Kadez Blog

So have you ever been to a ghost town?

We did get to explore a few interesting places on this trip, while camping at Twin Lakes our crew took some time out to explore the town of Bodie. Bodie is located near Bridgeport, Ca. not to far off of hwy 395.

Bodie was a gold mining town that grew to over 10,000 people in less than 20 years. From what is left is is hard to believe that this town once supported 10,000 and had 65 saloons!

Today they call Bodie a ghost town, it may be but there were sure allot of people there on this day.

We had such a fun time out Jeeping in the Mono Crater area that we lost track of the time.

Good thing the Jeep is loaded with lights as well as the load of Obsidian we picked up along the trail.

Here we are Jeeping along the rim of Devils Punch Bowl.

Devils Punch Bowl is a volcanic explosion pit in the Mono lake basin. This entire area is volcanic, Pumice and Obsidian can be found all over the place.

Obsidian for those of you who don’t know is volcanic glass, Indians used this to make arrowheads and Surgeons have used Obsidian for scalpel blades. The stuff is everywhere and can slice your tires, we woke up the next morning with a flat. There was a big slice in the tire but when I refilled the tire it did not appear that this was the cause of the leak.

No I really mean it!

Here is an example of exactly not what to do:

No this is not my camp, this was a neighbors camp that became a well stocked Bear snack bar.

Please, Please do not do this! Bears that get a taste of human food like this become camp site menaces. Once this happens they often have to be trapped and re-located or even worse, they are killed all because someone can’t take the time to clean up their camp and keep food in bear safe containers.

Please visit these sites for information on camping with bears:
Keep Me Wild
Be Bear Aware
Bear Smart

I know you were wondering, yes the Kayaks did make it into the water. Here they are in the water at a great little lake the name of which now escapes me (well not really but its a secret).

These are our FeelFree SOT (Sit On Top) Kayaks, the Keylime Gemini (Dual) and the Lava Nomad (Single). I purchased these last fall on eBay, they are great SOT’s .

The runoff has worked its way down the trail and into a small creek. This must mean there is a lake around here somewhere, RIGHT?

Remember that the Kayaks are on the roof, Sometimes the trees really close in.

Yes the run off of a little creek has worked its way out onto the jeep trail. But we will have to keep looking, this is not enough water for the Kayaks

Well its been a week since we have returned from our 2 week summer camping trip and I am just getting to posting some of the better pictures.

Here we are in our JeepYak!
Our Jeep Liberty Renegade ‘KJ’ Loaded with our Kayaks on some jeep trails looking for lakes to Kayak in.

We had a great time exploring in the jeep on this trip!

After 2 weeks of camping and hauling the Kayaks over 700 miles (both on and off the road) I am glad we invested in quality Kayak rack!

Only Thule offered mounting system that fit the KJ Renegade Stock Roof Rack however I preferred the Yakima HullyRollers and Mako Saddles to the Thule offering.

We ended up with the Yakima Kayak gear on the Thule rack (yes they are interchangeable). The Thule rack mounts work great on the Renegade and I like the Thule cross bar system better than the Yakima. Thule uses rectangular cross bars vs. the round bars on the Yakima.

Welcome to my first blog.