I had an urge to see snow. Good thing the Meet-Greet-Eat thing came alone today. We have meet with Desert Fox and a bunch of other Jeepers in the Julian Pie Company building at 8am. After talking about this and that, we decided to form two groups. One would go to the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation, and another one, guided by Desert Fox would go to the Chariot Canyon. I was set to lead the Los Coyotes group.
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The Los Coyotes group consisted of me, with my '99 TJ, locked front and rear on 35-inch tires. Ilikeitalot, with his open front and rear red ZJ. Chicagor, with his four angry hamsters TJ, also open front and rear on 31" BFG tires. Mike98TJ team, open front and rear on 31" GSA tires. And Derf - 2001 XJ with tiny tires, Trak-Loc and rock rails.
We paid the fee at the Check In Station, and I wanted to take the group straight up to the Lookout Tower. Following one wrong turn we discovered that the gate was closed, so we went through the main Campground instead.
First obstacle to play on was the Left Turn Hill. Fun little obstruction, that turned out to be a challenge for open ended Jeeps. Disconnecting and airing Mike's GSA tires down to 15 PSI did not help much to get the tiny Jeep over giant ruts dug by the great deal of big trucks with huge tires, picking on the Left Turn Hill every day.
We met some Russian folks with big old Jeeps, there. Left Turn Hill took it's toll on them by pulling the passenger side rear axle on one of the Jeeps out of the bearings, instantly increasing the track. Wider is not always better. :-)
Unharmed we proceeded farther North and took the right turn to the Quiet Road. Lots of snow! The Jeep Squeeze was a fun obstacle to play around with a recovery strap, after my Jeep slid sideways near the top of the main exit [from the Squeeze]. The Detroit locker in my rear axle made a huge bang. At first we thought I broke the axle, turned out, everything was fine.
Back to the main road we drove all the way to the lookout tower. Visibility - fantastic. With gliders flying around we broke for lunch. I fished out a can of "Potted Meat Food Product" out of my jeep trunk, the "Meat Product" turned out to be not bad at all… I saved the can with one-eight hundred number. I may give the "Meat Product" people a call, to congratulate them.
Coming down from the tower (highest point in the San Diego County), we met a Zuk and an Explorer struggling to make it up.
After that we turned to the Dangerous Road. Dangerous Road was very interesting. At one point, I decided to go on the part of the trail completely covered in snow, and got myself into a slidy/scary situation. Fortunaely my Jeep didn't flip. A little bit later it was refreshing to meet a huge yellow XJ with the same color CJ.
After reaching the Four Corners we drove around and back to the Campground, noticing the gorgeous view of the Salton Sea.
Overall this run was lots of fun. It was great to drive around hitting mud holes. We've got dirt all over our Jeeps.
Big thank you to all participants!
Don't forget to check out this run pictures!