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Well, this Memorial Weekend did NOT go according to plan. We had breakdowns, damage, hours of time lost during repairs, trail runs that had to be cancelled, and camping arrangements shot to hell.....
[COLOR=#a52a2a]And Damn, it was a GOOD TIME!
[/COLOR]
I have been itching for a while to make an expedition across the San Bernardino mountains. The idea was to drive the full range from Lytle Creek to Landers, CA. If we had been able to do the planned route, we would have driven 133 miles with only 13 of them on pavement. We would have ran 14 "Black Diamond" rated, or equivalent, trails.
But that didn't happen.
[COLOR=#a52a2a]This is what did:[/COLOR]
At 8am on Saturday morning, we met at the start of the journey at 1N31 off of Glen Helen Parkway in near Devore, CA:
We already had our first issue when the RAT kept going dead. It quit three times before we got to the trail head. Kurt thought that it was that the new gas cap wasn't venting properly and the fuel was getting vapor-locked. He punched a small hole in the cap, cranked it up and we were on our way.
We climbed Lytle Ridge and got over half way when Kurt's Jeep died again. We were deep into the clouds at this point:
We were there for a while. The Jeep would not restart.
Cool Panorama:
Kurt chased down the issue and found a short in the connection for the fuel pump. With that fixed, we were moving again. I decided to clip off a section of the trail and go directly to the start of Cleghorn. We ended up making such good time on the trails that day, that in hindsight, I wish that I hadn't bypassed that section.
Regardless, we popped out of the clouds as we got there. Cleg was a good time as usual. We took every open side trail:
We drove from Cleghorn to 2N17X:
My nemesis hill won again. I didn't have enough breakover angle to be able to climb up. It probably didn't help that I had three days rations and equipment for three people loaded in the Jeep as well:
It is still a great trail with great views:
From the top, we ran the Pilot Rock side trails over to the Pinnacles staging area, Willow Creek Cutover (that has been 'accidentally' graded), crossed Willow Creek, and then took some moderate trails up into Lake Arrowhead. We camped for the night at the Northshore OHV Work Center. We had access to showers and flush toilets due to our AAT Volunteer status. Not a bad way to camp!:
All-in-all, so far so good. The next day, we headed to Dishpan Springs down 2N29Y. Before we turned to go to the T6 bridge, Kurt stopped due to a loud popping noise from the front of the Jeep. After research, he found that the track bar heim joint was the source. A little WD40 quieted it down and we carried on.
Several of the folks with us had not been on Dishpan before, so it was great fun to share the experience with them:
Next on the list was Holcomb Creek. There were a few things that we wanted to do on the trail for AAT Maintenance. We picked up trash, surveyed the areas that will require organized work days, replaced the missing MJR logos on the signs, and replaced the Black Diamond rating sticker:
The trail is in good shape for the most part, and was seeing a lot of traffic that day:
Unfortunately for me, things went sideways before we got off the trail. The plan was to run from Holcomb Creek, across 3N08, run John Bull and Gold Mountain, and then head out towards Heartbreak to dispersed camp for the night. Instead, I had a heim joint on my upper control arm on the rear axle disintegrate. No one had an exact fit spare (something that I will make SURE doesn't happen again!). It took some time to get a repair that would actually work. Even then, we were not confident of the strength of the fix.
We limped the Jeep out to pavement. Ryan offered us crash space at a cabin that he sometimes has access too. He went ahead to see if it was available and is was!
That's right, warm house with a fireplace and showers! Ryan, I still can't thank you enough for all the help with the fix and the crash space. It truly saved the trip:
That night we found that the fix was probably good enough to get home, but definately could not be trusted for any more trails. This group was awesome. We just made a new plan to go have fun. We threw out the crossing to Landers and decided to run Gold Mountain and John Bull. There were enough empty seats to put my crew in, so we just parked Mr. Green for the day.
After assigning seats, we headed for Gold Mountain:
But fate was still trying to rain on our parade. Near the end of Gold Mountain, Roger's jeep developed a leak in the power steering pump. I really wanted everyone that could to run John Bull. So the group again re-assessed the plan and we decided that Roger and I would head back into town and the rest of the folks could run JB. We could meet up later:
Meanwhile, Roger and I worked on a different issue that he had told me about while we were waiting on the rest of the crew to return. We adjusted his rear drum brakes and parking brake. It seems like we have the issues fixed.
At lunch time, we drove over to the North Shore Cafe. As we were ordering, Sharon calls me and says that they finished JB and were heading out. We all met for lunch:
Then went and played around at Fawn Park before heading home:
So even though we didn't achieve the goal of crossing the length of the range, we most certainly achieved an enjoyable adventure in the mountains for the Memorial Day Weekend. That was truly the goal in the first place.
And a hell of a great group of folks! I'm proud to know all of you.
Almost as proud as I am of the troops that this weekend remembers!
Thanks for making this turn out to be such fun!
[COLOR=#a52a2a]And Damn, it was a GOOD TIME!
[/COLOR]
I have been itching for a while to make an expedition across the San Bernardino mountains. The idea was to drive the full range from Lytle Creek to Landers, CA. If we had been able to do the planned route, we would have driven 133 miles with only 13 of them on pavement. We would have ran 14 "Black Diamond" rated, or equivalent, trails.
But that didn't happen.
[COLOR=#a52a2a]This is what did:[/COLOR]
At 8am on Saturday morning, we met at the start of the journey at 1N31 off of Glen Helen Parkway in near Devore, CA:
We already had our first issue when the RAT kept going dead. It quit three times before we got to the trail head. Kurt thought that it was that the new gas cap wasn't venting properly and the fuel was getting vapor-locked. He punched a small hole in the cap, cranked it up and we were on our way.
We climbed Lytle Ridge and got over half way when Kurt's Jeep died again. We were deep into the clouds at this point:
We were there for a while. The Jeep would not restart.
Cool Panorama:
Kurt chased down the issue and found a short in the connection for the fuel pump. With that fixed, we were moving again. I decided to clip off a section of the trail and go directly to the start of Cleghorn. We ended up making such good time on the trails that day, that in hindsight, I wish that I hadn't bypassed that section.
Regardless, we popped out of the clouds as we got there. Cleg was a good time as usual. We took every open side trail:
We drove from Cleghorn to 2N17X:
My nemesis hill won again. I didn't have enough breakover angle to be able to climb up. It probably didn't help that I had three days rations and equipment for three people loaded in the Jeep as well:
It is still a great trail with great views:
From the top, we ran the Pilot Rock side trails over to the Pinnacles staging area, Willow Creek Cutover (that has been 'accidentally' graded), crossed Willow Creek, and then took some moderate trails up into Lake Arrowhead. We camped for the night at the Northshore OHV Work Center. We had access to showers and flush toilets due to our AAT Volunteer status. Not a bad way to camp!:
All-in-all, so far so good. The next day, we headed to Dishpan Springs down 2N29Y. Before we turned to go to the T6 bridge, Kurt stopped due to a loud popping noise from the front of the Jeep. After research, he found that the track bar heim joint was the source. A little WD40 quieted it down and we carried on.
Several of the folks with us had not been on Dishpan before, so it was great fun to share the experience with them:
Next on the list was Holcomb Creek. There were a few things that we wanted to do on the trail for AAT Maintenance. We picked up trash, surveyed the areas that will require organized work days, replaced the missing MJR logos on the signs, and replaced the Black Diamond rating sticker:
The trail is in good shape for the most part, and was seeing a lot of traffic that day:
Unfortunately for me, things went sideways before we got off the trail. The plan was to run from Holcomb Creek, across 3N08, run John Bull and Gold Mountain, and then head out towards Heartbreak to dispersed camp for the night. Instead, I had a heim joint on my upper control arm on the rear axle disintegrate. No one had an exact fit spare (something that I will make SURE doesn't happen again!). It took some time to get a repair that would actually work. Even then, we were not confident of the strength of the fix.
We limped the Jeep out to pavement. Ryan offered us crash space at a cabin that he sometimes has access too. He went ahead to see if it was available and is was!
That's right, warm house with a fireplace and showers! Ryan, I still can't thank you enough for all the help with the fix and the crash space. It truly saved the trip:
That night we found that the fix was probably good enough to get home, but definately could not be trusted for any more trails. This group was awesome. We just made a new plan to go have fun. We threw out the crossing to Landers and decided to run Gold Mountain and John Bull. There were enough empty seats to put my crew in, so we just parked Mr. Green for the day.
After assigning seats, we headed for Gold Mountain:
But fate was still trying to rain on our parade. Near the end of Gold Mountain, Roger's jeep developed a leak in the power steering pump. I really wanted everyone that could to run John Bull. So the group again re-assessed the plan and we decided that Roger and I would head back into town and the rest of the folks could run JB. We could meet up later:
Meanwhile, Roger and I worked on a different issue that he had told me about while we were waiting on the rest of the crew to return. We adjusted his rear drum brakes and parking brake. It seems like we have the issues fixed.
At lunch time, we drove over to the North Shore Cafe. As we were ordering, Sharon calls me and says that they finished JB and were heading out. We all met for lunch:
Then went and played around at Fawn Park before heading home:
So even though we didn't achieve the goal of crossing the length of the range, we most certainly achieved an enjoyable adventure in the mountains for the Memorial Day Weekend. That was truly the goal in the first place.
And a hell of a great group of folks! I'm proud to know all of you.
Almost as proud as I am of the troops that this weekend remembers!
Thanks for making this turn out to be such fun!
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