51 replies to this topic

[DirtyDog]

Titus Canyon:

[DirtyDog]

Titus Canyon:

[DirtyDog]

WTW takes over the Titus Canyon parking area:


Titus Canyon was a great drive that everyone enjoyed a lot. This is probably going to be the warm up run for future trips.

[DirtyDog]

Next up was Ubehebe Crater:

[DirtyDog]

After Ubehebe we headed in the direction of Teakettle Junction to setup camp. The plan was to camp near Teakettle and hit the Racetrack in the morning. The drive to Teakettle Junction was the low point of the trip - around 20 miles of the worst washboard many of us had seen. Tempers were a bit short but we made it eventually:



FWC style:

[DirtyDog]

Patrick never made it to the junction. I agreed to stay behind and wait longer for him - an opportunity to hike a nearby butte:



Pat and Carol never showed, so I went ahead and joined the others at our camp. We decided Pat would be a WTW sacrifice to the Coyotes but he ended up showing up at the camp later so the Coyotes went hungry. He had a somewhat minor mechanical but everything was good.

Our camp near Teakettle Junction:

[DirtyDog]

I got up in the morning and hiked about a mile to the nearby Lost Burro mine:

[DirtyDog]

Lost Burro Mine:

[DirtyDog]

Next stop: The Racetrack. This is a playa where the rocks mysteriously move and nobody knows why.

Looking towards the Playa:


Look at this little fella go!


Collision imminent!


Stampede (almost got trampled here):


And one more:

[DirtyDog]

At this point we had really started losing people - some had to go home for something called "work" - not sure what that is but oh well. At the racetrack we had to choose enduring washboard hell again or chancing unknown conditions on Lippincott pass. Lippincott is more of a true 4wd road than other we have done and some had concerns about taking our big trucks with campers over the pass. Sunman and Lawnmowerman had taken Lippincott earlier in the day. The final decsion with the remaining crew was to go ahead and try it so Camelracer, pvstoy, Marc, and myself threw caution to the wind and prepared for some true off-road action:









There were definitely some oh **** moments but I am happy to report that we didn't lose anyone