During the first week in October the Santa Barbara 4 wheel drive club made our annual trek to the upper Kern river.
Fourteen members and 2 doggies enjoyed camping, hiking, swimming, fishing,and 4 wheeling during our stay. Members began arriving on the Wednesday before the weekend and the group stayed through Sunday.
While it remained hot during our stay there, having the flowing Kern river and plenty of shade made it well worthwhile.
During our stay, several of us also enjoyed our favorite little burger shack McNally’s, which was just up the road from our camp.
Most of our team were in some version of a tent (ground or roof-top) a couple of us had truck campers as well as enclosed hard sided trailers.
On Friday, relaxing around camp, fishing and hiking were popular activities although Swifty, Bryan, Mike, Doug & George left camp and traveled down to the south end of lake Isabella to run the Black Gulch trail.
Black Gulch starts from the Keyesville recreation area. The group passed a few ranches and the dirt trail had several steep sections but nothing too terrible. The trail then connects to Freeway Ridge Trail. They didn’t see any other vehicles but were sure side by sides and motorcycles use it too. The B.G.T. had a technical rating 4/10), featured steep 4-low climbs, deep ruts, loose rocky terrain, and narrow sections. High-clearance 4WD is required; lockers and an experienced driver are definitely recommended. They experienced one unfortunate mechanical accident after just reaching the mountain’ssummit. George’s 2005 fully built TJ had a sudden catastrophic radiator failure when his relatively new radiator blew out a defective pet-cock. Consequently, he immediately lost all his coolant.
Working together, the team used straps in the rear to control downhill speed and another in front to pull the disabled jeep forward. They got George and the limping TJ safely to the bottom of a very steep switch-backie trail. They had to leave the jeep near the main road where Swifty and George made the trip back in the dark to retrieve it and get it safely back to camp on the river.
Saturday most of the club headed up the Sherman pass to run the beautiful Sherman Pass 4×4 jeep trail.
This trail travels through various sizes of younger, older and deceased ( struck by lightning & burned by the 2002 McNally fire) pine forests. Once on the trail there are a few technical areas with very tight pinch spots between trees.
Tom did an amazing job navigating his full sized crew cab F-350 full size truck through those areas and up the trail. Lunch was at the crest of the mountain at 9,900 feet next to the radio towers.
With a couple of options for the downhill descent, the group decided to take the middle track, which steered us back to an old long existing cabin that was completed in the late 19th to early 20th century.
History states that it was used as a homestead shelter for loggers and cattlemen that used to graze livestock on high mountain meadows and the Kern plateau. The cabin has recently been completely cleaned up after decades of neglect and weather intrusion.
After reaching the asphalt again and airing back up, we headed back down the Pass and enjoyed relaxing around camp, cooking dinner, playing cards and enjoying the evening.
Sunday was pack-up day where we all left at various times depending on our individual schedules. Everybody had a safe trip to and from so it was another successful club run.
Thank you, Brent for being trail boss for this trip.and Swifty for helping to lead the group on the Sherman pass.