Bigg50
FRF Addict
Our trip began Friday as we (Bigg50, Manny, ihavegas, tbone, TheBigRig) all made our way up to Darren’s (TheBigRig) cabin in Shingle Springs which is about 45 minutes south of Lake Tahoe. We’d debated leaving around 5:00am on Saturday morning for Carson City where we would begin our journey. We decided it would be nice to break up the drive since we were anticipated it would take us anywhere from 9-12 hours to cover the 300 offroad miles Saturday. Good idea in theory, but most of us didn’t sleep well. Part due to not sleeping in our own beds, but mostly because of the anticipation of the following days adventure.
Everyone was up by 5:50 Saturday. We had planned on leaving by 7am but since everyone was anxious to start the day we decided to pack up and hit the road early. An hour and twenty minutes later we reached the trailhead in Carson City.
We began airing down, double-checking all our gear was secure, I put on my Icon midflaps, and then we all gathered for a quick drivers meeting. It was about 8:30 when we finally embarked on what was to be an epic weekend adventure.
We began heading East towards our eventual goal of Tonopah Dunes, where we’d camp for the night. We quickly began climbing into the Pine Nut Mountains. We kept a calm pace since we were navigating windy mountain trails for first 20 miles or so. The trail began to descend into the high desert, where we began to pick up the pace for the next 60 miles. A good section of this trail is part of the original Pony Express route.
We stopped at a fun whoop section where you can catch some air if you hit it fast enough.
tbone
manny
Bigg50 (me)
ihavegas
TheBigRig
I’ve got to admit that it was hilarious seeing an F350 catch air.
After everyone had a chance to hit it, we continued almost due east until we reached highway 95 where we turned north. This took us into the town of Fallon where we’d top off our fuel tanks. This was an important fuel stop as it would be roughly 180 miles until we had another opportunity to refuel. This put us right at the range limits of the 3 Supercabs in our group.
The group then headed southeast towards the Ghost town of Rawhide.
The Ghost town no longer exists since a modern day mining operation has taken over the area. This section of the trail would be the slowest of the whole trip. It was rocky with long rolling whoops. Just when we had about enough of this section, the trail opened up just past Rawhide.
We stopped for a poser shot.
For the next 40 miles we were flying! This allowed us to make up the time we’d lost on the last section.
The trail eventually began to slow us down a bit. But we were still able to travel at a good pace as we head north towards Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park. This place was pretty neat as it’s both a well-preserved Ghost town and archeological site where they found several well preserved ichthyosaur fossils in the 1970’s.
The predecessor to the Raptor. Wonder how it would do with some 3.0’s haha.
After taking time to explore the park we headed south. The trail wound south for a while until it opened up into a well-graded path where we once again were able to open up our Raptors. As we began nearing our destination a solar plant began to appear in the distance. It was pretty neat looking and reminded me of something from Star Wars.
Just past the solar power plant laid the Tonopah dunes. We had successfully reached our destination for the day!
Day 1 went pretty well. We’d covered roughly 300 offroad miles, handled 2 minor reroutes, and had no mechanical issues. We reached the dunes around 6:30pm. Just in time for a beautiful sunset.
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr
Since we were camping, we quickly busted out he grill and began cooking up 6lbs of Carne Asada (which we ate all of). Manny began setting up his tent and was kind enough to set up mine since I was manning the grill. Once the Carne was finished, we all feverously scarfed it down.
After drinking copious amounts of tequila and beer, we decided we needed a really BIG fire. We threw what was left of the firewood on. This idea seemed great for a while as we enjoyed the big flames and heat (it had began getting pretty cold).
However, about 20 minutes later the rocks we had used to form a fire pit began EXPLODING. This was pretty funny as we all frantically ran out of the “blast zone”. If I remember correctly, Manny took a pretty good shot to the knee. We didn’t last much longer and we all retired for the night around 11:30pm.
Manny, Andrew (ihavegas), and myself woke up around 6:30AM. Tommy (tbone) and Darren were still asleep. Manny had a great idea on how to get them up.
Unfortunately, Manny had not cleaned his gun in a long time and was only able to get 1 shot off. But it did the job haha.
Once Tommy and Darren were up, we quickly packed up camp (making sure to not leave any trash behind!). Once we were all loaded up, we headed into Tonopah. We topped off our tanks, grabbed a quick bite to eat and quickly diagnosed a problem with Darren’s radio. We headed out of town around 9:00am.
The trail began with a well-graded dirt road. All was going well for about 15-20 minutes. Andrew called out a washout in the road and then quickly jumped on the radio again to say he thought it had taken out a tire. At this point I started chuckling to myself since Andrew seems to be the only one who gets flats. He’s had one on the last 3 runs.
Turns out we would not be so lucky.
This was no bueno; we were the farthest point from home or any major city we could possibly be on the whole trip. After assessing the situation, we decided we had 2 choices; head back into town to see if we could located a trailer to tow him home or somehow get someone to drive the stock spindle sitting in my garage all the way out to us (I had upgraded to a set with Outlaw gusstes).
Andrew jumped in my truck and we headed back to Tonopah in search of a trailer to rent. We were able to locate a uhaul flatbed but there was no way Andrew was going to fit his truck on it. That left us with the dreaded second option. Andrew called up his wife to break the news and ask if she would be so kind as to swing by my house to pick up the spindle and make the 7.5 hour drive to drop it off. Luckily for Andrew, his wife actually likes him, and she agreed to drive it out!
I then called up my wife to fill her in on what had transpired and help her locate the spindle in the garage. We then sent pics of the spindle to both of our wives to ensure his wife would get the correct part and then we headed back to his truck.
Once we returned, we decided to pull the broken spindle to make sure nothing else was damaged and if we’d need Andrew’s wife to pick up any other parts on her way. We, I mean Manny, quickly wrapped up the job. I decided to pull out a chair and supervise the job.
Since this was a prerun, it was decided Tommy and I would continue in order to validate the route and mark cautions. Andrew, Manny, and Darren would stay behind. No one liked the idea of separating the group. However, everything was under control and we had to finish the prerun.
Tommy and I began our way towards the town of Mina. Once reaching Mina we headed north for about 10 miles on the highway. We found the trial head but it was severely washed out. It was passable with a little work but we decided to walk it further down to see if it was worth it. Sure enough, we came upon an even larger washout that was impassable.
Out came my atlas. I quickly found another route about a mile up the road. This turned out to be the best surprise of the trip. The new route began climbing into a beautiful canyon. It reminded me a bit of Titus Canyon in Death Valley. Not quite as epic but close. Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures here.
We were traveling at moderate pace as the trail wondered through the canyons.
As we left this section the trail opened up and became a bit sandy. This made for a fun drive as we picked up speed and enjoyed the cushy ride the soft trail provided.
We then began gaining elevation as we climb into the mountains again. The trail turned to a well-graded dirt road and allowed us to keep a solid pace.
Shortly we were treated to an epic view of the valley below as we descended into the town of Hawthorne. This picture does not do it justice AT ALL.
After reaching the outskirts of Hawthorne we hung a right, heading north along Walker Lake. The lake is pretty neat as it’s so pristine. Notice the mountains reflection in the lake.
The trail quickly turned into a somewhat sandy wash, which was a nice change of pace. Eventually the trail led us into Yerington, our final fuel stop for the trip.
We then headed east as we again gained elevation. The trail quickly led us into a tight canyon. Tommy and I cleared the first couple obstacles but the trial quickly deteriorated and it became apparent it was more appropriate for rock crawlers.
Once we turned around and had descended out of the canyon, I pulled out the atlas to look at options for a reroute. Luckily there was another route very close. The new trail was in great shape and allowed us to make good time. The sun was now setting so Tommy and I stopped for a couple poser shots.
We then made our way to Ludwig Ghost town. I quickly snapped a picture and we were on our way again.
It quickly became dark and Tommy turned on our off-road lights. Driving in the dark offroad is always fun, different, and challenging in it’s own way. We headed north where were we made our way back over the Pine Nut Mountains into Carson City, where our adventure had started the day before.
It was now about 8:30pm and once I hit pavement I immediately called up Andrew to get an update. They had just finished up installing the new spindle and were just hitting pavement themselves and heading home. This was good news for Tommy and I as they had been on our minds since we left them.
Tommy and I decided to grab a much-deserved burger at Five Guys. After we scarfed them down, we aired up and headed home.
Overall, the trip was epic. Granted no one wanted a mechanical failure but I’m proud of how we took care of business. I also learned that even if you don’t really have room, you might as well find some for any extra parts you have. I would have felt like Einstein had I packed the stock spindles! Nevada is a hidden gem and there is so much to explore out there and I can’t wait to go back.
That’s all fokes!
Oh, here's a slideshow with some tunes
[VIMEO]89913373[/VIMEO]
Everyone was up by 5:50 Saturday. We had planned on leaving by 7am but since everyone was anxious to start the day we decided to pack up and hit the road early. An hour and twenty minutes later we reached the trailhead in Carson City.
We began airing down, double-checking all our gear was secure, I put on my Icon midflaps, and then we all gathered for a quick drivers meeting. It was about 8:30 when we finally embarked on what was to be an epic weekend adventure.
We began heading East towards our eventual goal of Tonopah Dunes, where we’d camp for the night. We quickly began climbing into the Pine Nut Mountains. We kept a calm pace since we were navigating windy mountain trails for first 20 miles or so. The trail began to descend into the high desert, where we began to pick up the pace for the next 60 miles. A good section of this trail is part of the original Pony Express route.
We stopped at a fun whoop section where you can catch some air if you hit it fast enough.
tbone
manny
Bigg50 (me)
ihavegas
TheBigRig
I’ve got to admit that it was hilarious seeing an F350 catch air.
After everyone had a chance to hit it, we continued almost due east until we reached highway 95 where we turned north. This took us into the town of Fallon where we’d top off our fuel tanks. This was an important fuel stop as it would be roughly 180 miles until we had another opportunity to refuel. This put us right at the range limits of the 3 Supercabs in our group.
The group then headed southeast towards the Ghost town of Rawhide.
The Ghost town no longer exists since a modern day mining operation has taken over the area. This section of the trail would be the slowest of the whole trip. It was rocky with long rolling whoops. Just when we had about enough of this section, the trail opened up just past Rawhide.
We stopped for a poser shot.
For the next 40 miles we were flying! This allowed us to make up the time we’d lost on the last section.
The trail eventually began to slow us down a bit. But we were still able to travel at a good pace as we head north towards Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park. This place was pretty neat as it’s both a well-preserved Ghost town and archeological site where they found several well preserved ichthyosaur fossils in the 1970’s.
The predecessor to the Raptor. Wonder how it would do with some 3.0’s haha.
After taking time to explore the park we headed south. The trail wound south for a while until it opened up into a well-graded path where we once again were able to open up our Raptors. As we began nearing our destination a solar plant began to appear in the distance. It was pretty neat looking and reminded me of something from Star Wars.
Just past the solar power plant laid the Tonopah dunes. We had successfully reached our destination for the day!
Day 1 went pretty well. We’d covered roughly 300 offroad miles, handled 2 minor reroutes, and had no mechanical issues. We reached the dunes around 6:30pm. Just in time for a beautiful sunset.
Untitled by Big5050, on Flickr
Since we were camping, we quickly busted out he grill and began cooking up 6lbs of Carne Asada (which we ate all of). Manny began setting up his tent and was kind enough to set up mine since I was manning the grill. Once the Carne was finished, we all feverously scarfed it down.
After drinking copious amounts of tequila and beer, we decided we needed a really BIG fire. We threw what was left of the firewood on. This idea seemed great for a while as we enjoyed the big flames and heat (it had began getting pretty cold).
However, about 20 minutes later the rocks we had used to form a fire pit began EXPLODING. This was pretty funny as we all frantically ran out of the “blast zone”. If I remember correctly, Manny took a pretty good shot to the knee. We didn’t last much longer and we all retired for the night around 11:30pm.
Manny, Andrew (ihavegas), and myself woke up around 6:30AM. Tommy (tbone) and Darren were still asleep. Manny had a great idea on how to get them up.
Unfortunately, Manny had not cleaned his gun in a long time and was only able to get 1 shot off. But it did the job haha.
Once Tommy and Darren were up, we quickly packed up camp (making sure to not leave any trash behind!). Once we were all loaded up, we headed into Tonopah. We topped off our tanks, grabbed a quick bite to eat and quickly diagnosed a problem with Darren’s radio. We headed out of town around 9:00am.
The trail began with a well-graded dirt road. All was going well for about 15-20 minutes. Andrew called out a washout in the road and then quickly jumped on the radio again to say he thought it had taken out a tire. At this point I started chuckling to myself since Andrew seems to be the only one who gets flats. He’s had one on the last 3 runs.
Turns out we would not be so lucky.
This was no bueno; we were the farthest point from home or any major city we could possibly be on the whole trip. After assessing the situation, we decided we had 2 choices; head back into town to see if we could located a trailer to tow him home or somehow get someone to drive the stock spindle sitting in my garage all the way out to us (I had upgraded to a set with Outlaw gusstes).
Andrew jumped in my truck and we headed back to Tonopah in search of a trailer to rent. We were able to locate a uhaul flatbed but there was no way Andrew was going to fit his truck on it. That left us with the dreaded second option. Andrew called up his wife to break the news and ask if she would be so kind as to swing by my house to pick up the spindle and make the 7.5 hour drive to drop it off. Luckily for Andrew, his wife actually likes him, and she agreed to drive it out!
I then called up my wife to fill her in on what had transpired and help her locate the spindle in the garage. We then sent pics of the spindle to both of our wives to ensure his wife would get the correct part and then we headed back to his truck.
Once we returned, we decided to pull the broken spindle to make sure nothing else was damaged and if we’d need Andrew’s wife to pick up any other parts on her way. We, I mean Manny, quickly wrapped up the job. I decided to pull out a chair and supervise the job.
Since this was a prerun, it was decided Tommy and I would continue in order to validate the route and mark cautions. Andrew, Manny, and Darren would stay behind. No one liked the idea of separating the group. However, everything was under control and we had to finish the prerun.
Tommy and I began our way towards the town of Mina. Once reaching Mina we headed north for about 10 miles on the highway. We found the trial head but it was severely washed out. It was passable with a little work but we decided to walk it further down to see if it was worth it. Sure enough, we came upon an even larger washout that was impassable.
Out came my atlas. I quickly found another route about a mile up the road. This turned out to be the best surprise of the trip. The new route began climbing into a beautiful canyon. It reminded me a bit of Titus Canyon in Death Valley. Not quite as epic but close. Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures here.
We were traveling at moderate pace as the trail wondered through the canyons.
As we left this section the trail opened up and became a bit sandy. This made for a fun drive as we picked up speed and enjoyed the cushy ride the soft trail provided.
We then began gaining elevation as we climb into the mountains again. The trail turned to a well-graded dirt road and allowed us to keep a solid pace.
Shortly we were treated to an epic view of the valley below as we descended into the town of Hawthorne. This picture does not do it justice AT ALL.
After reaching the outskirts of Hawthorne we hung a right, heading north along Walker Lake. The lake is pretty neat as it’s so pristine. Notice the mountains reflection in the lake.
The trail quickly turned into a somewhat sandy wash, which was a nice change of pace. Eventually the trail led us into Yerington, our final fuel stop for the trip.
We then headed east as we again gained elevation. The trail quickly led us into a tight canyon. Tommy and I cleared the first couple obstacles but the trial quickly deteriorated and it became apparent it was more appropriate for rock crawlers.
Once we turned around and had descended out of the canyon, I pulled out the atlas to look at options for a reroute. Luckily there was another route very close. The new trail was in great shape and allowed us to make good time. The sun was now setting so Tommy and I stopped for a couple poser shots.
We then made our way to Ludwig Ghost town. I quickly snapped a picture and we were on our way again.
It quickly became dark and Tommy turned on our off-road lights. Driving in the dark offroad is always fun, different, and challenging in it’s own way. We headed north where were we made our way back over the Pine Nut Mountains into Carson City, where our adventure had started the day before.
It was now about 8:30pm and once I hit pavement I immediately called up Andrew to get an update. They had just finished up installing the new spindle and were just hitting pavement themselves and heading home. This was good news for Tommy and I as they had been on our minds since we left them.
Tommy and I decided to grab a much-deserved burger at Five Guys. After we scarfed them down, we aired up and headed home.
Overall, the trip was epic. Granted no one wanted a mechanical failure but I’m proud of how we took care of business. I also learned that even if you don’t really have room, you might as well find some for any extra parts you have. I would have felt like Einstein had I packed the stock spindles! Nevada is a hidden gem and there is so much to explore out there and I can’t wait to go back.
That’s all fokes!
Oh, here's a slideshow with some tunes
[VIMEO]89913373[/VIMEO]
