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.
A few of our members coordinated with the Cars & Coffee which happens pretty much every Sunday in Montecito. Thanks again to Kirk for coordinating the efforts and Jeff who has been coordinating the Cars & Coffee event for 4+ years now.
Thank you everyone ( Jerry and Linda, Kristina, Sebastian and Swifty) who made the effort to support and go to the Pour-Overlander Fundraiser Event on Saturday and display your rigs & trailers on behalf of our club.
It was also great to see those who came and supported by checking out their displays & purchasing some coffee and baked goods. I can attest that the homemade cookies were awesome and Bobby gets the MVP for standing out at the entrance of the parking lot for hours passing out fliers.
The Santa Barbara 4WD Club joined the festive spirit of the Goleta Old Town Holiday Parade on Saturday, December 2, 2023. The parade attracted over 1400 participants and more than 70 entrants, including floats, bands, dancers, and of course, Santa Claus.
Our club members decorated their rigs with lights, garland, and Christmas-themed inflatables, creating a dazzling display of four-wheel drive vehicles. Some of the highlights were a Jeep Wrangler with a giant snowman on the roof, a Toyota Land Cruiser with a reindeer antler and a red nose, and a Ford Bronco with a sleigh full of presents in the back.
We had a fun evening joining in the holiday parade festivities, waving to the crowd, honking our horns, and spreading cheer along the traditional route on Hollister Avenue from Orange Avenue to Kinman Avenue. We also enjoyed seeing the other entries, such as the Rockin Double RC Ranch with their horses and wagons, the YARDI SYSTEMS float with a giant snow globe, and the SUMMER SKY dance group with their colorful costumes and choreography.
The Goleta Old Town Holiday Parade is a wonderful community event that celebrates the season and brings people together. We are proud to be a part of it and look forward to participating again next year. Thank you to our member Kirk who organized our club’s participation and the Greater Goleta Santa Barbara Lions Club for organizing this event.
The Santa Barbara 4-Wheel Drive Club again showed support for the City of Santa Barbara and the 99th Annual Fiesta Parade by participating in Friday’s main parade. We had 8 of our club members volunteering to pull the 8 major sponsored floats for the parade.
The Santa Barbara Fiesta parade is considered to be one of the largest equestrian events in the country and is one of the main fun activities for the community during Fiesta week. The parade is attended by thousands of families and tourists lining the Cabrillo parade route along the beach-front.
There were ornate horse-drawn carriages as well as approximately 500 horses in this year’s event. There were also mounted law enforcement officers, dignitaries from around the state, the fiesta Grand Marshal as well as our local Fire Department participating in the parade pulling their usual shenanigans by spraying down the crowd with water at the conclusion of the parade.
