Death Valley here I come.

Not much done the last couple days, some minor repairs within the VRRV.  

Installed reinforcement brackets on the kitchen window screen (the plastic frame has broken several times).

The bathroom medicine cabinet came off the wall last week, and broke the mirror....again.  Hung the cabinet back up and explore mirror options.

Otherwise, just relaxed in the warm but not hot weather.  Quite hot in direct sunlight of course, but nice in the VRRV's shade.

Here's todays's sunrise:

Spent a couple of hours in the CRV driving around, mostly reconning campsites and checking out the views from BLM route SC175.

By 5PM all the outside gear was put away and Yagi mounted onto the front carrier rack.  Just have to get the inside gear packed up in the morning.

Just as well I'm leaving, a small group of night-driving OHV schiesse kopfs just roared by, light rods flashing colors, engines roaring and going fast.

Tomorrow: Death Valley National Park, about 5-6 hrs away.

Staying a Little Longer in Jawbone Canyon OHV Area

 Well, after a somewhat rest last night with OHVs and their bright light bars shining their lights as they careened around in the dark, too loud explosions around midnight, and just crowded conditions I decided to change plans again. 

Instead of leaving immediately for Death Valley, I took the CRV and did a recon off the actual Jawbone Canyon road which is paved and which I missed due to faulty map recon. I took it further into the canyon and found several sites that were much quieter and no people seemingly around for quite a distance sometimes. 

Turns out my faulty map recon worked in my favor aside from the fact the access road I use was quite sandy. The road was marked closed due to flooding and it would have dissuaded me from even trying this area!

Though it remains blocked by signs, theres mini trucks and camping rigs past the signs over just a few miles, so I think I'm okay.  In fact, during the recon, I passed the deputy sheriff doing his rounds and we waved at each other.

After an hour of doing this I finally decided to return to the RV, finish breaking camp and hooking the CRV backup to go back to one of the sites I found. 

Being Sunday the area is still seeing evidence of people coming in for the day trailering their OHVs and motorcycles; I'm taking a chance and hoping that by this afternoon things will have quiet the down considerably and perhaps stay not only the night but a day more here in this area as it is quite nice in a way.

Late afternoon, have to relaxing all day at the new campsite, I drove the CRV closer to the highway to take pictures of the aqueduct pipeline used by the LADWP to funnel water to LA. 

It must have been pretty interesting laying this pipe across the tops of the hills. 

Tonight's sunset verified I made a good choice in staying here longer.

Altitude: 2562 ft.

Back on the Road

 I spent the last four days staying with my brother Carlos and doing day visits to my parents.  They're getting on in age and my guilt levels are increasing more frequently.

The folks are going Ok for being in their late to mid 80s.  I'm glad I came but I'm also glad to be back on the road.

The above is my brother and I enjoying some Bibimbap at a Korean joint on my last evening there.

Shortly after 8 AM, caffeinated, I was driving out of the overcrowded Bay Area on the 101, eventually turning onto I5 near Gilroy.

The rest of the day was smooth interstate driving towards Mojave once past Bakersfield.

About 18 miles from Mojave, I drove into the Jawbone Canyon OHV area as it was almost 3:30pm.  It was time to setup camp for the night and I was tired.

I spent the next hour or so locating a large flattish area where several other RVs and trucks hauling OHV trailers were parked.  Setting up camp took a bit as it wasn't quite flat and I didn't want to be close to the main RV grouping.  I'm only staying one night so being in a crowded area is a burden to bear.

Bonus, a group of ass wipes camping in the main grouping of RVs was thoughtfully sharing their musical preferences with everyone else in the area.

Like I said, only for one night and I have my noise cancelling headphones on as I type this, listening to an audiobook.  I don't hear the inconsiderate bastards.

I hope to find a nice spot in "the pads" on the eastern side of Death Valley.  Then a few days exploring the valley again.  Last time I was there, in 2018, I was with Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol.

Sunday, October 19 update:

Change in plans, staying in the area a bit longer....more in next post.

Now Boondocking in the Lahontan State Recreation Area

Sunday, October 11

I woke up to outside temperatures of 30° f, a bit chilly. Still with the heater running it was just fine. I rapidly broke down camp and was on the road by 7:38, by 14:30 I was at the Lahontan state recreation area and have figured out how to pay for a site, I think. 

It says $20 per night for camping and entrance fee for designated campsites, however how do you classify primitive beachside camping? I went ahead and paid for 2 days what the hell. 

The temperature here is much warmer at 69° according to the thermometer, with a low of only 44°! 

Nice and sunny as you can see, and basically no wind just a gentle breeze once in awhile. 

Altitude: 4150 ft.

Monday, September 13

I woke up to cloudy skies and they would turn out to be pretty much gray and slightly chilly.  There's apparently some winter storm warnings being issued for the West Sierra Nevada region.

I did take Yagi, my TW200, out for a little ride just to check things out near me. 

I had spotted a small herd of wild horses in the distance, so I returned towards camp to get closer to them for this video: 

A view of camp from the access road:

Not much else happened, I did spot and prepped to help some guy get unstuck from the sandy beach across the lake from me; however by the time I got there the Park's representative had shown up to tow him out.

I'll be heading into California tomorrow, assuming the winter storm doesn't shut down I-80.

A Drive to the Ghost Town of Hamilton

A drearily cloudy, windy and chilly day today with infrequent sightings of the Sun.

In the afternoon I took the Honda CRV out and decided to drive the 10 mi or so along Forest Road 401 to the ghost town of Hamilton. 

The Forest Road was in pretty good condition so traveling was fine, though the weather looked worse and worse as I approached the town's location. 

It started raining/hailing soon after I got there but I got these pics before I made it out of there just in case the road conditions got bad. 

Yeah the big shed building isn't of the same era.  Not sure what it was put up, perhaps later mining efforts?

As you can see I didn't spend a lot of time in the town, as I was leaving to get ahead of the worsening weather. 

Some more info:  Wikipedia 

Made it back to the campsite with no issues, though I did get hailed on as I drove along. I'm glad I did not take the TW! 

Spent the rest of the afternoon inside the RV out of the steadily cooling weather. It's supposed to get to 32° tonight as a low. I'll be moving out tomorrow towards the Fallon, Nevada area.  Not finding Nevada very scenic in terms of leading me to spend more time in between stops.

I'll probably be in the SF Bay area Tuesday evening.

Boondocking through the Weekend at Illipah Reservoir

Now in Nevada.

I woke early, and noted the ground was moist looking at the campsite. A brief walk around showed it to be slightly yielding but not muddy, yet. The forecast is for some more rain over the weekend so I decided to move on. 

I drove through the first significant town along US Highway 50, Ely, and found it to be meh.  I stopped only for a picture of the US 50 sign noted in the Mindtrip.AI route.

US 50, this portion of it anyways, starting from perhaps 20 miles east of the Utah/Nevada border is indeed light in terms of other vehicles.

Lots of hilly/mountainous terrain as well.  Uma, the VRRV did OK though slowly up the inclines at times.  I kept the engine at around 4000 rpm so as not to strain it too much.

The couple of BLM sites I checked out near the town of Ely proved to be quite small and not great. So, I kept on going to the Illipah Reservoir campground run by the BLM, which is also free to use. 

Much better, this will be a good spot to spend a couple of days.

Pics of the reservoir from my camper:

There was a small herd of cows being wrangled by three cowboys as I was setting up my campsite: 

The sites are quite large, I guess to provide plenty of turnaround room. There's only one roofed picnic bench and wind barrier per site so hopefully no one gets the idea to share with me. 

Later in the afternoon, with temperatures in the high 60s those still quite windy, I went out on Yagi my TW200 to take a look around. 

Found a trail that led up a hill that overlooks the entire campground and reservoir: 

I then came off the hill and went out along a trail to the hilltop on the other side of the reservoir: 

There's a trail that leads away from the reservoir and into the hills and valleys where Illipah Creek feeds the reservoir. I only went maybe a couple of miles and then I turned around. 

Here is Yagi on the spit of land near the actual dam where fishermen like to try to look apparently: 

I was shooting into the sun in the above picture so I will try to get a better one tomorrow morning when the light comes is at the right angle.

Altitude: 6834 ft.

It was very windy 

Boondocking near Sevier Dry Lake Bed, Utah

Making my way closer to Nevada, short of 3:00 p.m. I was close to the border but not quite so I decided to stop for the night at this BLM site on US 50. 

It's a site depicted on allstays.com, but really the site itself is just a small parking lot with a pit toilet and a picnic table, it's all there for a nearby trailhead to Notch Peak. 

I decided instead to backtrack a little bit closer to the highway to this wide open parking area: 

Sevier Lake has apparently been a dry lake bed for most of it's known history since it's recording by the Spanish as Lago Meria.  It is apparently Utah's second largest dry lake. 

I am not sure whether I will stay more than one night or spend the rest of the weekend here. It is the Columbus Day weekend after all, so some folks will be taking Monday off to do some camping I think. 

Here's some pics that I took this morning since I was up before dawn:

All this space in the area, and this guy decided to set up his camera next to my site for pictures of Factory Butte as the sun came up: 

I'll Make a decision in the morning as to whether or not to stay here the weekend.

The sunset wasn't too bad...

Very windy here today.  Altitude: 4777 ft.  Hot when sunny, comfortable in the shade or when cloudy.