Incinerator behind the house at Caruther's Canyon Road

In April 23, 2012, my wife and I woke up early and packed the family into our jeep for a day of back country exploring in the Mojave desert.  On this day, our destination was the middle leg of the historic Old Mojave Road.

The Old Mojave Road was originally a series of trails used by the Native Americans of the Mojave desert to connect the Colorado River with the Pacific coast.  Native Americans developed the trail over time, which was later used by Spanish Missionary’s, U. S. Army, and stage operators.  The Mojave Road fell into disuse when the railroads came into the area in the 1880′s.  Dennis Casebier, and his Friends of the Mojave Road, ‘rediscovered’, mapped and documented the Mojave Road.  Our trip on this day, is possible due to their hard work and dedication, which follows centuries of history.

As we left Las Vegas early Sunday morning we drove past Primm, Nevada and continued into California we watched the temperature climb from 75 to 85 degrees.  We exited interstate at Nipton Road and drove East into the southern California desert.  A quick right turn at Ivanpah Road and we were on our way into the Mojave National Preserve.

We ran into a slight delay when we hit the train crossing as a train slowly crossed from horizon to horizon.  With Primm on the horizon, we left the pavement and decided to air down the tires and disconnect the sway bar.  I didn’t really need to do this for this trail, however an earlier experience in Death Valley with a broken a sway bar disconnect which caused for a long drive home.  We spotted a few deer as we drove through the New York Mountains and dropped into the valley beyond.

Railroad monument at Ivanpah road and Cedar Canyon Road

Following Ivanpah Road south we soon intersected with Cedar Canyon Road.  After 85 miles and a quick turn to the  West on to Cedar Canyon exposed us to the Old Mojave Trail.  Where Ivanpah is a three lane dirt highway, the Old Mojave Trail is a rutted path that is just slightly wider than our Jeep JK.  The tail essentially runs directly west and more or less straight with a few minor variances to avoid the odd Joshua tree.   We delighted to find a covey of quail running down the road and shading under some of the Joshua trees which cover the valley.  Dispersed across the family are a variety of small homesteads and ranches.

After a new miles of driving we came to intersection of Cedar Canyon Road and Caruthers Canyon.  Just of the road to the North is an old abandoned house.  Or at least a three room structure which was abandoned years ago.  Chain link fence surrounds the compound, however the fence is wide open to entry.  Behind the home is what appears at incinerator for trash.  A very cool place and apparently people have camped here.

Back on the trail and heading west again, you cross a side open plain.  During this section for whatever reason, we ran into a bunch of motorcycles, which sped past when I made room for them.    Soon you approach about the only four by four obstacle with any degree of difficultly, which is a steep drop off into Watson wash.  The steep drop off is very easy to go down.  I just dropped into low range and touched the brake as needed and let the suspension take care of the rest.

Once into Watson wash, it is a very short drive to Rock Springs.  Rock Springs is a small oasis with a shallow spring and old military outpost which is mostly gone now.   Driving up and around the hill, we came across Bert Smith’s cabin.  Bert Smith was a World War I vet, who survived the mustard gas attacks.  As with many WWI survivors, the gas shells damaged his lungs and he was given a short time to live.  He moved to the Mojave to seek the clean dry air and built a homestead.  Bert Smith had a great pick in land, his homestead overlooks Rock Springs and the Watson Wash valley, and the view is almost 360 degrees.

Bert Smith's Cabin

Travelling West from Bert Smith’s Cabin, we ran into a vast network of roads on the way to the Government holes, which is another water source and windmill.  Navigation in this road network was really easy thanks to the cairn’s place by Mr Caisbier and his dedication group.  Due to a sleeping little boy, and slightly neurotic dog, we didn’t stop at the Government holes and continued on our way.  Once again on Cedar Canyon Road, we made quick work on the eleven mile run to the Kelso-Cima Road.

Our guide-book, the “Guide to Southern California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails” describes the next section.  ”Continue west across remote, beautiful desert.  The road is very sandy with continuous whoop-ti-doos.”  This description is woefully inadequate.  The desert was amazing with wildflowers, monster panoramic views to the desert and the Kelso Dunes.  Large rock out croppings break the valley floor and really create a wonderful experience.

Cattle enjoying water at the Government Holes corral

The road, on the other hand is a different story.  ”Continuous whoop-ti-doos” is a euphemism for about 10 miles of whoop-ti-doos running, which when running with 18 lbs of pressure in the tires and a speed of about 6 miles per hour, virtually rocks you to sleep.  After lunch we ran into some fellow jeepers, at the infamous mailbox / frog sanctuary, who shared by observations on a nap.

For the majority of our trip, we traveled at about 4ooo ft in elevation and enjoyed temperatures in the low 90′s.  As we drove down from the mailbox, we dropped down to the Kelbaker Road and into Baker.  While in Baker we aired up the tires, enjoyed a nice shake from Dairy Queen and an air temperature of 107.

On the way home, we started planning for the Western section of the Old Mojave Road.  We will be back to this section one day.  A one day drive and a few words written on a website are not enough to explore, enjoy or describe this vast wilderness.  Once we have done the western edge, I think I will be taking the family down the length of the trail, from West to East, on a multi-day expedition.  In each area there is more to discover and I want to see it all.

Download our trip route into Google Earth: Google Earth KMZ

Next Stop… Mojave Road West!

Painted and completed, with the Jeep behind it.

I finally complete the chuck box or camp kitchen. Constructed from 3/8 inch plywood, the chuck box is 17″ x 27″ x 22.5″.  All of the joints are “glued and screwed” using butt joints.  The entire construction is filled, sanded, and painted with a desert camouflage color scheme.

The top of the chuck box is hinged with a shelf, to allow the cook to get access to the stove.  The top shelf has four holes for the stove legs to securely hold the stove in place during transport and use.  There are two large hand holds cut out near the top to easily allow someone to carry it.  The hand holds also allow the propane connector to pass through and attach to the stove, so someone could use the stove in place.

The front is hinged and folds down to provide a work surface.  The front may be placed in the upright position and held in place with magnets to hold it out of the way as needed.

Inside, the chuck box has a large storage capacity.  The top section stores the stove, and all the supplies required for the stove, in addition to some marshmallow roasting sticks.  The middle section stores cooking utensils, serving utensils, plates, cups and bowls.

The expanded check box stores a lot of cooking gear.

The huge bottom section can carry a 8 quart dutch oven, nested 12″ frying pans, two pots, coffee pots, and washing bins.  In addition, we can store paper towels, cooking oil, soap and still have room for extra supplies.

The chuck box fits perfectly in the back of our jeep wrangler, along with a 6 gallon water bottle, ice chest, and food box.  The only issue, is that when the chuck box is filled up with gear and supplies, it can be rather heavy.  With the weight, comes strength, and the jeep does have heavy duty springs to carry the load.

Website

Traffic to the website is light, but gaining ground steadily.  I am hopeful that as I continue to write more, traffic will increase as people of like interests discover the website.   In what free time I have, I am studying WordPress as much as possible.  There are a lot of great articles written on the subject, but my greatest like and dislike of the software is the “WordPressyness” of it.  More on that later…

ChuckBox (Camp Kitchen)

It meats my goals in the short-term and I look forward to taking it on a camping trip in the near future.

Phone Server

This is mostly done, but not yet complete. This is sad for me as the Nevada Presidential caucuses are just around the corner and is not deployed in time for all the robo calls telling me for whom to vote or caucus.  The only remaining task is to record the voicemail setup.

Camping Prep

I am continuing to get setup for various camping trips and expeditions with the family.  To that end, I continue to work on the jeep to get it ready.  This is an ongoing project as my family continues to grow and go on more ambitious in our camping endeavors.  Short term plans include returning to Death Valley, perhaps the Eastern Sierra and Zion National park.  The two biggest items I need to discuss is a roof rack for the Jeep, and a new family sized tent.

SDR

Last year I passed by technician class license for HAM radio.  For those interested my call sign is KF7QIB.  I typically listen in on local repeaters in the VHF/UHF spectrum.  In the near future, I will start studying for my General license, which further opens up the HF frequencies.  Eventually, I entertain the idea of owning a radio and operating at 10+ meter wavelengths.  In the mean time, I am enjoying playing with an SDR, or Software Defined Radio.  I recently completed a build of a 40M softrock II receiver, and am in the process of evaluating the various control software.  More on this later….

IRLP

As stated, I recently passed my HAM radio exam.  HAM radio and Linux, two of my favorite past times are married together with IRLP of the Internet Radio Linking Project.  Essentially, you are connecting a radio, to your Linux based computer and connecting it with other linked computers across the internet.   This concept is pretty cool, but cannot replace the range and stability of a good HR radio.  After all, the internet does go down from time to time.

The list continues…

For my home network, for years I would buy a reasonably priced wireless routers which could be purchased and Fry’s, Best Buy or any of the retail stores in the area.  I don’t recall ever purchasing a router online as typically you need it to replace the previous router which just failed.

I would buy ”all in one” wireless routers which would be highly recommend by friends or coworkers.  Once installed, they would work great for about 6 months and then fail.  I would RMA the routers, and when the replacement arrived I would give it away, simply because I can’t do my job without my internet connection.   The last router I purchased was a dual channel wireless N router, and sure enough, after about 6 months, it again failed.   I noticed on this failure, that they way it failed was the key to my problem.

I noticed, that the first thing to fail would be the wireless connection.  It would randomly drop all the wireless clients in the house and the throughput across the router would drop to a crawl, and I would see extremely high latency.  The routers would then be extremely hot to the touch.  Keep in mind, that my routers sit in a well ventilated server rack.  When I restarted the router, it would boot up fine, and the symptoms would return once the port forwarding rules loaded.  I did have a lot of port forwarding going on for a variety of services, but it didn’t seem excessive and the routers web interface would allow much more.

When my last wireless router failed, I drove down to Fry’s again and purchased a Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall FVS318v3.  This is a SOHO router and doesn’t offer wireless.  I was insistent that I not have wireless in this router.  The router does have a VPN component built-in, but I don’t utilize this feature for my purposes.  When I opened the packaging, I was immediately happy.  After I threw away the instructions, I noticed the chassis is metal, not plastic, and it has a small cooling fan built into it.  After about five minutes worth of work, I had the router plugged in, configured, and completely up and running.  The most important issue for me, is that after almost two years, I have never had to restart it, and it has never failed for me.

The router I replaced was a Cisco Linksys Dual-Band WRT610N.  When I purchased the router, it retailed for about $200, so it wasn’t an inexpensive.  I came to the conclusion, that between the dual band wireless, and a hefty set of port forwarding rules I was simply overheating the routers.  I still use the Cisco, but it only provides wireless for the home office, and from time to time still needs a reboot.

Should this router fail for me, then my next step is to build an carry out an IPCop solution.  I would prefer not to go this route due to the increase power demands and costs of running a computer as a router.  I have run IPCop servers for three years with no downtime, issue or rebooting, so I am very comfortable with that solution.

The Linksys SPA-3102 is a VoIP media gateway which allows you to connect your regular phone using an RJ-11 phone jack, and convert audio signal into a SIP compliant TCP/IP signal.  The original configuration for this device is that it replaces your home router.  Currently, my home router of choice is a Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall FVS318v3.  I am very pleased with the reliability and performance of this router, is it succeeds where many other routers failed.  This fact alone forced me to set up my Linksys VoIP gateway a bit differently.

Connections

Connecting the VoIP gateway into my network is simplicity at its best.  Plugin the WAN interface into my internal network switch, plug the  phone into the green “Phone” RJ-11 connection and plugin your device.

Configuration

Once you have powered on your VoIP gateway, the next step is to configure the phone.  To accomplish this:

1. Connect the gateway with your web browser and login to your gateway.  The directions for this step are part of your packaging.
2. Once connected, click on the WAN tab, which allows you configure the network for the gateway.  Because I am not using this as my primary router, the WAN adapter is really just the LAN connection to my home network.
3. Fill in/change the settings to suit your network needs.  I prefer to a static home network as SOHO routers are not very sophisticated.
4. Once your WAN/LAN is completely configured, you may be prompted to restart the device.  Please do so, and reconnected to the gateway as need.
5. When connected again look for the painfully small link in the footer or navigation bar, which reads “Admin Login” and click on it.  Once clicked, many new options and tabs are available to you.
6. Click on the “Voice” tab to configure your phone line.
7. Click the “Line 1″ tab.
8. Enter the IP address or server name of your PBX in the Proxy text field.
9. Enter the Display Name, User ID, Auth ID and password you used when you setup the extension on the SIP server.
10. Reboot as needed.

Calling

Once you VoIP gateway reboots, you should be able to login to your sip server and see the extension registration.  Additionally, you may call from phone from another extension, or call in and out of the system depending on the configuration of your PBX.

My goal is to build a chuck box, or camp kitchen, which is a simple box to store all the kitchen supplies needed for a successful camping trip.  The chuck box needs to balance strength, weight and most importantly for me, size.  The chuck box needs to contain all of gear and would enable to set up our campsite in no time.  I am hoping to keep it small enough and lite enough that I can easily move it with no help.  The Jeep 4 door Wrangler does not have a large about of cargo space especially for a family of three and a yellow Labrador.

I have several goals:

1. I want the chuck box to fix in the back of the jeep with the back seats usable.
2. The box must contain all of our cooking gear,  including a stove, pots, frying pans, dutch oven, plates, utensils, cleaning supplies, etc…
3. Everything is carried securely AND  organized in such a way that it keeps down the noise potential when driving on the back roads.
4. The box needs to be light weight yet strong enough to survive the pounding of camping, ‘jeepin’, etc…

1. Cost: I want to have a phone line, voice-mail, etc… and NOT pay way too much money for a large corporation.  I am planning on running the phone server and utilizing Google’s free Google Voice service which provides incoming and outgoing phone service.  In time they may change for this service, but other companies offer phone numbers and service for a starting cost of about $4 / month.  This is much less expensive that my current monthly phone bill.
2. Lack of Coverage:  Cell phone reception at my house is poor depending upon your service provider.
3. Old technology: I have several devices in my home, such as alarms, DVR’s etc… that do not use the Internet to connect to the service provider.  This is a sad state of technology, which is the reality of the times.
4. Call Routing: A phone server will allow me to send calls from multiple sources, and route them to different locations depending upon their source.  Also, as an example should someone call, and wish to speak with my wife Heather, I can easily transfer the call to her cell.
5. Call screening: During political seasons, and living in a swing state for the presidential elections, I tend to get a lot of political calls.  During the last election cycle, I would receive up to 20 phone calls per day.  This is the sad state of our political system and really annoying for me.  When the calls start coming in next time, I may force the caller to press the ’1′ key on their phone to complete the call.  This should stop all ‘Robo Calls’.
6. Continuing Education: A big part of my goal here is to teach myself how SIP phone servers work.

Many people, Blogs, consultants, etc… have written a lot about setting up an Asterisk SIP phone server with Google Voice.  I have not invented anything here, and rely heavily on their hard work and dedication to their craft.  So that being said, here is what I did to get Asterisk running with Google Voice.

Download  the ISO file for PBX in a Flash.  PBX in a Flash is essentially and CentOS distribution, which includes all the software required to get the phone server online.  The installation was pretty straight forward and the website http://nerdvittles.com/?p=791  has the process documented reasonably well, so I will give credit where credit is due.  The process did need a bit of time on my hardware, and this is due to the fact that I installed the system on hardware which is several years old.  Actually, a nice part of the system is that the PBX will run on old hardware.  I was looking for an old laptop to use, but settled on a desktop several years past its prime.

Once the system restarted, I was able to quickly create two extensions, and had my phones running in a matter of minutes.  The first phone I have is a LinkSYS SPA942 and it was very easy to set up utilizing the web interface.  The second phone is actually a LinkSYS Voice Gateway with Router SPA3102.  This is a great device which plugins into my network switch and has the ability to connect a regular phone to the SIP PBX server.

So my next steps are voice mail, more toys, test reliability and setting up two different caller IDs depending upon which phone dials out.  This is for the most part continuing to learn the system, but important to me none the less.  I cannot wait to call my phone company….

Phone system:  I am in the process of migrating my home phone service into a  Linux based SIP phone server.  My goal is to improve my home phone service and dramatically decrease the monthly cost.  Many people are doing away with their home phone service and moving to cell phones, which I can respect and envy.  However, this is not an option when you have home alarms and DVR’s which requrie a phone line.

Additionally, at my house cell phone service can be spotty.  Currently, I have the server built and am working on final tuning and configuration.  More on this to follow…

Camp Kitchen:   My family and I do a lot of out of doors activity, hiking, camping, jeepin, etc…  From our last campout, my wife and I determined that it is time to build a dedicated camping kitchen.  My goal is to have a single box, which can be used to store all of our gear in a small package which easily fits into the back of our jeep with all of our other gear.  I hope to store and organize our stove, pots, pans, utensils and cleaning gear.  More on this to follow…

Website: I continue to reorganize, work on and update my website.  To that end, I have purchased the domain JamesRathbunPhotography.com  for my photographs.  This domain is now powered by WordPress.  I am typically not a fan of CMS systems and there limitations quickly limit my ability to develop content to my liking.  However, with the new website, and the fact that I am now blogging more, any limitations are quickly surpassed by WordPress’s ability  to quickly and easily publish articles.  The next minor goal is to continue to find widgets to improve the site, and fix some bugs on the server.

As such, I am starting a blog, which will allow me to more easily post updates on a variety of subjects, and not be limited to just photography.  I have decided to use wordpress to power this new site, and have rededicated myself to updating the site often.

My first order of business is to get wordpress up and running with all the various plugins, which make life easier.  Once done with that, I am going to overhaul a custom theme to make the site look great, and continue to move forward.

Please be sure to come back and visit to learn more as more features come online.

-Jim