NextStepDesigns

New friends Drew & Mia, and old friends Omid & Connie and Buddy & Judith and all our kids, took our shinny LR3’s up into Joshua Tree National Monument on a cold and windy winter day, under threatening skies filled with the promise of rain.  The weather turned out okay, and we had a great little sojurne to some of the more remote reaches of the park.  We started in the south by winding our way up through Berdoo Canyon and across Paradise valley.  We stopped for lunch at Squaw Tank rocks, and then headed east towards Old Dale Road.  From there we headed north on sandy road to the remote Brooklyn Mine trail.  It was a great trip.

Joshua Tree photos (40 images on SmugMug)

I tremendously enjoyed the recent Nightmare Gulch run with my Southern Californa Land Rover club. We had 13 trucks, and nice cool weather (it snowed on the way home!). Nightmare Gulch in Red Rocks Canyon State Park, halfway between nowhere on the fringes of the Mojave Desert and the very southern most end where the Sierra’s rise up out of the desert floor. I’ve explored a portion of these region before (Last Chance Canyon), but the area is incredibly diverse and exotic, and I can see many more trips in the future. The geologic formations of the area are amazing, with veins of iron oxide, gypsum, mica, etc…all exposed by erosion. The area is full of ravines and dry washes, and dotted throughout with remnants of early mining efforts in the Gold Rush era.

Nightmare Gulch Photos (67 images on SmugMug)

I have uploaded some photos taken recently of my Seabridge Marina project. This project is a large development by DR Horton comprised of many single family homes, several 3 story podium buildings, one 4-story podium building, several 2 story townhomes, two retail plazas, and two live/work mixed use podium buildings.

MVPI’s scope of work was the townhomes and podium units, but also included master planning. Podium buildings have underground concrete parking garages, a thick concrete slab (podium) above, and then are topped with multiple levels of wood framed housing and/or units.

Construction started in July of last year. The townhomes all presold before construction was completed. Two of the first three podium buildings are nearly complete and over 60% sold. The third podium has just been poured and is ready to start framing. The two Live/Work podiums start construction next month, and the final phase of podium and townhome construction will begin sometime after that.

The photos are primarily of the nearly finished Port Marluna 3 story Podium building. Also included are some fantastic aerial photos shot last month.
http://www.nextstepdesigns.com/images/arch/seabridge/
(Please excuse the cheesy website. It’s a simple template produced by PhotoShop)

Enjoy the images!

I had an amazing trip to Moab, Utah earlier this summer, and shot thousands of photos. I posted a few hundred of the better ones on my SmugMug account, but I sorted these all down to a select few that in my opinion, tell the best story.

Best of Moab - 2006 (42 images on SmugMug)

The other Moab galleries (and write-ups), are quicklinked below:

• Day 1 - Getting There
• Day 2 - Top of the World
• Day 3 - Klondike Bluffs & Arches National Park
• Day 4 - Fins-n-Things
• Day 4 - Land Rover National Rally Activities
• Day 5 - Lions Back
• Day 5 - Fooling Around

In my previous attempt to make my coil sprung LR3 more adept off road, i had added 40mm taller springs from Pedders Suspension of Australia. They worked great, but still weren’t quite tall enough for trails like the John Bull Trail in Big Bear.

So last week, I fitted 65mm springs from KingSprings, also of Australia. This added just over another 1/2″ of ground clearance to the truck, at relatively low cost. However, these springs don’t ride near as nice as the Pedders springs did. The ride is much firmer, and not as controlled (dampened) as with the 40mm Pedders Springs. I’m not convinced these are the right choice yet. I am going on a challenging trail later this month called “Nightmare Gulch”, so the new KingSprings will get their work out there. Stay tuned….

Here is a revised height chart with the KingSprings: