Sagebrush Reconnoiterer
The Historian
Over Memorial Day weekend of 2007, a friend and I took a three day, two night reconnoiter in our backyard. We kept our dirt road travel at maximum over as much two track fun as I could find on the maps. We hit highs of 10,000' atop a mountain, heavy forests, wide open sand and sage, wild and domestic horses, a jarring, rocky path that can make a saint swear profusely. At no point was I more than 60 miles in a straight line from home.
At the time, my friend, Graham, and I lived in Big Pine, California, in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Our travels were contained in a semi-circle crawling up into the heights of Glass Mountain, into the wild Pizona country then wandering into Mineral County, Nevada to explore Truman Meadows.
Both of us had Toyota Tacoma 4x4 pickups with the TRD off road package. My Tacoma is the white 2002, Graham's is the silver 2000. Graham also brought along his dog, Toby.
In this website story and others, I didn't use Graham's last name; for sake of his privacy, as he had no public presence online. Graham Cooper was of English birth, Australian upbringing, his family emigrated to the United States when he was in his teens. Graham and I met around 1999 after corresponding as both of us were members of the earliest Death Valley internet forum; thereafter we often went on exploration trips together. In the early days, he owned a ¾ ton Chevrolet 4x4 pickup outfitted for rugged off road travel, topped by a FWC camper. He would visit and camp in his camper behind my home in Big Pine periodically before he bought a home in Big Pine in 2006. Just before moving to Big Pine he bought his Tacoma. Graham died of cancer in 2017 at the age of 72, in Reno.
This trip report necessitated my rebuilding the original page in a word processor then converting it to a .pdf; simply converting the original .html file into .pdf created a jumbled mess which no amount of fiddling could fix. I embedded the original size photos in this document, my web page had thumbnails that could be opened to full size. This document also contains footnotes, as did the original.
So come along on our travels on my Trip 2007G; full of red rocks, no sleep, glass, adobe, still no sleep, Mr. Ed, and all those %$#@&!!! rocks: Red Rock, Glass Mountain, Adobe Meadows, Pizona, Truman Meadows, Mono County, California and Mineral County, Nevada.
Note: Story broken into four separate parts due to file size allowances for this site.
At the time, my friend, Graham, and I lived in Big Pine, California, in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Our travels were contained in a semi-circle crawling up into the heights of Glass Mountain, into the wild Pizona country then wandering into Mineral County, Nevada to explore Truman Meadows.
Both of us had Toyota Tacoma 4x4 pickups with the TRD off road package. My Tacoma is the white 2002, Graham's is the silver 2000. Graham also brought along his dog, Toby.
In this website story and others, I didn't use Graham's last name; for sake of his privacy, as he had no public presence online. Graham Cooper was of English birth, Australian upbringing, his family emigrated to the United States when he was in his teens. Graham and I met around 1999 after corresponding as both of us were members of the earliest Death Valley internet forum; thereafter we often went on exploration trips together. In the early days, he owned a ¾ ton Chevrolet 4x4 pickup outfitted for rugged off road travel, topped by a FWC camper. He would visit and camp in his camper behind my home in Big Pine periodically before he bought a home in Big Pine in 2006. Just before moving to Big Pine he bought his Tacoma. Graham died of cancer in 2017 at the age of 72, in Reno.
This trip report necessitated my rebuilding the original page in a word processor then converting it to a .pdf; simply converting the original .html file into .pdf created a jumbled mess which no amount of fiddling could fix. I embedded the original size photos in this document, my web page had thumbnails that could be opened to full size. This document also contains footnotes, as did the original.
So come along on our travels on my Trip 2007G; full of red rocks, no sleep, glass, adobe, still no sleep, Mr. Ed, and all those %$#@&!!! rocks: Red Rock, Glass Mountain, Adobe Meadows, Pizona, Truman Meadows, Mono County, California and Mineral County, Nevada.
Note: Story broken into four separate parts due to file size allowances for this site.
