wayoflife

As soon as May comes around, we're pretty much done with the desert and itchin to get back up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. And, as luck would have it, we got a last minute call from our good friend Trail Bud last Friday asking if we might be interested in going camping over the weekend. After talking to Chris from Full-Traction Suspension, we had a total of 3 Jeeps packed up and heading off with no particular destination in mind. All we knew is that we were going to head up the 395 and have some fun. Here are some pics from our trip.

As it was, the winds on Saturday morning were blowing crazy hard. Coming up the the 395, we passed a semi on a 2 lane stretch that hit us hard enough with its turbulent wake that it tore our fender flare right off of Nemo...


Fortunately, there was nobody behind us at the time and so, I was able to retrieve the fender and get it re-attached in Lone Pine...


After a delicious breakfast at the Alabama Hills Cafe, we made a stop over at the Reward Mine to drive deep into its depths...




Heading on in...


Here we are at about a quater of a mile into the earth...


After spending some time exploring the many shafts, we made our way back up to the surface...


Back on the surface, we decided to explore a trail northwest of Independence...


This was a crazy narrow and off camber shelf road...


Heading high into the Sierra Nevada Mountains...


This trail is so small and so seldom used, you can barely make it out even from up above...


Unfortunately, a problem Chris was having with his power steering pump got worse and so, we had to find a place wide enough to turn around and head back down the mountain...


Having a great difficulty steering his Jeep, Chis found himself way too close to the edge and sliding off in a bad way...


With the help of his winch, we were able to get him safely back up on the trail...


On the move again...




Back at the base of the mountain, we set up camp in a nice sheltered tree enclosure...




Looking for some adventure, wayoflifette and I decided to take a hike down the mountain a bit to see if there was any running water. To our surprise, we found this gaging station...


Exploring the surrounding area, wayoflifette found what looked like a really old concrete sluice or aquduct of some sort feeding water into the small dammed in area...


Of course we had to follow it to see how far it went...






At one point, the forest got thick enough to make travel along the sluice difficult. But, in the brush, we still managed to find and cross this old bridge...


Back out in the clear, we came across an old bridge made to carry the water across a gulch...




The sluice ended near by at a spring and, as it turned out, we had come pretty much full circle from where we started and were back near camp... just a lot higher up. On our way back, we got to see some amazing Lenticular cloud formations overhead...




And finally, as we were heading back for home the next day, we were treated the the wonderful sight of elk making their way across the valley...


A big thanks needs to go out to Trail Bud for the last minute invite to go camping and to Chris and Jen from Full-Traction for joining us for the fun. I can't wait to get back up the good ol' 395

07rubisteve

nice pics, nice casual outing.....someone took the time to route the sluice all the way down....get me thinking where it goes, and what for? lol...

I see BW fenders in the near future for lil Nemo

Hook-Em

WOW! Beautiful run and great pics -- as usual. Great job!

arcoleman

like agreat time. Thanks for sharing.

jeepairforce

The mine shaft trail looks amazing. I'd be willing to make a special trip just to explore.

Ragnar JK

What a great last minute trip....Reward Mine is definitely on my list of places to check out some time soon...

Wartoy

Those mine shafts look so cool! I'd love to go through something like that.

Awesome trip

JeepCacher

Love the area too.....I even have a Highway 395 guide book

Trail Bud

This was a fun trip. It started out just me, I'm glad you guys could join in.
I would have never seen the area we explored.
It just wish it was longer then a day.
Take care

wayoflife

well, the sluice got smaller and smaller and eventually ended up at a spring pouring water out of the rocks. the owens valley did have a long history of agriculture before los angeles sucked it dry of water and, i can only assume that this was part of an irrigation aquaduct. of course, the creek it ended up in did run down to an old hydroelectric power house and maybe it was made to ensure a constant water supply fed it year round.

regarding nemo, we had bw flares and removed them for these

thanks