Volhoo's Build - The Brigadier

[volhoo]

Solo on the Mojave Road 2/17&18/08

It was a 3 day week end, and we wanted to go back and run the Mojave Road from East to West and follow the book “Mojave Road Guide” by Dennis Casebier.

The plan was to travel with our good friend Michael and his awesome full size Bronco, but he was not able to make it, so we decided to be adventurous and head out solo.

It was 528 miles round trip from our house in Fullerton California.

My GPS measured the Mojave Road trip at 134 miles from the Colorado River to I-15 near Baker California (Afton Canyon off ramp).

We packed up the rig, loaded up the dogs (Nicky the red pit bull, and Harley the American bulldog) and took off about 2pm on Saturday afternoon.

We spent the first night at a Best Western off the first off ramp in Needles (don’t tell them about the dogs in the room), and we got up early and hit the road about 7:30 am.

It was a beautiful day…

The Start of the Mojave Road – Mile 0 on the Colorado River near Needles California. Right across the River on the Arizona side is the old Fort Mojave site.



The Road stretches out ahead out toward Fort Piute


Look out mountain


Remains of an old Turkey Ranch near Fort Piute


Lots of Petroglyphs along the creek ridge


Looks like the sheep have been here for a long long time


The dogs had a great time (Nicky the red Pitbull and Harley the American Bulldog


Little Nicky


Fort Piute wall (look close)


Back on the trail


An old corral


The old school bus (not sunfusion any more)


Rock Springs iced over


Government Wells (all dry)


Government Wells gate


The place is beautiful


Nearing the camp site at Beal Mountain


We camped at the same place we did when we went two week ends before with Uphill and the gang


Nice Barrel Cactus


Turtle Petroglyph


What do they mean?


Moon rise at the camp site


Harley on point


Harley watches me pack up in the morning (notice that my ass has been frozen off)


Claudia and the dogs at Marl Springs

[volhoo]

Solo on the Mojave Road - continued:

At the summit near the lava flows


Claudia looking very fashionable as always


The views are awesome over the entire trip (these photos hardly capture the grandeur). You can catch a glimpse of the Soda Lake from here (way in the distance).


Signing the logbook at the Mailbox (again)


At the edge of a lava flow


Lava rocks


Coming down into some deep sand, lava flow on right


The Soda Lake in the distance


Treasure


The entire place is just about to erupt in bloom


Very near the Soda Lake


Lava stones


On the Soda Lake


Good fun on the Soda Lake


The Soda Lake surface



Represent’n the SoCal crew


The Lake was very different from 3 weeks ago


Marker at the west end of the lake


Coming into Afton Canyon and the end of the journey


Afton Canyon creek. Check out the old school white side walls (Soda Lake dust).


Looking the other way


All tuckered out


We had a great time and only saw a few people along the entire route.

The first time we went with Uphill and the big group, I traveled in 4 wheel high most of the time. I used ¾ of a tank of gas just to get to the camp site (Beal Mountain) at the half way point.

This time I drove the entire trip in 2 wheel drive (with the exception of 3 brief times when we got into some very deep sand), and used ¾ of a tank for the entire trip.

Until next time…

[Shadow-Warrior]

Great pics Vince and story telling. Anita and I wil have to get out there one of these days and hit the trails with you guys. We realy enjoyed last year before the Summit the four of us hitting the trails in Ouray before everyone came in. We'll get togther again this year.

[volhoo]

Shadow-Warrior previously said:

Great pics Vince and story telling. Anita and I wil have to get out there one of these days and hit the trails with you guys. We realy enjoyed last year before the Summit the four of us hitting the trails in Ouray before everyone came in. We'll get togther again this year.

Sounds great Mike - Claudia and I will be there a few days early this time as well - See you soon -

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[volhoo]

Trail Damage

Nothing serious, just wanted to access some of the new dents and scratches I’ve absorbed over the last few trail runs.

Some of this was done on the Tuweep/Purunweap Canyon run with uphill, some was done in Big Bear at the Trails Teams event (Gold Mine), some was done a couple of weeks ago on the Lockwood Creek/Miller Jeep trail run, and some of it (like the pin stripes) has been around since the beginning (just getting worse).

I think this was done at the same time I punched a big hole in my spare tire (at the top of Purunweap Canyon trail).

I backed into a tree, flattened the spare and busted the support (weld) on the Manik tail light guard.

I am hoping CruiserLarry can weld this back together for me soon


My Bud Built skids are designed to take the damage, and they have done just that - Thanks Bud


My All Pro sliders are doing their job as well – kind of hard to see, but all scratched up (both sides)


The Yellow really does hide the pin stripes well, but you can see them better on the black


I’m looking forward to more of the same soon…

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[oscarr]

very nice pics Vince.Maybe down the line in 2008 you can get together a small expedition and take me.Thanks for the sticker.

[volhoo]

My friend Michael just moved up to Big Bear and asked me to deliver his 20 foot Old Town canoe up to him.

It fit really well on the ARB rack.

One ratchet strap around the middle and a single tie down front and back, and it was as solid as a rock.

I thought it looked really cool on the FJ...







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[volhoo]

I'll be handing out SoCal stickers today at the Ricky & Ronnie's meet & greet - Hope to see you there -



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[Ramjet]

Such a sweet ride. What a way to show how much fun you can have in your FJ. Awesome pics of Moab and Monument Valley.

[volhoo]

Thanks much Ramjet -

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