GAK 8

Dave’s POS

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.

Back on the trail, where we crossed over the Salt Tram summit.

Well, twatty showed up a little late

Najja decided that his roof rack mounts were boring.  So a rachet strap through the doors, would be bold and stunning

Enrique showed up late to the party.  But he and Ched rode double passenger like old friends

Gavid limped his pile back to Big Pine.  He watched everyone else work on his rig, while he choked down another carne asada burrito.  Unfortunately, this would not be the last time we visited Napa Parts this trip.

Cerro Gordo Mine is currently under construction/remodel. Here, Daisy Woods was forced to abandon his Cherokee, after we voted to come back and retrieve his POS at the end of the trip.

Of course, we obey all traffic signage throughout our journey.  But does it count, if barriers were previously discarded and tossed to the side???  We assumed only trained professionals would do such a thing.  So we continued on the find another late night camp at the hot springs.

Again, Najja wanted to be different and do away with regular, old and boring steering.  It took some convincing and a few random bolts, to get his suspension square again.

Concerned about last night’s hijinks, we opted to wear orange today.  You know???  Safety first.

Late night somebody decided to blow a tire off the bead.  Although not Dave, I believe Ninja pulled a cold carne asada burrito out of his pocket, and watched everyone else change out his tire for him.  To spice things up, a small car fire helped warm up the night after the sun went down.

Last day votes were tallied.  Somehow the rookie pulled off a win, for GAK of the Year.