20130516-19 The whole bernadino

[troyboy162]

Man what a trip! The days were long and the wheeling had more hours in the rocks then on the fire roads. The weekend came together quite well despite the lack of planning on my part. I dont know the milage, but the days were longer then they probably should have been. Thanks to JD, Sean and Dan for making it a great outing!

Day1
Cleg is beat up! Pilot showed myself and Sean that it still demands attention and respect. Both of us had a wheel stand on a steep hill. We both followed JD's line soooo; you guessed it, JD is cheating! The rocks are more pronounced then ever and made our time into first camp cap out at 930ish. We had a solid 2 hours of night wheeling on tired eyes. Thank goodness for Aux lighting on all our vehicles.
Cleg
Pilot rock
Willow springs

Day 2
Dishpan links Arrow head to Big bear and we got an early start after camping close to the trail head. Again the years have not been kind to old Dishpan. The easy line is not easy anymore and the hard lines look like rollover on a stick. With a 8pm send off we rolled into Big bear at around noon. JD did amazing on this trail and showed us what crazy stuff a stock 4runner can do with the right driver. The eastern end of white mountain was up next and it was a real tire chewer with several hill climbs through, grapefruit sized, loose jagged rocks. Unexpectedly this was a black diamond trail with features marked "suicide hill" lol. Thankfully JD saw the potential of a overlook rather then my one track mind frame of pressing on. The Over look ended up being the highlight of the trip for me and pictures cant do it justice. From the hill top we spotted a stand of pines for camp. When we arrived at the pines, Sean recognized the area brought us to the best yellow post site I have ever seen.
Dishpan
3N16
3N14
4N16
White mountain (eastern stretch)












Day 3
We followed 3N16 from the north eastern boundrys of big bear all the way back to Jacoby canyon(still a favorite). We crossed the street onto 3N04 where we drove past severe small mines and claims. Tip top mountain was the next stop and I would have to say the view was not half as good as the one from white mountain the day prior. After that it was a rally down 3N04 and out rattlesnake canyon. The joshuas at the mouth of Rattlesnake did not disapoint. There are some huge ones in there, but they look like they have taken a beating latly.
3N16
Jacoby Canyon
3N04
Tip top Mtn
Rattlesnake Canyon

[Seanz0rz]

http://s955.photobucket.com/user/ham...e%20Bernardino

I didn't get many pictures, too involved in trying to not break or roll the truck.

The only relaxing part of this weekend was the piece of my step daughter's b-day cake I had! It was definitely some of the hardest off roading I have done, and to do 2 very stressful days back to back was pretty challenging. I still had a blast and can't wait to do it again!

thanks for leading Troy. It is a pain, I know!

We were very fortunate to not have any breakdowns or major stucks on the trail, and we found good camp sites both nights.

[Jaydee914]

Yeah, amazing trip, Troy. That was the perfect combo of wheeling, sight seeing and rock bashing, in my opinion. I have no complaints about any of the trail choices or amount of hours. And finally, my sliders got some use (ok, a LOT)!
I'm realizing that my sidewall "defect" was almost certainly my fault, thanks to a 20-30 mph rock impact. When it happened, I was amazed that the tire didn't blow - looks like it nearly did!
I'll try to post some of the few pics that I took soon.

[Jaydee914]

Oh, and thanks,Troy, for all the winching and the tug!

[troyboy162]

np. You coulda had those lines if we had more time. The winch hardly had to work.

[Good Times]

wow you guys covered a lot of ground! it's been a long time since I've hit those trails. looks and sounds like you guys had a blast!

[DHC6twinotter]

I had a blast out there! Troy, thanks for putting this together!

It was great to see Troy and JD again, and thanks to Sean for letting me tag along with him.

I'll have my pictures up tomorrow. I'll be working on a video too.

[4x4mike]

Looks like you guys had a great trip. Was the wheeling just very technical? Reducing body damage?

[Jaydee914]

Mike,

The first 2 days saw some pretty technical wheeling. We got ourselves into a couple of hairball situations Friday evening, and then Saturday morning was all about picking our way up some really tough rocks (and winching me most of the way up). That morning, the body damage potential was high, but not really the rest of the time.

[Seanz0rz]

Cleghorn had tons of off camber situations, which is one of the few things I REALLY worry about on the trail. If some minor body damage happens, oh well. But rolling the truck is not an option. The worst were the off camber sections with tall walls on the low side. I was frequently less than 6 inches from removing all the paint on the side of the truck.

Dishpan wasn't horrible, except for the middle waterfall and the beginning near deep creek where JD couldn't get enough traction to get up.