Explorer I
- 3,680
- First Name
- Brian
- Last Name
- McGahuey
- Member #
-
23711
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- GMRS WRMV941
We finished our memorial day trip this year, and made it back safe and sound!
The goal this year was to do a proper shakedown run prior to heading out on the bdr for two weeks.
We covered about 300 miles in 4 days, some of them were very Rocky.
Gamora did great, until Monday morning (but nothing terrible, but more on that later), and Groot (the trailer) handled the trip with flying colors. We had one issue with the trailer, but it was easy to temporarily solve with a bungie cord.
The water tanks didn't leak a drop, so the check valves I installed in the caps to function as breather valves worked great!
The wife was VERY happy with the new mattress in the tent. The stock mattress wasn't very comfortable, so I replaced it with a 3 inch self inflating mattress from king camp. The wife and I slept on the trailer, and the girls slept on top of Gamora. @David H slept in his jeep.
I've got some things to fix/modify, and we've determined that we carry way too much stuff, so between now and the bdr, I'm going to really pair down what we carry, in the hopes that packing up and accessing things will be much easier.
Now, our first stop was a place called Three Fingers Gulch. It's not terribly far from Leslie Gulch. We met Dave about 9:30 Friday morning, and made it to camp by noon. We spent the day relaxing, and darting under the awning to avoid rain showers.
The evening managed to clear up enough that we were able to break out the surprise I bought for the girls.
The loved it! Now, I just need to make sure things aren't in Spanish, and we're golden!
We had somebody arrive at the gulch the next morning as we were packing up. He stopped before coming in though, but we told him we were leaving, so he was more than welcome to come in.
On the way out, we passed another group of 5 rigs, headed for the gulch. We informed them there was somebody there already.
We then headed into Jordan Valley to top off on fuel, before heading north again. We reached the southern rim of the Lake Owyhee canyon, and proceeded to slowly work our way down into the canyon.
We found a great spot on a bluff, overlooking the river, and set up camp at about 6pm.
We cooked some steaks over the fire, relaxed for a few hours, and climbed into bed.
The next morning, we climbed out of the canyon, and headed to Birch creek Ranch. We ate lunch, and explored the area for a little bit, before climbing back up the road, and heading for our next stop, Jordan Craters.
My daughter absolutely LOVES rocks, so she was very excited to explore the lava field.
We then worked our way to camp.
The road around Jordan Craters is pretty tame, and easily driveable by even a Subaru, but we took a two track west, and headed toward the rim of the canyon.
If you were quiet enough, you could hear the river at the bottom of the canyon.
On the way out, we hit a small plia that was covered in water. Dave went first, and made it about 40 feet. He was able to back out, and we managed to find a very Rocky road around it.
We then hit the highway, and drove 26 miles to Jordan Valley were we aired up, and filled up before coming home.
Before the trip, we installed some additional leaves in NY leaf springs. These performed amazing. But, in the process, I was having issues with my battery. It didn't seem to want to hold a charge. I replaced it, thinking that was the culprit. Well, Saturday, we got to camp, and my wife went to turn on Gamora so that she could put the windows up. Nothing. The volt meter hat the back said 11.8 volts. So, I pulled out my jump pack, and got it fired up, and let it run for a few hours. I had to jump it again in the morning. Monday morning, the battery had enough juice to start the vehicle, but for some reason, my Midland gmrs radio wasn't working. I grabbed the baofeng, and we used that for the last day. Well, I also noticed my switch panel and volt meter wasn't working either..... And as we hit the highway, I started smelling wood.... Which worried me, as there's no wood where we were driving. I decided to pull over, and completely cut all power to my auxiliary electrical system. The smell went away after that.
I don't know what the cause of that was yet, buy I'll be pulling everything out of the X today, in order tor take a look.
The goal this year was to do a proper shakedown run prior to heading out on the bdr for two weeks.
We covered about 300 miles in 4 days, some of them were very Rocky.
Gamora did great, until Monday morning (but nothing terrible, but more on that later), and Groot (the trailer) handled the trip with flying colors. We had one issue with the trailer, but it was easy to temporarily solve with a bungie cord.
The water tanks didn't leak a drop, so the check valves I installed in the caps to function as breather valves worked great!
The wife was VERY happy with the new mattress in the tent. The stock mattress wasn't very comfortable, so I replaced it with a 3 inch self inflating mattress from king camp. The wife and I slept on the trailer, and the girls slept on top of Gamora. @David H slept in his jeep.
I've got some things to fix/modify, and we've determined that we carry way too much stuff, so between now and the bdr, I'm going to really pair down what we carry, in the hopes that packing up and accessing things will be much easier.
Now, our first stop was a place called Three Fingers Gulch. It's not terribly far from Leslie Gulch. We met Dave about 9:30 Friday morning, and made it to camp by noon. We spent the day relaxing, and darting under the awning to avoid rain showers.
The evening managed to clear up enough that we were able to break out the surprise I bought for the girls.
The loved it! Now, I just need to make sure things aren't in Spanish, and we're golden!
We had somebody arrive at the gulch the next morning as we were packing up. He stopped before coming in though, but we told him we were leaving, so he was more than welcome to come in.
On the way out, we passed another group of 5 rigs, headed for the gulch. We informed them there was somebody there already.
We then headed into Jordan Valley to top off on fuel, before heading north again. We reached the southern rim of the Lake Owyhee canyon, and proceeded to slowly work our way down into the canyon.
We found a great spot on a bluff, overlooking the river, and set up camp at about 6pm.
We cooked some steaks over the fire, relaxed for a few hours, and climbed into bed.
The next morning, we climbed out of the canyon, and headed to Birch creek Ranch. We ate lunch, and explored the area for a little bit, before climbing back up the road, and heading for our next stop, Jordan Craters.
My daughter absolutely LOVES rocks, so she was very excited to explore the lava field.
We then worked our way to camp.
The road around Jordan Craters is pretty tame, and easily driveable by even a Subaru, but we took a two track west, and headed toward the rim of the canyon.
If you were quiet enough, you could hear the river at the bottom of the canyon.
On the way out, we hit a small plia that was covered in water. Dave went first, and made it about 40 feet. He was able to back out, and we managed to find a very Rocky road around it.
We then hit the highway, and drove 26 miles to Jordan Valley were we aired up, and filled up before coming home.
Before the trip, we installed some additional leaves in NY leaf springs. These performed amazing. But, in the process, I was having issues with my battery. It didn't seem to want to hold a charge. I replaced it, thinking that was the culprit. Well, Saturday, we got to camp, and my wife went to turn on Gamora so that she could put the windows up. Nothing. The volt meter hat the back said 11.8 volts. So, I pulled out my jump pack, and got it fired up, and let it run for a few hours. I had to jump it again in the morning. Monday morning, the battery had enough juice to start the vehicle, but for some reason, my Midland gmrs radio wasn't working. I grabbed the baofeng, and we used that for the last day. Well, I also noticed my switch panel and volt meter wasn't working either..... And as we hit the highway, I started smelling wood.... Which worried me, as there's no wood where we were driving. I decided to pull over, and completely cut all power to my auxiliary electrical system. The smell went away after that.
I don't know what the cause of that was yet, buy I'll be pulling everything out of the X today, in order tor take a look.
