GAK is back for 2025. Marking our 10th anniversary of GAK. Something of a milestone for a bunch of alcoholic degenerates who like to camp, drink and can barely drive. This year’s trip was back to where it all started: Death Valley, CA. To pay homage to what would become a highly anticipated, hated by some, liver and brain cell destroying trip. With a couple of new members joining the group, we set off into the unknown, in hopes of finding new trails, new adventure and some new jokes.

The Costco supply run a couple days before the trip. New record: $3,400+ Costco bill.

Gopher Canyon Meetup Spot - Morning of the start of GAK10

Sign of a Retard

Baker, CA - Tow trucks secured. Off road trucks ready. Radio frequency cards handed out. First beers have been cracked.

First stop, safety meeting and Jack pull.

The next morning. This first campsite was siiiccc…

30-40 minutes after our “Safety Meeting”, Jon decides to say “Fuck it! ‘Safety’ is for pussies!” and he makes his own trail and gets stuck. More beers get cracked, winch lines come out and ultimately we drive his rig out and off we go.

The following day, we’re back out on the trail. Exploring old mines, abandoned trails and finding the bottom of the Jack bottle.

Then we had more technical difficulties. Handled those as well. Ooof…

Bus’boy decided that his drive shaft is made out of undestructaium and drove straight over the biggest fucking bolder in the trail. He quickly found out that he was wrong.

Zach got a blowout on the trail. Handled.

< Some European Strange

We stopped into Furnace Creek to dump trash and to resupply. While we were hanging out in the parking lot we came across a tour group from Europe. They came from East coast to Las Vegas then off to LA. This was their last stop before LA. They had a lot of questions about what who we were and what we we were doing. We made their whole trip. At one point the whole tour bus came out to take pictures with us. Pure comedy watching them try and read our Temu shirts.

After all the laughs and pictures, we were off and back on the trail.

Then came the mechanical issues. Blue Thunder started having electrical issues and had to pull over. We found a rest stop along the way and ended up posting up there for the rest of the evening.

We made the best of our time sitting there. As some of the guys tried to troubleshoot the problem, the rest of us cracked some coldies and explored our surroundings. Night time fell on us as well as the rain.

The guys were able to get Naj’s rig up to us, so we continued to troubleshoot the issue. The alternator broke off and the drive belt. We were able to get the alternator back on but the pulley was tweaked and it kept throwing a belt.

We decided to park the rig at the rest stop and took off into the hills to setup camp. The rains came in hard and wet but we made the best of it. The weather didn’t rain on our parade. We partied and ate like kings.

Morning came and we packed up camp. We headed down the mountain to deal with the disabled Jeep. We called a tow truck. We sat in a wet, rest stop all day, waiting for a tow truck that never came. That didn’t stop the comedy though. The beers were aplenty and the laughs continued.

Two days and two nights in the same general spot. We realized that the tow truck wasn’t coming once nightfall fell on us. We made the executive decision to head back to Stovepipe Wells and check into the hotel there. A well deserved dinner and hotel room were a welcome sight by all. Dave ended up getting some kind of issue with his face and had to take off to the hospital in Pharump. We sent him and Thomas off and the party continued through the night.

The next morning. The storm passed, everyone was hungover but “rested” and ready to hit the trail again. The group gathered and decided to change plans. The storm was blasting our original trail route and we decided to head Southeast to dodge the gnarly weather.