Dani finally got a chance to tinker with HF, and managed to log a few contacts herself (including Guam). She has been bugging me for new radios and equipment ever since. I’ll have to admit, while I’ve appreciated the capabilities of HAM radio for some time now, I never fully understood it’s potential for practical application until we used the repeater to co-ordinate dinner plans between 4 different groups on the road with 35-miles of mountains between us on Saturday night. Doing so was actually easier to accomplish under those conditions than it would have been with all of us sitting at home on a conference call.

While our primary purpose on the mountain this weekend was participation in ARRL’s Field Day, several groups did get out for some wheeling. On Saturday morning we headed over by Arrowhead Lake to run Willow Creek trail, a scenic route I’ve never been on before.

After Willow Creek, we continued up Dishpan Springs, a trail I haven’t seen in 10 years. The fire a few years back has left the place in a barren, almost desert-like state. The forestry service has also removed the best part of the trail, the T-6 water crossing, and replaced it with a concrete bridge and a parking lot. The first picture is pre-fire and pre-bridge back in 2001…

Despite being short a water crossing and a rock garden, Dishpan is easily twice as difficult as it was 10 years ago. About half way up the trail we ran into a six-foot-tall wall of rock where once there had been fire road (courtesy of fire damage and a harsh winter). We considered our options while watching the Jeeps tackle the newly improved “waterfall”, and bumped into a couple fellow ExPo‘ers visiting California to pick up a Flip-Pac. Ultimately, our new friends and us decided we were better off heading back to camp for chili and cornbread. Maybe next time… after I get my rock sliders installed.

Back at camp and resupplied with firewood we enjoyed a small potluck of chili, steak, cornbread, various wines, and of course… cake! I also had a chance to try out some low-light, long-exposure photography with the tiny Canon SD940is.

On Sunday a few of us ran up Gold Mountain before Dani and I headed back to the desert. It has also been torn up pretty bad since I was last here (a mere 3 weeks ago). The trail looks as if someone sat in all the difficult spots and spun their tires for a few hours, and many of the bypasses have been blocked off. Still, we all made it through and even managed to bring a stock Xterra with us unharmed.

As always, the rest of the pics are in the Flickr set…

Maps just aren’t what they used to be, partly it seems because of the efforts of misguided “environmentalists” to discourage all vehicle-based travel in the back-country. The 2009 edition of the official USFS maps are missing half of the trails, particularly the less well-known routes to the more isolated (and more desirable) areas, and I cannot find a decent trail guide for this area anywhere. Instead, the entire map section of the Discovery Center is filled with beginner’s hiking books and titles like Sex in a Tent. I suppose this is both good and bad: good because it will keep those less well-known areas less well-known, bad because history shows us that is the first step toward sealing such areas off behind a federal Wilderness boundary permanently.

First on our agenda Saturday was the pre-run up Gold Mountain (3N69), which was torn up so bad by The Great Snow Storm of 2008 I had to turn back the last time I tried to run it (in a stock vehicle). Entire sections that used to be semi-smooth dirt road are now boulders and rock ledges to be climbed, making this beautifully scenic trail a fun challenge once again. With the aid of a friend’s GPS we were able to find the loop through the talus slope I’ve been trying to find (score one for that modern gadgetry I hate so much) – also more difficult that the last time I visited.

We finished up Gold Mountain with a lunch stop on Jacoby Canyon (3N61) before heading back south. Jacoby hasn’t changed much since last year. There are a few new rough spots, but nothing a stock vehicle can’t negotiate with a little finesse. Perhaps more challenging is finding a comfortable spot to eat lunch with the massive swarms of ladybugs flying every which way… it is their mating season, after all. Purple, yellow, white and red wildflowers still cling to the slopes here, taking advantage of the shelter and water offered by the canyon.

With full stomachs and the pre-run complete we headed south towards camp, opting to take the scenic route up to an unnamed peak above Wildhorse Meadows. This is the highest point in the San Bernardinos that can be reached by vehicle, and offers panoramic views of the mountains and valleys in every direction. I really want to make a trip up here for sunrise or sunset. The trail heading up to the summit is even narrower now, it almost seems like no one has driven it since I was last here (not surprising, as it is not on the map anymore). After running these 3 trails today I think we’re going to combine them into an all-day “Peaks Tour” for SummerFest.

We camped at Coon Creek Cabin on Saturday night so we could get a first-hand look at the place before SummerFest. The “cabin” is HUGE, and the campsite is right next to a high drop-off (known as Coon Creek Jumpoff) overlooking Palm Springs and, on a clear day, the Salton Sea. Highway 38 is far away on the other side of a ridge, so the only sounds here are nature and yourself. Reservations are required for this group campsite, but if you get them through the Recreation.gov site make sure you also call the ranger station at San Bernardino NF and let them know you’re coming (you’ll want to call them anyhow to see if campfires are really permitted). It seems Big Brother is not in the habit of notifying their men in the field, and as a result both the trash and the toilet were practically overflowing. The poor guy they sent up to check on the “possible trespassers” had only been on the job for a week.

Sunday morning we took a narrow, long-forgotten road (1N30) behind the cabin that leads directly over the ridge to Highway 38. The route is a narrow, twisting maze likely better suited to ATV/bike travel, but it offers some spectacular views of San Gorgonio, the Santa Ana River Valley, and even Mount Baldy. The last part of the track takes you through what appears to be an abandoned trailer park.

Next we headed out to Heartbreak Ridge via 2N01 for a little fun on the rocks before taking Burns Canyon home. I’d forgotten how much fun this kind of trail can be…

November 2001 – 2N17X, Dishpan Springs, and Holcomb Creek