afton canyon water crossing — or not

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lara
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afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by lara »

https://www.desertusa.com/dusablog/cars ... -swim.html

i went to afton canyon friday to shoot the cliffside mine and other parts of the canyon for a new DUSA story.

my friend and i had made it through the first mojave river crossing dozens of times. this time the water looked deeper than usual and i wanted to get out and check it more thoroughly - i dunno, throw a rock or wade out with a stick or something.

she said, "nah, we can make it through no problem."

as she was plowing through, this giant wave built up in front of us. she yelled - "look at the tidal wave!" while i am yelling "go beth, go!" hoping we could make it to the other side. never have i seen anything like that wave coming at us. holy sh*t.

car bogged down stalling us in the middle of the bloody mojave river. the cattail rushes on both sides of the road have pretty much stopped a good flow of water over the crossing making for a pond in the middle of the road. if i had been driving i think i would have said, "hey, the amount of water here is too high" and i have better clearance than she has in her jeep grand cherokee.

thank heavens for cell phones. her brother and a friend came out to our resuce, hooked three tow straps and a chain together and got us out using a toyota tacoma. what a disaster.

in retrospect, always get out of the car to check the depth. she said she wasn't worried about the depth but what might be under the water, like a big rock or something. i mean, it's the mojave river - usually a trickle.

we were not expecting the water to swamp the car, the water was almost to the top of the wheel rim and was over the lower edge of the doors. i don't know if we had crept through it would have been better, but now one side of her car is up on blocks draining out the water. hopefully the engine is not ruined.

thank heavens it was warm, if it had been as chilly in the late afternoon as it had been for the previous few days, we would have been cold with water over our feet. over our ankles. i sat and photographed dragonflies out the window and the river in front of us.

first look by her mechanics - the car is toast. water in places where water is not supposed to go. sigh.

good news is we are going back today - i still have photos to shoot, but in the tacoma - and not over the big crossing.
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Paul
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by Paul »

Bummer! Sounds like water got sucked into the air intake.
lara
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by lara »

Paul wrote:Bummer! Sounds like water got sucked into the air intake.
yes, that is what the thought is. going to take a new engine to fix. it was that "wave" that "done us in." :)

lara
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TradClimber
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by TradClimber »

Lara, look at it on the bright side - only the engine drown.

And your friend got an education that he/she won't soon forget.

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Sandman
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by Sandman »

Hey.....I got stuck in that very same location!!! I did discover it is shallower on the downstream side of the road. My truck is now toast too. The encounter with that palm tree and subsequent rollling action was fatal to it. Fortunatly, I woke up two months later and continue to practice walking with a walker. The head injury is healing and it aint nothing a little plastic surgery wont help sometime in the future. The Mojave River crossing at Afton Canyon can be a real stick in the mud sometimes!
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by NissanBoy »

Sandman is that some kind of weird joke? Did you really wreck hard core in that vicinity?
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Vulture
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by Vulture »

No, it was 2 separate incidents.

Sandman had a terrible accident. You can read about it here:

http://www.desertusa.com/mb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1992
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Plays In The Dirt
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by Plays In The Dirt »

And here is a link to a blog about his accident that his daughter setup if you wish to read more.

http://davidvanvoorhis.blogspot.com/
matisrev03
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by matisrev03 »

Sandman post_id=21261 time=1286061695
Hey.....I got stuck in that very same location!!! I did discover it is shallower on the downstream side of the road. My truck is now toast too. The encounter with that palm tree and subsequent rollling action was fatal to it. Fortunatly, I woke up two months later and continue to practice walking with a walker. The head injury is healing and it aint nothing a little plastic surgery wont help sometime in the future. The Mojave River crossing at Afton Canyon can be a real stick in the mud sometimes!

You can also buy notched tires to keep your car on the road.
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riocensisi4126
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Re: afton canyon water crossing — or not

Post by riocensisi4126 »

matisrev03 wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 6:59 pm You can also buy notched tires to keep your car on the road.
Yes, it's true
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