My "Once-A-Month" Adventure Thread

[boyfester]

June 2016 - Miller Jeep Trail with TTORA

Here is a link to our June trip to the Miller Jeep Trail with TTORA

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/off-roading/222465-late-post-june-2016-miller-jeep-trail-ttora.html

 

[mrbrenan]

Ahhhh.. Southern California trails!! They look like so much fun. Up here in Northern California we have some pretty epic creeks, red dirt, granite rock and forests but those deserts look epic!! Never enough pictures!

 

[Newb99]

wow, you are doing some great trips there. Thanks for sharing the pics and info.

 

[boyfester]

July 2016 - San Bernardino National Forest

I hooked up with the SCORE group again for the July 2016 trip and this time we visited four more trails in the Charlie Wells' "Southern California Trails" book: Skyline Road, Radford Truck Trail, Clark's Grade, and Butler Peak. The plan was to meet at South Fork campground on Saturday and work our way up to Hanna Flats campground for the night and then go east on 3N16 and exit out of Jacoby Canyon.

Meet at South Fork CG


First we took Front Road (1N04). It was very dusty so I decided to hang near the back.




We then headed north up Radford Truck Trail (2N06). This was an easy trail with lots of shade at times.



We were met with some opposition at one point when a Ford Bronco 4X4 group was headed in the opposite direction so we pulled over to make some room. Unfortunately, one of the guy's in our group pulled too far off of the road in his Jeep and had to be yanked back onto the trail.


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Once we were on our way, Radford Trail had some pretty amazing views.






We tried to take a side road (2N21) to Sugarlump Mtn but we were met with a closed gate. Bummer!


We continued until reaching Skyline Road and were met with a ton of mountain bikers. Apparently there was a race on Saturday and part of the course was along Skyline Rd so these mountain bikers got to breathe in lots of dust from our group. These guys were not very friendly. We'd wait for them, make room for them, and still not one ever said "Thanks" or "Thank you". As a fellow biker, I wasn't feeling the love.


We eventually parted ways with the bikers as their track turned into singletrack and so we stopped for lunch.

 

[boyfester]

We continued onward along Skyline Trail until I noticed a dread-locked mtb racer coming in my direction. It was none other than veteran BMXer and mtb racer, Tinker Juarez. I stopped along the shoulder to let him climb in a somewhat dust-free cloud. While I stopped for every other racer coming in the opposite direction and none of them acknowledged me, Tinker said "Hi" and "Thank you" when I pulled over. First class guy.



We trekked onward and hit pavement at Aspen Glen picnic area and then hit Hwy 18 at Big Bear Lake. We drove around the west end of the lake and headed up to Hanna Flat campground. We set up camp and then I went for a mountain bike ride to Butler Peak Fire Lookout as the trail was still closed to motor vehicles at that time. The trail head is fairly close to Hanna Flat and the bike ride itself was pretty easy, except for the 8000+ feet elevation.





When you come around this corner you get your first glimpse of the amazing tower.




The last hike up was steep!



At the top, the view was magnificent! This is looking west towards Silverwood Lake.


West towards Big Bear Lake and the trail I had just climbed


North towards Keller Peak


After dinner we decided to go out on a night run of Holcomb Valley to see the grave sites, the cabin, and the stars. It was a nice night.







Even without a tripod, I was able to get a great shot of the moon. This is without any post-processing too.



The next shots did require some post-processing though.






We then headed back for some brews and a good night's sleep.

 

[boyfester]

The next day we took our group shot before heading out. The rest of the group was going towards Keller Peak and I had done that in August so I opted to go back to Skyline and down Clarks Grade. It didn't disappoint.



This was an offshoot off of Skyline to Bluff Lake.


Bluff Lake Reserve


Start of Clarks Grade


Clarks Grade was a moderate run at best. I went slowly and it was easy, even with a mountain bike on the back. Gotta say, this Thule T2 rack is superb! No looseness, sits high, and is rock solid.






I turned right and cruised along 1N09 until coming to City Creek crossing the trail.


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I then came around the corner and saw this interesting concrete embankment.


In the distance is Keller Peak and the lookout tower.


This is a zoomed in shot of Keller Peak.


The magnificent Keller Cliffs




I turned left onto Alder Creek Road and headed towards the Seven Oaks Reservoir.


The reservoir from the north side.


And the south side


Nice view of East Highlands and the San Bernardino International Airport


And that sums up our July trip to Big Bear. Thanks for following along!

 

[RedSled]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bumbo]

Awesome thread, thanks for sharing!

Just curious... did all the group members have radios?

Just curious if you met any licenced HAM radio operators in the Southern California Off Road Explorers group or if most people were just running CB, FRS, or MURS radios?

 

[boyfester]

Awesome thread, thanks for sharing!



Just curious... did all the group members have radios?



Just curious if you met any licenced HAM radio operators in the Southern California Off Road Explorers group or if most people were just running CB, FRS, or MURS radios?

Sort of a mixture of CB, HAM, and FRS in the SCORE group. A handful of us our licensed, myself included.


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[Bumbo]

Sort of a mixture of CB, HAM, and FRS in the SCORE group. A handful of us our licensed, myself included.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reply... I am also a licensed ham and I have a couple radios in my rig.

I was just curious how many people still use CB... I don't have a CB in my rig, and I wasn't really planning on installing one... space is at a premium and I already have two antennas hanging off the rear.

I was just curious how everyone ended up juggling communications.

Did you HAMs end up using simplex the entire time or did you have a couple local repeaters programmed in incase anyone got separated from the group?

 

[boyfester]

Exactly what you said in the end with regards to repeaters. We do run simplex with a few different channels since we sometimes break up into smaller groups and don't want cross chatter. A couple of guys do the repeaters to keep track of strays but I've only been running simplex. I just got my technician's license in May so I'm just learning. A couple of the guys have multiple set ups in their rigs and have to communicate with everyone. I don't. Only a handheld.


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[mphillips_90]

looks awesome!