This past month was somewhat more eventful than usual. Both in a good way and a bad way. First, we came back from our trip, only to be sick for the next 2 or 3 weeks. That definitely sucked. So we didn't do a ton the first couple of weeks of the month. Because of time limitations and the amount of work that needed to be done, Christian still forced himself to go out almost every morning to work on Caitlyn's car. First, he worked on the alignment of the vehicle. We found that the front axle was not as bent as we had thought and we ended up putting shims in instead of swapping axles out. That would be way too much work than we have time to tackle (especially when we aren't feeling well and only have until noon each day when it gets way too hot to do anything). We did find out though, that the alignment was a LOT off of what it should have been and that was the reason it ate through the tires so badly.
Christian also checked the fuel pump but did not find anything wrong with it, so the other really big thing we had to tackle was pulling out the wiring harness again since the XJ was having problems on the Cedar Pockets trail last month, which was the real reason for the stalling problem we were having. He found that the crappy wiring loom we got from the auto store and Amazon, failed miserably against the heat of the engine and transmission. We think that the wires got damaged and was shorting out when we were jostling it down the trail. Christian had to take it all apart and inspect every inch of it. He ended up replacing a bunch of short segments of it, then re-wrapping it and covering it with proper nylon loom. In addition, he got special heat shielding for the hottest and most damaged part of it next to the transmission.
We also found out that the valve cover gasket was leaking pretty badly, so he had to replace that.
During the afternoons, when it was too hot to work outside, and when Christian didn't have to do research on or do internet searches for replacement car parts, he went back to work on his Voron. He got the print head done and started on the electronics.
After a couple of weeks of sickness, we were healthy enough to try to take a day off from the Jeep "mines" to actually go drive it...or at least drive the TJ. We replaced the oil pressure sensor that we had a problem with. In addition, we got an air dam to cut down on some of the most turbulent wind problems we had when we have a very bad head wind in the TJ with the top down. We drove out to San Bernardino to investigate the Pilot Rock Trail. Unfortunately, the Vista Fire obscured most of our views.
The Pilot Rock Trail itself was also a bit disappointing. There was a lot of garbage along the trail plus some graffiti. It's the reason I usually avoid the San Gabriel Mountains...too close to all the city riff raff that shouldn't be out in the mountains in the first place, as they do not enjoy or respect the wilderness. They destroyed much of the San Gabriel Mountain areas years ago and it looks like they have moved on to the San Bernardino Mountains.
It was a fairly short trail though, so we went back through to take the Willow Creek trail over to Deep Creek. We found a somewhat challenging route that gave access to a nice little secluded spot at Deep Creek. It was really beautiful! Don't get me wrong, there was still a bunch of trash there, but not anything that did it too much damage yet. It was really hot out, so we dunked ourselves in the creek. It was really nice. There were a bunch of small fish in there too and they didn't seem to mind us very much as they would just swim around our ankles.
We definitely wanted to bring the girls back here. We knew Emily especially would love this place. We even planned to bring garbage bags to help clean up the area to try to discourage people from doing even more damage. However, we found out about a week or week and a half later that due to the fire, which they still haven't put out, they closed this trail. What's more, they have closed it for the next year! Why? I have no idea. I can tell you that it has nothing to do with the fire the closed it under as the fire is about 20 miles away on the other side of the 15 freeway. We are not happy about it at all.
Christian continued working on Caitlyn's XJ. We had to order more wires and loom which we did not have sizes for in-stock. Meanwhile, Christian fixed an exhaust leak on the TJ. The next week, we took off for another day trip. This time we went to Hunter Mountain and Hidden Valley in Death Valley. We stopped by to look at the Boxcar Cabin while we aired down the tires, but we kind of regretted it because the ground was littered with nails all over the place. We were lucky that we didn't get a flat.
It was a beautiful day. There were still wild flowers out and it wasn't too hot as we were up in the higher elevations, for the most part.
We have found that if we wrap our head with a tactical shemaugh, soaked in water, we can endure the heat a lot better. It might have gotten us in a bit of trouble, as we were doing so well, that we decided to drive through the lower valley to exit Death Valley instead of going back out the way we came in. It was quite a bit hotter down there. We stopped by to see the Ubehebe Crater, which was pretty neat since we've past by from a distance before but I've never stopped by to see it. You used to have to hike a little way to see it back when Christian went with his dad many years ago, but they have built a road and parking lot right up to it now. We aired back up here.
We drove by Badwater and would have stopped to see it better but as there were still a surprising amount of people visiting here, we drove on.
By the time we got to Jubilee Pass on our way out of the park, the car was overheating a bit (as were we). We pulled over briefly to let it cool down and refresh our shemaughs.
The sun was setting but we still had quite a few hours before we would make it back home, so after we cooled down, we continued on our way home.
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