Just a camping guy

Well another great weekend of camping. This week I went to Death Valley and met up with fellow myspacer Mike, his wife, and a buddy.

I left on Wednesday night so I could get there early on Thursday and seemed to be having some good luck following me after getting my supplies.

When I arrived at the campground I found what I thought was a great campsite and set-up my tent. When I was almost done setting up my tent the ranger came by and said I would have to pull up my tent on Friday because that end of the park was reserved for the Sierra Club. I was like WTF this is a first-come first-served campground and that was the reason I was there. He said he was sorry and that they had just confirmed and he high tailed it down to me. He told me of another spot where he knew the people had left and that one actually turned out better because it backed up to the river wash. He also shared his topo map with me so I didn't have to spend the 8 bucks to buy one and gave me some good info on primitive spots.

After I got set up in my new spot I kept hearing sonic booms and started looking in the sky. I saw these two fighter jets out practicing their moves. It was pretty interesting. They must have some agreement with the park that they won't do it on the weekends because I didn't see them again after Thursday.

Mike, Sharon, and Cliff showed up on Friday afternoon and I was getting restless with all the RV's there. I had talked to the ranger and he had told me about these hot springs that was in a primitive area and I was hyped up. Kudos to Mike for the excellent tri-tip for dinner on Friday.

By Saturday morning I was ready to get in the back country and away from the RV's so I said goodbye to the group and started heading out to the hot springs. After about 25miles of washboard dirt roads I came up to Crankshaft Junction. About ½ mile past there my truck died. The battery connection came loose. After fixing that problem I guess the positive battery cable was wedged in such a way that it had plugged a hole in a transmission cooler line. So while I was a happy fellow that I had fixed the battery problem I saw tranny fluid shooting out and thought I was that guy up the creek without a paddle. I was 25 miles from the campground in the middle of nowhere and 50 miles from the nearest town on a trail.

Remember I had said earlier about good luck this weekend? Well these two guys come rolling up and one of them had just put a GM tranny in his truck and had some hose and clamps that were the right size for my truck. I was back on the road but I was covered with oil and dirt I was sort of leery about trying to hit the hot springs and started heading towards home thinking I would find a campground between here and there. As soon as I left the NPS land the road became smooth and was nice. I am going to check out those hot springs but I am going to do it from the back side where the trail is nicer.

I pulled into Bishop looking pretty bad with oil and dirt covering me. I went into a Chevron station and told the girl working that I know I looked bad but could I still change and try to wash up? I felt so much better after changing and washing up some.

Then I hit snow driving up the Eastern Sierra and Tahoe. I was hoping to hit a campsite for the night but I didn't want to have to deal with snow for just the night and came home.

So what will next weekend be like? Enjoy the pictures.

Thanks again for stopping by.