Smack in the middle of winter, we found ourselves with a little extra time and nothing planned to fill the days. That, in addition to the fact that it was going to be cold and snowy in nearly all of Washington state, signaled to us that an escape down south would be a doubly worthwhile endeavor. The question was: where should we go? We'd been to both Death Valley (Nadeau Trail, Loose Ends), the Mojave Preserve (Short Days), and Owens Valley (Tragedies, Right Back to Owens Valley) a couple times in the last couple months - and while another trip to those would have been delightful, we decided to change things up just a little bit. We'd still visit the same desert - the Mojave is a big place - but this time we'd head to its very eastern edge - right around the intersection of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.
There, we'd find ourselves searching for Pahranagat Man (and a plethora of other petroglyphs and pictographs), wandering through a Bowl of Fire, exploring a Snow Canyon (appropriately, as snow fell from the sky), and venturing to the very edge of the Grand Canyon.
It was, to be sure, a trip we'll remember for a long time to come!
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Pahranagat Man | Mid-Winter #1 - With winter wearing on here in the gloomy pacific northwest, I suggested to @mrs.turbodb that perhaps we should take after the school system and celebrate our own Mid-Winter Break. Somewhere with sun, preferably. Honestly, I was a little surprised at how open to that idea she was, and quickly realized that I was behind the eight ball to figure out a plan that would keep us busy for a week! There are worse problems to have, obviously. I considered the obvious options - heading down to Death Valley, which we both love. Spending some more time in the Mojave Preserve…
Area 51 | Mid-Winter #2 - Things don't always go as expected, and sometimes that is a good thing. It sure was this morning as I woke up and climbed down out of the tent to a dry day - none of the predicted snow or rain having materialized during the night! Silly Mt. Irish weather station, you said it would snow. There were - obviously - plenty of clouds in the sky at this point however, so we probably just lucked out - or at least @mrs.turbodb did, since she was still warm in bed! I on the other hand was freezing my tushy off.…
Multi-Colored Pictographs and a Bowl of Fire | Mid-Winter #3 - I think we left off with our adrenaline pumping and three trucks parked right outside our tent, one of the occupants having just said, "What the f*@# is going on here?" Climbing down out of the tent, I walked over to the guys - all still clustered around their vehicles - to say good morning and ask if they were, as I suspected, workers on this particular construction site. It being a Saturday morning before 6:00am, I hadn't expected to see any workers, but I guess when houses are selling like hotcakes, every minute you're not building new ones is…
From Fire, to Gold (Butte) | Mid-Winter #4 - The winds tore through our camp as ferociously as ever the entire night. Even with 35lbs of water weighing down the ladder of the tent to keep that side from folding up on us, there were several points at which I was sure we were going to be the middle ingredients in a CVT sandwich. I even nudged @mrs.turbodb at 2:00am and yelled through the screaming wind and her earplugs to scoot down on the mattress so we had more of our weight on the cantilevered side of the tent. It wasn't lost on me that this wouldn't be an…
Camping on a Cliff | Mid-Winter #5 - Sleeping in our own little private wash was magical. If there was a lick of wind, it went right over our heads and at one of our lower elevations for the trip, it was reasonably warm as well. I think we'd gone to bed exhausted around 9:00pm, and when I woke up at 6:45am for sunrise, I was ready and raring for a new day! The view - a couple dozen short steps up the wash walls behind camp - was a nice motivator as well. We'd camped at the base of Bitter Ridge LWC. I'll need to go back…
Into the Snow at Snow Canyon | Mid-Winter #6 - We didn't know it when we woke up, but today would be our last day of the trip. But, I'm obviously getting significantly ahead of myself, so let's take a step - or three - back. Our amazing spot on the edge of the Grand Canyon, overlooking the Colorado River was just as spectacular when we woke up in the morning as it'd been the evening before. After a few gusts just before we climbed into the tent, I'd taken the hint and secured two full 5-gallon jerry cans of fuel to the ladder, eliminating any worry that a CVT-sandwich…
Rig Review: What worked and what didn't - winter 2021? - March 8, 2021. Over the course of the winter, the truck has performed well. Four (!) trips down to the desert to stay warm have put a bunch of miles on the odometer and resulted in only a few little tweaks to the set up. But any tweak is worth understanding, so let's check them out. This rig review covers: Tragedies in the Tablelands (Jan 2021) Right Back to the Owens Valley (Jan 2021) Mid-Winter Mojave (Feb 2021) An Island in the Sky at the Top of the World (Feb 2021) Whew, at ~2500 miles each, it's only the beginning…