The photos below are what we saw.
Near
Cajon Pass we spotted this 'copter hovering near the road.
At first we thought it was CHP, but later concluded that the
'copter was likely under contract to the power company doing
transmission line inspections. Note the fellow sitting
with his leg hanging out of the door.
It took
more that six hours to get to the base of the Sierra Nevada west
of Ridgecrest. The wind was blowing like crazy making
driving difficult and the headwinds lowered our travel speed to
below 50mph. We headed up the super-steep (9%) 9 Mile
Canyon and approached Kennedy Meadows from the east. As we
worked our way up 9 Mile Canyon we could barely see the valley
below due to the dust from the wind. Note how steep and
barren the mountains are.
There
was lots of contaminants in the air due to the wind impacting
visibility. The sun was getting low in the sky, casting
shadows that highlighted the dust in the air.
9 Mile
Canyon is the perfect trifecta of tense: steep, narrow and
dangerous. The cliffs were bleeding rocks and most of the
road was less than two full lanes requiring careful
attention. When we arrived at the Troy Meadows campground,
most of the group was already there. As sundown
approached, the winds remained strong making things quite
uncomfortable for those in tents.
Happily,
the winds died down overnight but the temperatures dropped to
the middle twenties. The following morning, the cold
required extra effort to get the geriatric trucks running.
Above, Alan's 406 would not start, even with ether, so the
decision was made to pull start it.
This
group had many very talented folks and a number of the rigs were
heavily customized. Above is Dave's 404 rock crawler.
Joe's
custom 404 with propane power was tasked with assisting Alan in
the pull-starting effort.
Ron's
super clean 710 Pinz. Ron was nice enough to allow me to
ride with him on the first day.
Kevin's
1500L mog.
Note the
custom exhaust and cargo crane.
Eric's clean DOKA.
The
group lines-up in preparation for departure to the trail head.
The
first day's trail was quite easy and was a very pleasant route,
dust notwithstanding. Above, Joe's custom rock buggy
churns up some dust.
We made
a lunch stop and it was interesting to see the size of the trees
that were in the area. These downed trees were huge and
were likely toppled by high winds.
The
lunch stop allowed the group to inspect their rigs.
Joe's
propane-powered 404 has done some really hard trails. Note
the wear on his front right tire; he uses his rig weekly.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2019, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use without attribution.