BACKWAY Byway to BODIE

wayoflife

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One of the things that Cindy and I love about our Edge of Pizen property is that there's over 1 million acres of wide open BLM and National Forest, just outside the back gate. In fact, we literally can drive all the way to the historic ghost town Bodie from it which is about 60 miles away and 100% of it, all on dirt. Needless to say, this is something we've been meaning to do ever since acquiring the new homestead and we finally got a chance to do it yesterday. And, as luck would have it, our good friend Moochie was able to join us for the fun and the following are a few highlight pics from our trip.

Here's a shot of us just outside the back gate of our place and as you can see, we decided to take Bandit, our new Jeep Gladiator for the run and Moochie came in his new Ford Bronco.
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The first part of the trip is a typical Nevada superhighway and something you can bomb across.
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Fortunately, there was a slight breeze to push the dust off the trail and it didn't take too much backing off to keep this shiny new Bronco looking sparkling and clean.
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Well, for the most part anyway. There's always the dust any rig kicks up all on their own to coat the sides and back 😁
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Down the trail, we came across a point where it crossed over the East Fork Walker River on this nice little bridge.
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Further along the way, something caught my eye in the brush and we made a stop to check it out.
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And, what I thought was going to be some kind of an aqueduct turned out to be an old watering trough.

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Now this oasis in the high desert was one of our favorite stops.
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As you can see, it came complete with big tress, a lush lawn and even picnic tables. Definitely a place that would be great to camp at.
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Of course, the reason why it was so beautiful here is because there was a beautiful spring that produced a lot of water.
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And because of the spring, it became stage stop connecting the smaller towns in the area during the 1860's and then gained greater importance in 1881 after the Carson Colorado Rail Road arrived in Hawthorne and made it easier for passengers and good to make their way to Bodie.
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As far as Ripley was concerned, the spring fed pool was a perfect place to cool off and play.
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As much as we could have stayed at the springs all day and even over night, it was time to move on and make our way to our main destination of the day.
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It'd been years since we've come out this way and the couple of old bridges that I knew we'd need to cross had only become older and more rickety.
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Well, here's to hoping it'll holding up 🤪
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Fortunately, we were both able to make it across safely.
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Working our way up the canyon, it was nice to have some clouds roll in and provide some welcome shade from the blistering sun and it was nice to see that the creek was still flowing with water.
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For anyone who isn't from Nevada, I would be grateful if you could please close gates that you cross through, especially when they have signs on them that state, "PLEASE CLOSE GATE" on them. I can't count how many times we come across gates like this and that are sitting on the ground or left wide open.
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Continuing our way up the canyon.
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Again, it'd been a few years since we've been on some of these trails and clearly, the last few big winters we had, really did a number on them. What was once an easy dirt road has now become a rock crawling challenge.
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Being that Moochie's Bronco was still stock and only running 35" tires, we decided that it would be best to double back to another route we knew of and bypass the boulders. But... before we did, I decided to have a little fun 😁
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After my play time on the rocks, we worked our way around the canyon and on another trail that would get us to where we wanted to be.
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But, it didn't take long before we were in yet another canyon that was getting rougher by the minute.
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And it was here that we encountered an even bigger washout.
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Fortunately, there was a bypass around it and so we didn't have to back track to where we started.
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But, just past the washout, the trail remained rocky but not enough so to deter Moochie from pressing forward.
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While the trail smoothed out and became a lot easier to traverse once we were out of the canyon, we did still have one more rickety bridge to cross.
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Crossing into the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia.
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The welcoming committee.
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Just before crossing into the town of Bodie, we made a stop at the historical Toll House standing sentinel bfore it.
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And, after driving over 65 miles of dirt, here we are at long last - Bodie.
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Last but not least - CHEERS to a great day out on the trail!
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Awesome! I love the Backway on the CA side and do it every time we go to Bodie... It's so peaceful back there with amazing views. But I've always wanted to hang that right at the Y and shoot into Nevada. Very Cool.
 
Well to be honest your Commiefornia welcoming members did seem to resemble Cowmala, Piglosi, and Mad (cow) Maxine.👍

Awesome pics and trip report.
 
how awesome and right out of your back gate!
appropriate to have to cross some bullshit in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia 👍
 
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