Difficulty is probably a 2/10 overall. Vehicle damage likelihood: VERY low chance of mechanical damage. Depending on the trail you take there is low to medium paint contact from branches... also known as "Pin Striping", all of which are light surface scratches, all buffing out.
We wanted to try some new trails that I've seen, but never taken. I also wanted to test out the Find Me Spot GPS tracking device that I've been using, but never tested the tracking function. Here is the link to the tracking from the Spot device:
Matt's Spot Map
We started the day at this location (Freemont Peak Rd), which is the best spot to find the trail system:
Entrance to Cuddyback (Google Maps)
Once there, we double checked the truck to make sure everything was tied down, and aired the tires down a little for off-road use. The last picture is the view from the start of the Cuddyback Rd. trailhead, heading East towards the dry lake bed.
First we headed to Lake Cuddyback itself, which is a dry lake bed most of the year. Occasionally it gets water and turns to a mud bog, but more often dry than not. At the first major fork in the road, stay to the left to head towards the lake bed. It's about an 8 mile drive from 395 to the lake bed, most vehicles could make the drive, even 2WD vehicles would have no issues if taken slowly.
Route from 395 to Dry Lake (Google Maps)
Spent some time playing around on the dry lake bed, which for the most part was very flat and in great shape. Alan volunteered to get dusted, and took a quick video of me drifting around him:
Although the camera didn't pick up the dust well... his face definitely had a nice "dusting", but he's a good sport as always.
From there, we headed up a road on the northeast corner of the lakebed, which heads towards an old silver mine, and an old ranch setup, with what appeared to maybe be a well a long time ago. The road is relatively well groomed which the exception of a few parts, and only a few tight squeezes and pin striping on the truck! First place we stopped was here:
5-point intersection on Grant's Well Rd. (Google Maps)
We could see a road up a mountain to the north, and what looked like an old mine entrance. I had been up there before in the RZR, but not in a full size truck. The road was a reasonably steep climb, but no problem for most 4x4 vehicles. At the top was a great photo opportunity, and a short walk to the Silver Mine entrance.
There is a short mine tunnel you can walk into about 150-200 feet, which ends at a rock wall. Usually you can find some mice at the end of the tunnel! Last time there was about 10 of them, this time there was just one large rat with a nest. Here is the entrance to the mine (Alan and Erik pictured):
From there, we headed northeast along Granit Wells Rd, and around the north side of a small mountain which was covered in patches of volcanic rock. Almost looked like shadows from the distance, but the rock itself was very black. Took a shot at this location:
Volcanic Rock parking spot (Google Maps)
Wanting to start heading back in the general direction of where we started, we tried circling around the mountain and started heading east/southeast as we could. Found a good spot for lunch with some old water tanks and mining equipment. A few roads from this location stretched out for miles in a straight line... could definitely spend more time exploring some of them in the future.
Lunch Spot (Google Maps)
To head back, we headed west towards the 5-point intersection we stopped at earlier. Along the way we found a really nice stretch of trails with plenty of opportunities for some high speed driving. Eventually we found the perfect series of hills, and a great set of jumps to take in the Raptor. Decent approach, and would set the truck landing straight on 4 wheels. Alan hopped out again, to take a great video clip of one of the better jumps we found:
Landing wasn't too bad, although a Pringles can decided to explode on impact, sending crumbs all over the back seat and floor... Erik enjoyed the ride from the back seat, but that bring up another topic... Why doesn't the Raptor have and grab handles in the back seat?!?!
Found a few more cool spots on the way back, including a fairly deep mine shaft... why do the sides of the mine shafts always have to slope into them with loose tiny gravel? Kinda hard to get close without risking your life!
Decided to climb down one of the steep slopes leading up to the mine shaft, and set a new personal best for steepest incline that I've seen on the gauges. We were definitely hanging from the seat belts.
After that it was a scenic, but uneventful ride back to US-395 to head back home.
All in all, it only took us about 3.5 hours to do everything... makes for a nice short day trip. With temperatures of 105-110 the whole time, you can't really hang out much longer anyway. Here is the point we ended up exiting from: 5-point intersection to Trona rd (Google Maps)
For higher resolution photos, please use the link to my Flikr account, below:
Matt's Cuddyback photos (Flikr)
No comments:
Post a Comment