***12/27 - Trip is Weather dependent. If there is rain 48 hours before the date or it looks like 80% chance of rain day of it will be called off as being in the mud is slow going as well as ruins the trails for others.***

If interested in the trip below shoot me an email at norcal.drivers@gmail.com

For all those interested I am seeing who would be interested in doing a pre-run of some trail near Lovelock NV. The plan is to cover about 150-160 miles of mixed trails and a little pavement. This is not all about being on the trails as there are a few planned stops. These stops include 4 ghost mines and a cave called the cave of the giants. Depending on the group there is a detour near the start to see a some old miner buildings.

Meeting point:
9:00am in Lovelock at the Chevron Gas station to top off with fuel and hit the trail

Caravan from Sacramento
If you care to caravan to Lovelock I would be leaving Sacramento at 6:00am.

Expectations:
If you plan on attending the expectation is you can run at 40mph or so across the trails when possible. This is not “my rig is faster than yours” trip. The requirement is so we can cover the planned distance. Of course trail variations will determine overall and average speed but if you are looking for some crawling and or putting a long trip this is will not be for you.

Gear:
There are two requirements to go which are for safety reason. For those who have been out on trails before you know something could always happen and AAA will not come out there to give you a tow.

First is at least one full size spare. Common sense but stating it anyway

Second is a VHF radio that can be set to (151.625 / 152 ). For those who might be new or don’t want to drop $300 on a radio setup I have personally tested the use of a VHF U5R hand held. The range for transmitting is only 1 mile but it can receive miles away from higher power radios. (miles away means transmission on the over side of a mountain away.) The radios are so you can hear where to make a turn, ruts, cattle guard, G out and so on. Also so you can say to the trucks near you I need help. Cell phones don’t work where we are going and Motorola GSRMs don’t have the range.

A U5R radio cost $30 off amazon: http://amzn.com/B007H4VT7A

GPS Trail maps
If you have a smart phone the app “back country navigator” for android and “motion X” for IPhone are good to have. These have been tested out on other trips and can be loaded with the planned route. If you have these apps let me know and I can email you the route file. If you want to buy a app before the trip it will cost you around $25 last I checked.

Weather bump. Forecast is still looking good so will bump again next week with weather update.

Outing update: Weather forecast looks good so I say we are a go. Unless the night before there is a deluge of rain we are hitting the trail.

Please email if you are planning on actually going on the trail run. This is so I know how many people to expect at the meeting point.

Have a Merry Xmas and see some of you in the dirt on the 27th

Trail Report Lovelock 2014

This was a pre run of some trails near Lovelock as well as to venture out and see 5-6 old mines. The total miles of trail were 160 planned miles unless conditions were not favorable. The main group complete 188 miles of trail and two members complete 140 as we did have a minor break down. Brake line got damaged so one member followed the other to civilization. Good thing his rig was a manual.

The group consisted of two Raptors, two Dodge trucks, one Jeep and one Toyota. Report shows some of the major highlights of the trip. To see more images of the trip see the links attached.

Photos - www.raddrives.com

Video of trip - http://youtu.be/G-mFU0fLsIw

If you missed this trip keep an eye out for future posted trips or join my email list. I have more trails then time to go out and explore.

Day started off early with a drive to Lovelock. Coming over the pass was greeted to another great sunrise and stunning colors.



Passing through Truckee is was a balmy 6 degrees outside. Wife was ridding shotgun and said this was totally bikini weather (very sarcastically).




Wife and I arrived in Lovelock at 8:55am to meet with whoever decided to make the trek. Meet up with four new people and one buddy in his new Jeep. Our group was definitely as diverse as I have been on so far which makes it all the more fun. After getting the logistics sorted out the group left the meeting point gas station at 9:22am to hit the trails. Start of the trail and group airing down below.






The first part of the day’s trails had a light coating of snow on them. This made for a little bit of slip and slide conditions but still able to keep speeds up and have fun.



We reached the first mine stop where we got out to explore the ruins for a bit before moving onto one of the longer trail sections.



As the group did not object we took a 2 miles adventure trail which was slow going and had a 21 degree descent to get to the main trail. Definitely was a fun mix of pace vs just blasting across the desert.



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The next 40 miles was crossing up and over the mountains, around an open pit mine, and then blasting down the valley floor on the other side. The trail on the other side was fast and had some very fun whoops and turns. Missed taking video of this section but now it is a reason to go back =)







[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/04-Loop_trails%2836%29.jpg[/img]

After about 40 miles on the valley we turned west to head to the second ghost mine and lunch. This was a very interesting mine to see as a lot of the structures were still in place. Amazing to think at one point people were here working and all that is left now is this decaying skeleton.

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/06-Second-mine%2819%29.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/06-Second-mine%2830%29.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/06-Second-mine%2834%29.jpg[/img]

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After lunch mine stop was a short hoof over to the next mine. This is where the Toyota of the group had a rear brake line get loose and then get crushed by the shock. We spent some time trying to patch it but ended up not being able to. One of the group wanted to head back so we all agreed the two of them would trail buddy it out to civilization and the other group would pass up the other mines and take the longer loop home.

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/07-Third-Mine%282%29.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/07-Third-Mine%289%29.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/Matt%20-%20Jeep%20images/slides/DSC_4312.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/Matt%20-%20Jeep%20images/slides/DSC_4315.JPG[/img]

On the way home we made a detour to a lake bed to have a little fun. Lake was dry but the ground was wet enough to act like velcro so slides were rather hard to do.

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/08-Lake_Bed%2820%29.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/Matt%20-%20Jeep%20images/slides/DSC_4331.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/Matt%20-%20Jeep%20images/slides/DSC_4333.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/Matt%20-%20Jeep%20images/slides/DSC_4338.JPG[/img]

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With daylight fading we head on the fast trail home and all made our ways back home.

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/09-Drive_home%281%29.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/09-Drive_home%283%29.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.raddrives.com/albums/2014-Lovelock-trails/slides/09-Drive_home%286%29.jpg[/img]