Trail Report: Dwn O Day & White Mtn Trail 2/23/2013

[Roger]

One Word - Awesome!!

Thanks to all the guys who came out. We had a great time. There was some snow on White Mtn. Russ & Mike put on tire chains for a couple of spots that we couldn't get through. A couple of us needed to winch though one are that was a sheet of ice under the snow. But hey! That's why we have winches and they are fun to play with.

I still can't figure out why the Forest Supervisor told me that Dawn O Day Cyn was a Riparian area. It's damn near desert except for the spring at the very end of the trail.

Some of the guys took lots of photos and I'm sure they will post them up.

Thanks to all who came today!

[WeRubiBlue06]

Had a great time playing on and in the snow today.

Thank you Roger!! A little over a year ago I had my first group run on your Rattlesanake Cyn run with my son, and today was my first snowy run, also one of your runs.

Special thanks to the chain gang--Mike and Russ. Without your help, today would have been much shorter.

I'll post my pictures as soon as I can.

[Mike]

Great day and awesome run! Good times in the mud and snow. Mr. Jeep is proudly and thickly coated in mud! Too bad the snow melted off coming back down the mountain.

Here are some of my pics. I was without Sharon, so the number of pics are limited.

Starting the run:


Stopping at the radio tower:


Cool things along the way:






I didn't get any good pics on Dawn O'Day, but I got a few on White Mtn:






I stopped to try out the new shooting sites along 3N14. On the way to Fawnskin, I noticed the bright moon and thought that I would try to get a pic:


I also saw a nice, healthy adult Bobcat on the way out.

Great day! I have some video, but not a lot. I'll see if I can put that together to share.

[Mike]

Okay, sorry for the short amount of video, but here is is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRUrH...ature=youtu.be

All I know is that I when Jeeping with Roger and now my butt hurts!








I fell in the snow while pulling on his winch.... :wink:

[1 Bad F N Z]

Okay, sorry for the short amount of video, but here is is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRUrH...ature=youtu.be

All I know is that I when Jeeping with Roger and now my butt hurts!








I fell in the snow while pulling on his winch.... :wink:

Maybe when you fell, you were knocked unconcious, and taken advantage of????? Surprized by how little snow was up there. Where you guys stopped on White Mountain to overlook the desert, then started again, it's not unusual for snow drips to pile up to 5 ft there. Many a snow trip ended there. Alot of deer also migrate right thru that pass. Kevin.

[Roger]

All I know is that I when Jeeping with Roger and now my butt hurts!
:wink:

No photos, so nothing happened! :wink:

[Deepwater]

Thanks again Roger for organizing this. It was a great adventure. Mike, your video catches the essence of the trip, it came out good. Your pictures are also great. I missed that rock face, what a crack up.


Last time our Jeeps were clean.


Beautiful country on top.


Mike decided to try the bonus route, I swear it was near vertical from where I was standing.
Four of us took the "bypass" to the right. When Russ caught up he saw Mikes' tracks up the mountain and followed the tracks up. We met them on the other side, tails between our legs.


Trail advisors helping Mike chain up. Mike showing the camera what he thought of that!


The chain gang, Russ and Mike without their extra effort we wouldn't have made it near as far as we did through the thick snow and the icy toboggan run.

[Deepwater]

Our track and elevation gain on the run.

[Deepwater]

At the end of this video is the ice chute that almost defeated us. Bernie gave it the first try, but it wasn't going to let him win. Mike and Russ were able to get up it it with their chains on, but with great difficulty. Of the remaining four only Ron, a new jeeper to the group was able to make it unassisted, but with a scary sideways hop at the two boulders half way up.

The rest of us had to get pulled/winched up with Russ's TJ acting as anchor. Great fun!

I found a half ounce of gold in the 500 lbs of mud that I washed off my Jeep when I got home :wink:

Mike

[GP4Play]

Looks like it was a fun day in the snow, wish we coud a made to.Cool pic's and video guys, thanks

[RonR.]

As the "New Jeeper" I need to let all u guys know what an incredible time I had!!! What a great bunch of Jeepers to hang out with. I also learned to never ever call your JEEP a car!!! Can't wait to go again.

[Russ Chung]

We had six Jeeps on the run:
Mike W. (Deepwater) Yellow JK
Ron (RonR) White TJ Rubi
Roger (Roger) Black YJ
Mike A. (Mike) Green TJ
Bernie (WeRubiBlue) Blue TJ
Russ (Russ Chung) Khaki TJ

After meeting in Lucerne Valley, we headed up Grapevine Canyon and stopped at the microwave tower. The weather was clear and sunny and we had a great view to the west of Apple Valley and to the east of Lucerne Valley and Johnson Valley. Notice how good the visibility was in the morning, because later in the day the wind came up, and the visibility in the Lucerne Valley became poor due to blowing dust. This is the view to the northwest, toward Apple Valley:



and the view to the east, toward Lucerne Valley and Johnson Valley:



Looking southwest, we could see Mt. Baldy in the distance (in the center) and Mt. Baden-Powell (on the right)



As we reached the top of Grapevine Canyon, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground and some animal tracks:





Also saw some unusual sights:





(continued)

[Russ Chung]

We entered the National Forest and stopped at Horse Spring Campground which we found to be empty.



We headed up Dawn O'Day Canyon at stopped for lunch at the end of the trail:



Up to this point, there had been no need for tire chains; the roads had more mud on them than snow. After lunch, we headed for White Mountain on 3N17.



We stopped at the saddle between North Peak and South Peak. We were surprised at how much the visibility in the Lucerne Valley had deteriorated due to blowing dust (the afternoon winds were forecast to be 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph).



For comparison, here's the view to the southwest, where the visibility was much better:



As we approached the South Peak of White Mountain, there was more snow on the trail than before. Mike led the way and blazed a path through the fresh snow. This is Bernie's (WeRubiBlue) TJ following in Mike's tracks.:



Although the snow was not very deep, it was difficult to maintain traction on uphill sections of the trail, so Mike and I chained up. Mike is on the right, my TJ is in the middle followed by Roger's YJ.



(continued)

[Russ Chung]

We continued southeast on the White Mountain Trail (3N17). This is a view back toward South Peak just east of the junction with 3N11.



This is the view of the trail to the southeast.



Bernie took the lead up this hill while Mike waited at the bottom:





This was the last hill before the end of the White Mountain Trail (3N17), but we spent more time on this hill than on any other. We chose the left fork (in the trees) instead of the right fork which was longer and steeper. The left fork not as long and not as steep, but in hindsight, it was in the shade, so the snow was deeper.



I didn't get pictures of anyone going up this hill because I was busy getting the other Jeeps up the hill, but the other reports have lots of pictures and videos of our Jeeps on this snowy, slippery stretch of trail.

We reached Holcomb Valley Road (3N16) and took it to 3N14 and then to Fawnskin.





We arrived at Fawnskin just before sunset. From the time we left the microwave tower in Grapevine Canyon until just before we arrived at Fawnskin, we did not see any other vehicles. The weather was great, I had a wonderful time and thank Roger for posting this run.

[WeRubiBlue06]

Slip and Slide.

Here is my contribution of pictures showing what a great time we all had.

In the video of Roger slipping and slidding...you'll see he was not the only one having trouble with traction at the end of the video. However, it does show how difficult this final part was without chains--that is until Ron did it on his first attempt, the rest of us without chains needed help to complete the climb.

http://s1236.photobucket.com/albums/...n%202013-2-23/

Thanks again Roger for putting this run together, it was great.