Jeep Lessons and Mount Baldy

Living in Southern California, there are several cities and points of interest that I've heard by name, but would be hard pressed to locate on a map. Until last summer, Mount Baldy was a mystery location. We always hear about it on the local news, with the "Mount Baldy" weather cam, but where the heck is it?

A series of bad ideas led us to discover Mount Baldy.

It all starts with our Jeep Wrangler and a decision to go topless. Removing the roof isn't easy. Dan installed a winch to the roof of our garage, which helped, but it still took both of us to very carefully take it off. There were some close-calls with the heavy top swaying in mid-air and some swearing, but we managed it. Once it was off, it was going to stay off.

Roof off for the summer, sounds fun, right? When the weather is warm and you're driving around town, it's great. But take that Jeep on the freeway or off-roading and you're in for a miserable ride.

During a scorching weekend in August, we took our Jeep up to Big Bear for a trail event with the, Fun in the Sun 4x4, Jeep club from Orange County. How we ended up with this group is a totally mystery. It's a small club and somehow we got on their mailing list, although we didn't know anyone and they didn't know us. Luckily, they were a welcoming group ( as Jeepers usually are) and we came prepared for their "Hawaiian" ride.

Me, before hitting the trails. Still smiling.

No roof = tons of sunblock. I knew that we would get dirty from the trails. I had no idea that the dirt would stick to the sunblock and provide another layer of protection. I've never been so filthy in my life. Thick, crusty layers of dirt. We had to get the Jeep detailed and it still didn't come completely clean. I know that this is part of the fun in having a Jeep and that most Jeep owners love the mud. I'm not typical.

Me, trying to enjoy my plastic pineapple filled with more dirt than water.

The sun and heat were intense, worse on the freeway, than on the trails. When we headed down the hill, we had to stop because I felt like I was getting sunstroke. I've never sweated so much in my life. I felt beaten-up by the wind and my ears hurt from the noise. Not the fun that I had envisioned prior to removing the roof.

We stopped at a Starbucks in Claremont for drinks and air conditioning. After feeling semi-normal, we got lost trying to find the freeway and saw a sign for Mount Baldy. This turned a wrong move into a serendipitous one.

Miles out of our way, up a narrow, winding road, we found the ski lifts. As it was summer, the lifts were running for campers, hikers and us, tourists. Sixteen dollars each, got us a round trip ticket on the ski lift.

Mount Baldy is also called Mount San Antonio and it's part of the San Gabriel Mountain chain.

The lifts are old with splintery wood, and run up a narrow, rock filled ravine. It's scary. Disaster scenarios flashed through my mind. I don't think I moved, or breathed on the 10-15 minute ride. We kept hearing a rattlesnake like sound, that we final figured out was coming from large, flying insects. This is unnerving as there is no escape from the aforementioned flying insects...except down.

If you can relax enough to enjoy the views, they are very pretty!

As we neared the top, we heard live music coming from The Notch restaurant. They had a band on the patio and multiple outdoor bars. It looked great and we would have stopped for dinner, but it was absolutely jammed, not a empty table in sight. Next time we will plan ahead and arrive early. We walked around and took a quick look, before taking our return trip down the mountain.

One last picture, a panorama that Dan took from the top.

2015 Big Bear Jeep Jamboree - Day 3

On the last day of the Jamboree, most of the snow had melted and the sun was shining. We were ready to tackle John Bull and fingers crossed, our Jeep would manage it with minimal damage. Here's Dan showing off our flag and sporting the red bandana for the red group.

Lined up and ready to go.

John Bull is no joke. To get on the trail, we had to get through the Gate Keeper. One guy in our group said that he thought the Gate Keeper was actually a road block, because it just doesn't look like an open trail. We went slowly and we needed to be winched at the top, but we made it.

Getting through the John Bull Gate Keeper, wasn't necessarily the toughest part. The trail was basically one non-stop obstacle that we slowly crawled our way through. We had gorgeous mountain views as our reward for making the climb.

I'm constantly blown away by the ability of Jeeps to just drive over anything. It's crazy. John Bull put us to the test and we made it through with time to spare. We used the extra hours to go through the Rock Garden, an area that we did on the last Jeep Jamboree with the intermediate group.

The Rock Garden may be much technically easier than John Bull, but it's no less spectacular. The landscape of crunched up rocks makes it feel like we are exploring the moon. It's so unusual and beautiful.

On the way back to the Elks Lodge, we saw our friend Brian's vintage Jeep parked outside of his business, the Le Dolce Vita Tasting Room. Very cool, right?

Dinner for the second night was prime rib and we had cake for dessert.

After dessert, we had the awards ceremony, which the team leaders recognize stand-out individuals in each group. I always like this part, as it's fun to hear the stories from the other teams, especially of new jeep owners that took their vehicle off-road for the first time or old-timers who have been to every jamboree. The community aspect of this event is one of the biggest reasons that we enjoy it. It's just a great group of people.

I won a killer prize in the raffle, something that we really wanted...tubular doors from Rancho and Spiderweb shades. Dan has been very excited to finally take our roof off for summer and we would have bought both the doors and the shades. Thank you to Rancho and Spiderwebshade for the cool prizes and for getting them in the mail so quickly. We love them!

Our second time at the Big Bear Jeep Jamboree was a huge success. We did have some damage, including a puncture and oil leak. The week following the Jamboree, we dropped our Jeep off at Rebel Off-Road for repairs and a bit of a face-life. After much teasing, we upgraded our tires from 33's to 37's. We probably would have had less damage, if we had the 37's before the Jamboree, but it wouldn't have been as good of a story. We like our hard earned battle scars!

CORVA Family Fun Run 2014

A few months ago, Dan and I bought a new toy. We are now the proud owners of a 2014 Jeep Wrangler that we have named Nemo for its orange and chrome coloring. We had a Disney Nemo antenna topper, but he lost his tail the first time we took him out on the trails in Big Bear. A tree branch sliced it right off. We have quickly learned that it's a lost cause to keep Nemo looking pretty. We've embraced the scratches, dents and missing fish tails!

Last Saturday, we went to our first Jeep event, the CORVA Family Fun Run in Hungry Valley. CORVA ( California Off-Road Vehicle Association) is a group that fights to preserve land for recreational vehicle use. Prior to joining CORVA, just a few weeks ago, I had no idea that the scope of this issue was so large. It seems to be a constant battle to keep access open and many areas, like Pismo Beach, are on the brink of being shut-down for off-roading. This is a new hobby for us, but it looks like with as much fun as we will have with our Jeep, that we must also take an active role in both the political side of it and with trail maintenance. I'm happy to do it, but admittedly, this was not something that even crossed my mind when we purchased Nemo! Luckily, everyone we met through the CORVA event couldn't have been nicer or more welcoming. We are in good company.

Saturday was an early start, with Dan waking me up at five-thirty AM and us hitting the road before seven. I'm a bear in the mornings! We found our way to the Honey Valley Campground by eight-thirty and check-in was a breeze, literally. The high winds made for a bitterly cold morning and I kept sitting in the Jeep to keep warm. Dan braved the cold to lower our tire pressure before we hit the course.

At ten-thirty, we started. At registration, we were given a poker card, which we took to check points along the course.

What is a poker run? At each check point we hopped out of our Jeep and pressed an electronic poker game picking a card, which was stamped on our score sheet.

The second half of the check point included carnival-style games of skill. Here is a pic of Dan attempting to toss bean bags into buckets at check point three.

We ended up forming a caravan with three other Jeeps. This was really fortunate, because not only did we make new friends, but at one point we needed to be winched out of a tight spot! I felt safer having people looking out for us on the trails. We drove over big rocks and up steep hills. It was a lot of fun, but more adventurous and technical than we had anticipated! We have decided that we are not rock people.

Here's a video that we took of our drive through a very tight space! This was one of my favorite parts of the course.

We took a break before hitting all of our check points, when a member of our group had mechanical problems. Truthfully, I was ready for the hot dog lunch that CORVA members had prepared, at three dollars, it was a bargain. It surprised me how much we built up an appetite from trail driving.

Here is Bob, fixing his Jeep.

As we bumped over rocks and scraped against tree branches, I was certain that our Jeep would sustain some major damage, if not mechanical problems. However, Nemo is tough and he survived with only some minor scratches underneath the thick blanket of dust. Apparently there is some damage underneath, but I'm too scared to look and he's still running!

The festivities continued into the evening, with a dog show, a delicious tri-tip dinner and the biggest raffle that I've ever seen. Look at all of the prizes!

We won a a bag that included a set of lashing straps, a sweatshirt from Off-Road Vixens, tons of stickers and this DVD...

A big thank you to all of the CORVA volunteers for putting on an amazing event and to all of the members for being so nice to us newbies and making us feel like part of the group. We met a lot of wonderful people and learned a lot about Jeeping. We are looking forward to many future events.