Mid -October on our scheduled Sunday-Fun-Day run, 8 members from the Santa Barbara 4 wheel drive club explored the Zaca Ridge trail near Figueroa Mountain in the Los Padres National Forest.
In July of this year the Lake Fire destroyed over 38,000 acres immediately in that area. The trail traverses along the top of Zaca Ridge with spectacular views of the San Rafael wilderness, Zaca Lake and the Santa Ynez valley.
The forestry trail leads out to a turn-around point approximately 60 minutes after leaving the pavement and travels directly through the burn scar and is a popular destination for trail runners, mountain bike enthusiasts and OHV lovers. It was stunning to see the devastation of one of our area’s most beautiful and scenic trails. It was also reassuring to notice that the burn area is already beginning to restore itself as well.
We were unable to take the side-shoot trail that leads down to the Davy Brown campground from the Zaca Ridge trail as it is closed because the Sunset Valley Rd leading back out to Happy Canyon is being completely refurbished so we proceeded back out to the Figueroa Mountain road and headed back to Los Olivos.
All in all it was an absolutely beautiful Fall day with amazing views and lots of peace and quiet in the backcountry.
Over a dozen club members rallied in the Upper Kern River valley the first weekend in October. This particular club run is becoming one of our club members favorites. Brent arrived several days ahead of the main group to secure campsites in Calkins Flat, just south of the famed McNallys Resort.
Here we had space for at least a dozen campers including 3 expedition trailers, a couple of truck campers and motorhomes flat towing their jeeps, a couple of R-pod trailers as well as many tents which were able to be set up right near the river.
4WD Trail expeditions began Friday with a warm up run along the access trail to the power plant aqueduct below the Fairview Dam.
This provided some skill tests where multiple rigs needed to pull a 180 in a packed trail environment.
Good opportunity to relearn the boundaries of your rig and test your turning abilities.
Some stayed in camp and enjoyed the local stream for fishing.
A few lively catches were made, yet the impact from increasing other explorers in the water did limit the number of catches.
Later on Friday most of the group proceeded up the Sherman Pass paved road to Forest Route 33E29.
This trail takes us by some remote cabins and eventually a communications tower site overlooking the upper Kern River canyon.
After the lunch stop we connected to the Sherman Pass 4WD Trail to evaluate a challenging hill for the next day’s run.
This climb area presents a number of clearance challenges and allows us to precheck lines and bypass options for the following day.
Next we followed the lower section of the Sherman Pass Trail which provided width issues, tight turns and steep descents.
Radio call outs of tip angles above 20 degrees were numerous. All went well, some new trail pinstripes were acquired and we eventually landed back at the pavement before 4:00 pm.
Another night at camp provided another artificial campfire circle. We followed the wood campfire restriction rules as the humidity was around 10%.
Saturday we broke into two squads, one exploring scenic views and some easier forest trails on the western divide of the Kern and the rest tackling the full Sherman Pass 4WD trail.
The western squad saw a number of logging activities, cruised some side trails and waterholes.
The eastern squad enjoyed the sights and bigger terrain challenges.
Eventually each squad split again to accommodate personal choices, including a lunch stop at McNally’s Grill for some awesome burgers, fries and shakes.
One pair of the eastern squad chose to repeat the much tougher lower section of the Sherman Pass Trail the team had done the day before. Fortunately they were the sub group with the portable welder because a steering component bracket pulled loose on a J K and they were stopped. After removing their batteries to form the 24V needed to power the welder, they proceeded with a trail side repair. Via GRMS communications the rest of the squad agreed to give them 2 hrs to attempt this on their own before we put a crew together and head up for some additional help. They reported back within the time allowance they had it back together and were proceeding again. Everyone was back to camp before sunset and lots of stories to share around the (artificial) fire pit.
In addition to a great adventure and while we had fun, we now understand the first weekend in October in Kernville is a very well attended motorcycle rally. This crowd impact plus the warm temperatures had many discussing a later event schedule for future years.
Club Members: be sure to you use your member access to check out the 240+ photos contributed to this trip album.
Our friends who organize Pour Overlander events in support of Valor on The Green once again encouraged club members to participate in their social event.
Several members brought their adventure mobiles and set ups
Talking adventures and encouraging others to get out and explore.
The event ( Valor on the Greens) seemed to be a success with merch for sale, breakfast burritos cookies and coffee. To learn more about this group, search
In addition to the club members demonstrating their Riggs, other members lent their support and social experience
Two complete sets of golf clubs were also donated to the valor on the green organizers on behalf of our club as well
Thank you everyone who got up early and came out and displayed their riggs on behalf of our club to raise money for our vets and first responders . As well as those additional club members who also showed for support
Our crew was lined up to begin pulling the 8 floats in the 2024 Fiesta Parade at 6:30 am. We were out and onto the streets at our assigned time, weaving through the street closure obstacles to fine tune our ability to judge where the float might contact the curb.
Tim knows this parade routine!
Kirk took the lead float which had an early horseless carriage and two sister with ties back to Fiesta in the sixties.
Next Brent and Noel pulled a float with many Former Spirits of Fiesta while others in the group walked.
Next in float line was the Carvers pulling the Chumash float
Followed by Liz
Next was the Allen group
Followed by Richard and Christina
Then Art
And commanding the 8th float was Mike and his group of dancers rocking the parade route
The 100 year celebration of the Fiesta Parade was a complete success. No mechanical, human, or logistical surprises foiled our contribution to the event.
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
The Big Bear area has always been a special spot for off-road exploration for people in Southern California. It’s a great place to get out of the summer heat of the deserts and “flat lands” that has a huge variety of trails to explore, some of which are very challenging. Our plan was to camp in an area that we’d scouted before – Brent was to arrive on Thursday and secure the camp, with Bryan S. and Dave T. arriving later in the day.
Arrival
Brent arrived around 1 PM on Thursday, only to discover that the campsite we had used for the past few years had been fenced off by the Forest Service. With no cell phone reception, he couldn’t alert the others arriving that day. Brent traveled a few miles in each direction to find an alternate site and eventually settled on the nearby Big Pine Flat Campground. Though not ideal, it would serve as a good meeting point.
Bryan and Dave arrived shortly after, and Bryan volunteered to scout for a new camp. Within minutes, Bryan radioed back that he had found a great spot. Brent and Dave packed up and headed over to meet him.
The spot Bryan found was perfect—a wide, relatively flat area under the pine trees with a single campfire ring and plenty of room for all 11 rigs expected for the weekend. The rest of the group arrived later that day or early Friday morning.
Camped in the trees
Friday
A beautiful sunny morning greeted us and after Breakfast Brent held a drivers meeting. The trail today was to include 3N69, or Gold Mountain as it’s more commonly known. This trail is rated as difficult with 6/10 for technical and reaches an elevation of 8,203ft with stunning views of Big Bear lake before dropping into Holcomb Valley. Due to the nature of the trail, Dave, Sebastien and Brad decided to leave their Toyota 4Runner, Nissan Xterra and Lexus GX470 at camp and hitch a ride in one of the 11 rigs, comprising mostly Jeeps of various models and a Gladiator and Tacoma.
On arrival at the staging area for Gold Mountain, Christina & Richard’s Jeep had an overheating issue so decided to go back to camp accompanied by Bobbie in her jeep. Joe and Lily hitched a ride for the rest of the day.
A high clearance 4WD with 4 low and lockers are definitely required for this trail and the first obstacle to overcome is the Gatekeeper. There is no bypass to this and it’s there to stop less capable vehicles attempting the trail. The trail lead for the day was Brent with Dick at the tail.
I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never attempted anything like this and was very apprehensive when looking at the rocks we needed to get over. After watching how the group worked together to get vehicles over the gatekeeper, particularly Dave’s non lifted Gladiator and Fernando’s Tacoma, it gave me the confidence to give it a go in my stock Rubicon 4xe with 33” tires.
The capability of these vehicles is incredible and with some expert spotting from Brent, we all made it comfortably over the Gatekeeper.
Fernando cleans the Gatekeeper in the Tacoma on 32’sDave & Otis start the Gatekeeper in the Gladiator
The next obstacle was one of the first waterfall obstacles. There are a couple of different routes here and most of us took the intermediate route with 1 to 2 foot ledges. The harder route has a high chance of rollover and the obstacles can vary from 3 to 5 feet.
Bryan and Chub Chub attempt a difficult line at the first obstacle
The second waterfall obstacle was more challenging and also had a couple of different lines to take. Brent and Jim tried the harder line on the left which had a 2 to 3 foot step to get up. The granite rock was pretty slick and the Jeeps were unable to get the traction needed to get over that particular obstacle. The line on the right was a little easier and all vehicles managed to get over without too much trouble.
Jim makes his attempt at the hard line Dave & Otis figure out the best line on the first obstacle
Next up was the Bone Garden, so called because it sounds like crushing bones as you drive over them. It was just like the scene in the original Terminator where the machines were driving over the skulls.
The final obstacle before lunch required a couple of the vehicles to use their winches to get over the rocks, mainly due to lack of traction. I don’t have a winch on my Jeep but, after seeing them in action, I think that’s something I will definitely consider as “next on the list”. Fernando had a winch on his Tacoma and he hooked it up to my Jeep to give him the little extra he needed to get over the obstacle. It really doesn’t take much, just a little help.
Fernando gets a tug up the second obstacle
We stopped for lunch at the top of the mountain and took in the scenery. We were fortunate that there was no traffic on the trail as it takes quite a bit of time to get over some of the obstacles.
After lunch we descended down through the Pine trees, across the Pacific Crest Trail into Holcomb Valley. It had been a pretty tiring day so we decided against the John Bull trail and headed back to camp.
After a good feed we sat around the campfire and looked back on the day’s activities. It was a really great day with some challenging obstacles, stunning scenery and a sense of accomplishment, not to mention some big grins.
Saturday
Another beautiful sunny day and after a short drivers meeting we headed out to White Mountain, led by Brent with Bryan at the tail. This time Dave, Sebastian and Brad were driving their 4runner, Xterra and GX470. The trail was anticipated to be a little easier than Friday’s, especially in the direction we were going, east to west (the “downhill” direction).
We started off climbing the trail to White Mountain off Holcomb Valley Road. It was rocky with some off-camber sections and shelf roads. The views into the Lucerne valley were stunning. Along the trail we saw a few motorcyclists having some difficulty descending one of the steep descents. One guy looked less experienced than the rest and he had a few tumbles. They managed to get down safely though.
Narrow shelf roads with beautiful views
We came to an intersection with an optional “challenge route” that takes the driver up and over the crest of White Mountain and down “Suicide Hill”. Most of the group decided to take the bypass and regroup at the bottom of Suicide Hill. Once the main group arrived at the meeting point, It was obvious where the name came from. Suicide Hill is a tall, steep hill with inclines in excess of 50 degrees, strewn with loose boulders and torn up from previous attempts to climb the hill in the uphill direction. The hillside has an off-camber section that is littered with the scraps and debris of previous casualties – pieces of running boards, bumpers, even a shattered windshield off in the bushes…
Navigating the treacherous boulders and loose soil of Suicide Hill (52º incline at points)
Fernando in his Tacoma, Dave in his Gladiator, Jim in his Jeep and Brad in the Lexus decided to take this route. Dialing it up to pucker factor 10, Fernando, Jim, and Dave (and Otis) successfully picked their way down the incredibly steep and loose hill. Unfortunately, during the descent Brad caught a bad line on the off-camber section and the Lexus slowly tipped forward and rolled onto its roof, thankfully stopping and not continuing down the hillside which would have been catastrophic. Fortunately Brad was ok with no cuts or bruises and that’s really all that matters.
When this sort of thing happens, it is a stark reminder of why it is so important to go on these kinds of trails in a group. The teamwork displayed to recover the Lexus was impressive.Dick, driving an old Willy’s flat fender Jeep, and Bryan returned to the top of Suicide Hill, directly above the stranded Lexus, to set up a winch team. Fernando and Brent devised a plan using a snatch block system wrapped around a large boulder at the side of the trail. This redirected the winch line 90º from Dick’s Jeep to the Lexus’s undercarriage. Dick’s Jeep was then connected to Bryan’s Jeep, which acted as an anchor. Both Jeeps “dug in” to stabilize themselves against the steep hill.
The recovery operation began by pulling the Lexus from its roof to its side. Next, they re-attached the winch line to another part of the Lexus to pull it back onto all four wheels. With the vehicle upright, Dick carefully lowered it down the hill in stages, with Brent standing on the running boards and steering the Lexus around obstacles. After every 80 feet of descent, the winch team had to reset. This involved chocking the Lexus with rocks, then Dick and Bryan moving down the hill to retrieve and redeploy their winch lines for another 80-foot descent.
This process was repeated several times until Dick’s winch line broke, causing the Lexus to careen down the hill toward the other club members watching from below. Fortunately, everyone had moved their vehicles out of the way in anticipation of such an event, preventing further damage. Brent managed to jump onto the rolling Lexus, dive into the driver’s seat, and engage the emergency brake, bringing the vehicle to a stop. Whew!
Brent and Fernando dash up the hill to assist
The next question, would it start? After giving the fluids time to settle, the plugs were removed and the engine fired to clear the oil from the cylinders. When the plugs were put back the engine was then started. For a few seconds it sounded like all was well but then shut down and that was that – apparently the engine had spun its bearings while briefly running upside down prior to the recovery. Brad was able to call a recovery company to come get it off the mountain later than evening.
After the 3-hour ordeal of recovering the Lexus, many of the vehicles continued down the trail to complete the original plan, arriving back at camp about an hour later than a couple of rigs that had taken a shortcut to head back early.
When everyone was back in camp, Christina and Bobbie organized a pot luck meal. The food was fantastic, and spirits were good despite the earlier unfortunate events. There was a surprising amount of laughter shared around the campfire that night – probably because of the intensity of what we had all experienced earlier that day.
Postscript: Sunday morning everyone headed out, and a few of us stayed back to make sure that AAA picked up the Lexus from the local fire station parking lot and took it to a shop in San Bernardino (down the hill). The good news is that as of this writing, it sounds like Brad’s insurance will cover the loss!
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.
