Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:31:23 -0600
Reply-To: Leslie Schwartz <lhs_emf@PACBELL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Leslie Schwartz <lhs_emf@PACBELL.NET>
Subject: Re: Trip report: Nevada to Cal & Back (long winded)
In-Reply-To: <67f8ac6c0711161910g1fec994epe12dfb40f3a61f36@mail.gmail.com>
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And Apex is close to maybe 5 plus decent wrecking yards, living in So Cal I would get over there when I could.
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Gary Bawden
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 9:11 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Trip report: Nevada to Cal & Back (long winded)
Hey fellow Vanagonauts,
While not exactly a monumental trip, I just got back from So. Cal, a grand total of 874 miles over a lot of back roads, driving
Hector, my '85 GL with a stock 1.9 Wasserboxer.
I left here (Goldfield, Nevada) Tuesday evening, down US 95 about 30 miles (heavy traffic, must've seen 30 cars!), then turned off
on Nevada SR267 towards Scotty's Castle. Joined CA 190, went through Stovepipe Wells, and up and over Townes Pass at 4956'
elevation, which is a bigger hill than you'd think, as you start out below sea level. Spent a couple of miles in second gear, then
merrily down the hill to Panamint Valley Road, through Trona, CA.
Between the turnoff at Scotty's Junction on US95 in Nevada, and the town of Trona, CA, there were only five cars on the road! About
1.7 cars per hour -
- the type of traffic I like! Found a nice side road outside of Ridgecrest which quickly turned into a sandtrap, so parked it and
slept till morning.
Easily backed out of potential sandtrap in morning light.
Headed down US395 to Hesperia - - did a little shopping, organized the van a bit, then over Cajon pass into San Bernardino, where I
spent a few hours perusing some of the largish "automotive recycling centers". Caught a movie ("Bee Movie"), then "stealth camped" a
few blocks from one of the many Trader Joe's in the area.
Next morning, picked up a used 1.6 TD to go into my Rabbit pickup (the central reason for the trip). Meandered out to the famed Apex
surplus place in or near San Fernando - - that's worth a trip all by itself, if you like gadgety stuff by the truckload - - then out
on the Antelope Valley Freeway through Palmdale, Lancaster, and Mojave. Camped for the evening next to the LA aquaduct near
Inyokern.
Friday morning, had a nice breakfast of huevos rancheros, then stopped at a feed store and picked up a roll of wire mesh (heavy!)
for some enclosed cat runs at home. Up US 395 to Big Pine, filled the tank again (814 miles to this point, 37.3 gallons = 21.8 mpg).
Took CA 168 up and over Westgard Summit, down into Deep Springs Valley, up over Gilbert Summit, down to Fish Lake Valley, over Lida
Summit and out to US 95, then home. Quite a bit of second gear hauling that roll of wire mesh, the VW diesel engine, and all my
usual camping junk and tools over all those summits, but all in all, quite a nice trip! My newly fabricated copper coolant pipe
worked great, no overheating issues, fan kicked on and off like it's supposed to, and never had to add any oil.
To summarize, while I'm sure if I had a Subaru conversion, I may not have had to go so slowly up the hills, this style of driving
suits me just fine -
- I like to take my time and enjoy life on the road in my Vanagon!
Gary
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