I led Jackpot Canyon on Friday. I had 14 vehicels and I think everybody had a great time!

We saw 6 low elevation big horn sheep at about 2000' and 5 high elevation burro at about 4000'. One bent rear bumper on a 4 door Nissan pickup and 2 flats was the carnage.

Saturday I led Fish Canyon. We had a bunch of Eastern Sierra 4 Wheelers in the group and again there were 14 vehicles. We exited to the East down to Golar Wash. On the drive from Golar toward Ballarat, we had 5 Jeeps coming at us. Vehicle #4 was an ass. Even as he was passing up he didn't slow his pace and as he fishtailed around a corner and forced one on my guys into the bank and he slashed a sidewall. There was no contact, it was an evasive maneuver. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to know to slow down a bit when passing a bunch of cars in the middle of a huge dust cloud.

Sunday I led about 12 people on a hike up the waterfalls in Surprise Canyon. Non of them had been there before, so I was able to show them the lines and tell them tails of "the good old days".

I ran into Fat Kid at the bottom. He had hiked up to Panamint City with a bunch of friends. He was telling me about a group of backpackers (3 or 4 guys) that were camped in the first cabin and shooting off of the porch. They had hung targets off of the front of the "shop" and were shooting right into the building :mad3:. They then cut a couple of trees down to burn as firewood. These are our anti access backpacking people that say WE cause damage :mad3: to trails.

Steve

Sorry I did not see you there. I arrived Friday night to hear that was our club member that rolled the pink XJ.
She is alright and home now.
We extracted the rig on Sat and it took us 5 hours to bring it back to base camp.
We had some great help from Gunner and a few others that their names escape me.

So, for the second time that I have attended PVD, I have not been out on the organized runs again.

Todd

I led Friday's Big Four run. We had 41 rigs leave PVD camp. The first casualty was the big red LandCruiser with overheating problems. This left 40 rigs to hit the trail. Two more turned back at the first obstacle.

This left 38 to get up the bigger rock pile. Lockers front and rear and/or skill were the order of the day. 3 open rigs needed the hook.

My thanks go out to one guy who spotted a crazy number of folks though the pile, only to gash a sidewall in his driver rear when he attempted the pile himself.

The tight canyon proved to be too tight for all 38 to make it to the top and back - next year we'll run this in two smaller groups on the Friday in addition to the Sunday run led by Gunner.

Sat and Sun I led a total of 40 more rigs through the scenic 70 mile loop around Darwin.

Pics at: http://andyr.smugmug.com/Panamint

Andy

Jackpot Canyon on Nov 13th:
http://lttlbddy.com/albums/Trips-PVD/09-PVD/images/IMG_3195-sm.jpg

Also in Jackpot Canyon:
http://lttlbddy.com/albums/Trips-PVD/09-PVD/images/IMG_3199-sm.jpg

In Surprise Canyon on Sunday Nov 15th:
http://lttlbddy.com/albums/Trips-PVD/09-PVD/images/Surprise-IMG_3200-sm.jpg

Nice shots!

I was hiking Surprise with my oldest Son and didn't even notice about 13 Bighorns standing right off the side of the creek. He was more observant and we were able to snap a few pics before they cruised on up the mountainside.

Nice photos Steve. We would have loved to do Surprise with you, but we had to head out Sunday morning for a meeting the next day in Sacramento. We too missed all of the organized runs, as we were either busy selling Jeep tickets or helping with merchandise, and Harry spent Saturday helping with the XJ recovery.

Weather and run wise, the weekend was great. Everyone that I spoke to praised the event runs and the run leaders. Even the guy with the Nissan had only good things to say about the event and our committees.

And of course everyone is happy to hear that Lady XJ is recovering.

Good job everyone!

Helen Baker
CA4WDC
Celebrating 50 Years of 4 Wheeling
1959-2009

We had a pizza party last night for Marsha.
She is doing well and will not have to have surgery to repair her thumb. It will not look pretty, but will be usable in the future.

She has no memory of the roll over at this time though.

Sounds like she will build a new jeep to go wheeling in in the future.

So, all good news. Thanks to all that helped with getting her off the mountain and the jeep recovery.

Todd
Hanford Trail Busters
Secretary

Weather and run wise, the weekend was great. Everyone that I spoke to praised the event runs and the run leaders. Even the guy with the Nissan had only good things to say about the event and our committees.

And of course everyone is happy to hear that Lady XJ is recovering.

Good job everyone!

1959-2009

It was my first PVD and visit to the desert and i had an Awesome weekend.

I was a little sad that i did not see any snakes or scorpions but i did see some lizards!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2695/4111564438_c0cede85cd_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2510/4110799761_64ab3dcec4_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2765/4111562658_c71bd7dbb3_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2626/4111563850_a91558227c_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2522/4111562174_b039b72845_o.jpg

Thanks for the pics. Brings back fond memories. But then you had to mention the idiot back packers shooting and burning. Really chaps my ass. You are right on though, those are the jerks that are keeping us out (the responsible group). Thanks again, I will be going there again in a month or so.

I little video from the backpackers that went up to Panamint City:

The Panamint Mountains-Surprise Canyon on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/7720223)

Cool video. Gettin me fired up. Thanks again.