So I took her.
Over the 2016 Memorial Day Holiday weekend. We got all ready and left on Thursday around 10 am for the long drive down to Ridgecrest and Trona Pinnacles Natural Landmark. The weather was supposed to be warm but not too hot. They lied!
On the way down we took a pit stop at Kirby Park in Elkhorn Slough where the Amtrak train passed by us. We were to run into the train a couple of more times before it outdistanced us around King City.
The drive down was pretty uneventful, I kept an eye on the temp and oil consumption and fuel mileage. The heat in the Slainas Valley was hot and blowing through the heater duct so much my leg was frying! We stopped in Paso Robles and bought some painters tape and covered the intake and outlet of the duct. That helped a lot. The first tank full from Boulder Creek to Wasco garnered 21.8mpg. We drove through Bakersfield and over the Tehachapi's where I could see the temp gauge climb along with the altitude. When the gauge got up to 180F I was able to pull over and hit the sensor with my IR gun. It showed 219F at the sensor and at the back of the head it was 235. This gave me an idea of where the needle was on the gauge.
We got down to Ridgecrest and went grocery shopping and re-fueled then in the dark headed over to camp at Trona Pinnacles. When we awoke at 0600 it was partly cloudy and cool both the air and the location!
We had the whole 3,000 acres to ourselves! So we had breakfast and then set up an old bowling ball of Glenda's and she took a couple of shots at it with my rifle. Well her third shot hit my gopro camera that I had set up to capture the footage of whatever happened to the bowling ball..
So I took a shot at the ball and hit it. I used a .38special 130gn and it only made a crater in the ball.
Here's Glenda with her "trophy"
A few more pics from around the area; For more info; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trona_Pinnacles
My plan was to take the escape trail over to Panamint Valley and then on to Striped Butte Valley. Northward we headed into Trona where my throttle cable seemed to stick in the open position. So I pulled over to check it out and found the battery tray support bracket had broken off from the frame. Looking down on the frame;
This caused the battery to lean on the throttle cable and slow it from returning. I spent about an hour by the side of the road affecting a repair so that we could at least stay on paved roads over the weekend. A man passing by told us about a construction firm down the road which may be able to help. We buttoned it up and headed down in that direction. TIS in Trona has a general store in front and a construction (pipe) company in back. The welder was at lunch so we went too and in an hour came back and he looked at the problem and decided he could help. Into the shop we went!
We decided the old tab needed to be replaced so Bobby ground off the old one and made a new thicker one complete with hole for mounting my battery tray leg extensions. Set us back about 3 hours total and $20, a job well done!
With this new development I knew the battery tray would be an issue offroading as the bolts were not going to hold the legs tight. Let alone over the washboard on the dirt roads..........Hence I modified the trip. We drove over to Panamint Valley and went out on the Nadeau Rd, at one point going off on an unsuccessful search for the Panamint Crater. Then we headed up to the Minnietta Mine.
The cabin was occupied by a fellow from Santa Cruz and we decided to stay up at the mine site further up Thompson Canyon.
It was a quiet night with beautiful stars and the last of the hotdogs with rice for dinner and beer! Don't forget the beer! We looked around in the mine and I hit my head on the ceiling getting a good rash from it. In the morning I ran my metal detector around a bit but didn't find anything but old cans. We saw no mammals or birds and it was pretty warm, only the insects were out. After oatmeal and packing up we headed out along the old Nadeau Trail up towards Panamint Springs Resort.
Along the way there was this very cool old road up the side of Ash Hill which has washed out.
Further along on the Nadeau Trail we ran across a burro, Glenda's first. This part of the trail was really fun to drive and not just cookie cutter dirt road. In some places it took some guessing as to where the road went! It most resembles the Steele Pass road.
We stopped at PSR for a cold drink and a look around and then made the climb, the long hot climb up to Father Crowley's overlook. While going up we just missed by my quick reflexes, and the fact that I put in power steering, some fool in a FORD Exploder who came into our lane and almost hit us as he exited a turn.
I wanted to spend a night out of the heat so we headed down Saline Valley Rd and stopped at the Boxcar Cabin. We got there with plenty of daylight left so we set "Wilson" up again and had some target practice,
That bowling ball was tough, it took about 12-15 hits to crack it in half.
Yep!, we policed the brass and the bowling ball bits. here's a few shots of the clouds around Boxcar.
From there the next day we headed into Saline Valley where we stopped just below Grapevine Canyon and above Lippencott Grade turnout for the next pics.
I didn't get any pics at the salt tram and lake.
We were heading North and turned onto the old road for Hunter Canyon, it looked like it hadn't been used in years. I was going to go all the way up to the end and do some metal detecting but with the battery tray issue and being the only vehicle on the very rough road and it was so hot. I decided to stop at the arrastrre I discovered the last time I was out there. I told Glenda what it was for and we broke out the detectors and found some bits of tin cans but it was too hot to keep working at digging, so we packed up and left.
There were peoples driving Saline Rd very fast, not slowing down for dust even. We stopped once to tighten up the bolts on the battery tray and retie the rope steadying it. We were just about up to the dunes when we came upon a SUV and the folks were standing outside it. They kinda flagged us down and asked if we knew where the springs were and decided they would follow us to them. I led them on a merry chase! I am sure the Bat Road was not what they were expecting!
It was FREAKING HOT at the hot springs! Close too if not 100F, we had heard that it was going to be low to mid 90's. But we set up camp after a short tour for Glenda.
Most of the day we just sat under the awning, drinking water and talking or napping. That night after dinner and dark we did go and get in the hot springs. Oh and the SUV peoples..? well they were from LA stayed about an hour while the 2 men used the Wizard pool and then they went home..............
It was warm that night enough to not need any covers until well into morning. We woke at around 0600 and I made the decision to head back to the Boxcar Cabin and escape the heat.
The Bat Pole
It was soo hot we had to stop 4 times going up South Pass for fear the radiator would over heat and once again to tighten up the bolts on the battery tray.
The temperature sensor and the gauge do not match so I had to be wary of overheating. I purchased a IR gun and was trying to calibrate my gauge with it. I could see the thermostat open at the first tic and knew that the third tic was around 190F but after that it was unknown. Well I know now that when the needle gets to 180 the sensor is around 219F and the back of the head is 235F. So every time the needle reached 180 I stopped and let it cool down, which didn't take long.
We made it back to Boxcar Cabin and had a nice dinner and fire after spending most of the day inside out of the sun catching up on our reading. We could look out and see the tattered tufts of cotton balls slowly drifting across a light blue sky the color of my first girlfriends eyes. Then the wind picked up! It was batten down the hatches. Glenda was feeling the trip by now and went to bed early, I was in bed by 2200, snug in the cots in the 109 and gently rocked by the wind I slept great, my secret was earplugs!
The next day, Tuesday, saw us pack up and head out to Olancha to refuel and head home. It was HOT going along Hwy 14, Tehachapi was cooler and the 109 made the drive up Hwy 58 ok, running hot but it made it! On Hwy 99 I actually had to get up to 65mph to get thru some of the traffic. Then it was onto Hwy 46 and the long hot run across the Central Valley. We stopped at Wasco for lunch at Subway and too short a time cooling off. I added more oil to the engine.
Between Wasco and Paso Robles there are a couple of long climbs and both of them tested the cooling system, Then somewhere east of Paso Robles I smelled coolant...........I knew it was only a couple of miles to the gas station so I babied it down the hills and up the other side for maybe 3 miles and pulled into the first service area I could. I got out my extra antifreeze and was surprised to find the radiator cap already cool. I poured in a half gallon, all I had but it didn't show and didn't leak.
I bought 2 more gallons and proceeded to dump one in when I found the leak. It was around the hub for the fan and not a hose so I knew I was screwed. The radiator had burst.
So I started asking folks walking by about repair places and tow trucks and made a few calls. I then determined that I could get the 109 towed to the radiator repair shop where I could pull the radiator out in the street and get it repaired and then re-install it. The tow cost me $70, I'll see if my insurance will reimburse me.
We got the 109 there by 1600 and I talked to the owner he did a quick pressure/leak test and decided he could fix it $85, but not today---- tomorrow, as 1630 is quitting time. Well I had my work cut out for me and while Glenda sat in the shade of a bush in the 90F+ heat I pulled the radiator out, except for 2 bolts in about 45 mins.
Next we gathered few things and walked about a mile to a motel in Paso Robles. Glenda took a shower and we went to a Bistro for dinner and then came back and I showered, we watched some TV(Woot! Woot!) and fell asleep.
Wednesday morning we got up went to a cafe for breakfast and then I walked to the 109 and by 0830 had the radiator in the shop. The issue was the fan was too close to the radiator and had worn a hole in at least 1 of the tubes. The was 2 shiny rings on the tubes 1 for the hub and one for the outer ring of the fan blades.
Then he tells me it will be less than $100 and cash only.......WTF? OK, where is the closest ATM? "There are plenty of banks out there" oh and you need more mounting zipties I don't have them. OK where is the nearest auto parts store? I'm on foot remember. "I don't know look in the phone book." If there had been another shop...........he wasn't the most pleasant person to work with.
I have been to Paso Robles before and knew there was an O'Reilleys on Spring St the same street as our motel, just didn't know which way to turn. It turns out the radiator shop is in an industrial area and as I walked into town I stopped in to this transmission repair shop(same building as the radiator shop) and ask them where the nearest ATM and auto parts place are. Like most nice folks they ask what I need and look to see if they have any zipties for the cooler. Then they offer to call the local Autozone and have a set delivered. So this gets arranged and off I go in search of an ATM. I have to walk almost back to the motel before I can find one. And back, in the ever growing heat. All the way back to the radiator shop where the guy is finished with my radiator.
I was so focused on the job at hand that I didn't get any pictures or video of the damage or repair. I just wanted to get it done before 1) it got too hot, 2) so Glenda could get home and not miss any work.
Took me about an hour to get it back in. I was done right about 1145 and had test ran it with no leaks. Glenda meantime had stayed at the motel and watched TV and enjoyed the AC! She called to check on me and I came over and picked her up we had lunch and fueled up and then got out of town.
Keeping an eagle eye on the temp gauge I progressed up Hwy 101 doing 55-58mph, I noticed that every time we turned into the headwind the needle would drop a little. I was impressed by how that made it change. mind you it was now around 100F. With no AC I decided to stop in Soledad about 73 miles north of Paso Robles. I wanted to pick up some more engine oil as I didn't want to unpack what I must to get at my onboard oil. Once there I popped the bonnet and the first thing I noticed was that I hadn't hooked up the power supply to the cooling fan............dummy!
Funny thing though it ran the same temp as when the fan had been running! My thinking now is the fan had been dragging on the radiator and not been going full speed.(?) Of course I hooked it up.
The rest of the two hours home was a)cooler needle on the gauge allowing 60-65 mph, b) cooler air temperatures along the coast.
And what about Wilson you are now asking yourself, I put his remains in a tote bin behind the general store in Paso Robles ;^)
Mileage seems to be around 18.9mpg to get to Ridgecrest.
The video is at; https://youtu.be/1eLVUykLoTc
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