Sunday afternoon some friends and I went an hour up the road to run the Signal Peak 4x4 trail out of Cisco Grove, CA. Mike and I had run this trail a couple of years ago and it had some challenging spots, but many of our local trails are impacted and are getting more and more difficult. More on that later. We aired down and started the climb to the top of the mountain.




The first half mile of the trail is steep and boulder-strewn. If you get stopped, it can be difficult to get moving forward again. On occasion the truck just stops climbing while the tires look for traction, all the while moving the rocks further down the hill toward the guy behind you.


Most of the obstacles are just series of giant boulders that are placed in the worst locations--usually in the middle of the trail with a strategically placed one just one wheelbase ahead of that one. The trail is mostly used by side-by-sides, so anything wider and you either have to go around them or over them, something easily done in a $100,000 buggy, not a street vehicle. Most of us had rear lockers and they got used quite a bit.






Mike took on a little damage, but as you can see, he has it all fixed with the addition of a band aid.


We had to do a little trail maintenance for the next obstacle. There was a boulder too large to climb on the right, with another large boulder that the left tire couldn't climb, resulting in a fully articulated suspension and an easy high-centering. We did a little rock stacking and relocation to get through.