Long Range Desert Group II 22-24 March 1996 Panimint Valley, California Partisipants: Randy Rose 1957 SI 107" SW Eric and Brigid Cope 1964 SIIA 88 "The African Queen" (though it looks like a '71) Jason LaBranch 1970 SIIA 88 "Ganesh, remover of obsticles" Benjamin Smith 1972 SIII 88 "Dora" Walt Swain and John Hess 1988 Range Rover Classic Bruce Bonar and Stephanie Changaris 1994 Defender 90 "Spot" Rick Larson and ??? 1994 Defender 90 Tom Walsh and Sara Swanson 1995 Discovery It was time again for the Mendo_recce folks to explore the desert. Of course Mother Nature decided to pull some tricks on us. Up to the event we had warm, calm days in the desert; the day of the trip dawned with sustained winds of about 20 mph. It continued to blow all day long, so when I headed out towards Balarat late Friday afternoon, I wondered who, if anyone, was going to show up. As the sun set behind the hills I found myself alone in the desert. By the interior dome light, I read about the Anglo-Scottish Boarder Rievers (Raiders) of the 1500s while I waited and the wind blew. About 9pm the wind started to die down. Then the first call came over the CB. Walt and John were nearby, but had missed the turn in Balarat. They soon were in camp and we started talking up a storm and cooking dinner. Enroute they had encountered snow. The cold had also given them some brake probelems. So much for my 85 degree weather prediction. :) Tom and Sara were the next to arrive. Their green Disco looked to be so overloaded that it appeared to be trying to pop a wheelie. Not too long later the familiar sight of late Land Rover headlights came into view. A tan, late SIIA soft top (sans door tops) turned and drove into camp. It was Eric and Brigid in the resurrected African Queen. The transformation was asounding. It's hard to belived that this is the same Queenie as the silver beast with no doors and a rotted firewall that arrived in the rain of the first Mendo Not-A-Rallye. Around midnight the next arrival was Randy and his 107". "Randy, why does your Rover smell of fish?" asked someone. "Oh, that must be the Sea Bass." Turns out that Randy was trying some manifold cooking from the "Manifold Destiny" cookbook. (The Rover engine didn't warm the fish enough). Later on in the wee hours Bruce and Stephaine arrived in Spot and Rick arrived in his D90. Everyone must have been tired from driving because all were in bed by 2am. We did have great seeing of the Comet before bed though. Saturday dawned not quite as blustery as Friday. One of the first orders of the day was for everyone to inspect Spot's new toys. A belt driven compressor with 2 gallon tank, rock sliders, diff guards and air lockers were on the list. We all were appreciative. While cooking dinner the previous night, Walt managed to kill the battery of his Range Rover. Dora was enlisted to jumpstart the Rangie. No luck; even when the Rangie's battery was taken out of the loop. The Rangie was started by installing Queenie's battery and then doing a swap once the Range Rover had started. Dora then decided that her battery was dead. A quick push start got her started. As we waited for 10am, we lined up all of the Rovers and took some photos. Seeing no new arrivals at 10 and hearing nothing on the CB, we headed out for the first destination...Jail Canyon. The drive up the eastern edge of Panimint Valley was uneventful and mostly a washboarded road. Once we got off the main road and headed for the Canyon, the path was a little more rough. The trail in Jail Canyon ended up being short. One fork ended at an active mine claim while the other at a dry waterfall. Being as it was still before lunch, we decided to try the next canyon north before heading up towards Hunter mountain. The next canyon north was Tuber Canyon. Unfortunately, the BLM/Park Service decided to close the road between Jail Canyon and Tuber Canyon. So we were forced to take a longer detour that included a few miles on pavement (the horror). We quickly found ourselves back on the dirt and heading up the canyon. My BLM map only showed one road up the canyon, so I took the most travelled route whenever I found a fork in the trail. (Except where I took a narrow rocky wash. We all had fun in that short section. Ironically, Spot decided to take the easy (road) way around). All to soon the road we were following ended at an old mine. We broke out lunch supplies and ate. After lunch Eric, John, Ben and ?Tom? checked out the mine. The main shaft went back into the hillside at least a few hundred yards. There was evidence of multiple levels. While people were in the mine, a call came over the radio. "Are there any Land Rovers out there?" The caller turned out to be Jason! He was calling from the junction of Saline Valley Road and Hunter Mountain Pass Road, a location some 15+ miles away! We happened to have a line of sight to where he was! Talk about lucky. Jason was given instructions on how to find us. After lunch we backtracked a bit and got back into the main canyon. There were a few rocky, axle articulation bits. Interestingly engough the D90s were having some wheel spin problems, but the Rangie, while talking the same line, did not. This must be some superior plush mobile! The trail was the streambed. Rick scouted ahead. He came back to say that the the trail petered out into some underbrush. In the interests of treading lightly we decided not to go on. As it was getting on in the afternoon, we decided to camp right there in Tuber Canyon. We ended up with a some daylight to wander around, talk, etc. Bruce and Stephanie took Spot down to meet Jason and guide him back up the canyon. Night fell and the wind mostly died. We spent a long time around the fire. This trip we tried some Glenlivit single malt Scotch that Ben brought. Eric brought some shot glasses. It seemed all so refined sitting in the cold, by the fire, sipping a shot of single malt. Mmmmmm. The comet was even better than Friday night. Sunday dawned with people ansy to get going and the vague notion of having to drive back home. Jason took off at 7am or so for the Bay. The rest of us decided to drive over towards the Darwin mine areas. First thing was to jump start the Rangie, again. After driving down the canyon, we were on pavement again. Enroute we stopped off at Panamint Springs to allow some people to top off their fuel tanks. $1.98/gallon for 87 octane. Highway robbery! The road into Darwin was heavily washboarded, but the views were amazing. We had a brief attempt to try to get to Darwin falls, but since a 1/2 mile hike was called for, that plan aborted. After passing through Darwin we took a side road up into the Darwin Mine area. There were some increadible photo opportunities with Rovers on desert roads with snow capped mountains in the background. Lunch was had at an abandoned mine when the road petered out. Of course Eric climbed down into one to take a look around. All to soon it was time to pack up and get going again. Most people had a long drive back to the Bay area. So we drove back to pavement and said our goodbyes. The column of Rovers drove off towards Owens Lake and then on to their final destinations. I think everyone had a good time. Long Range Desert Trip III is tentativly set for October. Maybe we'll camp out in the Saline Valley/ Death Valley areas and beable to explore Hunter Mountain Pass. I'll try to find some more challenging trails this time around.