I met Kyle and Dennis on Sunday (Dec 1) evening at the Alturas, CA supercharger ahead of a week-long off-roading and camping trip in our trucks*. Kyle and Dennis both headed up from the south after Thanksgiving with their family, and I headed down from BC. We looked up a wilderness camp spot just 5 mins away and stashed for the night after a full charge.
Woke up to Kyle making coffee and the view from the site
Morning coffee brew and a pretty branch
Happy Dennis by Kyle 📸
As master planner of trails, Dennis had pre-routed the road as he took the lead navigating through the Fandango Pass. Somewhere along the way, an unknown path sparked Dennis's interest, leading us to a dead end next to a beautiful river creek. We plugged Kyle's Model Y into Dennis's Cybertruck for a charge as we made lunch.
After fueling up our bodies and giving Kyle's inefficient Model Y a quick charge, we continued the drive over the pass. We explored another supposedly connecting trail when Dennis's drone decided that it was invincible to tree branches. We then spent the next hour or so rescuing his drone.
We were so close to leaving the drone behind, but our dedication and creativity persisted. Somehow, we had all the pieces in our cars to make the rescue possible. It was like an Apollo 13 episode where engineers duct-taped a bunch of parts together to save the astronauts. To our surprise, the drone came back in one piece. We cheered and couldn't believe what we had just pulled off.
We continued and cruised into the sunset.
A roadside coffee break
We arrived at Fields RV hookup at night with super low SOC in the Ys and discovered that Dennis didn't have the right TT30 adapter. So we shared two charging posts with three cars as we camped in the freezing cold without HVAC. We took the next day slow as we enjoyed breakfast at the Fields Station and spared our cars a much needed longer charge time.
We drove through gravel roads, taking it slow to conserve energy while we enjoyed the mountains and ranches surrounding us.
A bathroom and content break
The long stretches without superchargers from this trip were finally behind us. We juiced up and made lunch.
The first sight of the Oregon Canyonlands, en route to Jordan Valley.
Morning coffee at Rockhouse, dead end achievement unlocked
As we entered Leslie Gulch, Kyle and I left our Ys on the side of the road and hopped into Dennis's CT for a rip. The beast was unleashed as we checked out another "let's see where this takes us" trail and ended up with this view 👇
Pic 3: When Dennis realized he has a shot at professional modeling
Chasing wild horses with carrots in our hands
Into Leslie Gulch
Moo in the frosted field 🐮
We tackled a shortcut as we made our way toward the state park campground with 50 amps for the night. The climb began with wide open roads and nice views, then turned into a narrow, tactical, big-rocks-avoidance drive. What was supposed to be a 30 minute drive in the CT took us 2 hours in the Ys. This was a heck of a stressful night as we slowly crept our way down to the campground.
Foggy morning at Indian Creek Campground
Dennis didn't feel so well in the morning, but after a soak in the natural hot spring on our way out, all of us were rejuvenated — especially Kyle and me, finally free from all the range and clearance stresses from the last few days.
Our arrival at the hot spring
The rest of the trip was all at ease as we cruised back to civilization and checked out some waterfalls on our way to Dennis's Cyberjamboree event in Vancouver, WA.
📐
We headed up to the trail the day before the event — the first time during our trip we arrived at camp before dusk. When options were presented between overlooking vs. nested campsites, as Dennis did, you know where I'm goin'!
Dennis setting up his tent, Kyle cooking ramen mixed with wild-picked chanterelles
Initially, our trip was planned around the Lost Coast Trail along the California coast. However, after a major hurricane hit the area, the trail conditions became uncertain. We quickly revised our plans and shifted to Eastern Oregon, as Dennis already had some spots in mind. While most nights during our adventure in the high desert were cold, we were rewarded with wide-open, stunning scenery all to ourselves.
Stay adventurous 🤘