shuly
New member
This was my first time organizing such a trip so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was supposed to be two 2wd 4Runners & my 4wd in case someone couldn't make it. I planned the trip to hopefully challenge the 2wd 4Rs and to try to pick places with great views while trying to stay off the graded "fire roads." From the time I started planning to up to the trip date things changed 
Shawn ended up selling his 2wd 4R a couple of weeks before the trip and replaced it with a 4wd Xterra "The Panda #2" (The next best thing to a T4R IMHO.) Jason cancelled two days before...so sadly there were not 2wd 4Runners on this trip. Either way the trip would be suitable with a couple of exceptions that may not technically be passable (w/o tow straps, road building, etc) in 2wd. In spite of it just being the two trucks the trip was a lot of fun. Since it seems I didn't do too horribly in organizing this run. I'd be happy to try to put together a group oriented 2wd run.
On Saturday we met at Coso Jct and ran through the Coso Range. I have never seen so many people out there. The Coso range is usually very isolated! We visited the Alabama Hills and Whitney Portal and stayed in Lone Pine overnight. On Sunday we ran Mazourka Cyn to Papoose/Harkless Flats. If you have a 2wd truck and want to run these trails you can easily run from the South End to Badger Flat and from the North end into Harkless/Papoose. If you want to run the trail from Badger to Papoose I recommend you be experienced and have another 4x4 with you...just in case. I think it is doable with careful driving, some patience, maybe some creative road building (not req with 4wd) and aired down tires (the risk of sidewall puncture being significant with street tires).
For those that might want to run this trail...I have exported the tracking points from my SPOT into Google Earth files.
Saturday Run
Sunday Run
I took a ton of photos along the trail run. The skies were so great I ended up doing a lot of B/W Infrared (IR) Work. They take the longest to do the post processing...therefore I did them first. I'll post the color pictures as I get them done during the week.
In the meantime, Enjoy!
-Schuyler
Shawn ended up selling his 2wd 4R a couple of weeks before the trip and replaced it with a 4wd Xterra "The Panda #2" (The next best thing to a T4R IMHO.) Jason cancelled two days before...so sadly there were not 2wd 4Runners on this trip. Either way the trip would be suitable with a couple of exceptions that may not technically be passable (w/o tow straps, road building, etc) in 2wd. In spite of it just being the two trucks the trip was a lot of fun. Since it seems I didn't do too horribly in organizing this run. I'd be happy to try to put together a group oriented 2wd run.
On Saturday we met at Coso Jct and ran through the Coso Range. I have never seen so many people out there. The Coso range is usually very isolated! We visited the Alabama Hills and Whitney Portal and stayed in Lone Pine overnight. On Sunday we ran Mazourka Cyn to Papoose/Harkless Flats. If you have a 2wd truck and want to run these trails you can easily run from the South End to Badger Flat and from the North end into Harkless/Papoose. If you want to run the trail from Badger to Papoose I recommend you be experienced and have another 4x4 with you...just in case. I think it is doable with careful driving, some patience, maybe some creative road building (not req with 4wd) and aired down tires (the risk of sidewall puncture being significant with street tires).
For those that might want to run this trail...I have exported the tracking points from my SPOT into Google Earth files.
Saturday Run
Sunday Run
I took a ton of photos along the trail run. The skies were so great I ended up doing a lot of B/W Infrared (IR) Work. They take the longest to do the post processing...therefore I did them first. I'll post the color pictures as I get them done during the week.
In the meantime, Enjoy!
-Schuyler
