I've been trying my best to coerce a few of the Nor Cal and Reno peeps to get down here Vegas way for some offroad shenanigans and possibly a night out under the stars with the locals and I think I've finally made some headway : )
Anyway, we've been kicking around the idea of a wheeling/camping weekend here in lovely Sin City over the weekend of Oct 25-26.
JeniorNV is trying to make her schedule and finances cooperate and we have interest from one or two other forum bretheren and sisteren from up north so hopefully we can get some of you locals out to show your support and come out to meet some fellow members and have a good time getting dirty.
Tentative plan is to do a couple of advanced trails on saturday am into early afternoon and possibly hit the Desert Pass campground for some sleep-over/smorefest fun :woot:
We would likely meet up at the visitors center and convoy up the mountain to the campground.
The campground is accessible by 2x trucks and is a ways off the beaten path out in the Nevada Desert National Wildlife Refuge just north of town off the 95.
The next day we would do some more 2x friendly trails back off of the mountain and maybe (assuming I can talk the wife into it) we can all stop by my place for a little BBQ to wrap up the weekend.
So nothing is written in stone as of yet but feel free to chime in here if you're interested, have ideas or whatever.
ATTENDEE LIST:
Sean, in for both days and camping
Jen, in for both days and camping
TruckIt + 1.5 (the mighty lizard hunter gets the .5), in for both days, no sleepover
S4ad0w10 + 1, maybe for camping and day 2, unlikely for day 1
LVoffroader, in for camping and day 2
bwebb702, possibly in for day 2 and maybe camping
MetalAlien, likely in for camping and day 2 trails
Mike from the driveline shop, likely in for day 1 trails in his Taco
Chris, possibly in for day 1 trails in his Cherokee
Brandon (local) maybe in for day 1 trails in his 1st gen
Tim (buddy from OC and maybe his son) not gonna make it
Mr_Scott, not gonna make it for this one unfortunately
Anyone else game to come out and play with us?! Any of you day 2 participants want a ride along for day 1's boulder fest?
Again, you guys suck for choosing this weekend. I already have tickets to knotfest in Cali and they werent cheap plus a few bucket list bands are playing. You guys could crash the nissan meet at the lake though, lol.
Maybe you'll get lucky and I won't make it. If I don't make it, I'll be planning another one.
Heck, if I have fun I may plan another one a few months later anyway. Vegas seems like it would be a decent destination for wheeling in the wintertime. My part of the state gets very cold that time of year.
If we had a winter like the last it would be awesome. I just learned af another spot from the xterra guys called little red rock, will be checking it out soon.
Your winters are always comparatively pleasant. I always fondly think of Vegas as that-city-that-completely-shut-down-that-one-time-3-inches-of-snow-fell. :laugh:
Haha! If you guys can't make it then it'll just be the same 2 or 3 of us that are always out trailing and we'll make a time of it anyway ; )
BTW, went out today and got some new scars on the under armor (and the paint job). Had a pretty good slider pivot on a rock ledge that left a nice little badge : )
Went back over Mormon Wells Rd with Lvoffroader to scout it for the Oct trip and check out the campground again. Found some REALLY fun washes and cool features hehehee!
I'll post some pix we took later
Thanks bud, Sway bar is coming off tomorow. I might check out that little red rock area tomorrow. It sucks that this concert is the same weekend but I cant pass it up. Hopefully I make it out alive.
How far would it be from this campsite to the airport? Would likely be staying at a hotel in that area that lets us have the dog so I would need to drive back Saturday night and then back out Sunday morning for the second run. Hopefully they are not that far away so we can sit around the camp for a while with you guys before we had to head out and we hope to have a bit of sleep before we start again.
It's about as far as you can get from the airport and still be in Vegas actually. It's 25 miles up a gravel desert road to get to the campground from the highway (almost an hour even as fast as I can travel over that route) and it's about a 35-45 minute trip from the highway to the airport. Nearest hotels would be Aliante, Station Casino and Red Rock Casino (from 10 - 20 minutes from the trail head). Not sure whether any of them take dogs or not but guessing at least a couple of them have pet friendly floors.
I don't know if there are any campgrounds that are closer to the airport since it's so centrally located and most of the campgrounds are on the perimeter. I'll see what I can come up with.
Trail head is just north of Kyle Canyon Rd on the 95N
You would not have enjoyed today's trip (well, at least not some of it). We took a couple of off piste forrays into pinstripe heaven. I got some pretty good trail stripes and Dave picked up a couple too I'm guessing, though he was a bit more selective in his line choices haha! The main trail is fine but wander too far off of it and you end up in the bushes pretty quickly.
Sliders are the best protection you can buy in my book. Mine certainly paid for themselves today!
Checked out the little red rock area today. It looks awesome but I might need a bit more armor before I can get into it, at least from the trail that goes into the east side of it. I went back and took the trail that goes in on the west side but didnt go all the way since it was just me. Went up to the caves off fort apache also. Took the sway bar off this morning and damn, wish I did that a long time ago, ride was much better.
I'm definitely going to have to check that out! Where is it? Gonna have to google earth that to get some info asap!
Been slammed for the last couple days and got another couple to go yet but I'll get some pix up from friday's adventure as soon as I get the time/energy.
Aliante does not have a room for the 3 nights I want to stay, there are a bunch of Station Casino's when you search by that name. Not sure which one is the one you mean and Red Rock Casino is over 200 a night. I need Nomad's money if I am to stay there.
I am having a hard time trying to search for Hotels of the area. Found some on Kyle Canyon, then realized how long that road is. Likely closer to the airport than the places at the end of that road.
Sitting around the fire is almost as much fun as the wheeling. Would like to be able to stay a little while before we had to head out to the hotel and then be able to sleep and shower and get back before you start out again on Sunday. So if any other locals know hotels that are close to this camp ground that might take a 70 pound boarder collie for a few nights I would really appreciate the help in finding a room.
Santa Fe Station does not take pets. Everything else I've found is either over 150/nt, not worth staying at or far enough away that you might a well drive back to the strip area anyway. I'll see if there are any local places that might not be listed on Hotels.com
Not sure why rates are so high and so many rooms are booked that weekend. Halloween is the following weekend so that's not it. Maybe everyone got wind of our plans and really wanted to join in. Might be really crowded in those 6 or 7 camping spaces up there : )
Reno is the land of "back-to-back-special-events-all-summer-long." We have Hot August Nights, Street Vibrations, Burning Man, air races, balloon races, rib cook off, camel races, blah blah blah, that's all I can think of off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm missing some... Take all those weekends out of the equation, and I am still limited by my own schedule for the remaining ones. Wait until all of the special events are over, and the snow starts falling over Donner Pass and nobody wants to make the drive. I learned a long time ago when planning these trail runs that you can't make everybody happy, but believe it or not I still do the best that I can.
Off topic rant over, resuming on topic discussion...
I suppose I should figure out where I want to stay Friday night and make my reservation soon. I still plan on trying to make this if I can. If rates are higher in Vegas that weekend, it will affect me too. Ah, sweet revenge.
Most of them have a pretty hefty "resort" fee here. Can be up to $35 or $40 so keep an eye out for that. That's typically at the bigger hotel/resort/casino types but it's spreading like the plague : /
Hotels.com shows you all applicable taxes except for the aforementioned resort fee and that's what I usually use for booking unless my agent can get me a better deal for work travel. They also have a decent cancellation policy.
I prefer to book through the hotel directly if I can get the same price, but it sounds like hotels.com would a better starting point than Orbitz for price shopping. Thanks for the tip.
Good to hear! Very excited and hope to get some more non-local peeps out for this weekend.
I have a pretty good idea on the trails but I want to go check out the Little Red Rock area I've heard about to see if it justifies a re-shuffle as it were. I know there's some pretty technical aspects to it but not sure on the cohesiveness (is that a word??) of the trail or if it's just kind of a playground free for all.
Also going out this week to run the Lucky Strike Mine trail from the other end to see if it's in the mix.
I really want to do the Rocky Gap Rd trail from the west side so we can run the boulder field and then come down the easier side into Red Rock Canyon and then see if we have time to add another of the closer tech trail for the armor equipped day.
I'm trying to keep the trails on the west side of town so everything is as close as possible to central meeting areas and the remote camping location.
So here's a loose plan thus far;
RUn Rocky Gap first thing in the am on Sat and possibly another high clearance trail (either Lucky Strike or Little Red Rock) then meet up at the visitors center at the Desert National Wildlife Preserve for a quick meet n greet with anyone interested in camping and then head up the mountain to Desert Pass campground (2x friendly). Campfire fun and festivities and sleepover.
Next morning we roll out of camp and continue down the back side of Morman Wells Rd (still 2x friendly), hit some of the short spurs for some armored fun for the more adventurous and continue out to hwy 93. From there we can take a short detour out to Muddy Hills area for some 2x friendly play time and then head back to town for some food or head home or whatever.
I'm down to make any necessary adjustments to accommodate as many participants as possible.
Let me know if anyone has questions or concerns.
I'll update with trail conditions on the other 2 possibilities as soon as I get a chance to scope them out. Hoping to get at least one of them knocked out tomorrow.
Sounds like a good plan so far. Keep us posted! I may bug out between Mormon Wells and Muddy Hills on Sunday (depending on how late we hit pavement). I am planning on trying to drive home Sunday night if I can. It all depends on what time we are done and how tired I am.
Funny, we booked that LaQuinta last night for Friday through Sunday nights. So we are coming unless something unforeseen happens that will force us to not go.
Just hope that I sleep Friday night after the 9 hour drive there as I would like to be awake on the trail on Saturday. I will have much more experienced and higher rigs to try and follow.
No worries. The worst part of it for the trucks will be a piece of cake for your X.
And Jen, we can always come back down the same way we went up if nobody is interested in going down the other side. That will drop you right back at the 95 at least 3 hours earlier if you wanna head back. There are several other trails in the area for anyone who wants to run a trail on sunday. It's an option so we'll figure it out as we get closer and I have a better idea as to how many will be joining us
And Jen, we can always come back down the same way we went up if nobody is interested in going down the other side. That will drop you right back at the 95 at least 3 hours earlier if you wanna head back. There are several other trails in the area for anyone who wants to run a trail on sunday. It's an option so we'll figure it out as we get closer and I have a better idea as to how many will be joining us
I definitely don't want to cut anybody's day short, so I'll go along with whatever the plan ends up being. If I end up getting home after midnight or staying in Vegas an extra night, so be it. Or I could always backtrack from that spot if everyone else wants to keep going forward. I've never met a 2WD trail I couldn't handle on my own.
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