"Mojave Road" in the Fall

[Pleatherface]

Put me down as a potential please. Would it be ok if my son joins us in his Bronco? This would be a great practice run for the Death Valley to Vegas run I've been wanting to do.

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[rental_car]

Put me down as a potential attendee please. Just bought a ranger a couple months and have been modding away and getting acquainted with that OHV life haha

 

[P. A. Schilke]

A Mojave Road trip is being planned for the weekend of 10/22~10/24, 2021. We will stage in/near Needles, and hit the trail on Friday morning (10/22). Three driving days and two dispersed-camping nights. Total mileage is approximately 140 miles, with avg. traveling speed of 15~20 mph. We will travel from east (Needles) to west (toward Barstow).

Please post below if you're interested.

A maximum 6 or 7 rigs would be ideal (but 3 would be sufficient); we currently have the following interested parties:

Pathung
Kawffin
DrewKD88
Megawatt


Here's a video for starters:

HI Patrick,

Great! When octane testing, we Ford Truck engineers used Needles as our benchmark, so have done a portion of this trail many times. Always wondered about going further but we always turned back for Lunch at Irene's...a drive in burger place where the hand written signs were part of the experience....A very God fearing woman who broadcast His word. Hot as Hades when were we were....If you got detonation, it would always be in Needles. No knock...you were good to go. We carried cans of gas of various Research Octane and use the fuel tank drains to purge one Octane for another during the development process. Really sucked to be under the truck draining fuel in 117°F plus temps... Sigh...the memories...

Best,
Phil

 

[Pathung]

HI Patrick,

Great! When octane testing, we Ford Truck engineers used Needles as our benchmark, so have done a portion of this trail many times. Always wondered about going further but we always turned back for Lunch at Irene's...a drive in burger place where the hand written signs were part of the experience....A very God fearing woman who broadcast His word. Hot as Hades when were we were....If you got detonation, it would always be in Needles. No knock...you were good to go. We carried cans of gas of various Research Octane and use the fuel tank drains to purge one Octane for another during the development process. Really sucked to be under the truck draining fuel in 117°F plus temps... Sigh...the memories...

Best,
Phil

Phil, that's a great story - tell us more!

I've added the latest three interest parties to the first post - here's hoping that the run will be a success.

Bringing a Bronco on the run? OF COURSE!! (Is this a new or old version?) I went to test-drive a new one today, but it was already out on a "demo" run, too bad.

 

[dondonbabyraptor]

Unfortunately.... Friday's is the one day I teach and cannot skip. I teach in the AM, have a TA meeting and then office hours until 6pm :/ Sorry, I would of loved to come on this. Although, maybe I can meet you somewhere on the trail on Saturday? Do you know where the starting point and end point is in terms of entering in google map locations, more pinpointed. I can try to start figuring out logistics with this info. Thank you for reminding me with the like btw, it was on my mind last week but it slipped yet again.

 

[dondonbabyraptor]

Phil, that's a great story - tell us more!

I've added the latest three interest parties to the first post - here's hoping that the run will be a success.

@Pleatherface Bringing a Bronco on the run? OF COURSE!! (Is this a new or old version?) I went to test-drive a new one today, but it was already out on a "demo" run, too bad.

Fixed @Pleatherface

 

[themikeyan]

Hey Pat, having done Mojave road twice (fully west to east and a modified version east to west) in the past year, I just wanted to share a few observations.

1) just west of Kelso Cima Road is a long stretch of constant whoops. Not much to do except find your comfortable speed and maintain it. Not overly fun, but is a preview of another section

2) the section approaching and leaving lakebed is worse than westbound from Kelso Cima. Much worse. Expect 2.0 shocks to have some fade issues. 2.5s won't fade but don't do particularly well here either. Find a good steady speed and ride it out.

3) lava tubes is a fun, short detour. Fast road in and out if you're not stuck in traffic

4) I did this most recently in late March, so the trail could be better or could be worse depending on whether any trail maintenance has happened. On the east to west trip we basically finished on the second night, had we wanted we were 8 miles from the 15 and could have all headed home, so if everyone is comfortable you can do it faster. I started with 10 rigs, gained 4, then finished with 4. It was a bit of a coordination nightmares, which doesn't sound like you'll have.

5) watercrossing is heavily filled in for construction equipment and will be zero issue for anyone, just go slowish and steady.

6) depending on other camping around that time, I may try to join you guys. If the October olaf gets cancelled the weekend before I'll be in for sure. But I can't commit quite yet.


Mike

 

[Pathung]

Thanks for the info., Mike. I've never been on the trail, so any tip is greatly helpful (I just have books to guide me).

What I'm most concerned about are suitable camping stops - are there any that you can recommend, and where are they? As we're heading east-west, suitable nightly stops may be at different from those that you used. Thanks.

Brandon, maybe you can meet up at the intersection of Cima Rd. and Mojave Rd. on Saturday? I don't have a good idea of when we might get there, but that's a possibility. Are you a ham radio operator? That'd be a way to communicate even when we're miles away from each other.

 

[themikeyan]

@Pathung ill shoot you a few spots, I've done it both ways and have a couple of pretty nice spots saved

 

[Pleatherface]

Fixed @Pleatherface

Yeah, she's a '92. Pulled her out of an impound auction. I wish my order for the new one came through, still waiting on that one, it would be sweet to run with both.

 

[dondonbabyraptor]

Thanks for the info., Mike. I've never been on the trail, so any tip is greatly helpful (I just have books to guide me).

What I'm most concerned about are suitable camping stops - are there any that you can recommend, and where are they? As we're heading east-west, suitable nightly stops may be at different from those that you used. Thanks.

Brandon, maybe you can meet up at the intersection of Cima Rd. and Mojave Rd. on Saturday? I don't have a good idea of when we might get there, but that's a possibility. Are you a ham radio operator? That'd be a way to communicate even when we're miles away from each other.

Sadly I am not a HAM radio operator. I’ll keep this all in mind as this trip develops a bit. Maybe I can set something up to meet at an intersection by a certain time if y’all are set up for camp at night already. Or toss a pin and I can offline map the camp spot for the night perhaps

 

[Pathung]

Sadly I am not a HAM radio operator. I’ll keep this all in mind as this trip develops a bit. Maybe I can set something up to meet at an intersection by a certain time if y’all are set up for camp at night already. Or toss a pin and I can offline map the camp spot for the night perhaps

Yup, we'll definitely try to figure something out!

 

[themikeyan]

If I can make it, I have an offline texting device so I can send coordinates after we get to a camp site

 

[Pathung]

Mike, can you send me info. on those camping stops that you've used? Much appreciated, and I hope that you can join us!!

I just found out that Overland Bound has a trail maintenance event on the exact dates that we're planning our run (10/22~10/24), so there will more traffic than usual... finally, it's deer season - lots of trucks with gun-toting folks (from a poster on Overland Bound), if that's a concern for you; I know that I won't be starting any fights.

Also, I was reminded that the National Park requires a permit for groups larger than 7 vehicles (I'll confirm this) - I have one friend coming along, so we're currently at 7 (see first post) - if you CANNOT commit yet, and your name's on the list, please let me know and I'll move your name to a "maybe" list, so as to keep better track of who's coming.

Thanks guys, I'm really looking forward to this!

Do you all have at least an FRS/GMRS radio? CB is fine too (I have one). I'll also have a ham radio with me.

 

[Kawffin]

Mike, can you send me info. on those camping stops that you've used? Much appreciated, and I hope that you can join us!!

I just found out that Overland Bound has a trail maintenance event on the exact dates that we're planning our run (10/22~10/24), so there will more traffic than usual... finally, it's deer season - lots of trucks with gun-toting folks (from a poster on Overland Bound), if that's a concern for you; I know that I won't be starting any fights.

Also, I was reminded that the National Park requires a permit for groups larger than 7 vehicles (I'll confirm this) - I have one friend coming along, so we're currently at 7 (see first post) - if you CANNOT commit yet, and your name's on the list, please let me know and I'll move your name to a "maybe" list, so as to keep better track of who's coming.

Thanks guys, I'm really looking forward to this!

Do you all have at least an FRS/GMRS radio? CB is fine too (I have one). I'll also have a ham radio with me.

I'm also very excited about this trip! I don't have any
radios other than the one in the dash. Do you have any suggestions on what kind I should get?

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