to keep moving and get to flat ground!"

"What? Why?"

"I think the coolant is beginning to boil!"

We cruise another 20 yards to the summit of the hill and I shut off the motor and coast to a stop. Disaster averted! Hooray! LUNCH BREAK!

We all find it pretty funny that my 1986 VW Westfalia is leading a group of well equipped off roaders through the desert. We must be QUITE the caravan to look at!

We get back on the road and continue on our merry way through the Joshua Tree Forest. It seems thicker than last time, but then again, that was a while ago. We're all beginning to wonder about setting up an evening campsite in a few hours.

Dave Chillaxin'

Let's go people...get on the bus!

Now honestly, how much more van does it get?

We're keeping good pace on the established road right before Rock Spring. I know the turnoff to the difficult section is close and it goes flying past us on the left. Well.....I've beat up the van enough today, let's just stay on the bypass and see what happens. I hear no complaints from anyone in the group. We get to Government Holes and discover there is no camping on site. Dang, we though we could have. Oh, well, PUSH ON!

Just down the road is the Hole in the Wall turnoff. We see a huge pile of boulders and cruise to investigate and find fire rings ready for us. YES! Everyone immediately separates and parks their vehicle where they can. I search for level ground to park the van. I turn off the motor, pop the top and look around..."I'm all ready! Are you guys?" --- gotta rub it in, ya know?

The Wild Mojave and some Bourbon.

We cook a GREAT dinner of steak tacos with rice, beans, Pico de Gallo, onions and beer. Everyone gathers around the fire and we TURN IT UP! We have only tonight to finish the wood, build it higher. We have fire permits and fire extinguishers. The night progresses with stories told, a thank you speech by me and

...

I passed out shots of Don Julio to everyone in celebration of my birthday on November 30.

End of Saturday

Here is a little video put together by Rudy:

Starting the Trail - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqMcVsWL2vQ

Fort Piute to the School Bus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHWts7ATlZ0

The Adventure Brigade (all present and accounted for!)

Garrett

Sam

Crazy Dave

Day Two on the Mojave Road

The Rings Loop Trail - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI265eHCaP0

Mailbox and Lava Tubes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SACOf-xg8QU

We woke up to a COLD morning, but never fear! I had recently purchased a Portable Buddy Heater! This little guy takes 1lb canisters or can hook up to my 5lb can for heavy duty work. I ran it before bed and anytime I woke up to go to the bathroom or chilly. Sam was lucky and slept the whole night.

We all got up slowly, a little groggy from last night's festivities. We had a "Van Cafe" going on in the van! I was making french press coffee for 9 people and everyone huddle around the sliding door so they could get a piece of the heat from the heater and stove in the van. Talk about popular!

We packed up and headed down the road to Hole in the Wall Nature Rings Loop Trail. This is a trail that starts at the visitors center, wraps around the mountain and comes back through a slot canyon-ish deal where you have to use rings hammered into the rocks to get up. It is said to be the hiding place for Jesse James!

After the Rings Trail, Jeff and his son, Kevin, decided to call it a day since it was near midday. We had gotten quite a late start. We said our goodbyes and the rest of the group continued on. We had lunch at Marl Springs by the corral enjoying some brews, cold cuts and good tunes.

I will report that after the Piute Summit climb, there was nothing more difficult than that (and the very beginning of the road was pretty rough). We skipped a gnarly section but it doesn't count since there's a bypass and we were tired.

So we arrived at the Mojave Mailbox and there was a big group of jeepers and trucks there. As the van pulled up, hole in exhaust and everything, we got smiles and I saw some people poking others to draw attention. Again...talk about popular! I guess I see now why people with these vans get crazy looks everywhere. Even the dirtbikers who had passed us on Saturday gave us thumbs up or a "Hell yea" as they went past.

We searched the logbook and found my ExpeditionPortal group's names from April 2010! That was fun! We also found the frog garden and a secret hidden gnome patch! There was a ~10year old kid there and he was showing us around since we weren't sure where this stuff was. Someone joked that he was a tourguide so I tipped him $1. He sure was happy and hopping like a frog after that!

After the mailbox, we went further down the Road and turned up Aiken Mine Road to head to the lava tubes.

We passed the old volcano on the way up

Boy oh Boy was there a surprise for us! Look who was waiting there! ANOTHER VANAGON!

We cruised into the lava tubes and messed around and on the way out we encountered a BAT! That was fun!

Yea...we're dorks!

Is Quinn chosen??

We reluctantly left the lava tubes and chose the hard way out to Highway 15. Down the sandy washes, we cruised 30mph and tried to keep up our speed so we wouldn't get stuck in the sand. We hadn't gotten stuck once yet this trip and we weren't about to start! Nor did we have to reattempt any obstacle!

At the end of the sandy section, we stopped by the highway. The Mojave Road continues across the highway, down to Soda Dry Lake and in through Afton Canyon. It was near dark and everyone was feeling pretty withered. This was about the time yesterday that we set up camp. We make a democratic decision to call the end of the trip. We aired up the tires, had a few more shenanigans, stopped at In N Out in Barstow and made it home by 9pm. I was zonked out by 9:30!