New Drives, ExPo M&G and Upcoming Events

Site News

If you follow my blog you probably know I’ve been busy lately, adding a lot of new posts in the Drives category. If memory serves, I’ve gone from ten drives to now having 22 of them, in the last month or so. And with that many Drives, hopefully the new Google Map has made it easier to browse them by location.

I intend to keep adding more Drives, but at a reduced pace. Lately I’ve published them in pairs as well, to reduce the amount of notification emails that get sent out to subscribers.

Unfortunately, it seems that I can’t find my GPS tracks for a few good ones I had planned to add. One was my Mojave Road track, as well as the one from Desert Rendezvous 2012 in the Anza Borrego desert, but alas, both have vanished! Probably a dumb error on my part. In fact, all of my track data from the big Overland Expo road trip seems to have gone AWOL

Bummer.

In other site news, I’ve added several new items to my Amazon aStore, mostly in the guidebooks and gear categories. I only list gear that I have firsthand experience with and am comfortable recommending.

Events

In non-site news, I recently attended a small, informal meet and greet with ten other local folks from the Expedition Portal site. It’s fun to meet new people that share common interests, as you tend to “speak the same language.” The conversations centered around vehicles, ham radio, onboard air, local dirt road and trail options, Death Valley, offroad navigation, and so on.

Our small group was diverse, ranging from offroading veterans to enthusiastic noobs, and there were Jeeps, Land Cruiser 80s and a 100 series, an FJ Cruiser and two generations of 4Runners. We hung out in the parking lot for awhile before heading inside and claiming a big table in the restaurant.

There’s talk of making the get-together a monthly event, which would be nice. If you’re local and interested, this is the thread to watch in the ExPo forums.

Things are also looking good for attending Desert Rendezvous in March. This one will be a little different as I’ll have my family with me. My daughter’s birthday falls on that Friday, but she was still eager to go, which I think is pretty cool. I also think she’s going to have a good time. And I’m hoping to run the entire Bradshaw Trail that weekend while we’re there.

I’m still not 100% sure we’ll make it to DR14 (work or budget could torpedo my plans) but things are looking good for now. Fingers crossed.

Another upcoming event is the Third Annual Hollister Hills Geocache Bash on Saturday, April 12th. I participated in this event last year and in 2012, and had a lot of fun both times. Besides a literal free lunch, you also get entry into Hollister Hills SVRA for free, and can drive the Hudner Expansion property, which is normally open only for specific paid events.

This year they are also allowing camping in Area 5, as long as you make the appropriate arrangements ahead of time. This is the same area where there was camping for the now-defunct Overland Rally & Workshop that was held here for a couple of years, and also the main staging area for the Geocache Bash.

You’ll need to bring at least one GPS to attend and to participate in the geocaching activities. There will also be a raffle, and tickets are given out based on how many of the specific geocaches you locate. Some of the raffle prizes in the past have been pretty good, so it’s definitely worth your while to participate.

Give me a shout if you’re going to be at any of these upcoming events.