Protecting the paint, eh?  You need one of those protective front end car "bras".  Not just any off the shelf bra though.  This calls for a performance art project.  To wit:

Go to a Goodwill / Salvation Army / etc, second hand store and buy all the (ahem) well padded bras you can find.  Stitch them together to provide good coverage while leaving a little "exposure" for the "headlights" & grill.

You'll be stylin' and safe.

Just thinking.

 Steve...is this a bad thing or a good thing? I am all ears for suggestions. I do not recall staying in one place very long on any DV trip I have been on.

Just curious...

Mike

I hear you Steve, having popular or well known meeting,camping and starting spots as outlined will enable those who want to hang somewhere to catch others following the itinerary at another point pretty easily.  For those coming long distance and joining mid-week, they need to be assured someone will be at arranged meet points....does not mean everyone needs to be there.  If all participants were starting at same time and day, than I would say we could plan more on the fly.  Big groups with people coming from all over at different times and days puts a little more logistics in the mix.

As we get closer and see who actually is coming and when , we can than reduce the number of "known" campspots/starting points to accomodate them for joining us and plan the days off the cuff thereafter or before.

I was just handed the task (along with Alan)of putting together some sort of interesting route to enable people to join in at different times as their schedules determine.

Once I insure those that are coming later in the week have a place to meet up with the group we can blaze new trails and camp wherever.

Mike

Alan,  that sounds cool.  Let's solicit an alternative itinerary focusing on a given area with fewer camp/meeting spots to act as a basecamp for 1.5 days or so. This will make it easier for those to come at different times and and allow for more "plan the day as we go" opportunities.

With that said, we need a bit more input as to what areas of the park of interest to everybody.

Mike

A rank ordered list of "places I want to see" and "things I want to do" would be really useful.  Just PM AlanMcR and DesertStar.

No promises of a democracy here, but some input would probably make this process work more to the satisfaction of all.  I'm just happy to get away from it all and go explore.  The trip would be perfect if the school system would just let the kids out for a week. 

As long as folks are PM'ing, another useful tidbit would be how far you can go (offroad) before needing to hit a fuel stop.   Mike and I are probably at the opposite ends of this scale, but some calibration would be helpful.