The sun rose far too early in the morning, waking me up with light that flooded my tent. I considered going back to sleep but I could hear Anthony rustling around in his rooftop tent, and Bryon was already up and going. I reluctantly dragged my butt out of the sleeping bag and got dressed.

As Anthony & I had breakfast, Bryon did a few laps around the campground in his wounded Sportsmobile. We hoped that with the transmission fluid having cooled overnight that it might miraculously start working normally, and sure enough Bryon reported that everything seemed to be behaving. That seemed promising so we packed up camp and moved out, wondering what fresh challenges this day might bring.

As we headed through Afton Canyon heading east, we passed a couple of other railroad bridges. The first one had an adjacent water crossing, which was fun to blast through in our vehicles. We sure could have used a crossing like that at the far end of the trail, to wash off some of the accumulated dust, but no such luck.

We then entered the deepest part of Afton Canyon, where we drove along some spectacular and vertical cliff faces. It seemed like we’d only been out of camp for 15 minutes and here we were hopping out again like kids on Christmas morning to take more photos.

Passing under the last rail bridge, we came out in a large wash area and began hunting for the proper trail to continue on. There were numerous options, including dead ends and the Mojave River bed itself again, this time featuring some short shelves & a reasonably large rock garden section. One of the tracks I’d downloaded before the trip went up the river bed, while another passed to the north too far. We drove back & forth a couple of times doing our recon when Anthony spotted a rock cairn along one of the middle paths.

A subtle rock cairn

We knew from our copies of the Mojave Road Guide that the route was often marked with rock cairns, and it seems that we spotted this one just when we needed it. Encouraged, we followed the marked trail and soon were driving from cairn to cairn, weaving around among the maze of intersecting & diverging paths. The going was pretty easy here, but fun, with only a few sections of sand where momentum was the driver’s greatest ally.

I could see that our path would eventually rejoin the tracks on my GPS, and sure enough they converged. This simplified my life as it allowed me to predict upcoming terrain and course changes, and it put me back into my navigational happy place. We drove on through the wash area until we veered northeast and up through a pass onto firmer ground.

Here we encountered our first “whoopdy-doos”, which are large undulations in the trail. It was important to keep our speed down through these, otherwise the suspension was rocked into a greater and greater up-and-down seesaw motion, bottoming out and throwing any unsecured cargo up into the air. After maybe 10 minutes of these the trail again leveled out and we passed through the open gate into the Mojave Preserve area.

Here we found ourselves on the edge of the next potential challenge: the flat playa of Soda Lake. We’d read that when it was wet from recent rains, it could be one of the more challenging parts of the trail, but in our case it had been dry for two or three weeks. We sailed across the smooth playa at about 35-40mph, braking hard when an undulation in the trail suddenly appeared. These bumps were often hard to spot because they were camouflaged by the color of the dried mud and white mineral deposits.

We paused at the Traveler’s Monument to partake in the ritual adding of rocks to the pile, and then flew across the rest of the dry lakebed, enjoying the smooth ride and comfortable weather.

On the other side of the lake, we came upon stretches of black lava beds on the north side of the trail, and we rounded Seventeenmile Point on the southern border of the trail. We continued along until about 1pm when we found ourselves at some wonderful natural campsites, and decided to stop for a quick lunch.

Bryon’s transmission had started acting up again about 90 minutes into the day’s drive, and 3rd and 4th gear had decided to stop cooperating. Luckily our pace now was such that 2nd gear was entirely suitable for most conditions and he was able to continue along without much grief. Still, he knew he’d have to get it checked & repaired, and when we had 3G signal he managed to use Yelp on his iPhone to locate a shop in Laughlin, where the Mojave Road trail ended to the east.

After lunch we quickly found ourselves in our first Joshua tree “forest”, which we enjoyed. We all liked these cool trees. Then we reached the Mojave Road Mailbox, where we signed in on the large logbook. We marveled at the mailbox and the countless stickers that had been applied to it and the support pole. Then I noticed the strange “frog memorial” collection off in the brush, and a few gnomes hanging out on a log a distance behind that. Funny how desert and mountain areas seem to generate these types of eclectic and odd things!

The trail continued east and climbed until we reached one of the two highpoints at around 4,500′ elevation, and then it was a two mile downhill descent to Marl Springs, one of the important year-round water sources in this stretch of desert. The water was flowing but there wasn’t much in the basin, although I did fill up an empty one-gallon water jug that I later filtered. The water has an earthy, slightly mineral flavor to it.

After that stop we were treated to the biggest stretch of whoopdy-doos on the trail, and we discovered that dusty desert trails can feel an awful lot like deep sea swells! We almost needed Dramamine after a while, as we cruised through at a leisurely 10mph. At one stop along the way I smelled gas – shades of Death Valley – and sure enough I discovered that my auxiliary tank’s exposed fuel filter seemed to have taken a beating from thrown-up rocks on the long offroad drive. It was leaking slowly now, so I quickly clamped-off the aux tank fuel hose and was able to proceed normally.

We continued east and crossed the Kelso-Cima Road, and were treated to a couple of miles of pavement on the other side. That quickly faded back to dirt, although here it was very wide and recently graded. We cruised along to the setting sun behind us, and pulled into the Pleasant View School campsite with daylight to spare.

As we started to set up camp, a few trucks passing along the main trail veered off and drove up to us. We’d seen them earlier as we ate our lunch, and there’s not a lot of traffic on the Mojave Road so we easily remembered them. They got out and introduced themselves as the owners of the Mojave Ranch property which we’d heard about. Then they also introduced Dennis Casebier – the guy who wrote the Mojave Road Guide book that we’d been following! That was pretty random!

I enjoyed a chat with Dennis about the campsite location and the old one-room schoolhouse for the children of the homesteaders that had been built here back in the 1920s. Dennis suggested that he should sign our books for us, which was nice of him. He signed my book but unfortunately Anthony’s copy had gotten nuked just that morning by a water spill inside his Land Cruiser. Bad luck!

After the other group had departed we made ourselves dinner, enjoyed the nice weather and the blessed lack of howling winds this time. We also visited the nearby Bert Smith homestead, which was a stone house with an interesting story. Smith had badly-scarred lungs from mustard gas attacks in the trenches of WWI, and was told he hadn’t long to live. His doctors suggested that the dry desert air could help, so he moved out to the Mojave and defied the odds by living another 25 years, finally passing away in the 1950s. His sturdy rock house looks like it could have been built last year.

At our wonderful campsite, we relaxed, had a few cold beers and played around with some night photography after darkness had fallen. It was a perfect way to end what had been a great day on the Mojave Road, free of any great drama and with one interesting sight after another. In the middle of the night, coyotes again yipped in the distance, and I slept well.

• Day Two Miles: 73
• Day Three Miles offroad: 71.4
• Trip Miles: 555
• Trip Miles offroad: 107.9
• Days without a shower:

Overland Expo Road Trip Day Two gallery

The road trip started, as usual, with me getting up far too early. Before 0600, if memory serves. I was meeting Anthony in south San Jose at the same kickoff location we use for many of the GBA offroad runs. It’s conveniently located by the intersection of two main highways, and the shopping center has a McDonalds, a Shell station, and a Starbucks.

From there, we had about a 400-mile drive to Barstow where we were meeting up with Bryon in his Sportsmobile. It’s a long and mostly dull drive and I think Anthony and I were both going a bit bonkers by the time we pulled up at the Barstow Vons. We grabbed some supplies & chatted with Bryon in the parking lot, where a guy in a Toyota pickup saw us and said “Hey, are you guys overlanders?” Guilty as charged.

From there we embarked on a minor comedy of errors called “Let’s try to top off at a gas station as close as possible to the start of the Mojave Road trail”. This saw us heading east, backtracking west, then south, then east and finally west again. We finally located what was probably the closest gas to the starting point, but it was also some of the most expensive of the trip at something horrific like $4.79 a gallon.

The next challenge was locating the start of the trail. We located a likely dirt road & drove it to a point very close to Camp Cady but we were stopped by private property gates. From there we decided to swing around to Cherokee Road and into the Manix Basin area, where we again missed a turn here & there before finding ourselves passing through Manix Wash and into the dry bed of the Mojave River, where the real fun began.

I made it about a mile, sometimes though the deep, soft sand. I’d just powered through a particularly deep section, and I’d come close to bogging at one point. I reached a firm stretch of ground and decided that I really needed to properly air down before continuing. I looked back and Anthony appeared to be doing the same. Then the call came over the radio from him: “I think Bryon’s stuck.”

After airing down I drove back and sure enough, the 10,100lb. Sportsmobile with 80psi in the tires was well and truly sunk into the sand. He was able to move ten feet at a time with the help of Anthony’s Maxtrax, but that was about it. Thus began a one-and-a-half hour recovery process to get the stranded beast up onto the firmer terrain on the edge of the river bed. Fortunately he was very close to the hard ground, but we also had to get the vehicle up onto it. In the end, two 12,000lb winches and some patient maneuvering got the job done, and the Sportsmobile escaped the sand.

We backtracked to Manix Wash & with the sun setting, began racing along the alternate path along the roadway that parallels the Union Pacific railway line just to the north. More worryingly, along the way Bryon came on the  radio to report that his speedometer and transmission were acting up. Darkness fell, out roof lights came on, and we eventually managed to reach our first campsite at the Afton Canyon campground.

We were beat, but thankful to have made it through a difficult first day. The wind was also blasting at the campground and was strong enough to knock over full beer cans! I opted to pitch my tent behind the Land Cruiser, using it as a wind break. We were near a railroad bridge and a few short trains came through, shaking the campground and providing a nice light show. We all crashed out quickly to the sound of the high winds, perhaps wondering what we’d gotten ourselves into with this Mojave Road, but tomorrow would be another day and we’d carry on. Around 0100 I was awoken to the sound of coyotes yipping on a nearby hill, before dropping off to sleep again.

• Day One Miles: 482
• Day One Miles offroad: 36.5
• Days without a shower: 1

Overland Expo Road Trip: Day One photo gallery

Photo by Brian Dorr

I’m back from our epic Overland Expo road trip! And I’ve been a basket case every since. I really need to catch up on my sleep but the buzz from the trip has kept me going…

It was a nine-day trip with a couple of days offroading across the Mojave Road trail, several amazing days at Overland Expo 2012, and with quick visits to Meteor Crater and the Grand Canyon… Not bad!

There will be lots of posts from this trip coming soon, as I work my way through the 900 photos I took, the GoPro videos, and so on. In the meantime, if we’re friends on Facebook be sure to check the photos I posted there, as well as the ones that I sent out to Twitpic while I was on the road. I also recommend that you take a look at Bryon Dorr’s Exploring Elements site where he’s got some great coverage of OX12, including several galleries of great photos.

In the meantime I thought I’d do something a little different here, by adding a recipe of sorts.

With 9 days on the road and 8 nights of tent time, I knew I’d have to be self-sufficient for a lot of meals. Somehow an idea appeared in my brain for a tasty mix of fresh veggies I could prepare ahead of time and use in several ways while on the road. I dubbed it the Versamix because of its versatility.

Versamix ingredients:

• 1 each red, orange, and yellow bell peppers
• 1 red onion
• 1 cluster of garlic
• 1 bunch of cilantro

Prep is easy: dice everything up and mix it together. I stored it all in a Lock-n-Lock container.

This mix worked great on the week+ trip. It mostly went into the scrambled eggs I made on several mornings, but I also put it into the fry pan with the brats I cooked up one night for dinner. It would also make an excellent topping for pizza, and I’m sure it would have other uses as well, like livening up a soup.

The super pro tip I have after using this mix is to suggest that you use one or more smaller containers on the road rather than one large one. By the end of my trip I’d used most of the mix, but the last 10% in the Lock-n-Lock still used up just as much room in my Engel fridge. Putting the mix into several ziplock sandwich-size bags might be a good alternative.

With dinner

With breakfast

That’s all for now. Look for more posts about the OX12 road trip coming soon.

New muffler extension and replacement mud flap

Maintenance & repairs are no fun, compared to new additions. But if you want your vehicle to keep working properly, they’ve got to be done. Obviously. With a trip coming up and with things that needed to get done, it was a good time for me to bite the bullet and have several things addressed.

There were several things I was aware of that were due, and a few issues that had come up. The recently broken exhaust was an obvious one, and my starter had intermittently stopped responding on the first try or three. There were a couple of leaks from the engine bay that I had been monitoring, and several other items of maintenance that should be done while Toyotie was in the shop(s).

Here’s the full list of what was done:

1. Oil change.
2. Coolant flush & change.
3. Power steering fluid flush & change.
4. Brake fluid flush & change.
5. Tires rotated & balanced.
6. Rear brake pads replaced & rotors resurfaced.
7. E-brake adjusted.
8. Starter rebuilt, contacts replaced.
9. Engine valve cover gasket replaced.
10. Spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, and rotor replaced.
11. Power steering pump replaced.
12. Exhaust repaired & custom extension added.
13. Right-rear mudflap replaced.
14. General inspection.

That’s a lot of stuff, and my wallet was none too happy about it. But it’s a very good feeling to know that everything on the vehicle is sorted and in good working order.

The situation with the exhaust was pretty funny. Besides the exhaust tube being broken at the front of the muffler at Hollister, the two small bolts for the factory exhaust hanger had broken and been worn smooth. Also, to accommodate the 4×4 Labs rear bumper, the exhaust had been cut back. As a result, the hot exhaust gasses had shot out right at the right-rear mudflap and burned a hole right through it! Having the missing length added back but routed around the bumper and the auxiliary fuel tank corrected that problem. The broken pipe at the muffler was welded and the hanger was also fixed.

I’ve also got the Engel MT45 freezer/fridge mounted on the slider in the back of the Land Cruiser now. The hardwire plug just arrived from Sierra Expeditions so I will try to get that wired over the weekend if I can. I have a dual lighter/power plug I might install as well while I am at it, depending on how much work there is to get access behind the passenger side panel in the back.

I’ve picked up several other items in preparation for the trip to Overland Expo 2012 as well. Those items include a Trasharoo bag; a PETT portable toilet and PUP tent; a pair of lightweight wheel chocks; a Manchester 5lb. propane tank and carrier; and some other small items I am surely forgetting.

5lb propane tank and carrier, just installed.