Apple Valley —> Big Bear —> Angelus Oaks —> Yucaipa

[Turboyota]

August 2020

Met @Do Dah @the bodj , @h0runner ,the BROmanian, and Kevco Engineering at 6598 Deep Creek Rd in Apple Valley.

Planned Route:

Start by heading East on Pack memorial trail
R Bowen ranch rd
R(135deg) Oak springs rd
R 34.361947, -117.126069 (turn off on right from oak springs rd)
L 3N59-A (many challenging rocky climbs)
Slight left/straight 3N59
R Coxey Rd
L 3N16/Holcomb Valley Rd
R Hwy18
L Knickerbocker Rd
L Forest Ranger Rd —> 2N08
R Skyline Dr
L 1N54
L Clark’s Grade
R seven Oaks Rd (paved) —> 1N09
R Hwy 38 (0.3 miles)
R 1N12/Santa Ana River Tr
End Hwy 38

Toyotas: 4
Fords: 2
2WD: 3
4X4: 3
Women: 2
Beers: yes

Enjoyed a couple Natty Light breakfast beers while we waited for everyone to show up. I replaced my fancy MS21250 idler arm bolt because it was hitting the frame. Bodj supplied the replacement 1/2” grade 8. Everyone talked shit and drank beer at 6:45AM while I replaced the bolt. Standard.

Views of high dezert from Pack Memorial trail are beautiful

3N59-A is fun and challenging with lots of twisty, loose, rocky hill climbs. If you have an open diff and 2WD(like Do Dah and me) keep on the fucking gas!

Final challenging decomposed granite hill climb on 3N59-A. Do Dah needed the Super Strap umbilical after this little predicament. Bedside and tail light got some rock rash. Ervin the BROmanian made quick work of the extraction in the Fraptor.
Beers consumed during the extraction:
Me: 1 tallboy of Coors Banquet
Shannon: 1 tallboy of michelada

I think Bodj is making dust in this pic:

Nice parking area at the top of Do Dah’s hill climb.

Snack & hydration break at the start of 3N16/Holcomb Valley Rd. Weather was absolutely beautiful.

 

[Turboyota]

Holcomb Valley on 3N16

Mr. Horse really liked Wyatt!

Skyline Drive, Big Bear, CA
8500ft
Apple Fire controlled burn smoke was impressive.

Clarks Grade descending into Seven Oaks

Ready to hit pavement for 0.3 miles in Angelus Oaks before getting back in the dirt.

 

[Turboyota]

Final leg: Angelus Oaks to Yucaipa

1N12 / Santa Ana River Trail starts right behind the small market.

Trail goes through Thomas Hunting Grounds which is a nice yellow post camping site.

the bodj hit HWY38 and headed home, and Horunner, Do Dah, and I hit the last leg of dirt.

I know this trail pretty well, and there are lots of sections with good visibility so there isn’t much worry of head-ons, so I set a fast pace. I made it 3 miles into the trail and waited at a fork in the road like ya do...

and waited...

and got a sinking feeling in my stomach...

and had a weird premonition that something happened to Do Dah...

So I turned around and headed back up the trail about 1/2 a mile:

Oh FUCK!!!

Here is my interpretation of what happened:

There is a high speed RH corner depicted in the picture below in red. Do Dah came around that corner in a slide, swapped, and hit the jump circled in blue sideways.

He dropped his front left wheel over the side as shown in yellow. After he saved it from going over the edge, he slid into the embankment and slow-roll tippage ensued.

THANK GOODNESS both Do Dah and passenger were okay, just understandably shaken.

Hooked up my Super Strap and sketchily pulled the Toyota back onto its wheels:

Next, we strapped the front of Do Dah’s truck to the Turboyota, and the back to the helpful Jeep, and I yanked him back onto the trail. The jeep acted as a security tether in case shit went awry.

^^^that went well.

Pulled into a shady parking spot to relax.

The keen observer will notice sand embedded into the roll bar. I’m really glad Do Dah had the roll bar—it did work. Cage your trucks, kids.

Do Dah and I bent the top back with an advanced tag-team combo-move of Do Dah pulling up on the top, and me laying on the seat and pushing up with my legs.

Fixed:

Finished out another 9ish dirt miles on 1N12 which dropped us out on HWY38 in Yucaipa.
Here I am checking in on Do Dah.

Do Dah drove it a few more miles to my house and called AAA chase.

Total dirt miles: a little over 70, but we’ll call it 69.
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwich
Snacks: Trail mix & Nerds
Music: superBro King bypasses clicking. I really need to do what [mention]dose [/mention] did and convert the upper spherical bearings to urethane bushings....
GPS: mapped in Google Earth, exported as .KML file, converted to .GPX (I use GPSVisualizer.com to convert files) and viewed on MotionX
Other carnage: my steering box started leaking from the steering input shaft area, and the gear oil spinning out from the trans output is getting progressively worse. And one of my bedside bolts fell out. Horunner and the BROmanian both cut and chunked tires on their rear steel fenders.

 

[h0runner]

This was a super fun day trip. “Pandemmy prerun”. I wish I had my windshield GoPro mounted during to catch bodj (accidentally) hauling absolute ass over that frame twister section at the top of Clark’s grade.

 

[the bodj]

This was a super fun day trip. “Pandemmy prerun”. I wish I had my windshield GoPro mounted during to catch bodj (accidentally) hauling absolute ass over that frame twister section at the top of Clark’s grade.

That was quite a butt puckering moment haha. I think my master cylinder or booster was going bad so I didn't have the greatest brakes. Slowing down wasn't an option lol