Events/Trails Big Bear Mar 14-15

[Loober]

Anyone interested in doing some of the harder trails in big bear? loose plan would be to leave SD early sat morning start with gold mountain and then john bull, camp somewhere sat night. Depending on the health of the rigs, head out through rattlesnake canyon sunday, which ends at the 138 behind silverwood lake.

For those that are not familiar with these trails, gold mtn is a medium trail(one of my favorite trails in socal), john bull is probably the hardest trail there, and rattle snake is a 2wd trail. Minimum of 33s, lockers, winch, and armor especially for john bull. Depending on the interest we can adjust the difficulty of trails, there's a good variety, but none would be recommended for stockish rigs without armor and/or some rock wheelin experience, unless you've done those trails before and know what to expect.

 

[Bud_Dude]

Sounds like a great trip am I'm interested. I have some under armor (skid plates under tranny and such), sliders and rear bumper wrap, but really don't want to risk much in terms of body damage...

 

[1FZj80]

i'm interested. i can't spend the night, so i would cut out before camp, but can wheel all day...

 

[flyingmonkey]

Penciling this one in. Won't be able to camp tho.

 

[Em cee]

Also interested for the day trip but won’t have sliders on in time so will try to avoid anything super technical

 

[Overlandeffex]

Wish I could go...work both weekend days

 

[Bud_Dude]

Good video of some of the Big Bear trails...

 

[Loober]

Looks like we have some good interest, based on the types of rigs coming, we'll skip john bull. I'll send out more details later in the week, but loose plan is to meet up in highland at the base of BB, there is a cool scenic off road trail up the mtn called clarks grade that we'll take instead of the road, then make our way through town and tackle gold mtn. then see what else time allows.

 

[1FZj80]

my Sunday plans were cancelled, so i'm planning on camping.
although it looks like this might be a snow run, which is always fun...

 

[flyingmonkey]

Gotta bail. I forgot I'm going to the Gulls game the night before. It's $2 Bud Light Night, so I know how that's gonna go.

 

[1FZj80]

weather is looking good in BB for the weekend. cool but no rain/snow Sat. or Sun.
i assume this trip is still a go?

 

[Loober]

Hey all,

Yes the trip is on, weather is showing ~50s during the day and ~20s at night, as long someone else is willing to camp I will as well. Snow shouldn't be an issue, just patches here and there.

So who is in for sure? @1FZj80 @Bud_Dude @Em cee

Plan would be to meet at 8am saturday at the in n out parking lot in highland, off 5th street exit on the 210.

28009 Greenspot Rd, Highland, CA 92346

 

[1FZj80]

i'm in for camping.
i'll bring some firewood if we will be in a site with pits?

 

[Em cee]

Hey guys, kids and wife are under the weather and I don’t wanna get coronavirus koodies on anybody. U guys be safe and have fun!

 

[Bud_Dude]

I think I'm still up for it, but feeling a little nervous about the trail conditions and weather though... I really don't want any body damage to my new toy, so hopefully any really bad stuff could be bypassed... Never done any of the BB trails so I have no clue what to expect.
Camping wise, I'd be good, and would sleep in the truck rather than tent... Not sure if my bag is good for the 20's though, could be a cold night, but extra blankets could help there. Not sure if anyone would be coming with me or not, but I tend to doubt it.
Fire wise, my kids got me one of those pop up pits for xmas so it would be a good time to test it out!

 

[Loober]

I think I'm still up for it, but feeling a little nervous about the trail conditions and weather though... I really don't want any body damage to my new toy, so hopefully any really bad stuff could be bypassed... Never done any of the BB trails so I have no clue what to expect.
Camping wise, I'd be good, and would sleep in the truck rather than tent... Not sure if my bag is good for the 20's though, could be a cold night, but extra blankets could help there. Not sure if anyone would be coming with me or not, but I tend to doubt it.
Fire wise, my kids got me one of those pop up pits for xmas so it would be a good time to test it out!

I think you'll be fine, for reference I am bringing my 1st gen tacoma, which is on 33s and I do all the trails fine. Plus the ones we'll do won;t be the difficult ones. We will be traversing boulders so the only concern for damage would be rocker panels, as long as you have sliders and skids it will be no big deal. The trails loop around so you can hop in one of our trucks if you don;t feel comfortable.

 

[1FZj80]

where are you planning on camping. a fire would be nice on a cold night. big pine flat is a nice site and is first-come no-reservations. i believe fires are not allowed unless rings are provided.

 

[Loober]

Campfire is going to be a must! Whatever campsite we end up closest to, I don't think we'll have trouble finding vacancy this time of year.

 

[Loober]

Well here is a quick recap of Marks @1FZj80 and mine trip to BB yesterday.

We made good time and hit the trail out of highland around 9am, it is called the santa river trail, I've done it before but never in the wet season. Got through 80% of it with no excitement, then the trail started to get increasingly "slippery" and all of sudden turned into complete soup. At that time I am still in 2wd, as I start to loose traction I go to hit the on the fly 4wd button in my tacoma, and nothing, no 4wd indicator on the dash, and it def does not feel like i am in 4wd. At the point I am barely moving forward flinging mud everywhere, can't let off the throttle as I will def not be able to get going again. Luckily I have an 80 elocker axle in my tacoma which I converted to a cable locker, so that went on fine and I kept creeping forward sliding side to side just letting the trail have its way with me. Get on the radio with Mark who is behind me and he is struggling as well at least he is in 4wd. Right before the trip I got a set of the new KM3 BFG tires and man did those not disappoint.

Finally we get through the gnarly mud and get to a place we can stop and assess why my 4wd does not work. Check of the electrical connectors, narrowed the problem to the actuator on the front diff, which did get wet a little, blew it out with air, still nothing. Decided to call it quits as I wasnt going to do the other trails without 4wd.

Here is the only picture I was able to get. Mark was a great sport, and we will def be doing a re-do in the next couple weeks. @Bud_Dude good call on skipping on this one if mud is not your thing. Spent $20 at the buggy wash getting all the chunks off,

Cheers

 

[RET2]

No damage and a couple of dirty trucks I would say it was a successful run