It was still a little before 2:00pm when we started back down the canyon towards the last segment of the Nadeau Trail - the segment that would lead us to the Modoc Mine. This mine was the reason that Remi Nadeau had built this trail - the ore from this area valuable enough to warrant the construction of a road that shaved precious miles off of the previous routes. In April 1875, a new silver bonanza was set off on the eastern slope of the Argus Range overlooking Panamint Valley. Prospector B. E. Ball discovered there an enormous lode assaying…
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Having gone to bed early - partly because sunset was at quarter-to-five, but mostly because we're old-and-boring - I'd mentioned to @mrs.turbodb that we should also get up early because while the Nadeau Trail might only be 27 miles long, all of our side trips would mean a couple more packed days of adventure. I'm not sure she ever agreed, but I set my alarm for 5:00am regardless. There was no color in the sky when I awoke, but the breeze was warm and inviting, so I climbed out of the tent and waited. Slowly, color. And a little more -…
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You might expect that we were out of the house early for the ~18 hour drive from the Seattle area to Death Valley, but you'd be wrong. It was 8:00am when we pulled out of the driveway, and pointed the truck south towards our destination. Before long, the city gave way to open space, the golden glow in stark contrast to the cloudy skies we were leaving behind. That wasn't all we were leaving behind - not by a long shot. It was Wednesday, November 4, 2020 - one day after a rather interesting election for our country. We'd purposefully…
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19 years, 1 month, 28 days. That's how long it's been since my first mod to the truck - when I disabled my daytime running lights (DRLs) - so that I wouldn't have to replace my headlights so often . OK, that, among other reasons. Anyway, I thought the DRL disable mod had been working just fine for the last 18 years - that is, until I went and made my Hella 700FF offroad lights turn on-and-off with my hi-beams. That mostly worked, except that - for some reason I didn't understand at the time - when the Hellas were set to…
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For years now, I've felt like the headlights on my 1st gen Tacoma left a little something to be desired. More than a little something, really. Some of it is my fault - the bulbs I have installed are over 20 years old, surely not as bright as they once were - but it seems to me that 1998-2000 Tacomas have always had the crappiest of the 1st gen headlights. Initially, I added Hella 500FFs to the front bumper to solve this problem. They were great until they got destroyed when I hit a deer for the first time. I…
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I've done a lot of work to the suspension on the Tacoma - with good reason since it is what helps to make our trips more comfortable, and what helps to isolate most of the truck from the harsh terrain over which we travel. In doing that work, one of the things I knew that I needed - at least technically - was a good set of limit straps. But - as with many who focus on the bling of a new shock, and less on completely finishing the job - I never installed any. Not on the back, and…
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October 12, 2020. There's no doubt about it, the truck worked pretty well on the Clear, Colorful, Colorado trip for the entirety of the two weeks. Heck, it even got me there and back on the highway - two 20+ hour drives straight, with a bunch of dirt thrown in-between. So, without further ado, let's do a quick rundown of what worked well, and what could have been better. Seemingly solved from previous Rig Reviews The Ham Radio Antenna Oil Spray in the Engine Bay - solved itself. I hope. Unchanged / Still an issue from previous Rig Reviews There…
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We awoke as we usually did, just before the sun spilled over our camp - the beginning of our last day on the trail. It would also be the day that we ran two of the most beautiful trails we'd encounter over the course of the entire trip. And - to tilt the scale in the favor of good, as far as the day was concerned - it was the second time we'd make a group breakfast on the trip - a last-day-tradition that I hope continues forever. We each easily ate over a pound of breakfast. Bacon alone was…
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Morning was beautiful at the mouth of Cunningham Gulch, though we were in the shade for a while as the sun worked its way over the ridge to our east. I forget if it was Monte @Blackdawg or Dan @drr that asked, but one of them mentioned the small ponds across the way - some large-for-the-size-of-the-ponds fish inhabiting the cold waters. Intrigued, I headed that way, while Dan - because I'm pretty sure it was Dan who mentioned it - headed to the Old Hundred Mill that I mentioned as rather interesting as well. Breakfast followed, my milk turning to…
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Having gone to bed at elevation, and a little worried about how cool it would get, I'd placed a Little Hottie warmer in each of my socks as I climbed into bed. For anyone wanting to keep warm at night, I can't recommend these enough - they have made nights much more comfortable for me - and more importantly, @mrs.turbodb, on several occasions! In fact, so warm were the hotties that I woke in the middle of the night with my feet - and therefore the rest of me - too hot! A good problem to have at 10,000 feet…
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We were up bright an early the next morning - all of us having gotten a good sleep at our "low" elevation of 8500 feet - so we could get out of camp by 8:00am. Mike @Digiratus was even up early enough to make himself a cup of coffee before packing up - quite the feat, when Dan @drr, Monte @Blackdawg, Devin @MissBlackdawg and I were up as late as we could possibly be in order to still be ready to roll! The reason for our early departure was that we had an actual plan for the day. Actually, we'd…
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It was cold when we woke up the next morning, but who the hell cares when a breakfast like this is in the works? Let's take a minute to appreciate exactly what we're looking at here. That's a ½ lb of some of the best - only available in Montana - bacon, two Yukon Gold potatoes all diced up and cooked with onions, and a few eggs scrambled up in bacon grease. All on a plate in the shining sun with a mountainous backdrop to die for. Yep, none of us cared about a little cold when we got up…
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TL;DR - The spherical bearings were completely shot again. And, it happened after only 10,000 miles this time.
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TL;DR - The middle two mounts on the mid skid broke off again. I need to come up with a new way to secure the mid-skid at the crossmember.
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TL;DR - why didn't I install limit straps earlier. These things make the suspension so much more enjoyable.
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TL;DR - the headlights are better, but I still have work to do to make them work well in inclement weather.
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We literally woke up in the shadow of Mt. Antero, to temperatures in the mid-20°F's. Despite the cold, I'd slept well - as did the rest of the crew - except for a bit of rustling during the night - little critters having discovered the open bag of chips that we'd left next to the camp fire by accident. Out of the tent around the same time as Mike @Digiratus, I wandered off - moving to stay warm - while he prepped a hot cup of coffee to achieve the same result. Wandering up the road from camp toward Baldwin…
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We were up bright and early... Ha! No we weren't, this was not a trip where early mornings were "a thing," with one exception that I'll get to eventually. In fact, I think I as the first one out of bed - a bit after 8:00am - and only because the sun was streaming in through the door of my tent, blinding, rather than warming me, as it had on previous mornings. Familiar. Have I been here before? Our plan for the day was one that I'd been looking forward to for the entire trip - and I know Mike…
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The sun hit camp earlier than it had the previous few mornings, bringing a welcome warmth to our tents after the only night that would result in frost on their fabric. Breakfast of Honey Bunches of Oats and refreshingly cold milk in hand, I decided to explore the stream that ran beside our camp. A few hundred feet upstream, I ran into a beaver dam - and hut - a cool discovery, even if it was obviously long-abandoned due to the lack of fresh cuttings and build-up of sediment in the pond. As if to prove how cold it had…
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Having arrived at camp well after dark, it was nice to get a look at the place as the sun came up the next morning. Nestled in the aspen, Mike @Digiratus and I were the first two out of our tents, and as he prepped his traditional cup of coffee, I wandered off to get a view of our surroundings. Perched near the top of a ravine overlooking Brush Creek, a short trek up the bluff behind camp yielded expansive views of the mountains around us, and as the early morning sun crested one to our east, the yellows and…
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