Last min afternoon run Fearless Follies

[FishPOET]

I'm leaving work at 5pm tonight. Heading home and hitching up the heep. Tracy and I are heading out that way tonight. We will be doing some geocaching in the morning. Hope to meet you at the trailhead. What channel on the CB?

[dirtman13]

Got my shock installed and my new skid plate built. Looks like I be going. See you tomorrow.

[Kodiak Spirit]

Awesome! Gonna be on Channel 4

Gonna leave Del Taco as close to 12 noon as possible, so if you want to eat come a lil' early, there are about 3 that are meeting us at the trail, so I don't want to keep them waiting too long.

The weather looks good, it will be cold, but should be a good wheelin' time!

[Kodiak Spirit]

Last Minute Rollcall?

1)Desert Jewel
2)Malachi
3)Kodiak Spirit
4)Dr. Dirty
5)Rat Patrol
6)Paul B
7)Russ Chung
8)Fishpoet
9)Dirtman

..... this is great! did I miss anyone?

see y'all tomorrow!

[Desert Jewel]

Can't wait

[TJ Clay]

meet you at del taco about 11:30, 2 jeeps me and steve coultas

[Kodiak Spirit]

great TJ Clay, see you there! now I'm going to sleep!

[mrchips]

post some pics, and let us know what you think of the trail and how it is progressing. We are still in the process of cutting some new trails out there,,have fun

[SAR Jeeper]

Jesse,
I'm commited to Shredder Sunday morning. When I'm done there, I will head over toward you guys. I'm gonna maybe take Monday off and explore Calico and Rainbow. What CB channel you settling on so I can shout you out when I get in the area?
Rat

Were you with Andrew (?). I got a call from him about 7:30 this morning looking for Shredder. I think you guys found it ok. Hope it was a good run. It sucks to be working on a Sunday morning while everyone's out wheelin, an my poor ol CJ's not feelin well!

[Desert Jewel]

Just got home. It was a great time and the Desert Jewel conquered Snoopy's Gulch!! Woohoo We headed to do Snoopy's in the daylight first. On the way over Jesse was going over 2 rocks and Dirtman radio'd to tell him hold up so he could get a picture. So Jess decided to back up to get the pose again and the Kodiak Spirit shifted to the driver side causing him to fall in between the rocks. His rear axle was in between the rocks with his bumper sitting on the biggest one. They got out the hi-lift, stacked some rocks and right over it he went. When we got to the trail head of Snoopys we got a call from Rat Patrol that he was here and gonna fix a shock. So we all made it thru Snoopy's and then headed back to meet up with Rat. He decided to not mess with the shock and rode passenger with me up to the Crow's Nest. It got REALLY chilly as the sun was setting. When we got to the bottom of the Crow's nest we noticed an oil leak on one of the guys rigs (sorry can't remember your name). He somehow got a good gash in the oil pan. The guys put some kind of steel putty on it and it held oil so he could get home. They also shoveled up all the oil into trash bags to properly dispose of it. It was dark and cold so we headed back to air up, head home, and a few of us went out for dinner. Good times!!! Pic's to come soon after I get my camera charged again.

[Mike]

Just got home. It was a great time and the Desert Jewel conquered Snoopy's Gulch!! Woohoo We headed to do Snoopy's in the daylight first. On the way over Jesse was going over 2 rocks and Dirtman radio'd to tell him hold up so he could get a picture. So Jess decided to back up to get the pose again and the Kodiak Spirit shifted to the driver side causing him to fall in between the rocks. His rear axle was in between the rocks with his bumper sitting on the biggest one. They got out the hi-lift, stacked some rocks and right over it he went. When we got to the trail head of Snoopys we got a call from Rat Patrol that he was here and gonna fix a shock. So we all made it thru Snoopy's and then headed back to meet up with Rat. He decided to not mess with the shock and rode passenger with me up to the Crow's Nest. It got REALLY chilly as the sun was setting. When we got to the bottom of the Crow's nest we noticed an oil leak on one of the guys rigs (sorry can't remember your name). He somehow got a good gash in the oil pan. The guys put some kind of steel putty on it and it held oil so he could get home. They also shoveled up all the oil into trash bags to properly dispose of it. It was dark and cold so we headed back to air up, head home, and a few of us went out for dinner. Good times!!! Pic's to come soon after I get my camera charged again.

Hey Desert Jewel... I think that this post needs this pic of Kodiak Spirit:

[FishPOET]

Tracy and I left Norco at 8pm. We were at El Mirage shortly after 9pm and we found a level spot and parked for the evening. The heater was on 70 all night and made for a comfortable evening. We woke up to ice and frost on the ground and water in the lake.

After breakfast we drove the ridge east of the main street climbing Red Mountain and ending up at the Crow's Nest. We had lunch at rest area #10 and waited for everyone to arrive.

The gang showed up just before one and we were soon on the trail. From the starting point we ran to waypoint 13, 14, 15 etc all the way over to Snoopy's Gulch. We climbed up an over Snoopy's Gulch and around and down the backside and then back East to rest area #10 where we met up with Rat Patrol.

It was 4:15 and Tracy and I decided to load up and head for home before it got cold and dark out.

Thanks to Jesse for organizing and leading the run. Thanks to Russ and Paul for some terrific spotting. Thanks to Mike for the encouragement over the radio. Thanks to the Roughwheelers for laying out such a fun trail.

A few photos below with the balance at:
http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...T/El%20Mirage/



























This was my track off the GPS for the weekend

[Mike]

Fearless' Folly - Another Trail Report

As Desert Jewel has already said, we headed toward Snoopy's Gulch as soon as possible. Everyone seemed to want to take the challenge before the daylight ran out. Even so, we still choose to run the western half of the Fearless' Folly trail first to get there. We couldn't help ourselves...the fastest trail to Snoopy's Gulch lead past some of the best hill climbs on the marked trail for Fearless. We gave in when we saw the first hill climb.

We may have given Kodiak Spirit some grief in a previous post, but he really was the hero of the day. He took a dad up the first hill to help the dad's son back down the hill on his motorcycle:



Afterwards, we all followed him up the hill:


The Western half of Fearless' Folly is my favorite. By climbing the hill, we were pretty much committed to following the rest of the trail over to Snoopy's Gulch. The trail leads to some high vistas with some great views of the dry lake that wasn't so dry after the recent rains:


At the next hill climb, you can choose to take the high road or the gulch. I think that I shouldn't have mentioned that I sheared off a valve stem on Mr. Green's last run up the gulch because everyone chose to climb the hill. Even so, this is not a run-of-the-mill hill:


After this climb, there are a series of terrain obstacles including a downhill run that no one ever gets photos of because of the awkwardness of situation. Of course, it would be rude to mention (again) the spot that Kodiak Spirit got stuck...

The trail then leads to Snoopy's Gulch. The gulch is an optional feature of the trail, but I definitely recommend it. It is a tough stretch of trail that has fun stuff to play on. This is part of the group as we started up Snoopy's Gulch:


Desert Jewel put her rocker guards to the test:


Mr. Green had fun in the Gulch:


And Paul found amusing lines for himself and those of us watching:


The Desert Jewel really struts her stuff:


Mr. Green finds his own line:


The climb up the gulch is a series of challenges, but for the lack of better description, there is a cool, short little Rock Garden during the climb:


We missed capturing photos for everyone though his area, but here are some of the ones that we took:





Look at those smiles. Can't you tell that they love this?:



After we finished Snoopy's Gulch, we headed out for the Eastern half of the trail. The sun was close to setting when we headed up the gulch trail to the Crow's Nest:


The gulch had a few tricky spots, but not too bad:


We kept crawling uphill until we made it to the Crow's Nest:


The drop off from the Crow's Nest is respectable. Even so, Paul B, Kodiak Spirit, and Mr. Green decided that we were going to descend the hill amd then climb back up it:



The climb back up was tough in spots, but all three of us made it.

Afterward, everyone in the group descended the mountain:


Once at the bottom, Chuck wanted to ramp the burnt out Tacoma that is on the side of the trail:



Unfortunately, while we were watching Chuck play, someone (Russ?) noticed that one of the Jeep's had an oil leak. Somewhere along the way (descent from the Crow's Nest?) the oil pan got punctured:


We made repairs and headed out of the trail. Along the way, the not-so-dry lake bed added some great visual affects to the trip back to pavement:


All of our photos can be seen at this link:
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q...-2-07/?start=0

[JpPassenger]

I'm glad you all enjoy the trail. On behalf of our El Mirage liaison Fearless (who doesn't monitor those "internet clubs") and all the RW'ers and guests who put in time clearing the trail and helping find more, I say thank you! It makes it all worthwhile to hear others having such a good time on the trail.

I would really be interested in hearing from those who have run it backwards. "Bochi Ball Hill" (18 to 19) is very steep and loose, and some of us figured it nearly unclimbable.

The BLM has asked us to reroute the trail as 16 to 18 is outside the approved boundary. So there will eventually be another gnarly climb up a gulch to get to 18. And as MrChips said, we have a way down Snoopy's Gulch on the other side that can be pretty challenging. The work continues, and we'll be out there Jan 26th & 27th.

[dr.dirty]

As always had a great time wheelin with you guys and look forward to doing it again the family loved this trail and we look forward to the next MJR run .........Great day Great crowd = lots of fun