Our Thanksgiving trip to the desert

[eDUBz]

First off want to thank Nayther for giving us some directions to setup camp in Spangler Hills - Mojave Desert. We setup camp about 2 miles north of Teagle wash, it was a lil packed down there. We left home Tuesday around noon, it's a 3-4 hour drive one way for us.

Camp setup.



A beautiful sunset in the desert. The weather was perfect about 50ish degrees and dead calm with plenty of sun.


Smile! Family photo time haha! All pics were shot with my wife's iPhone, mine has no more storage over 3k pics, I'm a phone hoarder.


Next day the wind kicked up and was blowing pretty good most of the day but that didn't stop us from exploring around. Wednesday was the only day it was windy after that it was awesome weather.



Our youngest daughter and the dog going for a ride.


Another reason why we like BLM land so the kids can roam free drive the RZR and shoot their pellet guns.



Friday around noon we decided to make a run down to the Pinnacles in the truck. I wanted to take the RZR but the rear pinion nut needs to be addressed before we take it on a long run. In the 2012-2014 RZR 800 The pinion nut backs out because of the nylon washer getting to hot and loosening up and blowing out the rear gear case. I didn want to take any chances in the desert riding solo.






We headed home Saturday Morning, when we got Santa Clarita area the weather was looking crappy, when we got to Simi Valley it was pouring rain all the way home.

[24fb_freedom]

eDUBz wrote:

24fb freedom wrote:
Looks like a lot of fun,we stayed in cal city and rode around there then took two long trips,one to randsburg on our rzr (I need to check on the pinion nut also)
And our other long trip was to the foxy landing at the cal city airport for lunch on our rzr also, we also went to the boron abandoned prison, all are cool sites!!!
Specialy Randsburg's general store and those banana splits!!

I have a PDF file on the pinion nut repair and special tool requirement of you want me to email it to you. Good times in the Desert!

thanks! I got in touch with pullerguy (les) from the rzr forum and he is mailing me the parts and tools,having lots of info could never hurt,lol. I'll PM you for that PDF file.thanks again.

[eDUBz]

BizmarksMom wrote:
Nice!

I started out in Johnson Valley where I met up with my brother. Then we both headed to Boron area to camp with my cousins. (Got kicked out of the Boron Prison by some really official looking Federal guys.) We ended up with my sister camping across from Wagon Wheel.

The wind Saturday broke a slide support. And didn't let up until I dropped down out of Jordan Valley, 2 hours from home. Still, good times in a great area!

we have family in Boron That we rarely see or talk to, we left Saturday so we must have barley missed the winds. we crossed over Trona road to that side, when we first got there didn't think anybody was down there until we got over the hill and there was a big group. Glad you made it home safe.

[eDUBz]

24fb freedom wrote:
Looks like a lot of fun,we stayed in cal city and rode around there then took two long trips,one to randsburg on our rzr (I need to check on the pinion nut also)
And our other long trip was to the foxy landing at the cal city airport for lunch on our rzr also, we also went to the boron abandoned prison, all are cool sites!!!
Specialy Randsburg's general store and those banana splits!!

I have a PDF file on the pinion nut repair and special tool requirement of you want me to email it to you. Good times in the Desert!

[jackxclan]

BizmarksMom wrote:
Nice!

I started out in Johnson Valley where I met up with my brother. Then we both headed to Boron area to camp with my cousins. (Got kicked out of the Boron Prison by some really official looking Federal guys.) We ended up with my sister camping across from Wagon Wheel.

The wind Saturday broke a slide support. And didn't let up until I dropped down out of Jordan Valley, 2 hours from home. Still, good times in a great area!

Info on this boron prison deal sounds like fun

[BizmarksMom]

Nice!

I started out in Johnson Valley where I met up with my brother. Then we both headed to Boron area to camp with my cousins. (Got kicked out of the Boron Prison by some really official looking Federal guys.) We ended up with my sister camping across from Wagon Wheel.

The wind Saturday broke a slide support. And didn't let up until I dropped down out of Jordan Valley, 2 hours from home. Still, good times in a great area!

[24fb_freedom]

Looks like a lot of fun,we stayed in cal city and rode around there then took two long trips,one to randsburg on our rzr (I need to check on the pinion nut also)
And our other long trip was to the foxy landing at the cal city airport for lunch on our rzr also, we also went to the boron abandoned prison, all are cool sites!!!
Specialy Randsburg's general store and those banana splits!!

[eDUBz]

dedmiston wrote:
Hey eDUBz. Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip out there. It's a nice area. Good for you for investing the time with your family. It sure beats playing Xbox.

And yeah, the weather is always perfect in Santa Clarita. It's in our City charter.

Good for you for driving out to the Pinnacles. Everyone should see them at least once. Last spring we were out there and saw them filming this commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_NKsrrb_6A.

That's awesome! It definitely is the best spending time with the family out camping in new places. It's pretty addicting, I enjoy towing and long drives to new places. This summer we are planning a California coast trip all the way up by Oregon.

[dedmiston]

Hey eDUBz. Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip out there. It's a nice area. Good for you for investing the time with your family. It sure beats playing Xbox.

And yeah, the weather is always perfect in Santa Clarita. It's in our City charter.

Good for you for driving out to the Pinnacles. Everyone should see them at least once. Last spring we were out there and saw them filming this commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_NKsrrb_6A.

[mrw8i]

eDUBz wrote:
Not many deals, the lowrance looks nice tho.

I have not played with the Lawrence. I like the larger screen. Not sure what formats it uses for routes/tracks/maps. Not sure what tools are available to upload tracks/routes/maps to the Lawrence.

Take a look at owlsheadgps.com - those are tracks that different govt agencies have submitted to owls head - to put their tracks into one place. Not all tracks on that map are open as some information is old - and there are tracks not on that map (for instance Red Rock Canyon State Park, near Jawbone). If you can download those tracks to Lowrance - then I would consider Lowrance.

I would also look into converting a tablet and using it for a GPS - but I'm unsure of compatible GPS software that works well on tablets.

For your enjoyment - read up on GPSs on the RZR forum
RZR GPS Forum

This looks interesting. He has trail maps for So Cal, looks like Spangler/Jawbone/El Paso mountains included. Has for many different GPS devices including Lawrence. Be nice if he also had Mono County (Mammoth Lakes).
California Trail Maps

[eDUBz]

Not many deals, the lowrance looks nice tho.

[mrw8i]

eDUBz wrote:
Thanks, maybe I can take advantage of cyber Monday and order a GPS.....standby.

best thing about the GPS - bread crumbs (track) so you can get back to your campsite.

[eDUBz]

Thanks, maybe I can take advantage of cyber Monday and order a GPS.....standby.

[mrw8i]

eDUBz wrote:

mrw8i wrote:

eDUBz wrote:

mrw8i wrote:
We left Moorpark around 9AM Saturday, got to Cal City around noon. Weather was nice for about another 2 hours after arriving at Cal City. You did well leaving when you did. Get the pinion nut done, there are a lot of neat destinations around that whole area, some might be 100 mile round trip rides.

Yeah, worked out perfect. We dropped into Moorpark to eat an it was pouring around 2.
Getting it done before we take it out again, also gotta get a GPS to download the MAPs. Don't know anybody else with a SXS so we gotta get comfortable with the area.

Wife and I are bit older (in our 50's) than you guys, but we try to make it out to the Cal City 3 - 5x per year. Next will be week after Xmas. Weather can be quite cold then, so have to be prepared for that, especially if on a long ride.

We have a turbo'd RZR 800S. It's just the two of usually.

I use a Garmin Montana and my iPhone for GPS. I can help you with maps and routes for both.

I took the rear end out of my 800 and put another one in built by ??? (I'll have to look it up).

Next up for your family, and we just started. Geocaching.

Mike

That's awesome! It's funny most of our friends are older than us, we just turned 30 🙂 but none have toy haulers or dirt toys. That would be great to get some maps and routes. We are thinking of going back out maybe New Years if I can figure this rear end out.

Our kids are between 30 and 36 years of age.

For the Garmin - I used www.owlsheadgps.com - and converted some of the routes to a transparent map - which overlays street or topo maps. I also added a bunch of my own routes to my Cal City area map.

For the iPhone I use the Avenza app and purchased the Friends of Jawbone map, I rarely use that map now that I have owls head maps on my Garmin. When in the Mammoth Lakes area I download the Forest Service pdf maps to Avenza, but again now Owlshead covers that area - so I can use my Garmin there. Finally I use the Google Maps satellite view to find dirt tracks/roads in the area.

[N-Trouble]

azdryheat wrote:
Nice pics.

Are helmets required for everyone or just children in Cali (in a SXS)?

Everyone... went into affect a couple years back.

[eDUBz]

eDUBz wrote:

mrw8i wrote:

eDUBz wrote:

mrw8i wrote:
We left Moorpark around 9AM Saturday, got to Cal City around noon. Weather was nice for about another 2 hours after arriving at Cal City. You did well leaving when you did. Get the pinion nut done, there are a lot of neat destinations around that whole area, some might be 100 mile round trip rides.

Yeah, worked out perfect. We dropped into Moorpark to eat an it was pouring around 2.
Getting it done before we take it out again, also gotta get a GPS to download the MAPs. Don't know anybody else with a SXS so we gotta get comfortable with the area.

Wife and I are bit older (in our 50's) than you guys, but we try to make it out to the Cal City 3 - 5x per year. Next will be week after Xmas. Weather can be quite cold then, so have to be prepared for that, especially if on a long ride.

We have a turbo'd RZR 800S. It's just the two of usually.

I use a Garmin Montana and my iPhone for GPS. I can help you with maps and routes for both.

I took the rear end out of my 800 and put another one in built by ??? (I'll have to look it up).

Next up for your family, and we just started. Geocaching.

Mike

That's awesome! It's funny most of our friends are older than us, we just turned 30 🙂 but none have toy haulers or dirt toys. That would be great to get some maps and routes. We are thinking of going back out maybe New Years if I can figure this rear end out.