Miller “Lexus” Trail – Saturday 16, October 2010.
By: Roberto L. Miranda
Having as a goal to race Baja 1000 in November, means that I don’t have extra time for anything else. I saw a little window during this weekend; I did some adjustments to my agenda and create room for the Miller Run that I missed last year because the trail was closed. The forest service was doing some work with dead threes, if I remember it properly. Normally, the Capo Valley organized this trip, but this one was organized by the Southern California Land Cruiser group. I belong to several organizations, as you may notice.
The Flying J gas station is further away that I remember it, I almost made it on time, the group was leaving when I got there, took me two hours, including top-off with gas at I5/I405 junction. Maybe I’m living further south, so I need to add up that time too. Anyhow, we air-down at the usual spot, we used the same CB channel 4, and half of the group was doing Miller run for the first time, and yes, they look me weird using the Lexus, same look as the Jeep guys, it doesn’t change much between groups.
There is a gate-keeper with a by-pass, but long wheel base had hard time there, so I never tried. I played safe using the by-pass as usual. Besides scenery, the last section of this trail is really fun and challenging.
The trail looks great; groups involved in the Adopt-a-Trail program are going a terrific work, my kudos to them. We had lunch at a side of the trail, not at the gorgeous campground that the Capo Valley used. So next year, I’ll show them a perfect spot for lunch, btw, I forgot mine at home, I was such in hurry to leave that I packed drinks and camping stuff, but I forgot my lunch bag, so I was planning to get a sandwich at the gas station, but I was late, and I forgot about it. I can skip lunch one day, not big deal.
You know that you are entering the black diamond zone when you can see pines above you, just passing the valleys with dessert vegetation. If you don’t notice that, the rocks will let you know for sure. If you have some rain, worst scenario, some snow, the trail grade increase to double black diamond easily.
We did the climbing with no issues, no carnage, no breakdowns, just slowly. We air up at the top, and went down really fast, jumping like a rally car on each ramp to prevent water erosion problems. The doses of adrenaline was huge, the price, waiting for the brakes to cool down a bit few minutes. I need to wait anyways for the rest of the group, so I did some final shoots at the creek crossing, and we had a great finally, a windshield souvenir with dent included, courtesy of a three that slow down a bit.
We made our final stop at the park gate, a new one for me, to say good bye and use restroom. We also placed trashed in the containers there. “You are smarter than a Trash Can”, what a complement!!! but I was the only one to figure out how to open it, that was funny. I’ll remember that for ever. As soon as we hit pavement, the 80 series rocks!!! It is like driving any sedan/sport car, so you hit the gas, turn A/C on and played you favorite song until got stuck in L.A. traffic, but there is nothing to complain about it, I had fun with you soccer-mom rig one more time.
By: Roberto L. Miranda
