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Tim from Scouts West approached me about a year ago and asked me to lead his crew on a run across the San Bernardino National Forest. They wanted to go from the Cajon Pass to Johnson Valley on dirt in a weekend.
There are multiple trails to accomplish this but the one constant is the only trail to get from Lake Arrowhead to Big Bear is 3N34 Dishpan.
The original plan was to leave Friday morning and camp for two nights with the location to be determined by how far we made it on the trail each day. Due to scheduling conflicts we ended up not starting until 1pm on Friday.
We started with 5 rigs on 2N47 Cleghorn. It had rained on Thursday and Friday morning and there was still cloud cover as we hit the trail.
Group shot at the start of the trail.
Fog on the way up.
Group shot on 2N47 Cleghorn
After exiting 2N47 we said goodbye to Eddie in the White Scout and 4 of us continued on to 2N33 Pilot Rock.
Group shot on 2N33 Pilot Rock
We exited 2N33 Pilot Rock and headed for 3N34 Willow Creek.
We made a quick pit stop at Pinnacles Staging area.
We took 3N34X. It has been recently graded and now is a green circle easiest trail
We took 3N34 over to Hook Creek Road. It was 5pm at this point and we decided to save 3N34 Dishpan for the morning. We headed over to the North Shore Campground for the evening. Dinner was at the Cedar Glen Malt Shop
Camp
The temps on Friday night dropped down into the mid 30s.
Saturday morning we were on the trail at 9am. 2N26Y to 3N34 Dishpan.
Mike in the Zuk on the first obstacle on 3N34 Dishpan
The Zuk ended up using a winch on the first obstacle and it set the tone for the group for the rest of the day
Brad on the first obstacle on 3N34 Dishpan
Tim had trouble climbing the first obstacle on 3N34 Dishpan
Turns out his front hub was not working properly. After a quick trail fix Tim was good to go.
3N34 Dishpan
3N34 Dishpan
We got to the waterfall around 11am. I got everyone out and walked them up and we discussed lines.
I went up first.
Mike in the Zuk went next.
Mike took the far left line and got high centered and winched himself of the rock.
Tim was next.
Everyone but me had manual transmissions and high gearing and the skinny pedal was the answer to getting through an obstacle. This caught up with Tim at the top of the waterfall obstacle as we heard a loud bang. With front wheels only spinning it was clear he had broken a rear axle.
Brad went next without much trouble.
Brad got around Tim and strapped him all the way up to Tent Peg Group Campground. It was empty and it became our stop for the next 4 hours.
At Tent Peg the guys started pulling apart Tims rear axle.
Brad had an extra rear axle but after close inspection it was missing part of the bearing set and it would not work. We made some phone calls to auto parts stores but none of them had the part we needed. We decided to spend the night at Crab Flats campground. Tims' broken axle was put back in to get him to Crab Flats and Brad headed down the hill and back home to pick up a spare axle. Brad got back to camp at 11pm. Saturday night temps were in the mid 40's.
Sunday morning we knew we could not complete the journey all the way to Johnson Valley so it was decided to just spend a fun day in Big Bear. We took 3N16 East. John had joined us late on Saturday and he wanted to try the 3N93 Holcomb Creek West end rock garden.
Before we left 3N93 Holcomb Creek we unstacked all the rocks out of the gatekeeper.
Group shot at Big Pine Flat
On our way to Holcomb Valley for lunch we met a stranded lady in a 1980's Ford F250. Her battery was low. After connecting jumper cables her truck started but only ran a couple minutes. Her fuel pump had a wire pull out. We spent an hour trying to get her running with no luck. I gave her a ride into town while the rest of the crew had lunch.
After lunch we decided to call it a day and took 2N09 Van Duesen out of the forest. We were in Big Bear at 4pm and said our goodbyes. I was home before 6pm.
There are multiple trails to accomplish this but the one constant is the only trail to get from Lake Arrowhead to Big Bear is 3N34 Dishpan.
The original plan was to leave Friday morning and camp for two nights with the location to be determined by how far we made it on the trail each day. Due to scheduling conflicts we ended up not starting until 1pm on Friday.
We started with 5 rigs on 2N47 Cleghorn. It had rained on Thursday and Friday morning and there was still cloud cover as we hit the trail.
Group shot at the start of the trail.
Fog on the way up.
Group shot on 2N47 Cleghorn
After exiting 2N47 we said goodbye to Eddie in the White Scout and 4 of us continued on to 2N33 Pilot Rock.
Group shot on 2N33 Pilot Rock
We exited 2N33 Pilot Rock and headed for 3N34 Willow Creek.
We made a quick pit stop at Pinnacles Staging area.
We took 3N34X. It has been recently graded and now is a green circle easiest trail
We took 3N34 over to Hook Creek Road. It was 5pm at this point and we decided to save 3N34 Dishpan for the morning. We headed over to the North Shore Campground for the evening. Dinner was at the Cedar Glen Malt Shop
Camp
The temps on Friday night dropped down into the mid 30s.
Saturday morning we were on the trail at 9am. 2N26Y to 3N34 Dishpan.
Mike in the Zuk on the first obstacle on 3N34 Dishpan
The Zuk ended up using a winch on the first obstacle and it set the tone for the group for the rest of the day
Brad on the first obstacle on 3N34 Dishpan
Tim had trouble climbing the first obstacle on 3N34 Dishpan
Turns out his front hub was not working properly. After a quick trail fix Tim was good to go.
3N34 Dishpan
3N34 Dishpan
We got to the waterfall around 11am. I got everyone out and walked them up and we discussed lines.
I went up first.
Mike in the Zuk went next.
Mike took the far left line and got high centered and winched himself of the rock.
Tim was next.
Everyone but me had manual transmissions and high gearing and the skinny pedal was the answer to getting through an obstacle. This caught up with Tim at the top of the waterfall obstacle as we heard a loud bang. With front wheels only spinning it was clear he had broken a rear axle.
Brad went next without much trouble.
Brad got around Tim and strapped him all the way up to Tent Peg Group Campground. It was empty and it became our stop for the next 4 hours.
At Tent Peg the guys started pulling apart Tims rear axle.
Brad had an extra rear axle but after close inspection it was missing part of the bearing set and it would not work. We made some phone calls to auto parts stores but none of them had the part we needed. We decided to spend the night at Crab Flats campground. Tims' broken axle was put back in to get him to Crab Flats and Brad headed down the hill and back home to pick up a spare axle. Brad got back to camp at 11pm. Saturday night temps were in the mid 40's.
Sunday morning we knew we could not complete the journey all the way to Johnson Valley so it was decided to just spend a fun day in Big Bear. We took 3N16 East. John had joined us late on Saturday and he wanted to try the 3N93 Holcomb Creek West end rock garden.
Before we left 3N93 Holcomb Creek we unstacked all the rocks out of the gatekeeper.
Group shot at Big Pine Flat
On our way to Holcomb Valley for lunch we met a stranded lady in a 1980's Ford F250. Her battery was low. After connecting jumper cables her truck started but only ran a couple minutes. Her fuel pump had a wire pull out. We spent an hour trying to get her running with no luck. I gave her a ride into town while the rest of the crew had lunch.
After lunch we decided to call it a day and took 2N09 Van Duesen out of the forest. We were in Big Bear at 4pm and said our goodbyes. I was home before 6pm.
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