Trail Report: Historic East Big Bear

[nwoods]

Huge thanks to Mike (mkjeepers) who managed to keep his cool on a warm day with a VERY large group. Mike was challenged with big numbers, poor radio communications (mostly mine!), a very wide spectrum of skills, experience, and ability, and a wide range in the preparation and trail worthiness of the vehicles that participated. Despite all this, Mike did a masterful job running the show, keeping things moving, making critical decisions, and most significantly, sharing his love the Big Bear area with well over a hundred new fans of the area.

Mike came prepared, with multi-page handouts about the history of the area we would be touring, and kept a really good sense of flow and timing with everything. It was a big group. I haven't processed all my images yet, but I have three photos that pretty much say it all (except for the smiles on everyone's face at the end of the day):

Trail Leader meeting:


Airing down near Cactus Flats (this is only part of the group. The rest is well over the horizon):


Along the route down towards Horsethief Flats. 41 rigs in total I think? To put this in perspective... there are only 32 rigs visible in this photo!


I had a good time, got to meet a LOT of really great people, and enjoyed the trails and the weather. Thanks Mike!

[Mitch]

Mike,

You are a mad man! That's insane. I'm sure that my trip there tomorrow with 2 others will pale in comparison. We will talk after you have a couple of days to R & R! Wow.

Mitch

[Guest]

x2! Wow. That was a huge turn out. Crazy! Did it go smooth?

[Roger]

OMG! I thought I had a big group exploring JV! I'm glad things went good!

[SoCal4X]

OMG! I thought I had a big group exploring JV! I'm glad things went good!

Thanks alot Mike, my boys had a blast. Everything turned out pretty good other than 3 flats, and a couple FJ's wanting to get really close to the drop offs! Mike did a great job talking about the history of BB and the miners.

For 41 rigs, I thought it went pretty good.

[evldog]

Thanks again Mike for putting this together. Wendy and I had a great time, learned a little about the area, and met some great people. 41 rigs! Was that the final count? Wow. It is remarkable that there weren't more issues with that many vehicles. By the way, Nathan, the pics look great and we can't wait to see more of them.

[tony m]

Nathan, great report and pics. Can't wait to see the rest your pics and the ones from everyone else.

Mike, You're Hellavu Trail Boss!! 40+ rigs??? again?? like the one event at BF.

Sorry I had to bail on this one, too many for me. Me the wife and a few friends went on the 2n17x and through Dispan Springs instead.

But it sure seems like all of you guys had a lot of fun!

Tony

[GeepMe]

Mike, Thanks again for your time and effort. I look forward to meeting up and wheeling again.

Also meet some really great people. George from Elsinore, and the ALMYTEE. Al was very cool.

I hope to see you all again soon.

Greg

[mkjeepers]

[COLOR="Blue"]I think the final count was 42 - we picked up a Swiss Unimog somewhere - know anything about that Nathan?

I want to thank everyone that came out for the run....and especially the others for NOT coming out. This was HUGE, but as was said, things went VERY well.

After polling the group only one person wanted to do the EASY run up to Tip Top, but later conceded to going with the other 40 down to Horsethief.

The Horsethief results were 3 blown tires and one major mis-aligned front end, and a few 3 wheel instances.

The only thing worse than the 3 blown tires was having to go through a half dozen Hi Lifts to find one that would go up. Then we could'nt get that one to go back down. Sheesh.

I want to especially thank Nathan (nwoods) for doing a GREAT!! job as tail gunner. Nathan spent most of the day rounding up straying vehicles that missed important turn-offs. With out Nathan half of the group would still be in Big Bear.....or somehere.

Also I want to thank Al (almytee) for making several copies of the history report to hand out.

We only had time for 2 mines - an unnamed Lone valley mine, and the Rose Mine.

By the way Mitch, do you know anything about a balloon in the Rose Mine that said ...Good Luck Mike Ha Ha Ha......it looked like your handwriting.

We reached hwy 38 on schedule, 6:00 p.m. But the only mystery to me was how half the group arrived there on 1N01 and the other half on 2N02....can you explain this Nathan? But everyone arrived there safeley, and that's what matters.

I THINK everyone had a great day...and NO we won't do this again!!.....well maybe.

I'll post some pix later.

mk[/COLOR]

[aw12345]

Those big groups do present quite the challenge don't they. 30 something rigs for leading my first run ever was quite the thing, but I had fun with it.
I am sure your group made for some interesting moments

[ironbelle]

32 rigs! That is a huge group.

[nwoods]

[COLOR="Blue"]I think the final count was 42 - we picked up a Swiss Unimog somewhere - know anything about that Nathan?[/COLOR]

After the mine, when we turned left towards 3N61Y, the Mog was waiting for all of us to clear the intersection. I was the last guy, and he waved me down and asked where we were heading. I pointed vaguely towards Onyx, and he asked if he could tag along, to which I said "Sure! but we are moving kinda slow." He (his name is CJ) responded, "Slow is the only speed I've got.", so he fit right in :-) Nice guy, he is a Corporal in the Marines and is stationed in Twenty Nine Palms. Says all his fellow Marines have big shiny chrome SUV's that are afraid of rocks, so he's been looking for adventure mostly on his own.

[COLOR="Blue"]
The Horsethief results were 3 blown tires and one major mis-aligned front end, and a few 3 wheel instances.[/COLOR]

I think that the poor visibility suffered by the Fj design was a MAJOR factor in all of those instances. I know for a fact the two times where an FJ nearly rolled off the trail is because the driver couldn't see well, and the flat with the bent upper knuckle or whatever was caused because the driver plowed right into a significant rock that he never saw. The FJ's have a nifty coolness factor, and are built well, but the design of everything above the frame is just bizarre to me.

[COLOR="Blue"]
I want to especially thank Nathan (nwoods) for doing a GREAT!! job as tail gunner. Nathan spent most of the day rounding up straying vehicles that missed important turn-offs. With out Nathan half of the group would still be in Big Bear.....or somehere.[/COLOR]

I didn't do much. Major help by Doug and Mike & Wendy for trail comm's, and Tony in the rear helping round up the FJ's. MRJ's "Blazer" (Steve) was also very helpful, keeping an eye out for the undertired FJ that was behind him.

[COLOR="Blue"]
We reached hwy 38 on schedule, 6:00 p.m. But the only mystery to me was how half the group arrived there on 1N01 and the other half on 2N02....can you explain this Nathan? [/COLOR]

The only way I know out of that trail is across Broom Flat, straight up to the 38. It's a wide, graded, smooth dirt track. From Onyx Summit heading into Big Bear, the trail head is RIGHT at a hwy 38 marker and there was a little hand painted reddish orange sign that said 3N01 nailed to it. It's almost exactly 1 mile north of where you were at at Onyx Summit staging area.

[Guest]

42 people. Anymore pics?

[mkjeepers]

[COLOR="Blue"]Here are a few pix form the BIG Bear run.

Link to slideshow
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/n...view=slideshow[/COLOR]







Horsethief Flats Trail


A friendly resident Rattle Snake






The bottom of the Horsethief switchbacks




Horsethief Flats




The hill climb out of Horsethief.


We circled the wagons for lunch. With all the vehicles it felt like walking through a county fair.


Driving across Lone Valley Meadow


This mine was very popular with the group.




Junk around the Rose Mine. The Rose mine area tunnel is about 300ft in length.


Climbing up out of Round Valley




Nathan assisting a vehicle


One of the Giant Junipers in the Onyx summit area.


Airing up at Onyx Summit


Beautiful sunset over Lake Arrowhead

[mkjeepers]

[COLOR="Blue"]Any others that took pictures please post up
mk[/COLOR]