After long consideration of the conditions in the Los Padres National Forest given the mop up of the Lake Fire, it was concluded that a Sunday morning run on Camino Cello from west to east was plausible and of low risk to those fire fighting efforts.
Part of the group met up at the 5 points spot with the rest joining in at Refugio Rd exit from the 101. This brought us to 15 rigs and 20 participants.
While we understood that David and Otis couldn’t join in today, we appreciated their encouragement at the rally point .
In the climb up Refugio we only encountered limited downhill traffic
This route elevated us 4,200+ ft to reach the communication towers.
It was amazing clear sky view from there, just a few lingering marine layer influences in some of the valleys below.
There was no smoke rising from the Lake Fire that we observed
However I did notice this in the capture after the fact – drone or aliens?
Or maybe just a little dust on my lense
We used this location to be a combination air down site and conversation point in the shade from the towers.
It was nice to see Lake Cachuma still stretching so far and wide.
We continued on Eastward and experienced a little dust, heat and a fair amount of 2 wheeler traffic. Oh, and one trail runner out for a challenge!
Reminder to viewers of this post, this trail is not an OHV restricted trail so you will need more than OHV tags on your motorcycle. We observed three USF rangers, one who was working through education with a group of 8 enthusiasts without a license plate .
As Mike Willam’s noted, this trail does provide the opportunity to some offshutes where you can test out your low gears, flex and lockers
It also provides the comfort that if they aren’t working, the main road is easy enough to still get home.
Back at the pavement we found more groups of explorers, nice to see our public lands being appreciated by the public.
With the mechanical repairs made, 15 club members set off on another day of the volunteering for the Old Spanish Days Fiesta Parade. Today’s activities included unstacking the floats, making sure the tires and carriages were in good shape, cleaning and staging them for usage.
A quick top off on the tires will ensure they roll easily. A task much easier to accomplish before they are placed on the ground
Next comes the debris removal as a years worth of items have happened
And finally they are lined up for one last maintenance of the chicken wire and to be ready for the decoration teams
They are large platforms with custom designed carriages developed and fabricated by the club. Everyone had a great day and we were complete within 3 hours of clock time!
Thankfully we were complete before the marine layer broke up
The club’s commitment to this recurring community event was on full (behind the scenes) display on July 7th. Tim had coordinated the fabrication of some new connection point devices for the floats. These were needed to ensure safe handling through the unstack/restack portion of the float storage.
Thanks Tim for leading the way in both the development of the solution, fabrication and preparation for others to help in the upgrade action.
While there was some precautionary spider relocation work needed, teams were quickly deployed underneath and above each float in the stack.
These teams were then supported by members who were outside the stack coming up with solutions and additional tools when some of the bolts resisted to cooperate with the plan They also helped ensure those above were pairing with the team underneath as each of the 32 connection points were addressed
While some of the work was rather dirty, and some people looked like they were taking a siesta mid task,
it truly was many hands and a combined time donation of over 15 hours (not counting fabrication time) that made it come together
Finally some local trails are open! Our June coffee run started at the usual 5 Points parking lot, with 13 initial rigs and picked up 2 more by the time we got to the gun club in West Camino Cielo.
From there we went to the first playground area and tested out a little flex and shale hill climbing. The area gave everyone a little thrill and allowed for our first social break. We then went onto area #2 where the challenges got a little bigger, yet still plausible even for those without lockers with a little spotter guidance.
Afterwards we divided into two groups, one proceeding onto the Refugio pass road and the other returning towards the gun club end.
A few of us showed up Thursday to get our camps set up in preparation for the weekends activities. It was a little windy but we were still able to have a campfire. During the night and early morning we had more members come in to camp.
We had 13 vehicles on our Friday run. We went up Iron Canyon heading west as we have done in past years. One of the hills was long and fairly steep with loose shale near the top. Bryan K had drive shaft problems so he was running in 2wd with no front drive shaft. He lost traction about half way up and required rescue. Bryan S was able to get a strap on him and pulled him up the rest of the way.
It’s amazing how much traction that long wheelbase Gladiator has.
At this point the group split with some continuing up another hill and the rest going down the other side. This was the only experience with herding cats I had on the trip. Our GMRS radios worked great getting us back together.
We then went to the Walsh cabin at the top of the mountain. This cabin has a great view of the valley looking south toward Mojave but is held down by cables because of the wind. It was very windy while we were there but it was warm wind.
We then headed back down the hill toward Goler Wash. The trail to the wash was bumpy but not difficult. When we got into the wash we encountered a couple of waterfalls that we either had to go over or around.
Just before we got back to camp we went through the Narrows which is a narrow pass through a solid rock cliff. That night the wind stopped and we had a great campfire.
Saturday we had 19 vehicles head out toward Last Chance Canyon. At the trailhead we aired down and had a driver meeting.
Due to some rain earlier in the year the canyon had changed with a few more rocks added. The going was slow and we got to practice our rock stacking skills and towing capabilities. At the last meeting Kevin asked me whether an F250 could get through there and I thought it could. What Kevin didn’t know was that his automatic front hubs weren’t working. So a 1wd F250 can do it with a little help from your friends. Many thanks to Gary for turning Kim’s brand new Rubicon around in the canyon to do some winching.
After the canyon we headed headed to the Dutch Cleanser Mine to look at the snow caves. This mine was worked from 1919 to 1958 mining pumice for the Calsilco Corporation which was used in the manufacture of tooth paste, paint, insulating material and many other products.
Since we were running late we bypassed the Rock House and went down Bonanza Gulch to check out Bickel Camp. We then went across the valley on the on the easy road to Burrow Schmidts tunnel. A few people went through the tunnel to check out the view.
I was planning on going back to camp by way of Goler Wash but Jerry pointed out the approaching rain clouds so we headed back through Mesquite Canyon to the highway. We all made it back to camp before the rain started in time for dinner. Later a few of us sat around a campfire in the rain.
Sunday morning 6 vehicles headed up to Government Peak by way of the waterfalls. Kristina was the only one without lockers and required a little help on a couple of the obstacles. I give her credit for trying this difficult canyon.
Kerry blew out a rear tire on the big waterfall which took a while to change. Note to all – Make sure your jack works, fits under your axle and you have the correct lug nut wrench. Thank you Brian for the tows when needed. Another note to all – there are places where space is limited and slow speed control is required. A tow strap works and a kinetic rope sucks.
We reached the radio towers at the top of the mountain and admired the views.
The clouds were approaching from the west so we bypassed the Randsburg tour and headed back to camp on the easy road. We got into a little rain on the way but camp was dry and we were able to pack and air up before the rain came. The drive home was very wet in a couple of areas.
I want to thank all of you who participated for being prompt and obeying instructions. It made my job much easier. I hope we all learned a little about winching, towing and rock stacking. This is a good group and I hope to see you all next year.
