Report: Rattlesnake Canyon and Heartbreak Ridge

[Russ Chung]

On Sunday, February 18, 2007, following the Calico Cleanup, Mike (MadMike) and I decided to run some trails on the way back to Los Angeles. We couldn’t interest any of the other MJR members who were at Calico to join us, so we chose to do something different—we went to Big Bear via the “back way”—through Rattlesnake Canyon. The Rattlesnake Canyon trail is rated in Charles Wells’ “Guide to Southern California Backroads” as “moderate”. It connects Johnson Valley to the east end of the Big Bear area.

From Calico, we took I-15 to Barstow, then CA247 through Stoddard Valley, Lucerne Valley and Johnson Valley to the trailhead approximately 18 miles east of the town of Lucerne Valley. The first part of the trail is a sandy wash. We kept our tires at street pressure, but shifted to 4 Hi.



The canyon is susceptible to flash floods and we wanted to figure out how far we had to go because it looked like rain clouds were gathering. We were about one-third of the way up the ten-mile long canyon. My khaki TJ is in front of Mike’s silver TJ.



As we climbed higher, the canyon gets narrower and has water flowing down it. We stopped and aired down our tires before continuing up the canyon.









We arrive at a broad plateau at the top of the canyon near Vaughn Springs, and see some of the local wildlife:

[Russ Chung]

After reaching the San Bernardino National Forest boundary, Mike and I headed west on 2N02, stopped to eat lunch, and then we took 2N61Y past Pontiac Sluice to Heartbreak Ridge. We usually approach Heartbreak Ridge on 2N61Y from the Big Bear area, but this time, we are approaching from Rattlesnake Canyon, and neither of us had been on this part of the trail before.



Mike picks out his line on a challenging stretch of the trail, and then he goes for it:





Mike tackles the “extra credit” section of the Heartbreak Ridge trail:



We arrive at the top of Heartbreak Ridge. This is the view to the east; Yucca Valley is in the distance:





While at the top, we sign the logbook at the memorial to MAJ Alan Rowe, note that several other MJR members, including Doug (FishPOET) and Alan (swbooking) had signed the logbook, then continue around the Heartbreak Ridge loop. We found a badly washed out section of the trail, and decided to attempt to cross it instead of turning around.



We both made it safely past the wash out, then discovered that we had taken the wrong trail, and had to turn around and cross it again!

We finally made it to Highway 38, where Mike took these spectacular photos of the sunset as we aired up.

[4point]

Those photos are great.

Rob

[freewaydan]

That sounds like a fun run, when can we do it!!!!

[Mike]

It looks like you guys had a good run! I haven't run Rattlesnake yet and your photos definitely peak my interest. I would like to run Heartbreak the way that you did. I think that it might be more challenging that way. We came down the hill that you have video of and it was a good time but going up looks like more fun.

BTW, Madmike: Is the hood mounted Hi-Lift new? I don't remember that on your rig when I met you at Calico in Nov. I find mine to be noisy if I don't add bungees to the base.

Just for fun, here's a couple of photos from our run at that same hill.

[Russ Chung]

I would like to run Heartbreak the way that you did. I think that it might be more challenging that way. We came down the hill that you have video of and it was a good time but going up looks like more fun.

That hill is steep and off camber. Getting up that hill was a challenge, and your pictures show that getting down the hill was not easy either. After I watched Mike get up the hill, I decided to take a different line. Mike went to the left of the rock:



I decided to go to the right of the rock. I don't have a picture of it, but you can see from your picture that there is room on that side of the trail for a short wheel base Jeep to follow the fall line, then make a sharp left turn once you are past the rock:

[SIZED]http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q307/malachijeep/ALittleArticulation.jpg[/SIZED]

[Materdaddy]

Man Russ, that looks like fun! I should have gone with you two! Luckily we made it home safely and got most of our errands run. I now have a FREE 40 gallon salt water tank, laundry is clean, and our place is finally starting to get cleaned up from the mess of the wedding!

Thanks again for everything this weekend Russ! We really appreciate it!

[FishPOET]

Great photos and trip report!

[maddmike]

awesome trail run

BTW, Madmike: Is the hood mounted Hi-Lift new? I don't remember that on your rig when I met you at Calico in Nov. I find mine to be noisy if I don't add bungees to the base.

I believe it was installed in Nov. it's not noisy at all, just tighten the :poop: out of the bolts and you should be fine. remember to re-tighten the bolts every few months though, as they tend to loosen occasionally and then you hear the "rattles".

Russ and I definitely had a really great run on sunday, there was no breakage or cosmetic damage, no tugs from the strap required on any obstacles, and plus it was great to run a longer, destination-based run instead of just a focused single trail. Not to mention the scenery was top-notch and the cows at the top of rattlesnake canyon were cool. Russ, any idea how many miles we ran without pavement? my guess was 35-40...

the tough, off caber section was definitely a challenge. I had to back up twice from getting hung up, but found that going uphill the greatest challenge was the tightness of the obstacles. I chose a line which required lots of tight turns and maneuvering to get up, and ended up causing my tires to end up in the wrong place a few times. I didn't really realize how off-camber i was until seeing the vid later on. it didn't seem that bad while i was driving. i could see how going down could get a tire in the air, especially if you drop the driver front into the hole like you did in the red jeep. this obstacle was definitely the "silent killer" and was tougher than anything i got myself into on heartbreak ridge.

Thanks for the interest, I'd definitely be up for this run again in the future, or possibly other "combination" runs of easy to difficult terrain spread throughout a day of wheeling.

Russ has all my pictures and videos and it looks like he posted most of the good ones from the day, but if you guys want more we got 'em.



PS thanks to russ for writing up a great trail report as always.

[Rubigirl]

I love the way that trail looks! thanks for the pic's

[Mike]

Thanks for the interest, I'd definitely be up for this run again in the future, or possibly other "combination" runs of easy to difficult terrain spread throughout a day of wheeling.

Russ has all my pictures and videos and it looks like he posted most of the good ones from the day, but if you guys want more we got 'em.

Maybe we can plan a run sometime while we are on Cleghorn this Sunday. I want to do Pipes Canyon which is near there but the snow may be a problem for another month or two. It climbs to over 8200 feet.

As for more pictures, more is better!

[Mike]

Important Land Use Information

This is important information that should be shared with the rest of the forum as a Land Use topic. I have related information from the Hesperia Open House that could hi-jack this thread if we continue.

Could a friendly moderator start a new thread with Russ Chung's #12 post?

[Dukes69]

This is important information that should be shared with the rest of the forum as a Land Use topic. I have related information from the Hesperia Open House that could hi-jack this thread if we continue.

Could a friendly moderator start a new thread with Russ Chung's #12 post?

You got it. Split and moved to Land Use: http://www.myjeeprocks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8106

[Elusive]

I want to organize a "Barstow to Big Bear" run originating on the northern side of Stoddard valley and ending on the southern side of Big bear.
It would do a day at stoddard.. probably achey breaky and pumpkin eater. then spend the night and go to johnson valley and run sledge and clawhammer. sleep the night and drive up rattlesnake and make our way to yellow post 5/26/32 area. the next day would be fire roads and the trip home.
this is extremely challenging because:
1. you can't trailer hard core rigs because you end up so far from the starting point.
2. we are hitting some of the hardest trails in Cali
3. it's a long time on the trail.
I want to put the run together for this fall, but it's going to take a lot of planning.

[SteeevO]

where exactly is heartbreak ridge?