RAPTORS HAVE ALL THE FUN - Series
With the current "COVID climate" affecting just about most places we normally go (Baja, cough-cough-wink), we decided to join a group of friends for a "Raptor-ing" adventure of a lifetime - right in our own backyard.
The plan was set; trucks packed to the nines and families stuffed into their rigs for an eight day off-road trip promising beautiful landscapes, 16th century trade routes, exhilarating off-road trails, abandoned ghost towns, haunted hotels, hot springs, ranches and more (yes, more!) through the southern deserts of California and Nevada finishing just before our Nation's birthday in the Eastern Sierras, and doing so 90% of the time on dirt.
DAY 1 - OLD SPANISH NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL and DATE MILKSHAKES
With one of the first summer heat waves to hit the west coast in 2020, where else would one expect to meet but the infamous World's Tallest Thermometer in Baker, California. Located in the middle of this small gas-stop of a town usually only visited for Del Taco and fuel on the way to Las Vegas or Dumont Dunes, we began lining up our Ford Raptors under the giant temperature gauge eagerly awaiting our trip to begin. We were fortunate to be joining a group of off-road legends and their families, from Curt Leduc and Johnny Campbell to Cameron Steele and King of the Hammer's Dave Cole. Steele was the mastermind of the trip, with Leduc, Campbell and a few others pre-running the route and organizing all sorts of activities and conveniences along the way. The thermometer read 102*F and with a dog in my lap, snacks overflowing at my feet, I opened up my OnX Off-Road App to set my coordinates and record our route.
CONTINUE READING
With the current "COVID climate" affecting just about most places we normally go (Baja, cough-cough-wink), we decided to join a group of friends for a "Raptor-ing" adventure of a lifetime - right in our own backyard.
The plan was set; trucks packed to the nines and families stuffed into their rigs for an eight day off-road trip promising beautiful landscapes, 16th century trade routes, exhilarating off-road trails, abandoned ghost towns, haunted hotels, hot springs, ranches and more (yes, more!) through the southern deserts of California and Nevada finishing just before our Nation's birthday in the Eastern Sierras, and doing so 90% of the time on dirt.
DAY 1 - OLD SPANISH NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL and DATE MILKSHAKES
With one of the first summer heat waves to hit the west coast in 2020, where else would one expect to meet but the infamous World's Tallest Thermometer in Baker, California. Located in the middle of this small gas-stop of a town usually only visited for Del Taco and fuel on the way to Las Vegas or Dumont Dunes, we began lining up our Ford Raptors under the giant temperature gauge eagerly awaiting our trip to begin. We were fortunate to be joining a group of off-road legends and their families, from Curt Leduc and Johnny Campbell to Cameron Steele and King of the Hammer's Dave Cole. Steele was the mastermind of the trip, with Leduc, Campbell and a few others pre-running the route and organizing all sorts of activities and conveniences along the way. The thermometer read 102*F and with a dog in my lap, snacks overflowing at my feet, I opened up my OnX Off-Road App to set my coordinates and record our route.
CONTINUE READING
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