WAYALIFE Memorial Weekend Kick-Off to Summer Camping Trip Report 2015

wayoflife

wayoflife

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Being a major holiday weekend at the tail end of spring, Cindy and I have always used Memorial Day Weekend as way to kick off summer and get back up into the mountains and do some camping. Ironically, the last few years had been more of a "winter finale" than anything and unfortunately, this year was pretty much more of the same or at least, for the first part of our trip. In spite of the fact that we decided to head out into the middle of Nevada where it should have been warm, we instead found ourselves in a storm that left the desert soggy and filled with mud. Still, we were able to have a ton of fun and the rest of the weekend ended up being nice, sunny and relaxing. Here are some photos from our trip, I hope you enjoy.

It had been a while since we took Rubicat out and so, we decided to pack her up for this one.
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Loaded up and ready to head out.
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Now that he lives out in our neck of the woods, it was easy to meet up with Trail Bud for the caravan out.
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Filling up our Rotopax for our camping trip or what some like to call, "overlanding".
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Trail Bud has been seeing a bit of oil consumption on his Jeep and so he decided to add a bit of oil before heading out.
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Funny how there's a Jeep on the label - almost as if Mavericks knows something we don't.
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The sun left us about as soon as we hit the road and the rain started to come down.
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Taking a break from along the shores of Walker Lake.
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The holiday traffic getting out of town on a Friday was murder.
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Looks like more rain was heading our way.
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Made it to our starting point in Tonopah - time to for a drink and wait for the rest of our friends to show up.
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And here they are - CHEERS!!
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Having a flight with our dinner over at the Tonopah Brewing Co.
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CHEERS again!
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Heading back to the hotel, we saw this amazing SUV.
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Stephanie and Moochie having a great time with a one armed bandit back at the hotel.
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Surprisingly, Moochie doubled his money on the nickel slot and made a whole $5!
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Getting ready to head out the next morning with clouds and a light rain still falling.
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Off the pavement and with a little dust kicking up, maybe it won't be so bad.
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I see a little bit of blue sky.
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After driving over 70 miles on Nevada superhighways (dirt roads), the old ghost town of Berlin was finally in sight.
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Our first stop of the day - the old mining town of Berlin.
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Time to do some exploring with our first stop over at the old stamp mill.
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Looking back at the old homes and valley beyond.
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Tony and I giving this old Dodge truck a look to see if we could get it running again.
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Taking shelter from the rain in the old machine shop.
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Looking back at our Jeeps, we noticed that MTG had arrived.
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Checking out some of the cool relics that have been collected and were on display in the main cabin/office.
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For some reason, you can't get on the internet with this thing.
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Collection of old worn out tires.
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Shotgun cheese grater.
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Making our way over to the Diana Mine where we had signed up to take a tour of it.
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Eva, Jackson and Wendy all suited up and ready head into the Diana Mine.
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Our tour guide giving us a rundown of the mine's history before going in.
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Hi-ho, hi-ho...
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Signs to inform you that this is in fact a safe place to be in.
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Ummm, Alex, you might not want to step back.
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An old compressed air drill still in place.
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Dynamite!
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Cool ore bucket on a ladder designed to also serve as guide rails.
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Light at the end of the tunnel.
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Hurry up and close it up!
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After our mine tour, we quickly headed up the hill to get in on the Ichthyosaur dig site tour.
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Here's a life size mural of what one would have looked like.
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Our tour guide showing us a model of what a shonisaurus would have looked like. This is the type of Ichthyosaur that lived in this area and it is also the largest of its kind.
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Looking across the field of bones.
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More pics below...
 
After our fun over at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, we got back in our Jeeps and headed out to do some more exploring and to find a campsite.
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Unfortunately for us, the rain just wouldn't let up and if anything, it was starting to come down harder. This made all the trails we were on a slippery and sloppy mess.
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Tony simply couldn't take it anymore and had to try and do what I could to clean his Jeep.
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However pointless it may be.
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Home for the night?
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I'm sorry sir but, do you have reservations?
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Sitting at over 7,000 ft. up and with no signs of the rain letting up, we decided to give up on our campsite for the night and work our way back down into the valley below.

Low on gas and still unsure of what we were going to do, we made our way to a sleepy town where amazingly, there was a gas station still open.
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"How much is it a gallon?!"
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Bummer, just noticed I was leaking something.
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After giving things a closer look, I found that the coil over reservoir hose had gotten crushed between the frame rail and body from a hard hit and was now leaking.
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With the rain still coming and with the ground a muddy mess everywhere, we all decided to make our way to the nearest town with a hotel and call it a night. As luck would have it, the following morning was gorgeous and so we headed back out and off the beaten path.
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Home for the rest of our trip. Time for some rest and relaxation.
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A local decided to come out to say hello.
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Of course, part of that R&R was to do some rock-hounding.
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Along the way, we found the remnants of an old crumbling reservoir dam.
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There weren't a whole lot out but, there were a few wildflowers in bloom.
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Back at camp near sundown.
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To an awesome weekend with good friends - CHEERS!!
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A ton more pics can be found from our trip on our Mega Thread here:
http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?27463-WAYALIFE-Kick-Off-to-Summer-Run-2015-Mega-Thread

I hope you enjoyed following us on our adventures over the Memorial Day Weekend. As always, it was more of a winter finale than anything but when you're with good friends, it's always a ton of fun. A BIG THANKS goes out to everyone who joined us for this trip as Cindy and I had a great time with all of you. We are so looking forward to doing it again soon. :cool:
 
Again, it looks like it was an awesome time. :thumb::yup:
Thank you for sharing the pics.
 
Your pictures make me feel like I was there! ;)

Great report. Thanks for organizing this. We had a fantastic time. :yup:
 
So much mud but, a ton of fun! Thanks for the adventure and for getting a chance to see some very remote areas of the vast state of Nevada. You can drive for ever out here. :)
 
Looks like a great time, even with the rain and muck. Bummed I could bring the fam out for this. Thanks for sharing!!
 
Great pics and thanks for sharing your trip. Gonna put this one on the list. GREAT educational experience for the kids.
 
Another awesome adventure in the books! :thumb: Thank you Eddie and Cindy for putting this run together and showing us a small part of the promised land... Can't wait to get back up there for more exploring. :yup:
 
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