Infectious Off-Road.com

Camping trip to Nightmare Gulch and Last Change Canyon. I think Mikey got some scratches in V-Notch. Otherwise no Damage! Nice!



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Meeting up in California City


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Even 40" tires have thier limitations!


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Narrow passageway through Nightmare Canyon


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Oops, I forgot to unlock my sway bar!


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Nice overhangs to keep the riff-raff out, A.K.A. "Bro Trucks and Suburbans on big tires".


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It's not that steep.......


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OK, maybe it is. Even with the front tires in there air, that's tire smoke, not engine! You definitely need some lockers for this one.


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Bonanza Gulch Post Office. We tried burning it down, but it just wouldn't light!


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Inside the Bonanza Gulch Post Office


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Becka setting up the tent on a fire ant nest. Two of us got bit before we figured it out!



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Who said guys in Capri's aren't sexy?


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Random death trap/mine vent in the Mojave


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Gritting my teeth. Embarrassing, but true!


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Reasonably steep hills!


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This has got crazy mouantain man/hermit written all over it! @ Bickel Camp.


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A mountain of steel food cans at Bickel Camp


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The 1/2 mile long Burro Schmidt Mine/tunnel



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Nests inside the Schmidt mine. Bat guano or birds of prey? I'm not sure.



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Literally, light at the end of the tunnel!


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A few Joshua Trees, reminding us we are in the Mojave Desert.



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Having lunch in the 65 degree air conditioning of an underground mine when the ambient temperature is over 100 degrees in the Mojave Desert.


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Finishing out the V-Notch


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Digging deep


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Hung up



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Remnants of an old pickup.



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By Tehachapi pass, heading home.

This trip was a total blast!!! Great pics! Couldn't of had a better weekend!!
V notch wasn't as bad as I expected... Kind of a cake walk, I'll try and post my videos I got.

Great pictures! Looked like a good time.

Looks like fun guys and gals....when's the next run?

One of my favorite areas. Going up there next month hopefully. I wanna go back the the big mines again.

AWESOME PICS!!!!! this area and the panamint valley area are my favorite places to explore

Next time you guys need to drive into the talc mines and get some opals from the 2 opal mines. Also, between NG and LCC, there is a side trail out called "sidewinder" that is a pretty narrow off-camber climb to the highest point in the area.

These are some of the best pics I have seen of the area. Gotta watch out for those "fire ants"

[quote="Desert Dog"]
Next time you guys need to drive into the talc mines and get some opals from the 2 opal mines. Also, between NG and LCC, there is a side trail out called "sidewinder" that is a pretty narrow off-camber climb to the highest point in the area.[quote]

If the sidewinder is the trail i am thinking about that thing has some interesting sections and some good pucker areas.

where are the opal mines?

Is there a trail map of this area? None of us had a map. Mikey was guiding us by memory. He mentioned the talc mines, but said they were hard to find, so we skipped them.

[quote="Phimosis"]Is there a trail map of this area? None of us had a map. Mikey was guiding us by memory. He mentioned the talc mines, but said they were hard to find, so we skipped them. [/quote]


Ya the last time we were out there (mikey and I) we spent a bit to try to find them and them wham there they were basically. I have a map of the area on my photobucket and will try digging it up soon. The talc mines are above last chance canyon. You can see them from LC but getting to them is a different story.

[quote="Mikeys_cougar"]This trip was a total blast!!! Great pics! Couldn't of had a better weekend!!
V notch wasn't as bad as I expected... Kind of a cake walk, I'll try and post my videos I got.[/quote]


The V notch appears to be filling in with sand.

[quote="REDxj5150"][quote="Mikeys_cougar"]This trip was a total blast!!! Great pics! Couldn't of had a better weekend!!
V notch wasn't as bad as I expected... Kind of a cake walk, I'll try and post my videos I got.[/quote]


The V notch appears to be filling in with sand.[/quote]


I thought the same thing.. doesnt look as deep as it used to....

Looks fun out there... never been.

We should go again as it starts to cool down. I was just chatting with Josh on the phone about this. Late October? Early November? Early December?

I don't care how filled the v notch was... I still completed It

And I didn't have my other trusty garmin 60csx on me like I usually do so finding the talc mines would of been rough...

[quote="Mikeys_cougar"]And I didn't have my other trusty garmin 60csx on me like I usually do so finding the talc mines would of been rough...[/quote]
Yep, you can see it on the hillside when you get out of LCC, but finding the right road out of the 20 other roads is a bitch . I actually found it by accident the first time while looking for something else.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlOmUjL2W88][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt_UzFirelc][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT6J_n8-68w][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLFlYMmGncQ][/youtube]

first run so its not as fast as id like it to have been but my jeep was a lil rock shy
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21GsDbveOz8][/youtube]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing, where is this trail located?

Mikey, I really like the prerunning video. When you shot that, I was in the back, tooling along, at a slow pace to keep out of the dust and then all of the sudden there was no dust and I wasnt sure which way you guys went. I started hot footing it to get caught up, but you made it look like a cake walk. Your ride is smooth and controlled, like you're just floating along. With my short wheelbase Jeep and high center of gravity, I was in a constant powerslide, either cocked to the left or cocked to the right, but never straight and every time a dip came along, I was slamming down on the bump stops!

[quote="Toycrawler5481"]Great pics! Thanks for sharing, where is this trail located?[/quote]


I would answer, but I'm not really sure. The entrance to Nighmare Gulch is a poorly marked trail on the east side of the 14, inside of Red Rock Canyon State Park. The entrance to last chance Canyon is the intersection of Last Chance Canyon road and Redrock Randsburg Road. The two trails (Last Chance and Nightmare) meet up somewhere in the middle of the desert between the two entrances. There are signposts inside, but I don't ahve a trail map for it.

Toy crawler the way to find both trails is to head towards mojave then hop on the 14 towards inyo kern, you'll pass the jawbone canyon store, soon after that (maybe 2-3 miles) you'll come up on redrock-randsberg road you make a right there, head Down there for maybe 5 miles and on your left will be last chance canyon road which isn't a street sign or anything it's just like a trail head sign.

Nightmare gulch Is a bitch to find via hwy14 if you've never seen it before, it's even a bitch to find if you come in the back side of last chance canyon or EP15, I have mental waypoints to guide me, but I had help finding it first.

Easiest for me is to take 14 towards inyo kern until you come up to a spot that has 2 billboards directly across from each other, directly after that is a dirt road on the right called EP15... That will take you everywhere, Bickel camp burro Schmidt tunnel (turns into EP103) EP 15 will lead you directly into last chance canyon/ nightmare gulch...

If you provide gas $$ I'll gladly be your tour guide lol and that sidewinder trail me and Alex found on accident with him trying to leave out last chance but he went up and right instead of left into the canyon (there's 2-3 pictures of us starting this off camber trail)

Anyway here shortly we should be taking this trail again, a little captian and coke will encourage me to be a trail guide again I didn't drink this last time around and that made me sad :-/ next time less water more liquor

I'd like to do a day run or camping trip out there once it cools down a bit.

I have a satelite picture with the roads out there highlited. Ill get it off my photobucket today and ill post it on my fb is someone wants to post it on here for toycrawler. Or add me on fb and grab it yourself lol

[quote="Mikeys_cougar"]Toy crawler the way to find both trails is to head towards mojave then hop on the 14 towards inyo kern, you'll pass the jawbone canyon store, soon after that (maybe 2-3 miles) you'll come up on redrock-randsberg road you make a right there, head Down there for maybe 5 miles and on your left will be last chance canyon road which isn't a street sign or anything it's just like a trail head sign.

Nightmare gulch Is a bitch to find via hwy14 if you've never seen it before, it's even a bitch to find if you come in the back side of last chance canyon or EP15, I have mental waypoints to guide me, but I had help finding it first.

Easiest for me is to take 14 towards inyo kern until you come up to a spot that has 2 billboards directly across from each other, directly after that is a dirt road on the right called EP15... That will take you everywhere, Bickel camp burro Schmidt tunnel (turns into EP103) EP 15 will lead you directly into last chance canyon/ nightmare gulch...

If you provide gas $$ I'll gladly be your tour guide lol and that sidewinder trail me and Alex found on accident with him trying to leave out last chance but he went up and right instead of left into the canyon (there's 2-3 pictures of us starting this off camber trail)

Anyway here shortly we should be taking this trail again, a little captian and coke will encourage me to be a trail guide again I didn't drink this last time around and that made me sad :-/ next time less water more liquor [/quote]
Thank you soo much for taking the time to explain where it is everyone! Ill be sure to give you a call when im ready for that tour! = )

Damm!! That first video, That is super narrow. There is no way I could fit in there. Wow, It is like a bike trail.

[quote="munepit"]Damm!! That first video, That is super narrow. There is no way I could fit in there. Wow, It is like a bike trail.[/quote]

That's the V notch, there's a bypass to that.