Offroad trips

Gracie having fun at the beach

2008-07-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sand Lake & TSF

2008-07-15T07:59:00.001-07:00

Just a start on some pictures. More to come.

Little testing of the new suspension today....

2008-05-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

More Con' photos

2007-09-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

Rubicon 2007

2007-09-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Yep, the famous Rubicon Trail. Check that one off the list. My only break down was when my wheel fell off after the lug nuts came loose. The group was made up of some of my favorite people.... my dad, my other dad, one of my best friends and his dad, and a friend from work. Hope everyone had as much fun as me. It was also nice to have all the good co-pilots... Ashley, Gary, and "the other" Mike. I may add some more pictures later on, but this is a good taste of what we were up against.

More cove rock

2007-08-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Had to take one last test drive before Rubicon in 6 days!!!! All I can say is that front locker I put in yesterday, and the grooved tires made a huge difference. I walked up all kinds of stuff that I had trouble with last time.

I can always count on Doug to head to hills with me. I think I have him hooked.

The Cove Rock Area

2007-08-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Did a little rock crawling today. Nothing too hardcore, but more than what I'm used to. In fact, today was probably the most rock crawling I have done to date. I wish I had some better pictures of it all, but not everyone can see the value in them as I. If I could take them and drive at the same time I would. Anyways, today was Doug (JK), Dave (TJ), and me.This picture shows how steep some of the ledges were.
You can see one side of the "cove" behind the jk.Dave and finess aren't really used in the same sentence.Doug's 3" lift flexes really well.
I have been really impressed with the 4 door Jk. Not to mention Doug's driving skill. He has never been off road before he got this jeep. Nothing like 4:1 gears and dual lockers to make you look like a pro I guess.I had to straddle the corner to left of the picture to make this obstacle. I probably could have driven up the right side much easier, but that wouldn't have really been a challenge.
Passenger rear tire dropped into the corner area and sent me skyward. I almost went over onto the passenger rear quarter panel. After letting off the gas, it settled to this position (still spooky). After backing up a little and changing the way my rear hit the rock I ended up in the same predicament, but threatening to roll to the driver side. Doug couldn't take the picture because he was "running for his life". He claims I had way more air the second time. I don't remember the second time much because I grabbed reverse and came bouncing down. Total carnage for the day was a few scraped and mildly dented skid plates on the JK and a thrashed front diff cover on my jeep. Dave high centered on his dana 30 diff, and soon after had to head home for an appointment. He missed out on the cove rock area.

I put quite a few miles on the Jeep today!

2007-05-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

I woke up in the morning pretty early with intentions of getting ready for the day of 4 wheeling that was planned. I was supposed to meet Cory about 9:45 or so and then head out toward Keno to find some trails. Well, I got a call at about 7:45 from Doug. He told me a lengthy story about his adventure the night before. He had run out of gas on the top of (yeah I said the top) or Sheepy Peak. It's in California and at an elevation of about 5200 ft. To get to the top, you have to drive about a 3 mile trail along High Rim. It is a fun little trail and Doug had decided to go up there alone just before dark even though his gas light had come on as he started the trail. Oh yeah, his Rubicon has approx. 200 miles on it total. Probably 60 of those miles have been with me driving to and on a couple trails in the area. He is really getting into the offroad sport to say the least.
Here we are at the top of the peak after filling his jeep with about 7 gallons of fuel (1/4 tank) which was enough to get it started on the off camber area he had run out at. It is an awesome view from up there. Just to the right of Dougs jeep you can see the start of the High Rim in the distance. Very good trail to take a beginner on as it is easy, but still has a few challenges.
So.... we got back to town around 9:40 or so, just in time to call Cory and tell him I would be a little late. Doug still wanted some more trail action so he decided to tag along on our tip to Keno. I went to meet Cory and fuel up again. I think we made it out of town and on our way around 10:30 by the time we met back up with Doug. I was leading the group once we left the pavement and I was constantly having to remind myself that I had a brand new vehicle following me that didn't exactly want to pick up brand new scratches. Luckily he had taken the doors and top off so there wasn't a whole lot to scratch other than some plastic fenders.
We didn't find much for trails really, but there was this nice little rock pile about 10 feet up a hill on the side of a trail. Of course pictures never do anything justice, but if sure felt steep. This is the spot we ended up going up after about a 1/2 hour of attempting different lines.
First line with no success. You can't see it, but there is a rock that the driver side rear tire has to climb while the front is climbing the one you can see in front of the jeep. At the same time the passenger rear has to come up the rock that the front tire is already on in this picture.
Here we are hanging out on the line that finally worked although Cory did place a rock in just the right spot to help out. I really could use a front locker.
Once my driver rear tire made it onto the rock just to the left of it here, we went up it.
A little more checking and a little rear diff hang up.

The next two photos show our success.
We had a good time. Travis (my passenger) had never been before and I think he got more than he was expecting. The only carnage of the trip was a ripped front flare and some new dents in the nerd bars.

Topsy Grade "Back to the Canyon"

2007-04-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

This was my second trip into the Klamath River canyon. The first time was in my XJ and this time I got to take the jeep. Trip #1 began at the top of Topsy Grade at the John C Boyles Lake and trip #2 began in Dorris, CA. The picture to the right is a quick stop to air down the tires as we neared Topsy Grade from the CA side. Myself in front, Cory (cj5), and Kyle (LC). This trip was interesting. Normally I am the new guy around at work. Even though these two (and their riders) had lived here for quite some time and had always talked about making this trip into the canyon, I was the only driver that had been down there. My rider had been down quite a few times and one other rider had been down a lot, but I had the GPS and was in the front. It was a fun time and I got to be the veteran. As in trip #1 we stopped at the
top of the canyon for the beginning of the trip photo. Cory is running an early 70s cj5 with a factory 304, 3spd, and dana 20 tcase. He has dana 44 rear w/ detroit, and an open dana 30 front with 31" buckshot mudders. Kyle's landcruiser has a v8 conversion with lift springs 35" BFG all terains. He mentioned that he had an air locker, but that it wasn't working, a CB that had wiring issues, and that his brakes were kind of optional at times. I'm sure we can have this thing back in shape in no time. He mentioned that I should drive it for him for a few days as he claims he is not mechanically inclined.
This little ditch was the only real challenge we found for the day, but it was still fun. I did my best to straddle it, but kept falling into the ditch with the threat of tipping it on the driver door. I got crossed up a few times, but finally did make it only to be stopped by the thick mud a little further up the hill in the same ditch. Because this was the first trip offroad with my jeep since all the work I was very easy on the narrow pedal. The other two rigs took a slightly different line not shown to the left of the picture before I was able to get any photos of them.

Unfortunately, my camera man had already enjoyed most of his beverages for the day and didn't get any pictures of the thick mud on the downhill side. One of the other co-drivers brought a camera along and took way more pictures than my rider, so hopefully I will post up some more of the other rigs soon enough. The last picture is me at the beginning of the trench with the front axle in the right spot and the rear not wanting to follow. Eventually I got the rear axle up on the top too and then it was a quick drive to the next portion of the ditch. At the end of the day, all the rigs were running and the only problem I had was a motor that ran a little hot when under heavy load for extended periods. That should be an easy fix by hooking up the high speed on my electric fan. The worst thing that happened on this trip was one of the riders twisting his ankle pretty bad near the end of the day. Lucky for him (or unlucky whichever way you look at it) he had four paramedics there plus himself. He rode out of the canyon with me because all the other sprung under rigs had pretty rough suspensions. I don't think mine was that much better, but I was more than willing to share by then.

Powerline trail into Fish Lake

2007-02-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

This trail is located up above Detroit Lake. On this trip my parents (well, inlaws... just so the next part doesn't sound wrong) and their daughter (my wife) left from Stayton mid morning with the plans of stopping at fish lake for lunch. It was a beautiful day and my bald yokahomas didn't even get me stuck. Here we are at Fish lake for lunch. It is a nice get away and would be fun to camp at some time.
The good ol' Cj5. Gets around as good as anything.

Most of the trail looks like this, with the occasional section littered with some larger rocks to play on. There are some good little areas at the entrance to the lake too.
There are a couple places near the lake that make me glad I drive a Jeep and not a fullsize.
This steep dusty climb gave my bald yokahomas a good little run for their money... Oh wait, I only paid for the wheels that they came on..

Hamaker Mountain

2007-02-15T07:35:00.000-08:00

Took a little drive up to the top of Hamaker Mountain the other day. Planning to take the family up here when the snow is gone and its nice weather. It has a great view from the top that you can see a huge portion of the basin at almost 270 degrees. You see the other portion on the drive up too. There is some sort of observatory at the top that is kind of neat to see too. We didn't really go offroad much, but there are some trails up and around this area that might be fun to explore when it isn't so wet.

Topsy Grade Road (1st trip on the long arm)

2007-01-17T19:46:00.000-08:00

Our goal this weekend was to run a road that led from hwy66, down topsy grade road, past the fern ranch, past copco lake, and finally out copco road back to hwy66. I unfortunately didn't remember to reset my mileage to see how far we traveled, but it took about 5 or so hours to make the loop. The trail follows klamath lake quite closely and there are some great views down on the river as you decend topsy grade. Here we are, My wife and I in our XJ and our three friends from the valley. My buddy "Hoss" drives the toy.There is a little park at the beginning of the road for those that wish to partake in the fun that the reservoir has to offer.
This picture basically shows where the drop down to the lake begins. It was a beautiful day and not even that cold. This stretch of the road consists of an old loging road cut into the hillside that has been washed out to the point of having just the right ammount of roughness to be really annoying and not nearly enough to make it a challenge.
This road used to be the only way in for all the ranchers that lived down in this area. This old house is just one of many that we found falling apart and long since abandoned. Supposedly there is an old cemetery not too far off the road that dates back to the 1800s. We didn't take the time to look for it, but I probably will on the next trip.
We found a spring near the bottom of the grade that came out into the road and made this nice ice slick for over 100 yards down the hill. It was pretty sketchy unless you drove with a tire in the snow.
Another old place down by the river. The weird thing about this one is that it had no door openings anywhere.
I drove up on this rock to flex out my new long arm that I built. It works great and allows for a lot more flex than the short arms. I did end up having a little contact between my upper driver arm and my driveline yoke, but it should be an easy fix. I need to make some quick disco's for the swaybar.

Most of this road was quite mild, but there were some good little side roads. We had a GPS along on the trip so we didn't get too off track driving around. I think next time down we will do some exploring to find some good wheeling.

The taco coming up a slight grade. Not very deep snow either, but it was still fun for our pavement pounders.

We were able to find a few places to mess around a little without getting too off track.

We came across a couple of these frozen puddles. The hard part was not knowing if it was solid ice or just a layer on top of a deep puddle. I really didn't want to break through and have sharp ice pieces biting at my sidewalls.
Hoss driving on the edge just like me.
Here is another icy spot. If you look close you will notice that this is normally a pretty decent mud hole if it weren't frozen over. It hard to see in the picture, but it is actually pretty deep looking.
Here we are stopped by the side of copco lake. There is a small town on this lake and a fair ammount of houses around the edges. You would have to enjoy seclusion to live in here. The roads are bad and its a long ways to town. We actually saw a minivan driving far too fast for its own good as we made our way back to the highway.
This was our view for about 15-20 miles as we made our way from copco lake up copco road to hwy 66. It was pretty much a boring drive and just rough dirt roads. If I were to go down again I would go play around by the river and then come out topsy road just like we came in. It would be faster and more to the point if you get my drift.
It was a great day trip and we had a lot of fun. There are endless exploring oportunities in this area and it is going to take quite a few trips to get boring down there. I'm looking forward to the next time into the canyon. Oh, and the long arm was a great success. I am very pleased with how it all worked out.

Backroad/forest service road exploring

2007-01-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago we decided to go out and explore some forest service roads. We do our best to go out to a new area every weekend to get some exploring done and hopefully find some good trails for when I finish my other jeep. Its been really fun and we have been doing it since we moved here a month ago. This trip mostly consisted of driving on some old dirt/snowy roads and stopping on occasion for the view or for some poser shots. Enjoy the photos.

There were some awesome views from this point and of course the photos don't do it justice.

The picture below is looking down over the town of Keno with the Klamath river running through the center. Seems like a beautiful place to live.

Proof that swaybars need to be disconnected for wheelin.

New year's eve snow run

2007-01-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

Every year on new year's eve a bunch of my friends and I make a trip up to the snow for some wheelin and usually a bon fire of some sorts. This year I took my cherokee since my real jeep is down for the 5.2L swap. Anyways, enjoy the few pictures that I took.