JeepSWAG – Living with a Jeep JK

Ran BP this weekend, with Troy and Alan.  Great views, great obstacles, great friends = great times.  Some carnage – I lost a fender, a license plate and a side view mirror.  Troy had the trail sign it’s autograph on both sides and Alan got towed home with some steering pump problems.

Some pics:

[View with PicLens]

Bronco Peak Connector Jan 2010 from troy tertany on Vimeo.

Headed out to Lucerne Valley early yesterday morning.  Met up with some locals and headed up to Rattlesnake Canyon.  All the shade spots had snow and the creek was running a little, in spots.  I was solo in my need to run Mottino Wash, so my Son and I left the group to do MW.  I was curious to find out how quickly I could get through the run.  From Rattlesnake Canyon to the first turn off a the top of MW took a little less than thirty minutes.  Sure beat the last MW run that I did, at about three and a half hours.

Great run today.  Covered some serious ground. Not much in the way of snow, but we got our fair share of rock slides and trees blocking the road.  I think we had to move 4-5 trees on Sugarpine.

We finished so fast, that we decided to do Cleghorn backwards.  Cleghorn is in great shape right now (read as lots of rutted trails and Cleghammer is great. I think that the V-notch mid way on Cleghammer is doable, but it would take way more cajones than I’ve got.  Lower CH is way fun right now.  Amazing how that trail changes after a good rain.

Headed out to Cougar Buttes on Saturday afternoon.  Night was a brisk 35 degrees.  Being prepared, we slept warm.  Alan, Mark  and Troy joined us Sunday morning.  We wheeled Bullfrog and Hammer Down.  Bullfrog is a fun trail and other than the fact that Hammer Down is too short, it’s awesome.

Hammer Down track in Google Earth LINK

Bullfrog track in Google Earth LINK

Some pics:

[View with PicLens]

And a link to more: LINK

Video:

Took the Samster on a Claw Hammer shake-down run today.  You know when Claw Hammer is your “shake-down” run, it’s capable. Scary thing is that it was way too easy to be a real “shake-down”. Hundy headed for Sledge Hammer after I left. A much more appropriate shake-down for the Samster.  No JK’s today.  Bash made it through with 33″ tires and open diffs – Yikes!

Hundy in the Samster

Headed out to the “Hundy Compound” in Lucerne Valley for some wheelin.  Met Hundy and Overton and wheeled Bullfrog.  We didn’t get to “Jeep Eater”, because Hundy got lost.  Of what I saw, it’s a great trail though.

Sunday morning we rolled up the hill to meet group for Mottino Wash.  Mottino is great, but it was a larger group and the wheelin was slow.

Couple of pics from Bullfrog;

Bullfrog Day

Bullfrog Night

I’ll still be doing some Saturday night camping trips.  After soccer is over, I’ll be planning some longer trips.  With Soccer games every Saturday through mid November, my schedule is a little limited.

Short trips include Calico, an extreme rock crawling trail (no kids) at Johnson Valley, and exploring in Afton Canyon.  I’m sure I’ll end up with two to three trips, in addition to the ones listed.

I hope that the Afton Canyon exploring turns out to be really interesting.  There’s a wash that I’ve started up and would like to continue to explore.  The big quest is to see if we can work our way up to the top of the mud caves in Spooky Canyon.  This will require driving up the back side of those mountains and I have no idea if it’s possible.

Longer trips will include a Death Valley Trip with visits to Panamint City and Barker Ranch (Charles Manson’s last hideout)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamint_City,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barker_Ranch

Road to Panamint City

Backdoor at Johnson Valley