I ended up spending the night at Bobcat Meadow campground and had the entire campground to myself. I tried out my homemade awning which I pieced together with parts from Ace (PVC pipe) and Harbor Freight (free tarp, bungees, guy lines) for $30. It takes about 5-10 minutes to set up with one person but once the guy lines are spiked into the ground, it's very sound.
The next day I headed up to Los Pinos Mountain and did the entire 18-mile Los Pinos Loop which includes the short, but exciting, moderately-rated Espinosa Trail. I ended up doing a write-up of Espinosa Trail for
www.trailsoffroad.com that you can check out
here.
From the lookout tower, you can see unparalleled views of the entire southern section of Cleveland National Forest, Pine Creek Wilderness, and Hauser Wilderness.
This is Tecate Mountain which is just north of the Mexico border.
You can see the black border wall snaking along the mountains too.
The massive granite mountain in the background is called Corte Madera.
I had aired my tires down to 12psi for the weekend and in combination with my worn tires, my front skid plate hit quite a few rocks and sheared off the rear bolt heads causing my RCI skid plate to fall off. Thankfully, only the heads sheared off and I was able to unthread the remaining bent shafts from the truck frame with a pair of pliers. I ended up having to do the rest of the trail without the skid.
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