Sat 9/15 - Big Bear

[Mitch]

I want thank everyone for a fun start this morning. The sky was blue and clear at Rattlesnake Canyon and temp was very comfortable. After only 10 miles in I tore my shackle/leaf spring hanger off of the front passenger side frame rail. Max jumped in with others and had the shackle wraped and strapped to the front bumper so I could limp home. Thanks to Rick and his wife for following me back to the main road. At Hwy 247 I aired up and re-attached my sway bar and was able to cruise 55 mph all the way home. My mechanic "Ken" will have me back on the road Sunday am. If you need help with any Jeep wrenching email Ken @ www.thejeepguyonline.com . Ken lives in Hesperia and recently replaced my motor and installed my Howell fuel injection. Thanks again to everyone for the nice morning and all of the help. I hope that I'm the only casualty today.

Mitch

[Mitch]

Well the shackle/spring bracket is welded and beefed up and ready to wheel. Hope it was a great trip, sorry that I missed it!

Mitch

[dirtman13]

Mitch, sorry to about your problem. Glad you made it back ok.

What a great day of wheelin. Great group today, had a few problems but we made it. I'll post pics and report later.

The fire was horrible. I hated seeing it. My thoughts are with the fire fighters and the residents.

[Mike]

Hey Mitch, I'm really sorry that you had a problem but I'm glad to hear that it is repaired.

As dirtman13 said, you weren't the only carnage for the day, but it was a great day overall.

I'll post up some pics tomorrow. I'm looking forward to another run with you soon.

[RAT]

Rattlesnake

I couldn't sleep, so here's a few pics from yesterday at Rattlesnake canyon. Had a great day and everyone did great. Mitch, we'll have to get you out there again so you can see for yourself how cool this place is.

[RAT]

here some mo






















More pics here...

http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...02007/?start=0

[Mitch]

Kurt,

Most excellent photo's! Now I'm really bummed that I broke down.You even have a picture of my rig. I figured the only photo would be of the destroyed shackle mount that Maxwell took. Awesome day.

Mitch

[Schmo]

Another awesome day of wheelin' with the MJR crew . . . Thanks for comin' out everybody! Really couldn't have asked for a nicer day . . . great people, fun trails, beautiful scenery, nice temp, and surprisingly no smoke. I hope the firefighters are able to get a handle on the blaze and that the trails up there are reopened soon. Glad to hear that Mitch made it out safe and that the Jeep is fixed and ready to hit the trails again . . . next weekend, anyone??? A special thanks to Rick, who not only followed Mitch out to make sure he made it safely, but caught back up with the group and was right there towing Sergio off the trail until luckily the fuel pump switch was located and he was back in action . . . You Rock, Rick! All and all it was a great day of wheelin' without too much carnage . . . I think David is looking for an excuse to get a tummy tuck and really tested the structural fortitude of his belly pan, and the pics of Kurt and the HiLift are sure to be a crowd pleaser! With only 100 miles on those tires, I sure was glad to hear that Kurt forked out the extra cash for the warranty . . . kinda feels like you got ripped when you pay for the warranty and don't use it! Sure was great to see everyone again and to meet a few of you for the first time . . . I hope to see you all on the trail again soon!

[maddmike]

great pics. kurt, i especially like the one second down from the top with the smoke just coming off the mountains in a horizontal tube shape - pretty cool!

[RAT]

OK I know there are more pics out there waiting to be uploaded....

[Mike]

OK I know there are more pics out there waiting to be uploaded....

I just got home from work. I'm uploading to photobucket now. I'll be able to post my pics shortly.

[Gwjvw]

Awsome run and it was nice to meet all of you. Next run my jeep will be more set up. I had pics but i somehow deleted everything on my camera :-( so no pics here. It took me over 1 hr just to get to hwy 38.Some of you must have got home really late.I had a great time thanks to all of you. See you all next time.

Gary

[Mike]

Mike's Report, Part 1 - Rattlesnake Cyn

On the way up to the Rattlesnake Canyon trail head, the main thing that dominated the attention was the huge tube of smoke from the Butler 2 Fire:


The Chevron was in the shadow of the smoke trail. Luckily, it was staying at a high altitude. The smoke cast everything in an eerie light:


Since the trailhead is about 20 miles further East from there, we were well out of the smoke's path. The view from the trailhead:


We enjoyed blue skies and cool air while airing down:


We kept a moderate pace while going around the ranch and up the wide area of the canyon. It is an area that would be fun to open up, baja-style, though. The canyon narrows quite a bit about halfway up. The best play area is not far after that. This is where Mitch had a shackle break. TJ Rick was kind enough to escort him back, so we took our time in the play area to give Rick and his wife time to catch back up.

Kevin, of course, found the biggest rock that he could to wrestle with:



Kurt didn't hestitate to find a tough path either:


and Chuck followed suit:


Joe picked a tough line and got hung up a little, but only briefly:


While we were hanging out and playing, I think that a Toyota and a Jeep found love...:


I wonder what the babies will look like?

We continued up the canyon a little more and played on everything that looked interesting to give TJ Rick more time to catch up:


About the time that we found a nice shady spot to have lunch, Rick caught back up. After lunch, we climbed the rest of the way out of the canyon and through a cool Joshua Tree forest. We took a short side trail with a cool hill climb before we got to 2N02, Burns Canyon Road:


It's a nice canyon and a fun run. If you don't want anything too tough you don't have to. But if you want to play on some tough terrain, you can.

[Mike]

Mike's Report, Part 2 - Heartbreak Ridge

After leaving Rattlesnake Canyon, Rat Patrol mentioned that it had been a while since he had ran the short 2N71Y loop, so we headed over to it. The loop was a lot of fun, but there wasn't a lot of room to stop for pics. I caught this one as everyone was coming out at the end:


It's been about a year since I had driven that trail. I forgot how fun it is. At the end of the loop, Kaneto and 1BADFNZ headed on up 2N02 while the rest of us back-tracked to Heartbreak Ridge (2N61Y). The trail is still designated with three different signs and an AAT sign, so we decided to tackle the trail.

I really like running the trail from South to North because I think that the the rock garden is tougher in that direction. As you climb up the ridge, the rockiness increases until you get to the toughest part of the trail at the end of the rock garden. Everyone took some tough lines:






I really like this pic! No, the camera is not tilted:






Pretty much everyone that tried this line had trouble:


But everyone found a line that worked. This was Sergio's:


and this was Maxwell's:


This is a great trail but it is quite remote.

To round out the day, we took the 2N89Y short cut up to 2N01. Rat Patrol got a flat just before the top and was forced to use a Hi-Lift to change it out. I didn't realize that this was a special moment for Kurt. Apparently, using a Hi-Lift on the Rat was a new or rare experience!

It was a long day but it was spent with a great group of people on some really nice trails. I'm looking forward to the next run with you guys!

All my pics can be found at this link:
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q...15-07/?start=0

[Mr. Orange]

Thanks for a great time everyone. I had a blast. It was my first time in Big Bear, and definitely not the last. Thanks to Mike and Max for spotting me through the 'belly bashing', for the great connection of trails led through, and, of course, the pictures.

It really was nice to meet everyone, hope to do it again soon...