The Trona Pinnacles are about 380 miles from home and takes around 8 hours to drive there including pit stops so it makes a good place to camp prior to entering the National Park.
We left at the butt crack of dawn 0500 and arrived around 1500 after stopping in Ridgecrest, Ca. to stock up on groceries and fuel. Trona Pinnacles are about 22 miles East of Ridgcrest. We did spy a green 109 in town at a Import repair shop. Ridgecrest is a slowly growing town surrounded by Military bases like China Lake. I feel it makes a great jumping off point to Death Valley.
Arriving at Trona we set up camp in a bowl surrounded by tufa.
I have most of my camping stuff compartmentalized so I decided to sleep in my Rover and not tent up if possible.
In the bed I carried 3 NATO cans of fuel and 2 of water. There was 1 large Rubbermaid Action Packer filled with cut lumber and 2 small ones, one with kitchen stuff and the other with bath/first aid. Added to the pile; the sleeping bag, laptop.
Along the sides of the top of my wheelwells I have old laundry soap plastic tubs. In these were spares parts, food, recovery gear, lubricants, air compressor. A pile of firewood made up the rest of the bed load. All kinda tied down with ratchet straps.
At the roof gutter line in my 88 I have installed a 1/2in piece of plywood that is a full shelf from the seat bulkhead to the back, full width. In this I keep the light stuff, tent, clothes, hiking staffs, repair manuals. The plywood works great but probably needs to be thicker or better braced to keep from flexing. The cutout opening needs to be revamped also as it can sometimes pop open. The next one will be in a jigsaw puzzle piece design.
So with the bed empty and the tailgate down I can put in the sleeping pad and bag and still sit up under the shelf. Which came in handy as the first night was windy and threatening rain!
We'd stopped at Subway for lunch and brought the rest of the sandwich for dinner. That makes it easier after the long drive.
A short look around as night fell, 1630 for sunset! Build a fire and try to be warm. Did I mention that it was WINDY?
Too soon we went to bed, I in my Rover and Linus on his cot and Chris in the ground wrapped like a burrito in bag, pad and tarp. I think it was 1930h. It did sprinkle during the night but not enough to make for mad scrambling back into the vehicles. The wind was ever present though.
Dawn came(0730) and so we all got up and fixed breakfast of oatmeal. It was around 34F. That done we packed up and headed out to see if we could find a 109 in the desert that Linus had heard about while in Ridgecrest.
Day 2 saw us heading north on Hwy 178 through Trona (no gas) and North around the top of the Slate Range. Then just past the Nadeau Trail on the right is a dirt turnoff with a road leading over a rise, here was the campsite of the mystery 109. It's owner is Dave Brady from Winnamucca, NV.
Dave's had his 109 since the seventies and has kitted it out nicely with bed, solar, cabinet, Timm Cooper disc conversion, Chevy engine with Scotty adapter.
After a short visit and address exchanges we backtracked down 178 to the road to the Escape trail over the Slate Range.
The escape trail was used in 1850 when Manly and Rogers left the Bennet-Arcane families and walked to Los Angles resupplied and came back to Panamint Valley to show the Bennet-Arcane families the way thru Fish Canyon to safety. Imagine 1850 and walking to LA........Without a single loss of life!
I scrambled around on the trail trying to find the correct route as I had only been over it once before with Vincent and he was driving. After a brief detour to an abandoned mine we found the way.
The trip over was uneventful but fun as we climbed and decended the hills and ran across along the dry desert ridges. We did however run into a Range Rover going in the opposite direction. The first view into Panamint Valley is wonderful as you overlook from Goler Wash up past Ballerat, coming out across from the CR Briggs mine.
At the bottom of the wash there is a plaque to the efforts of Manly and Rogers. From there you head out down the alluvial fan to the dry lake bed. It is a rocky slow trip. At the "T" we turned right and headed South along the base of the eastern side of the Slate Range. The road winds along between the base and the playa. Here we saw antelope,..er..I mean burros who watched us drive by. After a bit the road drops into a shallow wash and on the other side is the road to Goler Wash at the intersection of Wingate Road.
Linus headed up the road to Goler as Butte Valley was our destination for the day. We climbed up and into the canyon and were too soon at the gatekeeper.
Da Snork took a few tries to get up and after each attempt we restacked rocks. Eventually he drove up. Then it was my turn. I put it in 1 low and hit the rebuilt pile of rocks and got my front wheels up on the ledge and stopped, rocks spitting out from my rear wheels. Linus called out that my front wheels were not turning. I had everything locked in and in gear, it should have turned a front wheel!
I backed down and put it in second low and hit the rebuilt plie again with the same result, wheels on ledge not turning. So I sat there got out the winch cable. Once hooked up to Da Snork with Chris on the brakes I pulled my self up and over the gatekeeper.
There was only one more place along the trail to Mengel Pass that caused me a problem as it did Linus. I had to use the bypass though. The whole time my front end was locked in and kept making these popping sounds like something was winding up and letting loose.
We made it to the pass and started down into Butte Valley, after we got through the tough stuff and almost to the flat Linus stopped as something was not right with Da Snork. A quick inspection showed the right rear spring pack was loose and shims were missing.
Chris walked back up the trail and found the missing pieces. Yeah, Chris!! Meanwhile Linus and I found the u-bolts had come loose and the locater bolt had sheared off. I scrounged around in my kit and found a bolt that was at least the right diameter but too short.
With all the pieces Linus bolted it back together and we went in search of a cabin for the night as it was close to dark.
Russell's cabin was occupied and Stella's dirty so we stayed at the geologist cabin.
Dinner was fixed and packages of food and cans of beans shared. We brought plenty of wood for the trip this time and it was not as cold as last year so it was not too bad. I think it was around 830 when we bedded down inside on the floor.
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