Trip Report 199604
We had our mog only a few months and were itching to take it
wheeling. A
fellow, Kai, spotted us in the neighborhood and came by to
introduce himself. We hit it off immediately and became fast friends.
He had a 406 mog and we would later go on many, many
great trips with him and the other moggers.
The photos below are
what we saw. These are scans of chemical photos.
Kai located us by driving around
the neighborhood until he saw the 1300. Then he came in to
introduce himself. He had a 406 that he had rebuilt
from 2 scrapped
trucks.
A very young Kai with his
406 and huge 16.00R20
tires.
Soon after meeting Kai we
decided to do a trip to the desert (by ourselves) and went
through Oroflamme
Canyon down to Shelter
Valley.
From Shelter Valley we headed
toward the Pinyon Mountains and the Pinyon Mountain drop-off.
The 1300 was way too big
to fit through the squeeze, so we parked it on the uphill side and checked
things out on foot. You can judge the size relative to Kathleen.
Looking uphill into the
squeeze. This is considered a one-way trail.
Just down hill from the squeeze
is a steep side canyon.
A bit further down the
trail is a rock that frequently takes out rear windows.
We finally got to the top
of the Pinyon Mountain Drop-off. The local four wheelers call this "Heart Attack
Hill" and it is indeed steep. Despite the fact
that the holes in the trail are filled in with boulders,
the holes will put you in danger of rolling your rig as
you descend. The fellows at the bottom of the hill had come
in the long way from Fish Creek canyon, which as it
turns out
is the
only way out.
The dirt is soft and this
is generally thought
of as a one-way trip. That said, several years later, I did
go up this hill in the 1300. It was steep and
scary. Above, Kathleen walks down the hill showing how
steep it is.
I doubt that those
boulders would do much good upon the descent. And they
surely would hurt
your chances of
going up the hill.
On the way back from our
first mog outing, my air compressor failed. I had to take the truck
to Freightliner to get it replaced. Meanwhile as we
were preparing
another camping trip, we decided
to take our Ford F250 because the mog was out of
action. Mark decided to leave his 404 at
home and take his Toyota. Above a mountain
biker came upon us as Mark was addressing
cooling issues.
Mark is the cooling problem
guy. On the
last trip his 404 had issues. This trip it was his
FJ-40. Kathleen was just sitting in the shade looking
pretty.
We finally gave up and decided to tow the Toyota.
I rode with Mark while
being towed and he ran over a huge rattlesnake. The snake flipped up over my head
and I thought it had landed in the back of the Toyota. I was busy
soiling my shorts when we discovered that it had actually
gone over the back and we were safe.
I felt compelled to lift
it up.
This was a pretty big
rattlesnake. It
would have caused big trouble if it had bitten me.
Because of the mechanical issues, Mark returned to his tow vehicle and then back to LA. Kathleen prepared a turkey breast, squash, potatoes and carrots in the dutch oven.
This
was a great trip
despite Mark's
mechanical issues. And, I was really glad that snake did not land in the rear of the truck
underneath
my seat. The air compressor on the mog was fixed a
few days later and their repair would last for the
next 15 years until the custom hose they
fabricated finally gave up on Vancouver
Island
in Canada.
Copyright Bill Caid, 2013