Endless Trails
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2022
- Messages
- 686
My favorite trip of the year happened this past weekend. Point Mugu 4x4 club is proud to work with the USFS through the Adopt a Trail program on keeping our public lands accessible and maintained. Our club has adopted the Lockwood Trail, Cottonwood Camp trail and Cottonwood Campground. We also have some dual memberships with Axlesnappers 4x4 who are the listed owners of Yellow Jacket trail so we also send a team down that to keep it brushed. Bakersfield Trail Blazers owns Miller Jeep Trail as their trail as well as many others in the Kern River / Kern Plateau area.
The Vehicles from Point Mugu were split into 4 main groups. Brush Yellow Jacket, Brush the main trail, and brush / cut the grass into Cottonwood. This year on top of the normal brushing we were given word that there was a rock that had slid onto the shelf road down to sunset camp. Two of the Bakersfield vehicles went in through Gorman and down Miller in order to get on the other side of the rock. Two more from Bakerfield and four from Point Mugu went in from Lockwood. @4lowlance @Pt Mugu RAM 4x4 @Jared MacLeod and Shane were among the rock crew. We went to work attacking the main rock with hammer drills, rock wedges, sledge hammers, digging bars, crow bars, and some threaded anchors. Some would be drilling along cracks and hammering wedges, others would be using the digging bar to try and pry the cracks open. Some pieces went easier than others and it was a puzzle to figure out which pieces were under tension form other areas and which we could get free. Sometimes the threaded anchor with a eyelet would work with a winch putting it tension, but mot of the time the rock just laughed. Even when we got pieces to break off, we sill had to deal with pieces of rock that weighed hundreds to thousands of pounds that had to be maneuvered to the side of or off the trail. We got lots of practice on winch techniques. Straight pulls, compound pulls, angles pulls with straps around other rocks and the doughnut to redirect the angle of line, small slings, and even a Deadman anchor came into play.
Once we got the trail cleared and opened we were extremely ready to join the rest of the club at Cottonwood camp for some food and libations. The Cottonwood Group agreed to be cooks for the rest of the teams and they had tri-tip, chicken, rice, beans, salsa, guacamole, and two cobblers. They also had a pancake breakfast for us the next morning. It was so nice only having to worry about snacks, drinks, and lunch in the Jeep along with sleep stuff. We had a great fire and only got a little rain.
If anyone is interested in this type of fun, come to a club meeting. You have to be in one of the clubs to participate as we are in contract with USFS to do the work and are insured through them for the work. As such we get early access and keys to the gates. We go in and lock the gates behind us. We don't have to worry about anyone else on the trail and all the campgrounds are always open.
The rock before from a USFS trail scout.
After
Shane's Jeep packed for the trip. Had to trash bag stuff as we were expecting rain. We really need to get the tire back on the back to gain some space.
![20260425_060033[1].webp](https://forum.badlinesgoodtimes.com/data/attachments/52/52617-b19f6fa806d3f2e6c516576602053453.jpg?hash=W3XrGtzPPF "20260425_060033[1].webp")
![20260425_080132[1].webp](https://forum.badlinesgoodtimes.com/data/attachments/52/52618-93849bafe43f3f0648a8466a3cc474fe.jpg?hash=8deERfIQ4W "20260425_080132[1].webp")
![20260425_080153[1].webp](https://forum.badlinesgoodtimes.com/data/attachments/52/52619-bb708a3921b79834b81b7070e2d69c8d.jpg?hash=bRtjLvxq1D "20260425_080153[1].webp")
Cottonwood Camp, Packing up. ![20260426_093256[1].webp](https://forum.badlinesgoodtimes.com/data/attachments/52/52620-0aeb23b4f068f7d01c90b5c5cd8e0ac9.jpg?hash=JPsH4Gw3ci "20260426_093256[1].webp")
The Vehicles from Point Mugu were split into 4 main groups. Brush Yellow Jacket, Brush the main trail, and brush / cut the grass into Cottonwood. This year on top of the normal brushing we were given word that there was a rock that had slid onto the shelf road down to sunset camp. Two of the Bakersfield vehicles went in through Gorman and down Miller in order to get on the other side of the rock. Two more from Bakerfield and four from Point Mugu went in from Lockwood. @4lowlance @Pt Mugu RAM 4x4 @Jared MacLeod and Shane were among the rock crew. We went to work attacking the main rock with hammer drills, rock wedges, sledge hammers, digging bars, crow bars, and some threaded anchors. Some would be drilling along cracks and hammering wedges, others would be using the digging bar to try and pry the cracks open. Some pieces went easier than others and it was a puzzle to figure out which pieces were under tension form other areas and which we could get free. Sometimes the threaded anchor with a eyelet would work with a winch putting it tension, but mot of the time the rock just laughed. Even when we got pieces to break off, we sill had to deal with pieces of rock that weighed hundreds to thousands of pounds that had to be maneuvered to the side of or off the trail. We got lots of practice on winch techniques. Straight pulls, compound pulls, angles pulls with straps around other rocks and the doughnut to redirect the angle of line, small slings, and even a Deadman anchor came into play.
Once we got the trail cleared and opened we were extremely ready to join the rest of the club at Cottonwood camp for some food and libations. The Cottonwood Group agreed to be cooks for the rest of the teams and they had tri-tip, chicken, rice, beans, salsa, guacamole, and two cobblers. They also had a pancake breakfast for us the next morning. It was so nice only having to worry about snacks, drinks, and lunch in the Jeep along with sleep stuff. We had a great fire and only got a little rain.
If anyone is interested in this type of fun, come to a club meeting. You have to be in one of the clubs to participate as we are in contract with USFS to do the work and are insured through them for the work. As such we get early access and keys to the gates. We go in and lock the gates behind us. We don't have to worry about anyone else on the trail and all the campgrounds are always open.
The rock before from a USFS trail scout.
After
Shane's Jeep packed for the trip. Had to trash bag stuff as we were expecting rain. We really need to get the tire back on the back to gain some space.
Cottonwood Camp, Packing up.
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