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Trip Report: JOURNEY UPWARD
Which took place on May 11, 2002
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The Journey Upward -by Jungle Jim Saturday morning we began gathering at the IN-N-OUT Burger parking lot in Hesperia. Some of us topped off our tanks at the Texaco station across the street. I conducted a brief drivers meeting. Present, were Bruce White in and Jay (John) Reitz in Bruce’s red Cherokee Sport, Doug Steig in the silver Grand Cherokee, John and Stacey Laird in their blue Toyota truck, John and Jeff Burleigh in the vintage Toyota Landcruiser, Scott Grubb and Dan Michaels in the red Bronco, Kent and Jim Anderson in a Jeep TJ. At 10:00, we made our way through beautiful downtown Hesperia and on to the dirt, where most of us aired down our tires. Decreasing tire pressure makes for a smoother ride and increases traction, however you lose ground clearance in the process.
Soon we were on our JOURNEY UPWARD, on 3N14. It was a fairly constant climb on the twisting road. During our ascent, the scenery went from Joshua trees to ever increasing bushes and finally into the tall pines. We went through a massive burn area along the way and stopped for fellowship and lunch at beautiful Big Pine Flat. The sky was blue, the air crisp and the food we brought along was real good. This was a great place for sitting around in folding chairs, stand around talking cars and making pit stops. (This is where the GPS map track begins. See map.)
It was here, that a few of the folks hinted that they were hoping for more of a challenge. I promised that our first little side trip, off of 3N14 could provide that. Soon we turned on to a trail that took us to a little creek. I pointed for everyone to park, as the trail crosses the creek and takes a short but steep climb out of the creek bed. Sometimes I like to stop here and watch other vehicles try to negotiate the climb. We waited… some hiked across the water to check out the trail… but no other vehicles happened by. So, I decided to be the first to give it a try. There are two ways to climb out of the creek. On the right, it’s moderately steep. On the left, it’s quite steep and has huge alternating ruts. I had been there a few times before, so I went directly up and back down the hard way. Then I went up the easy way in reverse and when the group saw that, they started giving it a try. It was here that we met a couple of guys and dogs in a Austrian made Swiss military vehicle, which was very impressive (the last picture in the group below). We all spend a few minutes walking around it, commenting on how heavy duty it was.
One by one each made it with ease. Doug Steig was unable to get his Jeep into low range, but his 5.9 liter V8 pulled him right up with no problem. All seemingly itching for the challenge, we decided that if all could climb out of the creek bed, we would continue on this trail, which eventually circled back to our lunch stop at Big Ping Flat. The last to try was John Burleigh. He made it up on the second try, and off we went. This was a much more interesting trail, much more narrow, sharp turns, more rocks and steeper hill climbs. This was a lot of fun, but the bumpy hills played havoc with one of the older vehicle’s carburetor, causing it to flood out and stall several times, and eventually we turned back to plan A. On the flatter ground, that problem disappeared. (A note to newcomers: if your vehicle has fuel injection, you won't have this problem.) The club always sticks together and tackles the trails as a team. So the basic ground rule for driving in a group is to spend enough time in the mirror to keep from losing the vehicle behind you. If you stop noticing the person behind you, you stop. This way, if someone behind you gets stuck or breaks down or misses a turn, we all stop in turn. This is a rule I like to set, even if we all have radio communications. On this trip, the only ones with radios were Bruce White, the rear vehicle, and myself. Most of us were able to adhere to the guideline, so we were only separated once due to human error. A quick radio call from Bruce, explaining that the rear half of the group was bunched up at one of the turns, was all it took to remedy the situation.
Our last side trip brought us to a wonderful place where we came together, under the tall pines, in worship. The trail continues about a quarter mile beyond our worship spot. With four vehicles remaining, and drivers apparently still itching for a challenge, we decided on to a place I remembered that sports a view of Big Bear Lake in one direction and Lake Arrowhead in another. This was a very narrow trail. I t was less overgrown than recalled, so no "desert pinstriping" was suffered by the vehicles. All but one of the vehicles were able to negotiate the bumpy hill climb, so one remained and the others went. It was quite a glorious view. On the way back down, we met the remaining driver walking upward, so Bruce took him up top for view. Here we were, at over 7,000 feet. The evening breezes beginning and shadows growing ever taller. Reluctantly, we headed down the hill and into Fawnskin, where we found pavement and aired our tires back up. This was a very memorable excursion and the First Biannual Trail Adventure for the Eastside 4x4 Club. I’m looking forward to our next run, next fall. –Jungle Jim Carvin
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