Panamint Valley (Isham and Defense Mine)

Here is what I have for the Isham Trip

The following went on the trip
John and Nova
Jeff and Friend - Mike
Keith and the Whole Family
Russ
David
Damian
Tony F and Nick
Dan Abendschein from USC

Left late Friday morning and headed to Trona. A little wind and rain all the way to Randsburg Rd. I was just finished gassing up in Mojave and Damian drove in. We had lunch and headed out to Trona.
We arrived at the campsite around 3:30. Jeff and Mike arrived a shortly before us. After setting up camp we relaxed and enjoyed a nice evening fire with dinner. Keith and the Whole Family with TF arrived later that evening.
The fire went out around 10:30.
Around 8am, Dan, Russ and David arrived. David had spent the night in Trona – Major resort area of the desert. Russ and Dan did the day trip. Tony was pleased to show us his new addition to the jeep – His AAA stickers.
We woke up to beautiful weather. Not a cloud in the sky and low 70’s. After getting ready we headed up Isham with Dan riding with me. The trail is a lot of fun. Several of us talked about doing the trail to the left one of these days. It is a pretty knarly trail.
Jeff’s jeep looks real nice. Those 13.5 tires really spread out to each side. His tail has been bopped and it looked real nice with the drive line extension.
My only concern was Damian’s XJ making it through a few of the really tight turns. With a little help from us he made it through all of them. We had a little fun at the V notch with everyone making it through without winching. There was just one minor point. After TF and I went through it, the hole was filled in with rocks taking away the vertical position of the jeeps.
Dan had never ridden over rocks like this and was very impressed with the way everyone worked together and the camaraderie with the group. We took a lot of pics and you will see them Tuesday. After reaching the top we dropped over to the PV side and had lunch. I think Dan enjoyed 4wheeling. He asked a lot of questions and was interested in how we were able to crawl these trails. He also was interested in the fact we have high regard for the environment and our concern that it be maintained.
From there we decided to head back to camp, load up the day trippers and head to Defense Mine trail.
We stopped at the usual waterfalls heading up with most everone taking their turn. TF, myself and Keith tried the lower rock step. Both TF and I had to be winched. Keith tried a slightly different trail and was up and through before anyone could get a camera out. That’s right –Keith did an obstacle that TF had to be winched out of.
From there we headed up the trail and turned on the side trail that is considerably more difficult. Damian took the regular road to a point above us and watched the carnage. There are several good waterfalls in this section and we all made them with no winching. I got to the last water fall and managed to get stuck between two rocks. In the process of trying to get out I heard a loud noise – broken rear axle. Too big of tire and too much torque. Time for mandatory upgrade.
I was winched out and with the front axle driving TF pulled me up the hill. Since it was 5:00, we decided it was time to head back to camp. After removing the rear drive shaft I was able to drive back to camp. The daytrippers and Dan headed home. Keith and Family, Damian, Jeff and I stayed the night. It was a little windy and Keith being parked at 90degrees to the wind spend a wonderful night being rocked to sleep and awake and asleep and awake and asleep.
Sunday morning was a little windy and we all left by 9:30

If I missed anything – chime in guys.