NCLR in LRL

[astateofmike]

So, horrible scans here, but I picked up a copy at Livermore LR, cause I could, of the new LRL.

Almost to the back of the magazine, there it is:

NCLR in the Eastern Sierras.

Pretty excited. I'll get copies from Len soon and send them onto to participants. Also, I though we could cut out and scan them in, maybe frame a couple and give them to our Sponsor Dealers to hang somewhere.

Anyway, Here are the rough scans.

[astateofmike]

The captions do say peoples names, the article doesn't. Here is a copy of the article from the rough draft, so you get the idea:

Born of humble purpose and design Land Rovers have provided functional, safe transportation for family adventure, since their inception. Even though media regularly depict Rovers as lifted and rock crawling over knarly terrain, the original Land Rover spirit has not been totally forgotten.

While this years national rally was underway in Montrose, Colorado I rolled out with four families from the newly rejuvenated Northern California Land Rover Club toting kids, dogs and diapers for some late summer exploration in the eastern Sierra Nevada and White Mountains near Bishop, California.

The success in this multifamily trip can be attributed to many factors - activities and destinations that appealed to everyone on the trip, a flexible schedule to accommodate family needs and selecting safe but challenging roads and routes so everyone would fun putting their Rover through it paces.

Families included, husbands, wives, a grandmother and children ranging in age from four months to nine years, even a couple of lucky family dogs got to share in the 4 wheeling adventure. Traveling with kids and dogs always requires planning around their needs; everyone on this run understood the challenges.

Our entourage had a nice cross section of Land Rover hardware – two LR3s, a Range Rover Sport, a Range Rover Classic and my Defender 90. Various vehicles carried various types of recovery gear - winches, Hi Lift jacks, recovery straps, sand ladders – the list goes on! The vehicles carried us out on half-day trips in temperatures ranging from 100 degrees to 65 degrees.

Our first adventure provided a history lesson with a visit to two separate archeological sites that have Native American Petroglyphs etched into rocks. The petroglyph sites are located in volcanic tablelands that were formed from a one million year old lava flow in the northern Owens Valley. Piute and Shoshone Native Americans lived in this area prior to first contact with Europeans, but the petroglyphs are attributed to a more ancient people – who are known to have lived in this region 3,000 years ago. This trip included driving a few miles through Red Rock canyon - a 30-foot deep, very narrow slot canyon. At its widest the canyon is 20 feet wide and in places the width narrows to 10 feet, so both the driver and front passenger could touch the vertical rock walls at the same time without leaving the truck. To my knowledge no one left any paint behind.

Another adventure led us up Silver Canyon into the White Mountains for a visit to the “Patriarch Grove” of Bristlecone Pine trees. This grove of trees sits at 11,000 feet and is quite unique. Some of them are up to 4,000 years old and hold the distinction of being the oldest living things on planet earth. In a relative sense, we took some of the youngest living beings (the children) to stand in the shadow of the world’s oldest living entities. The drive began with a traverse up a narrow canyon floor and crossing the same stream 8 times. It was so hot that a local heard of mountain goats (that had been resting in the shade of trees and bushes along the creek) just moved off the road 25’ to let us pass. Normally an approaching vehicle would have sent them scurrying up the rocky walls of this canyon seeking safe high ground. While some members in the group took some time to watch and photograph the mountain goats the youngest member of our group decided to test her dad’s diaper changing skills. He went into action with military precision. Even though we were stopped on a 15 degree incline – the liftgate and tailgate were open and the tools for the cleanup were at finger tip distance – the checklist for his task was something like – clean diaper; check, baby wipes; check, Hi Lift Jack; check and Cerrone’s diaper bag; check! Putting the Rover’s drive trains and cooling systems to task we climbed up the side of the canyon wall gaining 6,000’ in elevation in a little over 6 miles. Air temperatures at the bottom of the canyon were in the low 100’s – up at 11,000’ the temps were a breezy 65 degrees. At various rest stops the kids found various forms of entertainment – stacking rocks and playing with the family dogs!

Some families camped just outside of Bishop at the base of the Buttermilk range of the Sierra Nevada, while others stayed in hotels in town. The “campers” invited the “townies” to a great potluck dinner featuring Tri-Tip and corn on the cob. The kids, dogs and beautiful sunset provided entertainment. To beat the mid day heat the “townies” invited the “campers” to swim in the hotel pool.

We even had a guy’s night out – not at one of the local cowboy bars, but to challenge our night driving skills up to Coyote Flat, just north of the Sierra Nevada’s Palisade glacier. Driving this road at night was a blast. We shared friendly banter over the CBs while ascending the steep switchback laden climb. One of the LR3s was equipped with reticulated head lamps that turned with the direction of the steering wheel - this left us all feeling a little jealous – so over the CB we discussed alternative Rube Goldberg ideas to accomplish the same goal with aftermarket hardware. (The patents are still pending!). The view on this climb was a little different. Other than the sparse city lights of Bishop about 10 miles away and the night sky above, it was pitch black. We didn’t see anything beyond the reach of driving lights. Although looking down into the canyons abyss you could see the other Rover headlights at a 60-degree dip out of the driver’s window. Once on top at the flats we were treated to a great star scape.

All and all everyone on the trip to the eastern Sierras had a great time and left with wonders of the next adventure – maybe Death Valley in the springtime.

[stevenmd]

dude, that is so cool!

[Gotrovr]

WTG, fantastic, great stuff..... Makes me want to own a Land Rover and head to the Eastern Sierra's....

[astateofmike]

Will, you come off (as I interject my own intonations and expression) like Dr. Cox (Scrubs) there..

funny.

[Phil.]

maybe frame a couple and give them to our Sponsor Dealers to hang somewhere.

do you think my ban from FMC extends to printed photos? :D

[Gotrovr]

Not to worry, we'll just disguise your RRS with a little mud....

[PCRover]

Very cool Mike! It is great to get exposure like that to really put us in the national spotlight. So do we need an NCLR official publicist to document all of our trips and submit them to various publications. :D

[astateofmike]

Well, I thought we had Lil Crawler?

I do think that we should start doing a summary narrative of trips with photos and doing the submission. Best if we could get someone who was not driving, as they would have more time for photos and things.

We stopped alot b/c of the kids, so it worked out ok.

So, in retrospect, yes maybe we do need a Official Club Publicist. Anyone aspiring to be a writer?

[PCRover]

If I had an ounce of writing ability I would gladly do it, but I was a well below average English student...




...Anyone aspiring to be a writer?

[stevenmd]

If I had an ounce of writing ability I would gladly do it, but I was a well below average English student...

None here... I challenged out of the classes in college so I didn't have to take them.:)

[DiscoChef]

Me no think I write good:D:D but I nominate littlecrawler!

[DiscoChef]

Twas a fun trip, perhaps a bit too long of a drive with so many littleones but once we were there we had a ton of fun!

BTW- A special thanks to Len for inviting us and to you Mike for coordinating the trip. I'd do it again in a Tijuana minute!!:p

[Dbregman]

One thing we have to fix is that we are not listed in the LRL club directory on the website. I have sent an email requesting inclusion.

[PCRover]

FYI I sent a request 6mths ago and never received an answer. Hopefully you will have better luck.

[Phil.]

there's some messaging on the site about some new LRL website that's not yet ready for prime time. perhaps we'll be on the new one?