Kern Valley Camping

O

OCArmory

The local gunrunner
My girlfriend and I flew to L05 for a weekend camping trip. It was a ton of fun.
We flew in on Saturday. It was a little cloudy when we left Corona (KAJO). We battled a 30 knot headwind the whole way.
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We flew out towards Bakersfield and followed the Kern river up to Lake Isabella. We had to drop down to 5500' to stay below the cloud layer.
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It was incredibly windy when we landed. They were attempting to have airport day but the wind was pretty gusty and almost a direct crosswind.
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When we got there it was pretty empty.We are the little blue 182.
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By Sunday the ramp was pretty full as well as the campground.
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Our little tent. Held up pretty good to the wind.
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Some excitement on Sunday as a gentleman based at the airport ground looped his plane. He tore up a wingtip and had a prop strike, but at least no one was hurt. It is hard to tell from the photo but the runway is elevated above the ground by about 10' or 12'. It was his passengers first flight in a small plane. I am the one in the grey Vector Arms T-Shirt.
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The river was really cold tried taking a swim but it didn't work.
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On the way home we stopped at Indian Wells for gas and were pleasantly surprised when They let us overfly Edwards.
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And back home at KAJO. It was a great mini vacation. Thanks for reading
Mike
 
OK so girlfriend said I had to add some photos of town. We had a great time. Next time we will book a rafting trip.
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This place is a must stop. Really cool little bar and it has shuffle board.
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Pretty interesting people and cars.
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Great place for lunch and a beer.
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The river cuts through the middle of town. you can stay here but it was packed.
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Fishing is a big thing. Maybe next time I will try.
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And a photo for the pilots
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Great pics! I always loved flying up there.....great transit over LA to and from the 2308, nice sightseeing, and there was literally never a dull moment flying around there. I nearly died in several almost midairs (ok they weren't that close) but its a great area. Good memories doing roll-in sim bombing runs on the kern river bridge and the tehachapi power plant, and some awesome low levels through the panamint valley. I really should have gotten my lazy butt up there in a Cessna or something, landed, and seen the sights like you did here. Maybe next time :)
 
I have been meaning to fly down there. Did you get the rental car by chance?
 
No unfortunately some one had already reserved it. We walked into town and then called the manager Steve to pick us up. Everyone was really friendly. They are working on getting some rental bikes. It is not a bad walk into town.
 
OCArmory said:
My girlfriend and I flew to L05 for a weekend camping trip. It was a ton of fun.
We flew in on Saturday. It was a little cloudy when we left Corona (KAJO). We battled a 30 knot headwind the whole way.
IMG_6471.jpg

We flew out towards Bakersfield and followed the Kern river up to Lake Isabella. We had to drop down to 5500' to stay below the cloud layer.
IMG_6511.jpg

It was incredibly windy when we landed. They were attempting to have airport day but the wind was pretty gusty and almost a direct crosswind.
IMG_6548.jpg

When we got there it was pretty empty.We are the little blue 182.
IMG_6549.jpg

By Sunday the ramp was pretty full as well as the campground.
IMG_6717.jpg

Our little tent. Held up pretty good to the wind.
IMG_6664.jpg

Some excitement on Sunday as a gentleman based at the airport ground looped his plane. He tore up a wingtip and had a prop strike, but at least no one was hurt. It is hard to tell from the photo but the runway is elevated above the ground by about 10' or 12'. It was his passengers first flight in a small plane. I am the one in the grey Vector Arms T-Shirt.
IMG_6755.jpg

The river was really cold tried taking a swim but it didn't work.
IMG_6671.jpg

On the way home we stopped at Indian Wells for gas and were pleasantly surprised when They let us overfly Edwards.
IMG_6863.jpg

And back home at KAJO. It was a great mini vacation. Thanks for reading
Mike
Click to expand...
Sorry, this is me being a southern guy what but are the runways made up at Edwards? are they just carved out of the Salt?
 
Edwards has a fly in once in a couple years I've heard. With pre registration and background check. Where to get the info on that?
 
Friend of mine landed there with emergency fuel after China Lake got shut down for another emergency that fouled the deck and sent everyone else scrambling to a divert. No background check required :)
 
L05 is having another fly-in/splash-in this weekend along with some other events at the airport if anyone wants more reasons to go.
 
Fencer said:
Edwards has a fly in once in a couple years I've heard. With pre registration and background check. Where to get the info on that?
Click to expand...
They don't really have civilian fly-ins. The first and only one that I am aware of was back in the fall of 2010. It was sort of like the lotto, too. Restrictions on the types of aircraft, you apply and register on line and they only chose 100 applicants out of thousands that applied. The landings were restricted to the Rosamond lake bed. But it was quite the event. You could also drive there but you had to register on line for that as well and for a parking pass. It was so popular that they talked of having another one, but so far it hasn't happened that I know of.

With that said, they do tend to have open houses and air shows from time to time, but again, not on a regular basis. They had them in 2008 and 2009, but they have none scheduled for this year, sadly. They used to have many more of them in the 80's and 90's. It's quite the place and well worth a visit. Between the museums and static displays and the flying jets, it's really cool plus and very worth the drive.

Here is their website: http://www.edwards.af.mil/index.asp

The photos section on their website is nice to peruse through too.

Here is a good website for air shows in California:

http://www.milavia.net/airshows/calendar/showdates-2012-north_america-US-CA.html

Miramar in San Diego, will have an airshow this October.

http://www.miramarairshow.com/tickets.html

Here are some of the aircraft that will be flying and demonstrations: Going to be excellent!

http://www.miramarairshow.com/performers.html

If you have never been to an air show show there, let let tell you, they are awesome. Plenty of flights/shows in the air, ground displays, ground shows, all kinds of things to see and do.
 
Meh, I did static display duty 2 years in a row at Miramar, and I have seen better shows to be honest. Not that the acts are bad or anything, just that the layout for viewing purposes sucks, and parking/traffic (even for participants) sucks. Both times I spent over an hour trying to get from the 805 exit (coming from my house) to the west gate. That's about 3 miles. It's also super hot, and beers are like $6-7.00, and they have no water whatsoever. That last part is probably not so specific to NKX though. The reedeming quality was the pilot party at the Oclub on Friday night....pretty much everything you would expect the Miramar club in its heyday to have been, minus the prostitutes (depending on your definition of prostitute).
 
Nice pics!! I spent 2 weeks in Bakersfield and took 4 trips up the Kern River. We stopped twice at the Kern River Brewing Company. The food wasn't anything to be impressed with but their micro-brews were really good.
 
The river is pretty nice and decent fly fishing there for trout and bass. I used to go once or twice a year. Haven't been in ages. Seeing the pics makes me want to make a trip up there and fish. Really nice pics. Looks like you had a great time there.
 
Nice! Definitely had some good times there! One time a got the "rental" and it didn't have reverse...

Does that bartender with the eyes tattooed in the back of her neck still work at the Saloon???​
 
There was a big guy bartending when we were there. I definitely sounded like everyone had a rough night. Several people came in while we were there looking for their lost jackets, credit cards, and ID's.
 
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