Mt. Pinos Snow Run this Sat. 1/8

[paultyler]

I am going to Mt. Pinos this Saturday (1/5/05) to do some trail blazing through the snow. We went last weekend and had a great time. There is at least 2 feet of snow.

Meet at Flying Js in Gorman at 9 a.m.

If there is another storm plans may change since the 5 could be shut down if snow gets that low. I will post again on Friday to confirm the roads are open.

[cbremer]

excellent! i was planning on going to play in the snow in big bear on saturday, but it looks like it's going to be a bit too deep (they're expecting ~2' more snow this week) so the other folks that were going to go backed out.

if the 5 is open, i'll see you at the flying J- i assume you mean frazier park, not gorman

[paultyler]

Frazier Park. Sorry. Glad you can make it.

[paulhead]

I may go. My wife is very pregnant right now but Sat she's hanging out with her 15 year old daughter so she'll be busy. May be the last time I get to go out for a while. She's due Feb 6 but I think he ( ) may show up any time now. I got my front driveline vibes dow to a minimum have done everthing but replace the front pinion bearings which I think may be the culprit. I'm about 80% sure I'll go.

weather

[cbremer]

weather.com says snow and/or rain Friday night and most of the day Saturday, as well as 25 deg. temps (with wind chill), so bring a jacket! here's a link to caltrans to make sure I5 is open Saturday AM: http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/index.htm

[paulhead]

I love the elements of nature.

[paultyler]

I will be there as will a friend of mine so if paulhead makes it that will mean four vehicles. Which is a good size. Keep your CB on channel four.


My cell phone is 805-889-9000. If we can't get to Mt. Pinos area, we can try bear camp, which is on the other side of the 5. Either way, we will have a great time.

[sarah]

weather.com says snow and/or rain Friday night and most of the day Saturday, as well as 25 deg. temps (with wind chill), so bring a jacket! here's a link to caltrans to make sure I5 is open Saturday AM: http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/index.htm

Or tune to XM Channel 222.

[paultyler]

Slight change of plans. It sounds like the 5 will be closed around Gorman tomorrow morning. Radio said it was closed much of today. Obviously that would make make it difficult to get to Flying Js.

Rather than meet at Frazier Park, let's meet at the McDonalds on Lake Hughes exit off the 5 at 8:30 a.m. This is about 5-10 miles after Magic Mountain on the 5. We can group there and talk about whether to go on to Frazier Park.

But once we meet there, given the road conditions, I think it would be better to go to Bear Camp and do the snow run there. The entrance to the trail leading to Bear Camp is about 15 miles up Lake Hughes from the McDonalds and is a long winding dirt (now snow covered) road leading up to Bear Camp. I did it last year and it was great.

cbremer: Make sure to reply to this so that I know you got this message and confirm that we will meet at the McDonalds at Lake Hughes exit. We can decide whether to go as a group to Frazier Park or do the Bear Camp trail at that time.

[cbremer]

sounds good to me. i saw that the 5 was closed most of the day, starting at the Lake Hughes exit. there's supposed to be another good-sized downpour coming overnight as well so methinks it's pretty definite that it will still be closed tomorrow.

mcdonalds breakfasts are also slightly less greasy than Flying J's

[paultyler]

The 5 is open right now but I heard that the snow level is supposed to get as low as 2500 feet by morning! At any rate I will see you at McDonalds at 8:30.

[paulhead]

mcdonalds breakfasts are also slightly less greasy than Flying J's

I can't get myself to eat mcdonalds after seeing SupersizeMe.
I see the post, Mcky D's at 830.

[paultyler]

I take it you are joining us paulhead?! Awesome!

[Xjman1]

Quik recap as I recall, you all can add the details:

Back already!! Had a great time,meet up with Chris S(TJ) and Brian(Explorer) at McD's in Fillmore as planned. Got off to a little late start, I needed gas and Chevron in Oxnard was closed.
Remembered that Paul T.(YJ) was meeting a group at the McD's in Santa Clarita so stopped to see if they were there yet. They weren't, as we were early. A quick call to Brett to get Pauls number and we were making plans. Meet up with his group, Chuck(XJ), Brian(TJ), Paul?(YJ?) and we decided to try Lake Hughes road to the trail head. We immediatley came accross a "Road Closed Ahead" so decided to take I-5, to the Temple Hwy and catch the Ridge Route there.
Boy was that fun, water was flowing down the roads like a sheet of ripple glass, nice Rock slide we had to air down and disconnect to safely make it over at Swede's Cut, hit snow just a few miles up the route at approx. 3,200'. We took the side tour at reservoir summit to check out the "dookie pool", as we named it last time, and it was covered in ice about 2-3" thick, Drove down into it and it busted leaving us in about 6" of icy water. Was a cool experience though.
Kept on, keeping on until we hit the trial head for the trail to Bear Camp and it was an immedialtey slippery climb to the gate in about 6" of fresh snow. GATE WAS OPEN, YEEHAW!!! We continued to climb up the trail, did I mention the winds(WOW!!), and were making good progress with me leading. After running ito some DEEP snow drifts, I decided we should out the biggest Jeep in the crew up front, of which Chuck decided to take lead, 33" and 6"? lift. He was doing GREAT up front until we hit a series of 3 drifts, one after another, a few ramming attempts and he made ot through fairly well until his ARB gave out on him. Being the take no prisoners lind he kept at it with liberal use of the go petal.
I followed on this section of drifts and kept getting HI-C'd on the white stuff. A few tugs in the rear, try it again, no go, a few more tries, no go, and on and on. Paul was a real trooper here, braving the cold rain and horizontal ice blowing at us to attach me and smash down snow. Finally got through with Chuck pulling me from up front, but not without loosing a flair in the process. Brain did you loosen it when I was not looking? At that point we evaluated the situation and saw it was not getting any better, the weather was FREAKIN' COLD, WET, ICY, WINDY and it was a pretty obvious we were not going any further without a TON of work. We decided to be safe instead of getting stranded on the mountain and turned around. Of course I bury myself in the snow turning around and Paul once again came to my rescue.
Down hill was rather uneventful, as gravity was on our side and now we had tracks to follow. We meet another group of Land cruisers and other well built Yotas going up. At that point we had to find a place to get by each other. There is a small flat were there is some wreckage and we managed to get past there. Although in the process of passing we found out Chuck(XJ) had a busted bead on his Goodyear MTR's. We decided that was the best spot to fix it and he went to work. The fellas from the Yota group were very helpful in letting us use there air tank, swapping tires, etc. and if they read this someday, THANK YOU!! Upon setting the bead we heard air leaking out and found a large slice in the sidewall of the tire. Thus out came the spare.
All was well after that and we headed up the Ridge Route to Gorman in hope of getting into Frazier Park. It failed. We stopped to fill up the tanks, get soem lunch down, and were ready to roll when the Sheriff showed up and blocked the road to only allow residents by. Oh well, we were all wet and cold anyways so decided to air up and head home. A great trip and met some great guys.

If I put the wrong name or vehicle, my apologies as I am terrible with names.

For more info on the Ridge Route go to
http://www.ridgeroute.com/

Joe

[paultyler]

Good recap Joe. I swear the wind where we turned around was 35+ mph. Maybe I'm wrong but the sleet was horizontal.

It was a lot of fun. The only bummer was that as we were pulling out of Flying Js to do Mt. Pinos, the roadblock went into place. We missed it by a minute.

Oh well.

Total trail damage: (1) ARB stopped working; (2) torn MTR sidewall, (3) busted fender flare.

CBREMMER AND PAULHEAD: Thanks for coming. See you next time.