Sunman's Death Valley Report

[SunMan]

With much anticipation we headed out Friday afternoon to rendezvous with the first Death Valley Rally (DVR) group at Ballarat for the first night. After leaving Trona and heading into the Panamint Valley I was shocked to see Ballarat in the distance lit up like a small city all rather than a ghost town. We pulled in to the camping area and immediately noticed a WTW sign and knew at least somebody was there. Unfortunately the campground was a madhouse with at least 100+ people, RV’s, campers, trailers, tents and general mayhem everywhere.

I didn’t wanna believe anyone from WTW would be camped in this mess but needless to say I wasn’t looking forward to this first night. After driving aimlessly thru this mass of people I spot a FWC and stopped to ask if he was a part of the WTW DVR, he said “no” and that I wasn’t the first to ask but there were a bunch of people with “campers like yours” that headed out into the desert. Right then and there I knew I was gonna like everybody.

We bombed another mile or two down the road and found a squadron of FWC’s all lined up with a nice campfire going. We quickly set up our camp and after a few introductions we settled into a fun evening of fireside chat and of course a few libations. In fact, it turned into a rather late night. Ouch.

Night one included Dirty Dog, Deltarat and wingwoman, Craig333, Ted, Camelracer and myself and my GF. And of course Diego, Domino, Yuma and Gunner our trusty hounds!

The following morning we poked around Ballarat a bit before hitting the road.

 

[SunMan]

Next stop was the charcoal kilns, the Eureka Mine…

 

[SunMan]

…and then Aguereberry Point (what a view!) followed by Skidoo (of which there wasn't much to see), and then the obsessive-compulsive part of me just had to know what was further up the road which led to the traffic jam, a 10 point turn around and fortunately the old mill which was hidden there.

 

[SunMan]

We finally made it to Stovepipe Wells to meet the rest of the crew. Waiting for us was pvstoy & wife, Marc & Dylan dog, SimiMike, and Lawnmowerman. I must’ve been so underwhelmed by Stovepipe Wells that I forgot to take pics. Anyway, we all had a good time around the fire and retired reasonably early.

The next day we had planned to head for the Ubehebe crater and the Racetrack. We discovered the daily report showed Titus canyon was open...Yes! We’re stoked and happily tacked that on to our agenda for the day. Everybody scrambled off for gas and we all met at the entrance to Titus canyon. It was a killer drive through Titus and the first run with all nine rigs together, so very cool.

 

[SunMan]

After Titus canyon we were off to the Ubehebe Crater where DD dubiously tried to finish us all off into the crater under the guise of a "group photo"…yeah right.

 

[SunMan]

…And then on to the hellish 20-something mile turnbuckle killing washboard road to Tea Kettle Junction/Racetrack where we all waited for everyone to catch up. The only problem is that one of us didn’t show. We waited until near dark and decided to find a camp whilst DD waited a little longer. Fortunately everyone was present and accounted for later that evening.

Teakettle Junction and sunrise at our camp near the Lost Burro Mine.

 

[SunMan]

The next day we headed for the Racetrack, I had been wanting to go here for years and was not let down. The playa is immense and the rocks speak for themselves…

 

[SunMan]

To say that I was blown away by the Racetrack would be an understatement...

 

[SunMan]

The GF and I had to head for home on this day and considering we were still way out in BFE and a long way from a paved highway we couldn’t spend as much time as we would have liked at the Racetrack. Fortunately we found out the infamous Lippincott Pass was passable and opted for that route instead of backtracking. The Lippincott lived up to it’s reputation in a number of places…

 

[SunMan]

Lawnmowerman caught up to us about half way down, we commented on the pucker factor of a few of the spots and hoped the others with bigger rigs wouldn't have too much trouble.

At the bottom of the pass we found ourselves smack in the middle of Saline Valley where we joined up with Saline Valley Road and hit the 190 to Olancha and made our way home. It was damn hard not to turn the opposite direction and head for the hot springs. Anyway, that's it for our portion of the trip.

I’ve gotta say thanks to Dirty Dog for setting this trip up, I’m sure most everybody didn’t quite know what to expect with a meeting like this. I have to say there wasn’t a bad egg in the bunch and it was really great to meet each and every one of you. Looking forward to the rest of the pics/reports as well as future rallys!!

(Sidenote: The Lippincott pics do not even remotely do it justice!)

 

[DLN]

Very nice Sunman, I'm enjoying all the DV reports, thanks for sharing.

 

[DirtyDog]

It was great to meet you there Suni! Suni was our camp chef - busting out al pastor tacos right over the campfire at Ballarat at around 11:00 pm - it was awesome! On the final morning, he circulated the camp handing out hot bacon. If that isn't a good way to make friends, I don't know what is.

I'm glad you got some pics that really show the road conditions at Lippincott - my photos made it look pretty tame.

 

[Marc]

Way to go Suni Nice write up and pics. Looking forward to the next trip with everyone.

marc

 

[EdoHart]

Another great report!

Thanks for sharing. I laughed out loud a few times (as with almost all of the reports). I know pictures never do justice to a difficult road...Looks like fun. I notice a few of you have new avatars.

 

[erod]

AWESOME, looks like that was a hell of a trip!

 

[Tomas Tierra]

Great write up Sunman..Tacos al Pastor over the fire, mmmm.

Love J's pic of you checking the road.....puckerin

 

[SunMan]

Puckerin' AND zippin' my fly...couldn't post the pic before that...she's a little devil sometimes, hehehe!!!

 

[camelracer]

Great pictures Suni, especially Lippincott. Did Jessica ride it all the way down or did she have to get out to "take pictures".
It was good to meet you and the tacos were a treat

Dick

 

[pvstoy]

Nice report and pictures Suni, Marc, Ted, DD, Camelracer, Craig333. Pictures just don’t show how the roads are in real life. I did not pull the front sway bar pin so Carol did get out at spots with here camera. Yet to look at her pictures.

I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire so I’m a little slow getting my report and pictures up. I did download the pictures last night and started sorting. Today put on my old waders and rain jacket and drove to the carwash and washed all the dust, mud off the truck and dropped the bumper off at my fabricator. He just said wow and has already planning to make it even better than new.

 

[craig333]

We did stay up a little late that first night. Apologies to Bob and those we kept up, long after the clampers had gone to bed.

I really wish I had called in and taken one more day /sigh
Next time.