Arizona to Oregon on trails

[gt6star]

So, we're home now finaly rested and relaxed after our epic journey through 3.5 states (we dipped into Kali for a few minutes) To get started telling our story I'll start with the numbers...
Vehicle used: 2009 Jeep JK Unlimited X on BFG all Terrain KO's
Ramsey winch/hi-lift jack/terraflex budget boost/garmin gps/maps/and enough food/water clothing/camping gear to last about a month.
Gas used:205.05 gallons at a cost of $806.08
we drove a total of 3883.46 miles from my driveway to Portland back to my driveway
We got and average of 18.93 MPG
Average gas cost was $3.93 per gallon
Those are the quantifiable facts, here's the story...........

[gt6star]

IMG_4244.JPGWe started planning this trip back in March. It started out as a need to go to Oregon for my girlfriends cousins highschool graduation. In the initial discussion I piped up and said "hey, wouldnt it be neat if tried to do most or all of our trip on dirt." Can it be done? Can you still cross the wesern United states on dirt or have we finally strip malled and interstated our way into one indestinquishable gas station after another? In her usualy enthusiastic dimeaner she replied "hell Yes! lets do it!".
Well it's settled then, we're on our way to a life changing adventure. We got out the maps, poured over google earth, posted on Expedition Portal, planned studied and planned some more. Then with enough money saved up (we hoped) and our leave from work approved we set out....

[gt6star]

Day One May 16th 2011: We started in the evening after Nola (my girlfriend) got off work. Our plan was simply to get out of town the first night and camp about 50 miles north of Tucson to check our gear and if we forgot anything we were still close enough to go home and get it. We camped just east of Red Rock Arizona, the weather was perfect and everything worked fine, especialy our new air matress. Incedentally tis was one of only 2 nights on the entire trip we actually used our tent.... more on tha later.

The campsite was the usual southern Arizona desert camp, a few cows and some jack rabbits for company and the occasional coyote howl. We slept like babies

[gt6star]

IMG_4096.JPGIMG_4097.JPGIMG_4095.JPGWe awoke to perfect Arizona weather, nice cool crisp air We had a quick breakfast of granola bars and tea. We packed our campsite and began to head north on dirt roads. We had to cheat a little cuttign through Phoenix and up I-17 untill we hit the road to Crown King. We turned off the highway and hit the trail. This was also a good chance to test our airing down skills and ultimately or airing up equipment. After airing down the usualy bone jaring ride on the jeep turned into a nice quiet drive in the country. The front road up to Crown King is a winding hairpinned dirt road passing through a few (very) small towns on its way up the mountain. Crown King is a sight to behold, right out of the 19th century this old mining camp is pretty well left alone because of the effort required to get up to it. The fresh alpine air felt good after passing through Pheonix and eating dust all day. We stopped briefly to grab a water out of the cooler and toss a few things into our Trasharoo (this thing was invaluable during our trip, and started more than a few conversations at gas stations). Heading our of Crown King down the back way is much more challenging and the going was slow. 3 hours later we popped out in Kirkland. We thought it would be a good time to air back up, one tire, two tires, than bang our little air compressor gave up swollowing a reed valve (MV-50 air compressor) We limped on into Skull Valley and found a small '40s era gas station being restored. We pulled in and I met the owner, a guy named Butch, who in his late 60s was restoring this place on his own. Luckily he had an air compressor and got us fixed up. He was one of those guys you wish you had all day to sit and listen too, he had the look of an ex marine and age wasnt going to stop him from doing anything. Thanks Butch for the air! We pressed on to Bagdad Arizona and made camp near an active mining claim. This was the second and last time we used our tent. We fixed a big dinner of Turkey burgers and baked beans (baked beans will be the source of many late night giggles and "dutch oven" attacks in the sleeping bags throughout the trip. We relaxed for a few hours and even took a shower using our water jug on top of the jeep. Again we slept like babies, gassy ones anyway.......

[gt6star]

This time we awoke to not so perfect Arizona weather, it was windy and rainy. After a little bit of extra "denial" sleep we finaly decided to get up and face the weather, we got dressed and quickly broke camp. Once finaly in the jeep we set out towards Kingman Arizona. Kingman was just a quick gas stop and lunch for we had a mission that day. Las Vegas was our goal or as I called it "our resuply depot that happens to have a casino or two" We crossed the new bridge over the Hoover Dam, and incredible walk if you ever pass by that way its worth a stop. After oohing and aahing at the new views of the dam the bridge provides we headed into Vegas, here again we cheat a little staying one glorious night in Sams Town Hotel Casino. We got dressed in our finest duds and hit the strip that night. We got back to the hotel late and hit the sack. We awoke early and checked out. As we headed out of town we stopped at Pep Boys to pick up a new air compressor. We headed north........IMG_4145.JPG

[taggart_lumpy]

definitely in for the trip report

[gt6star]

We left Vegas, happy and a little bloated on M&Ms, (we hit the M&M store on the strip).
I have to give credit to Expedition portal here as they helped with this leg of the trip. We had with us a printout of the 3 towns called Lee overland route. We followed it from Amargosa Valley. Amargosa Valley was also our gas stop, and was the first time in my life I had ever seen a gas station/brothel with attached brothel museum. I was intregued, whats in a brothel museum? After short consideration we decided the trail was our mission and we needed to focus on that. We turned west into the desert....
After a few miles the smooth graded gravel road turns into a carnical ride of woopdydoos for miles and miles, you could get sea sick on this trail, it was great fun! While riding the waves we passed what looked like a recently dead horse, complete with shoes and a bridal/bit and what apeared to be a bullet hole in it's head. We figured some poor cowboy had to put his trusty friend down. IMG_4192.JPGIMG_4195.JPG We pressed on briefly crossing into Californias Death Valley National Park for a few minutes, no movie stars were seen. While heading back east we watched a couple of F-16's on low level zooming across the desert. They did in 30 seconds what it would take us 4 hours to do... We popped out of the desert on I-95 and headed north to Beaty NV. We got a few gallons of gas and started our next downloaded overland route "Rhyolite to Tonepah" This leg was truly magical for me, I love ghost towns and open desert, and this route had plenty of both. We stopped in Rhyolite a well preserved mining town with some sizable buildings still standing. After that we crossed a low mountain pass and into a massive flat valley, after about 2 hours of crossing the valley we arived at the site of Bonnie Claire ghost town. A small house and some mining equipment lie strewn about everywhere, nothing rots away in the desert. After a little poking around we mounted up and headed north east towards Big Blossom mine and Gold Point. After hours of following wrong trails, back tracking, almost smashing our front diff on a rock hidden in some weeds and a lot of skilled navigation on my part we finaly found Gold Point. There looked to be some overlander types camped out in Gold Point and it would have been great to stop and hang out, but we were burning daylight and had a ways to go before camp. We moved still northwest towards Lida. where we turned up into a massive mountain pass stopping for dinner at the top, Hot Dogs and yes, more beans. After the pass we crossed another massive wide valley and entered Silver Peak, nothing to see here folks, just a small (still working) mining town and you'd think they way they looked at my jeep that the circus had come to town. We passed right on through and headed to Tonepah. Ariving in Tonepah well after dark, 2130ish we got gas and talked for a few minutes with the girl behind the counter at the gas station, everyone in Tonepah seemed freindly and it was actualy a cool looking town with a classic main street feel. Nola and I looked at eachother and niether one of us was tired, maybe we were running on the excitment of what we were discovering. We pressed on through the night, heading still north west towards Winnemocca. This was by far the longest stretch of unbroken dirt we drove on so far, over 200 miles of it! The road was so straight I could have set the cruise control and riden on the roof of the jeep for hours. At about 0300 I had had a long enough day behind the wheel, we pulled off and unloaded the jeep and inflated out air matress in the back of it. It was perfect, easier than the tent and was better shelter, again we slept like babies, untill about 0730 when we were awakened by a nest of vultures in the tree we parked under. We watched in awe as 4 baby vultures squawked for food from mom who was out somewhere scavenging. And folks yes, even baby vultures are cute in their own way....

[gt6star]

Its time to hit the sack tonight, I'll post more in the morning, thanks for following.....

[Explore Oregon]

I was intregued, whats in a brothel museum? After short consideration we decided the trail was our mission and we needed to focus on that. We turned west into the desert....

Nooooo… I will be forever haunted by the question, what could be in a brothel museum?

I’m really enjoying the trip report btw. I’ll be sure to check back tomorrow.

[gt6star]

I too will be haunted by that question... I wish I had at least peaked inside