Run Reports

Had a great time at Panamint Valley Days (PVD) this year. I invited my dad to join me and he was excited to go. He is not in to four-wheeling, but he enjoys getting out and doing things with me when he can. This was his second time to PVD, and he loved it. Last year I took my 02 WJ and we ran some mild/scenic trails, this year I brought my 4Runner that is set-up for more rugged trail conditions.

We got to PVD on Thursday afternoon and the weather started out beautiful – sunny but not hot nor windy and stayed like that all weekend.

On Friday we ran Cummins Cutoff up to the Defense mine, which is a 7-8 out of 10 rated trail. As a precaution, we took the doors off – which turned out to be a real aid to spotting for both the driver and passenger as visibility of rocks was dramatically increased on both sides of the Jeep. This turned out to be a tough but makeable trail with very few breakages in the group.  Having said this, all the participants had well prepared Jeeps with high lifts, lockers and well armored. Surprisingly few of the many well equipped Jeeps attempted the Bath – which is a vertically sided one side entry bath looking obstacle. This is a serious damage inducing challenge and all those that got most of the way up it had to be winched out at the top. One slipped sideways and put his hands outside his Jeep to try to keep the body off the walls – to the shouts of the guides to keep his hands inside the Jeep. Good news is that there was no damage suffered.

WOW. Our 29th annual Panamint Valley Days is history and what a historic event it was.

We had great weather (specially ordered), great trails and leaders, a delicious barbecue and the best bunch of volunteers.

The Gear Grinders from Ridgecrest took on the task of spearheading as trails coordinator and run leaders. They prepared trail descriptions with color coordinated dots on the camp map to show the line-up spots for the multitude of runs.