Trail report, pics & videos: Big Bear Jan 7th - SAT

[STORMTROOPER]

It could have been worst

check out this description of a snow trip to holcomb creek gone bad

[Britain]

check out this description of a snow trip to holcomb creek gone bad

WOW! I wonder what would be the biggest blunder snowed in or a hot broken down summer desert run??

[STORMTROOPER]

Both would be scary as hell. I'd take the snow though. I knew a dood that broke down in the desert in the middle of summer. After a while he was reported overdue by his wife. He was rescued by a helicopter the next day. Lets just say he was thirsty. It was a good story.

[Matt2001TJ]

big bear Jan. 7th-PICS

anyone get any good pictures of the run in big bear in the snow???

[Matt2001TJ]

anyone get any good pictures of the run in big bear in the snow??? Who got stuck the most and why???

[saki669]

This is Chuck the Red XJ had a great time. Looking forward to the next trail run.

Dude.. you have nads of steel. I'd recommend a roll cage soon......

[Russ Chung]

TJSUPE led the run down the Holcomb Creek trail just north of Big Bear Lake on Saturday, January 7, 2006. Fourteen Jeeps showed up at the meeting point in Fawnskin (9 TJs, 1 XJ, 3 Rubis, and 1 Rubi Unlimited). I’m sure that the beautiful weather had something to do with the large turnout. The Big Bear area got about four to six inches of snow on Monday, but it had been clear and sunny the rest of the week. The forecast for Saturday was for sunny weather and high temperatures around 50 degrees.

From left to right, Jeri Lyn’s red TJ, Dan Fry’s silver TJ, TJSupe’s white TJ, Mike’s red TJ (behind Supe’s TJ), Fuel Rod’s red TJ, FMejia69’s red Rubicon, FRMNJJ’s red Rubicon, and my khaki TJ.



Here is another photo from a different angle. From left to right, Mike’s red TJ, Matt’s white Rubi, my khaki TJ, Stormtrooper’s white TJ (behind my TJ), FMejia69’s red Rubi, Chucks XJ’s red XJ, and MadMike’s silver TJ



The trailhead for the Holcomb Creek trail is about five miles north of Fawnskin on paved roads. Here are FMejia69’s red Rubi, followed by Chucks XJ, and Fuel Rod’s red TJ enroute to the trailhead.



At the trailhead, Fuel Rod needed a hammer to nudge his transfer case into 4 Lo:



The first part of the trail was snow covered, but level. I’m following Tito’s khaki Rubi Unlimited Sahara:



Here is Tito crossing the creek:



We are now on the shady side of the valley, and as the trail climbs out of the creekbed, it makes a sharp climbing right turn. Here is TJSupe’s white TJ followed by Jeri Lyn’s red TJ:



The snow was only a couple of inches deep, but it had a hard crust from melting and refreezing, and it was slippery. Fuel Rod needed help to get through the turn:

[Russ Chung]

Further along the trail there were some deep ruts. Here is Mike’s red TJ approaching the ruts:



Just after this obstacle, the group met two YJs coming in the other direction. They turned around and joined our group. We now had 16 Jeeps on the trail. Because of the large number of Jeeps, progress was slow. We were stopped more often than we were moving. Here is Fuel Rod’s red TJ and Tito’s khaki Rubi Unlimited on the trail:



I was the fifteenth out of the sixteen Jeeps in the group. While stopped on the trail, I could hear Jeeps gunning their engines in the distance, but I couldn’t see what they were doing. When I finally got up to the next obstacle, I could see that it was a steep hill with deep ruts. You had to get a good running start and hope that your momentum would carry you past the ruts. Here is a picture of Dan Fry’s silver TJ climbing the hill while Stormtrooper waits at the bottom:



Here is a picture of Dan getting some help up the hill from Mike’s winch. That winch would get a workout by the end of the day:



Nora drives Stormtrooper up the hill unassisted:

[Russ Chung]

After we got everyone up the hill, we drove only a few hundred more yards and came to a narrow, off camber, very slick section of the trail. TJSupe, Jeri Lyn, and Ken (in the black YJ) had already made it through, and Joey was preparing to take his red YJ though:



Joey slipped off the edge, and Jeri Lyn is preparing to attach a tow strap to get him back on the trail.



Chuck gunned his red XJ through the gap. Stormtrooper has posted a link to a great video of Chuck’s run over this obstacle.



Next was MadMike:



Stormtrooper:



Matt:



Rex was next. Even though his rear wheels slipped off the trail, he was able to make it through without help:

[Russ Chung]

By this time, ten Jeeps had made it through, and only six were left. Fuel Rod was next:



But he could not get enough traction, and he slid off the trail:



We rigged up two towlines to Fuel Rod’s Jeep. We used Mike’s winch in the rear and Stormtrooper’s winch in the front connected to a tree hugger and snatch block to pull him back on the trail and get him headed in the right direction:

[Russ Chung]

Tito was next, and his rear wheels slid off the trail, so Mike and Stormtrooper were called into action again.



Everyone realized that the trail was becoming extremely slick, and I was next. I didn’t even try to drive my Jeep across; we hooked up the cables to my tow hooks and winched me across. Then we winched Dan Fry across:



There were two Jeeps left: Mike’s TJ and FRMNJJ’s Rubi. We winched them across :

[Russ Chung]

By the time we got everyone through the obstacle, it was nearly two o’clock. We ate lunch, and then continued down the trail. We made good progress. I even shifted up to second gear a few times. We passed the intersection of 2N06X which leads up to the main road.



We reached the first rock garden:



Then Ken’s YJ broke his front driveshaft:





Ken was about ¾ of the way through the rock garden, and at first we started to pull him the rest of way through the rocks. But it was getting late in the day, so TJSupe decided to turn everyone around and take 2N06X to get out of the forest.







It was dark by the time we got back to the pavement and aired up. I did stop on the way back to Los Angeles to take this picture of the view to the southwest. San Bernardino is in the foreground; Orange County is in the distance.

[TJSUPE]

Great pics and write up Russ. Thanks for that!!

[Jeri Lyn]

Excellent write up, Russ!

Now if I can just figure out why I can't get the videos to run.......

[Britain]

Good job Russ...took you long enough to post!