GAK 8 - 2023
Nov. 2 - Nov. 7 2023
Another Death Valley trip in the books. This year we pushed back our trip by a month. Mainly because of work and last year's trip was hovering around the high 90's most of the days. So pushing it back a month worked in our favor. The day time temps were in the mid to high 70s or low 80s. Night time temps got a bit chilly. Froze the first night but luckily it warmed up a bit as the week went on. Since Hurricane Hilary did another 1-2 punch on the park with a historic 1,000 year rain fall in combo with last year's Winter rainfall, most of park if not all of the park was closed to traffic. Our area of focus was the west to northwest side of the park. 6-days, 5-nights (Weds. to Mon.).
Left San Diego and headed North. We dropped off our tow rigs at Boulder Creek RV Resort. $7/day per vehicle. A good place that's fairly secure and close by to Lone Pine. (3) Jeep Cherokees, (1) Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, (1) Tacoma, (1) 4Runner, (1) T100. 13 guys and 7 vehicles.
First spot right out of Lone Pine for air down, safety meeting and GAK Daniels pull. The plan was to stay outside of the park. Easy day to find camp since half of the day was burned just driving up. One of the Cherokee starts to experience some power loss so we attempt to do some troubleshooting at camp.
Dave’s POS already acting up. Cleaning his air filter with gas.
Next morning. Cold. Water jugs on the tables are frozen and everyone complaining that their sleeping bags were not enough. Breakfast and we're on our way. One of our buddies decided to take the day off and go full retard for the day. Comedy ensued. Also, the official GAK 2023 cooly cups were handed out.
Ched (formerly known as “Ninja”) being gingerly helped back into his rig. Where he would sit the rest of the trip.
Heading further down the trail we made it down the mountain at to the entrance to the Reward Mine.
So after the visiting the Reward Mine, we headed back down into town to top off our tanks and our ice. The plan was to not come back into town until the last day of the trip. That plan didn't pan out like we hoped. More on that later.
Heading down a fairly steep trail, we came across a water crossing. Fairly deep.
After topping off we headed back up into the hills. The plan was to drive up the back side to Cerro Gordo Mining Town. Years ago, we did this particular route, which is the long way to Cerro Gordo. There's two ways to go. The more direct route that drives straight up the mountain and into town. The back way squirrels around and up through the pines. IMO, it's one of the most fun trails. It used to be not that hard and more fairly steep but with all the rains, it washed away a lot of the sand and dirt and made the route more difficult. 4L was necessary unless you had a good run at it. The terrain changes (desert to pines) is awesome. Once it started getting dark, we decided to camp within the pines.
Next morning the official GAK 2023 shirts were handed out then back to working on the Heep pile.
We were able to rub enough dickheads together and get that POS back on the trail and moving forward.
Then back to fiddling with the Heep. Once we patched that POS again with bubble gum, we headed further down the trail. Moving along downhill at a pretty good pace, we lost contact with the Heep. Once we regained radio contact, we found out he lost his brakes and had to use a tree to stop himself. More drinking ensued.
