Photon (The Light Hunter) Build Thread

All work and no play makes Photon one unhappy girl so I took her out for a little drive in the woods...

Up here in the mountains the remaining snow level has now risen well above 6000' and with Trout season about to open this next coming weekend it was an opportunity to check and see if any of the forest service roads were open...been hankering for a trail ride ever since missing last fall's opportunities to hit some of the trails around here.

This trail ride would be an official 'break in' run with the new rear bumper as well as to test how far I could load up the factory Fox suspension, one last time. Given that these shocks have just over 51,000 miles on them they still performed wonderfully.

Where the pavement ends...


Hit some trails with varied terrain from sandy/dust tracks and spying some abandoned mining camps.



Finding a neat camping spot...


This old bridge runs below a dam's spillway, sad that the 'spring runoff' hasn't been that great so no waterfall action here.


Then onto some class 2-3 sections of rocky-loamy soil with off camber pitches.



I'll have to check the dash cam to see if it recorded this one kinda hairy situation when I attempted to turn around on this hill to get this pic...

Out of the forest but not after Photon (whom sometimes thinks she's a dog) puts her nose between the Sugar Pines up here.


And back onto the main highway and to stop at one of my favorite vistas...hard to believe but not two weeks ago there was snow along that far ridge.


Time for a bath! But not after admiring how Photon would look with a Desert Tan paint scheme!

 

sorry if this has been discussed - what antenna is that or what is it for?

 

It’s a Bolton Technical Blade XL antenna for my Velocity signal booster.

I use this setup so I can run onX in most areas…except down in this one canyon up here!

 

does it work well?

 

So far my results have been mixed…signal boosters work their best in open territories like down in the Mojave region around Ward Valley vs in steep canyons here in gold country. Seems one can get cell signal easy enough along major thoroughfares nowadays, much better than 10-15 years ago.

 

Is that signal booster something like this? https://www.weboost.com/products/drive-reach-overland <----I was thinking of buying this

 

Yes! Same functionality/purpose. I just prefer the slimmer antenna profile over the weboost’s design….hey, every bit of drag counts!