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Panamint Valley Days

Submitted by John & Wendy Cary on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 16:00
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Panamint Valley Days

Okay Dan,
I'll finish the writeup.
The following went:

John, Wendy, Spencer, Nova
Mike, Laura and Kelly
Rich and Corki
Dion
Ric
Jerome and Bill
Keith and the whole family
Kris and kids
Dan and the whole family
Tony P tried to make it

If I miss anything, please chime in.

Most of us arrived Thursday, with Keith arriving Friday night.

Friday a group of of us did the Four Mile Mine. The weather was great, but as Corki put it. "On a scale of 1 - 10, it was a .5 It was nice just to get out and ride the roads. Jerome's passenger Bill is a geologist with Jerome's company and he was great at pointing out many of the geological features of the area.

Thursday night was great weather. Friday, the wind came in and everyone spent the evening in the RV's.

Saturday, again, there were a variety of trails everyone went on. I will talk about the trip I went on - Defense Mine. On the trip were Rich and Corki, Mike and Kelley, Keith and family, Jerome and Bill, Ric, and Kris and boys. The weather was great as we meandered through the alluvial fan leading up to the beginning of the canyon. The trail was interesting. Entering the canyon we decided to do waterfall 0. Everyone made it through the rocks on the right. Then Keith, Mike and Spencer decided to do the waterfall to the left. Keith made it up with his tires airborne part of the time. Mike made it part way up and decided to see if his spare tire was a good bump stop - it was. I have never seen a jeep that vertical without tipping over. Kelley was enjoyed the view of the sky. A little winching and Mike was out. Mike has decided to purchase labels for his windshield - An Arrow pointing to the left says "Driver's side" and an arrow pointing to the right says "Passenger's side."
Spencer managed to do the same thing, only not as vertical.

We then decided to head up to the mine. Several went on a short tour of the mine, while the rest of us stayed at the bottom for lunch.

After a tour we headed back down to do the Cummings Cutoff. We expected it to take about one hour. It took us THREE. The last waterfall cost a few vehicles damaged parts, including a broken rear axle. Dan managed to break a track bar bolt. Luckily there were spare parts.

After arriving back at camp we had a great crowd at the hors d'ourve's table for some time. In fact, many of us decided not to do dinner because we were so full. From there we migrated to the fire and I think most of us were in bed by 10-11.

No one won anything at the raffle. The club donated one of the little high volume compressors.

Sunday, our goal was to leave by 9 and head down to the Isham trailhead. Dion stayed and ran one of the scheduled runs; Mike and family had to head home; Ric was a little slow and did not make it to Isham. At Isham was Keith and family, Dan and family, John, Spencer and Nova, Rich and Corki. the trail went quite fast. We were back within two hours and on the way home.

The wind was definitely blowing through Jawbone and Mojave. As you came down from Trona you could see the valley and it was filled with blowing sand.

All in All, A great Trip. Always great to ride with friends.

If I missed anything, please chime it.