Another successful 2200 mile trip in the MJ. To the Mojave trail. Video

[Htchevyii]

We survived another huge trip in the Comanche. Other than a cracked exhaust pipe, the trip was trouble free. We took back roads as much as possible from N CA to Mojave. If you like the video, please give a like and comment and consider watching another of our videos. It's supposed to help the YouTube algorithm. There is much more cool stuff to come in future videos. 

 

It's not shown in the video, but we drove by Pyramid Lake and camped near Fallon. Breakfast at the historic Middlegate Station, then we were off  to the International Car Forrest in Goldfield NV. The next night was spent at the Goldpoint Ghost town, then we made it to Afton Canyon for the start of the trail. My parents accompanied us on this trip in their 2020 JL towing a Sherpa off road trailer.

 

 

 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Very cool!

[Htchevyii]

Thanks! It was a long, but amazing trip. We took the scenic route there, it was almost 20 hours of driving just to get there.

[Drahcir495]

I really enjoy your videos 

[Htchevyii]

Thanks! It was a fun trip. I was a little worried about tiring out my parents whom are in their 70's, but the did great and enjoyed the trip.

[Eagle]

Yay! Another one of your videos. Looks like you're closing in on 200,000 subscribers! That's very good. I love your videos -- I'm too old and too poor for any more road trips to the western U.S., so I have to live vicariously through your videos. Keep 'em coming.

[Htchevyii]

12 hours ago, Eagle said:

Yay! Another one of your videos. Looks like you're closing in on 200,000 subscribers! That's very good. I love your videos -- I'm too old and too poor for any more road trips to the western U.S., so I have to live vicariously through your videos. Keep 'em coming.

Thanks for the words and for watching! We're only at 1739 subscribers currently. We haven't even came close to paying for the camera gear from YouTube proceeds at this point. Sadly, our vintage trailer, Gambler 500, technical and product review videos have usually done better than the Jeep overland ones. 

 

At this point, Heather is still enjoying making the videos, if that changes, we will still go on the trips, but you might get stuck with pictures. Thanks again for your support!

[Eagle]

13 hours ago, Htchevyii said:

Thanks for the words and for watching! We're only at 1739 subscribers currently.

 

 

Oops. I guess I was reading those subscriber numbers a bit optimistically.

 

The quality of your videos is right up there with anything on YooToob, but what I love is your MJ. It's still an MJ. You put a mild lift on it, added some trekking gear, and it's being used the way an MJ should be used. I cringe every time I see someone take a perfectly good MJ and carve it up to make a tube buggy rock crawler out of it. With an LS engine, no less. What's the point? Start with an XJ, not a rare MJ -- or start with an S10 or a Ford ranger.

 

Your MJ is where I would have liked my off-road MJ to have gone. Life intervened.

[fiatslug87]

No bourbon…yet???

[Htchevyii]

44 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

No bourbon…yet???

Don't want people thinking I'm a lush. 😁

[Htchevyii]

The second video is out. We visited historic cabins, a huge lave tube and an abandoned cinder mine. It was pretty awesome.

 

[Eagle]

I just watched part 2 on YooToob. Some very cool stuff.

 

I had a quick glimpse of your camera when you were entering the lava tube, but I couldn't read the brand. I was expecting a GoPro, but what I saw was a DSLR. What's your primary setup? Camera make and model, microphone, etc.?

[Htchevyii]

20 minutes ago, Eagle said:

I just watched part 2 on YooToob. Some very cool stuff.

 

I had a quick glimpse of your camera when you were entering the lava tube, but I couldn't read the brand. I was expecting a GoPro, but what I saw was a DSLR. What's your primary setup? Camera make and model, microphone, etc.?

 

Thanks for watching! Unfortunately, no camera seems to work well for everything. For quite a while, Heather primarily used her Google Pixel 6 Pro. It does pretty darn good. Lately, she's also been using a DJI Action 4, the Insta 360 X2 and the Panasonic Lumix. The 360 gets shots that would otherwise be impossible, but is a pain to edit. She really only uses the Panasonic for further away shots, tripod stuff or photos as it's stabilization isn't very good. Multiple cameras definitely make it much more difficult to edit the videos. 

She's got a few torpedo microphones and a couple wireless ones  that we probably should use more. Just Amazon stuff.

[Eagle]

So is this the Lumix? What's the microphone you have attached to it?

 

I guess I haven't priced DSLR cameras for awhile. $2k strikes me as a lot to pay for a camera unless you're a professional photographer.

[fiatslug87]

That’s a cool shirt Heather is wearing 👍

[Htchevyii]

 

[Htchevyii]

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! The next part to our Mojave Trail video comes out today at 8:30 PST if you're sitting around digesting still. 😉 Here's a preview of some of the things we saw.

 

 

[Eagle]

In this latest video Heather mentioned "another" maintained cabin, and I recall a cabin in one of the previous videos that showed a cabin that seemed to have some fairly new (-ish) accoutrements in it. I was surprised that the new-ish stuff hadn't been stolen or vandalized. Who maintains these cabins, and for what purpose?

[Htchevyii]

13 hours ago, Eagle said:

In this latest video Heather mentioned "another" maintained cabin, and I recall a cabin in one of the previous videos that showed a cabin that seemed to have some fairly new (-ish) accoutrements in it. I was surprised that the new-ish stuff hadn't been stolen or vandalized. Who maintains these cabins, and for what purpose?

 There are many of these cabins in NV & CA. Most of them belonged to miners or ranchers before the government bought their land. There are various volunteer groups that adopt Them and maintain the cabins, mostly off road or Jeep clubs. Some are equipped with solar, battery systems, ETC. the best ones that we have found to date are in the High Rock Desert in NV. Link below if you want to see them. 

You'll have a difficult time getting anyone to publicly divulge the locations, that and the difficulty reaching the cabins is what usually saves them from vandals. There are dozens of cabins in Death Valley and the easier they are to find and the closer they are to "civilization" the worse they usually fare.  They are free to stay in, first come first serve, usually with a 14 day limit. The flag raised indicates that the cabin is occupied.

 

 

[Eagle]

Cool! Thanks for the info. I had no idea that such a network of cabins existed.