I have been waiting for this event as Deer Valley is one of my favorite 4X4 trails. In the past I ran this trail only one-way: North to South (from Blue Lakes to Hwy 4). My son Lukas could not make it because of mid-term tests but my wife Jessie took his place.

It took us 3 hours to get from Fremont to Bear Valley, and we were amazed how summer was turning into winter as we gained elevation. We arrived to Bear Valley Base Camp lodge around 4pm on Friday. We met Connie in the frozen parking lot; she also just arrived. After unloading, checking in and eating late lunch we drove to Mosquito Lake to see the condition of Hwy 4 past Bear Valley. It was wet in places but not frozen. When we came back to the lodge, Jason was showing the movie from Slick Rock run they did that day. We had some snacks, beer and wine, and retired early to our room. The beds were amazingly comfortable, and we woke up for trail meeting originally scheduled for 8am. However, trail boss Jason decided to postpone the meeting and the run by 1 hour to avoid black ice on Hwy 4. My Jeep was all frozen, so that I left the engine running while we were having a breakfast.

14 rigs departed from the parking lot at 9:10am. Sun was shining, and the condition of Hwy 4 was good at this time. We were joined by 2 more rigs in the staging area. We aired down to 15psi, disconnected, attached bull-bar-mounted video camera and waited for the start. Kelly and Tom were spotting the Gatekeeper – thanks for great job! The trail looks and feels completely different when covered with 10” of snow. Good that it was not dusty and was softer, but keeping the right line and placing tires on the rocks was more difficult because they were slippery. I was driving behind Chris (JK). The first obstacle after the Gatekeeper which required a spotter was the tight place between the tree and rocks on the right, and rocks on the left. Tom spotted me, and after several attempts I made it. The next obstacle was the fallen tree. Rigs in front of us made a very gnarly bypass but it was slowing us down. CJ suggested that I winch that log away. It was stuck between two other trees, and had to be broken by winching the far end of the log. My winch sweated, but the log was broken and removed. I thought I had this moment on my front mounted camera, but, unfortunately, I discovered after the run that some pieces of the movie were corrupt (still not sure if it was the fault of the camera or flash memory) including the winching episode.

The first water crossing was shallow but the second one was deep (we made it even deeper taking the left line!). My camera died at the end of the second water crossing (got some water) but recovered quickly afterwards. The meadow after the second water crossing was covered with fresh snow. Beautiful in summer, it was also beautiful under virgin snow cover. Felt like January. We had our lunch there. After the lunch Jason and CJ had every rig in our group lined up, and we took group pictures. Nice – 16 rigs on snow in October! Before turning back I aired down some more to 10psi expecting that the return trip will be more difficult. However, it was actually easier – we made it back to the trailhead in 2 hours. No damage to the Jeep on the trail, although I landed on my pumpkin at the end of the Gatekeeper when I already though that I am past it.

Back in the lodge the smell of food was making me and Jessie hungry. Beer did not help with hunger, so we much a little and waited. But the dinner was worth waiting. Thanks to the chefs for excellent Oktoberfest meals and beer! I had too many wursten (but Jessie though I had too much beer After dinner we watched movies and pictures from the Deer Valley and Slick Rock runs.

Overall, this Oktoberfest was a great success! Thanks God, we had snow, and thanks to organizers for cozy lodging, great trail guidance and excellent dinner!

This is a link to my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoniIq8u4Mg

Vidas

Posted in Deer Valley/Blue Lakes, Uncategorized |

Patty and I left a rainy bay area on Thursday for Sonora. Our plan was to spend the night in Sonora, then have a liesurely drive up Friday to Bear Valley. Friday morning, we departed Sonora for Bear Valley (1 1/2 hr drive). We were somewhat concerned about all the snow up there since we have never done a snow run before. When we gassed up in Arnold, we noticed someone pulling a Samurai up the road (we thought it might be an ED4 person). We later stopped at a vista point, and rolling in comes the Samurai. It was Daryl!. We arrived at the lodge about 12:30 and there was snow most everywhere. Most of the parking lot had 6″ to 8″ of snow. It was definetly challanging to move around. As we brought our stuff into the lodge, we were met by Ed and his wife Toni. Ed pointed out the checkin sheet and mentioned that the rooms had name tags. Great organization Ed!

Around 2 pm, we headed for Lake Alpine and the trail head for Slick Rock. Mike Cline was the trail leader. CJ agreed to be the tail gunner. At the trail head, we aired down and started. There were at least 10 rigs on the run. Patty and I ran Slick Rock earlier this year. The snow definetely add another dimension to the run. The snow filled in holes, hide rocks, and created a more slippery trail. The scenery was awesome. When we reache the stairstep, CJ spotted for everyone. A couple of the stock vehicles needed some help up, Mike C. doing the winching. I did see a piece of the Toyota FJ (rear bumper) laying on the trail. We all had fun getting up the ladder. At the end of the trail, Greg had a cloud of steam coming from the engine compartment. Seems he forgot to turn his cooling fan on! Robert did a great job of venting the steam so Greg could add more coolant. Fortunately, he had some cool;ant with him. We made a fast exit from the trail since it was getting late and cold. Utica Reservoir had a nice mist floating over it. After airing up, most of the group headed down to Arnold for gas and dinner at the Snowshoe Brewery. The restaurant was very accomodating, moving a number of tables together. They even gave us separate tabs. It was great to get to get to know CJ and his dad, Loro, and James.

The plan for the next morning was to meet at 8 am. As we went to the parking lot, we discovered that it had turned into a skating rink, black ice and slippery. Jason decided it best to wait for the ice to melt a bit before going over the pass. Around 9 am, we headed out. I think Connie’s accelerator pedal was stuck, or she was really eager since she took off really fast!. At the trail head, we (17 vehicles) aired down and started thru the gatekeeper. I had Daryl, CJ, and Carlos in front of me and Vidas behind me. The snow again added a new dimension for me since it made things slippery. Past gatekeeper, the group ran into an area that required spotting. Tom was spotting, doing a good job. Things went well as long as I listened to him. We continued quite a ways (going slowly) until we came to a downed tree. I just barely squeezed around it. It was decided that we would be better off to winch the tree off the trail. Vidas stepped up and yanked it off the trail in a smashing effort! A little later, Jason also had to winch a tree off the trail.

Eventually we made it to the turn around point at a meadow and had a group lunch. After lunch, Jason organized a group photo, all the vehicles lined up. Awesome picture. The trip back seemed a lot shorter (1 1/2 hrs versus 3 hrs). Maybe because the snow was melting, or we were all growing bolder. Jason greeted us as we came off the trail. After airing up, I proceeded back to the lodge. I then noticed that my steering wheel was off center about 20 degree’s. This caused havoc with the JK computer kicking in the ESP BAS system and the electronic throttle control. Slowly driving back to the lodge, I recentered the steering wheel. This did not clear the warning lights. Robert took a look and tightened up the drag link connector at the steering knuckle which was loose. The lights persisted. Oh well, there’s a party going on in the lodge. After cleaning up, we came down to watch Jason’s video of the run. Eventually the crew (Ed L, Jason, Tom, and Mike P) started on dinner. The Octoberfest feast was delicious. We capped off the evening with a slideshow from pictures taken during the weekend.

Sunday morning, we left around 9 am. Ed and his wife Toni had already cleaned the place up (great job!). As we left the lodge, the warning lights on the dash were still on, though the Jeep handled ok. We stopped in Arnold for a donut, and when I started the Jeep again…no warning lights! Go figure. The rest of the drive home was quiet, nice. We had a great time and appreciate all the effort that the ED4 group put out to organize and execute this fantastic weekend. We really appreciate how Ed and Toni worked hard the whole weekend so that they rest of us could play! Patty and I can’t wait to do this again.

Posted in Deer Valley/Blue Lakes, Slick Rock |

Friday, September 16^th, 2011:  We arrived on Friday at 9:00AM.  The gate was locked and the code had not yet
been changed to 5050.  So I hiked in to
see if anyone could open it for us. 
After the gate was opened, we unloaded our jeep and tried unsuccessfully
to get out of area 5 and into the park because the upper gate still had not
been changed either, of course.  So we
had to drive to the main gate to request that one of the rangers come and
change the codes.  After getting the old
code, Robert and I were able to get into the park to pre run the trails to make
sure the ravine was behaving this season. 
Around 11:15AM we got Ed, Darryl, and Greg to help us set up red
trail.  We returned from red trail set
up, and had lunch.  After, we got Bob, Jared
(Bob’s guest), Rebecca, and Michael (our guests) to help Robert and I set up
the blue trail.  When we got back we set
up camp and made up the maps for the trail drivers.  By then, it was about time to start cooking
dinner.  Around 6 we started getting
together for our Friday night potluck. 
My sister and her friend realized they had forgotten milk, so they
headed into town in their very capable 4×4 Mercedes sedan.  On the way to town their car got a flat tire;
and since they were already riding on a spare, they had to get back to camp
another way.  Luckily, they were able to
hitchhike back to camp because of the kindness of a nice lady in a pickup
truck.  We enjoyed a great dinner with an
amazing 3 varieties of meatballs, some yummy strawberry shortcake, and Mike’s
wonderful cobbler which I vote gets on the dessert menu for next clinic.

Saturday, September 17^th, 2011:  Clinic happened, no one died, and nothing
blew up.  Dinner was yummy as
always.  We were able to get a nice slide
show going of the photos taken earlier that day.  We also enjoyed a campfire with several
students in attendance.  We finally
called it quits at around 2AM when the final 9 of us decided we should probably
get to bed.

Sunday, September 18^th, 2011:  After “sleeping in” until 8AM thanks to the
very boisterous pond fauna and the fact that one has to hike 200 yards to use
the restroom, we packed up and took off. 
We enjoyed a good breakfast at Jerry’s on the way out of Hollister.

All in all, it seemed to be a very smooth clinic, and Robert
and I would like to thank all of those that helped make it so.

Posted in Safety Clinic |

This was the first Sierra Trek in which I participated. I registered for SWB run on Fri. My sun Lukas and I left Fremont around noon on Thu. We planned to arrive to the base camp, go through vehicle safety inspection (4-6pm), hang out there for a while and then go camping by the trailhead. The first thing which went not according to our plan was the same TJ engine problem I experienced during Summer Campout: after refueling in Auburn my Jeep was hesitant to start, worked uneven (like some cylinders did not work), and built up oil pressure very slowly. When “check engine” light came up I decided to do diagnostics in Auburn. First, we tried Jeep dealership but they were booked until Fri. I headed to local service station SpeeDee. They ran diagnostics and found out that cylinder 3 was misfiring. After checking online records they found the possible issue with #3 injector being overheated from exhaust manifold. Recommended repair was to install a heat shield and insulate that injector which was done. In the end, it took us about 3 hours including search for service, diagnostics, and repairs to get going again.

We arrived to the main camp near Meadow Lake past 7pm and missed the safety inspection. We met Dave in the camp and then had quick meals before driving back to the trailhead for camping. I underestimated the time it takes to get from Meadow Lake to SWB trailhead. Dave said there is another way instead of going around to hwy 89 to I-80 but we did not want to take chances. We arrived to the trailhead past 9pm and set our camp in the nice place near the creek. We have not seen any other campers around with the exception of the staging officers.

Next morning we lined up behind other rigs at the staging area at 5:10am. Our Jeep was 6th in line. I knew from my past experience that running hard trails in a group of rigs did not leave much time for taking pictures, especially in tight and technical spots. We decided to install action camera (I bought it at Fry’s for $85) on the bar above the winch. We turned it on and off along the way and produced some movies (links below). There was a safety inspection on the spot, then some coffee and group meeting where trail leaders explained the rules, what to expect etc. We started at around 6:30am. The first obstacle where our group had to stop was a steep rock step with the creek and 10-15’ drop-off on the right. One of our group, Ross, slid off the ledge on the left and had his rear right tire hanging over the drop-off to the creek. It took some winching to get that Jeep back on the trail. The first two “casualties” happened on the Sunrise Hill: one Jeep overheated and boiled, another shredded one tire, and yet another Jeep running Fordyce Trail on their own had their front driveshaft broken. However, the first serious delay happened when the Toyota truck driven by one of the event leaders broke down on Winch Hill 1. The front driveshaft disconnected (slid off the sleeve that was too short for this extreme articulation). Winching up did not help because the truck was leaning too much to the right. It was decided to fix it right there on WH1. It took more that one hour and many drivers chose to go around to bypass WH1. However, we waited patiently and attempted WH1. We made it almost all the way up but lost traction just trying to crawl over the final ledge. After two more attempts did not succeed I had to winch myself up. That was the only time I needed winch help. We made all other winch hills and obstacles on a first try. There were many times of metal to rock grinding under our Jeep but quick inspections revealed no serious damage. We became bolder as we proceeded and were running ahead of our pack. At 4pm we conquered Winch Hill 5, the final obstacle on our trail! We did it!

My son had to be home on Saturday morning, so that we decided to leave that evening. Before the pavement we reconnected, aired up, put Jeep top and headed back to our campsite where I did more careful inspection underneath of our Jeep. Just dents and scratches to bumpers, skid plates, rocker guards, pumpkins, control arms etc. as is supposed to be. Nothing required repairs. I lit my well deserved cigar. After that we packed and were back home in Fremont by 10pm.

It was a long tiring wheeling requiring constant concentration and care, but it was such an adrenalin rush! And overwhelming sense of accomplishment and relief! We made it! Not unscathed but without a breakdown or even serious damage. This was our hardest trail ever. It was nice to see some many dedicated volunteers helping in every possible way on the trail: excellent spotting, advice on correct line and tactics and encouraging words. Overall, CA4WD did exceptionally professional work organizing so many volunteers and coordinating so many runs every day.

This is one event to remember! Here are some videos:
WH 3&4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58PZDKXC6Ck

WH 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOS46q51CaI

WH 1&2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnZVWVioEVw

Regards,
Vidas

Posted in Uncategorized |

Patty and I arrived Thursday (7/28/11) afternoon at the campsite. Thanks to the GPS coordinates and ED4 signs, we found the campground easily. Some members had already arrived, but Ole was at the campsite making sure that we had the space we needed. After setting up our tent / site, we walked around to introduce / greet those members at the campground. Dave came over and introduced himself and gave us a run down of the events to occur. As prospectives, we felt quite comfortable. After dinner, we walked over to the group campfire and joined in the “party”. We finally called it quits about 10 pm.

Friday morning was the start of the trail maintenance work. The forest rangers were on hand to give up a pep talk and explaining the forest service guideline’s and new trail maps (someone mentioned that they should have brought their decoder ring to decipher the map… true). We broke up into 2 groups, one for Mattley Ridge trail (leader was Dave) and the other for Corral Hollow trail (leader was Jason).

The Mattley Ridge crew consisted of Dave and Loro (& Alpine), Ole and Sherry, John and Hope & family, Mike and Reynosa, Gary and Marlene (& Molly), and Chris and Patty. We followed the trail up to the ridge then took the right fork of the trail at the "hunters" staging area (?). Then the fun began. Our 1st tree was cut up to reveal a snow bank. We got thru this one easily enough, but then came the next snow bank. There was a LOT of snow to move. Everyone worked real hard to get it down to a level where the vehicles could get through.  All in all, I think we cut up 10 or 11 trees (Ole had the BIG saw, while John and I had smaller ones)  and dug out 4 snow banks (We destroyed at least one shovel). By the time we hit the bottom of the trail, the only thing anyone wanted to do was get back to camp. And that’s what we did, very quickly I might add.

Dinner that nite consisted of  a Taco Dinner. Everything tasted great! It was great seeing 2 empty tables all of the sudden get filled with a large quantity of food. Rumor had it that Jason held the record with 4 taco’s. The desert was two types of ice cream and some pie, cookies, and brownies. Thank you Dave for organizing this. After dinner, people sat around the campfire and talked about the day’s events and jeeping in general. Since the Mattley trail hadn’t been finished, it was decided to finish it up on Saturday. We finally agreed (reluctantly) on a start time of 7:30 am.

Saturday we hit the tail around 8 am. We broke up into two groups again. Dave’s group (w/ John & Shane, Chris & Patty, Ellen &Loro) took the upper ridge trail while Jason’s group headed lower. After a nice climb to the top of a ridge, we decided to clear an extra trail. Chain saws made quick work of a small tree. At the junction of another road, we turned around and headed back to the last trail junction and continued on the Mattley trail. We eventually came to a 30" plus log crossing the gravel trail. A bypass had been made around the log in the soft dirt. It was decided that we should clear the trail and close off the bypass. John’s chainsaw and my chain saw were not long enuf to cut clear through the log in one cut, so it was done in stages. Eventually, we made two cuts clearing the log off the trail. John’s chain saw got stuck in the log when the weight of the log shifted. We managed to use 2 hi-lift jacks to re-position the log and allow the chain saw to be pulled out. Since the log was so huge and heavy, we winched 2 sections out off the road.  It was gratifying to see some ATV’s use the newly cleared trail shortly thereafter.

After lunch on the trail, we returned to the campground. We met up with Gary & Marlene, Vidas, Mike & Reynosa to determine if we were going to run slick rock. I was concerned about the trail since I was running stock tires, but everyone assured me that I would be fine. After some discussion, Dave, Loro (& Alpine) and I decided to go ahead with the run. We drove up to Bear Valley and gassed up. We then proceded to the trail head. All in all, I didn’t find the trail to be too difficult. While I made bottom contact several times and scraped some paint off my driver side fenders (and rock rail), I got thru the run pretty good.

After the run, we aired up near the main road and returned back to camp. Vidas and Dave had to leave, but Gary, Marlene, Ellen, and Loro remained and we all had a great shared dinner that evening. Everyone packed up and left Sunday morning. Thanks to everyone at the campout and the trail run. Patty and I had a great time. See you all at the next meeting.

Posted in Adopt-a-Trail, Corral Hollow, Mattley Loop |

First, the event was a real fun! Thanks to all organizers for flawless execution.

I arrived to the ED4 camp on Thu around 5:30pm. (The directions were very clear.) I was greeted by Dave who suggested me several camping options. I chose a campsite close to the main campfire. After setting my tent and having a quick snack, Dave came over to tell me about tomorrow’s plans. He thought that trails probably had already been opened by rangers or other 4wheelers, and we will be done by 11am and will be able to run some trails, like Slick Rock in the afternoon. In the hindsight it was over-optimistic which probably reflects Dave’s nature Then I joined the group of Jason, Jim, Mike P, Ole, and Tom to talk about tomorrow etc. Jason demonstrated some amazing articulation of his Jeep and his skill on the huge rock near our camp.

In the evening we gathered by the campfire with our drinks and had a lively conversation. I went to sleep at 10pm.

On Fri 8:30am we had forest rangers visiting our camp. They explained about the changing rules of trail use, handed us preliminary trail and forest road maps and posed for the group pictures. Then we divided into two groups: one led by Dave went to Mattley Ridge Loop trail, and our group of 5 rigs led by Jason & Mike - Jim, Tom & Daniel, Greg & Josh, and I went to Corral Hollow trail. Before leaving the camp Jason’s Jeep experienced power steering problem. His hydraulically assisted steering was installed just before this campout and got some air in the system. The air evacuation caused us about 20min delay. We started from the eastern end of the trail; I disconnected, aired down to 20psi. In the beginning the trail was freshly cleared, probably by forest rangers or other groups. However, later on our way we encountered and cleared about 4 fallen trees. But the biggest obstacle and fun was crossing the snow drifts. We needed to use tow strap from the moment we encountered the first large snow drift. Jason was going first and was sailing through most of the snow drifts, but on one of them he got stuck sliding to the side of the drift and ramming his rear tire against the tree stump and his roll cage against the tree. I witnessed some technical finesse how Jason operating two winches from front (his) and rear (Tom’s) got out of trouble without damaging anything. Tom and Daniel were the second “victims” following the same line as Jason (first unloading his dog Dusy) and getting into the same predicament. They got out of this situation the same way as Jason. The rest of our team took a bypass without any trouble but also with much less fun. Other snow drifts presented less problems or had bypasses. We were done around 1pm (I think). The team decided to go to Mattley Ridge Loop to check how another group was doing and offer our help if needed. We got on the top of the hill when Jim’s engine stalled. Luckily it was just running out of gas. Jim was astounded when he discovered that his Jerry can was also empty. He had to borrow some gas from Tom and was back on track… but in a minute Tom’s engine stalled running out of gas! Tom used his remaining gas in a can, and we continued.

We failed to make a contact with Dave but we saw that the trail was not cleared all the way through. We came back to the camp and had some drinks waiting for another group. Ellen just arrived and joined us. When another group finally arrived they were very tired. They removed 11(?) fallen trees and shoveled snow drifts, so that even Mini Cooper could pass. However, the did not finish all the way trough and they did not even start another loop in that trail. There was work to be finished on Saturday.

Dinner organized by Dave and contributed by everybody was great: tasty food, fine desserts, and fun people to talk to. We all gathered around the campfire and had really good time. I sat next to Greg, Dave and Loro, and we talked about 4wheeling and CAL4WD. I called it a night at 10am. Tomorrow we had to start at 7:30am.

On Saturday we departed to Mattley Ridge Loop trail around 8am. On the trail we divided into two groups. I joined the one led by Jason & Mike. Others in our group were Greg & Josh and Mike & Brittany. We had really exiting trail run through the loop that has not been touched the day before: tight, steep and off-camber in places, running in dense woods and traversing nice meadows. We removed 5 fallen trees and were done around noon. We headed back to camp. Jason, Mike and Jim were packing up and leaving, while Gary, Greg, Josh, Mike and I were planning to go to Slick Rock train once Dave’s group returns. When they came back it was already too late for Greg and Josh but we (Gary and Marlene, Mike & Reynosa, and I) were joined by Chris & Patty and Dave & Loro with her dog Alpine.

We were concerned that the stream crossing the trail may be too deep for stock height of Chris and Patty’s Jeep but decided to give it a try. There were numerous other groups on Slick Rock trail. I must say that the trail changed a bit since I last visited it a couple of years ago: more eroded in places, the was no bypass for the Slick rock itself, and there’s only one way down among scattered rocks. I followed Dave & Loro over steep ledge at the bottom of the Slick rock and made some metal contact. The stream was not deep at all - it receded since Mike visited it a couple of weeks back. However, the steps at the end of the trail changes since my last visit. I was unable to make it all the way up the normal rout and took an easier rout over the rock on the left. Only Dave and Mike in longer wheelbase rigs made it straight up. Amazingly, Chris and Patty made the whole trail in their near stock JK unlimited 4d without damaging anything. Great work!

After Slick Rock trail we all went back to the camp. I packed and left around 5pm.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this trip, and it helped me to get to know closer people from the club. Looking forward to the next adventure!

Vidas

Posted in Adopt-a-Trail, Corral Hollow, Mattley Loop |

Posted in Adopt-a-Trail, Corral Hollow, Mattley Loop |

Safety Clinic May 2011
Hollister Hills SVRA
Everyone was there (pretty much)

I took Friday off so I could enjoy the sunshine and dirt of Hollister before the clinic. I rolled down to Hollister by around 11am. Darell, Robert, Ashley, Brian, and I went out to finish marking the trails in the early afternoon. I jumped in and out of Brian’s jeep all day long with out a glitch. Half way through marking, Brian and I switched. He was kind enough to let me drive his jeep and he jumped in and out hammering the markers into the ground.

Friday afternoon, Myself, Gary, Greg, and Brian went the old O course to play around. I needed to see how my new axles, brakes, and suspension was working to make sure no lines were stretched and that everything would checkout for trail leading on Saturday. We had some fun playing around. We got air under all four tires of Brian’s jeep. We got Gary hung up on some logs for a good 20min. And I got to stretch my new axles out and make sure 4 wheel drive worked.

Friday night rolled around and I found myself going to Grillin’ & Chillin’ with Tom, Andy, and Ellen. We had a great dinner. My sober mind realizes I owe them each 2+ dollars for the balance of my bill. (Sorry, by Friday night my math skills weren’t working too well).

Saturday clinic started early. Everyone jumped into action and the well oiled machine was moving full steam ahead by 7:30am. I spent the morning doing Safety Inspections and parked my jeep at the front of the Yellow line.

After the students had been shuttled off to the classroom I decided to prep my jeep for the day. As I aired down my driverside front tire I noticed some bolts seemed like they were backed out of my hub. Well, sure enough the entire hub was loose. Upon some disassembly, it was clear that every single bolt in the hub had sheered in half, nothing was holding the hub on. Thankfully, I had a drill and bits, Tom had easy outs, and we got 4 of the 5 broken bolts out of the hub. I even had some WARN hub studs thanks to Jay from a few months earlier. Tom and I swapped in those studs, bolted the hub back together and I was good to go for trail lead all before the students even came back. Little did I know that fixing my jeep might not be such a good idea.

We had a nice lunch and then headed out to the O Course. I was trail lead for the yellow group, a group that besides myself and mid-gunner was completely comprised of Toyotas. I demoed the Frame Twister to the students and then proceeded to park my jeep. Upon parking my jeep I jumped down to jog back to the Obstacle and watch/ take pictures of the students running through it. Well… I didn’t make it. As soon as I jumped out of my jeep I landed on the ridge of one of those dried ruts and my ankle rolled over and make a nice ‘pop’ Needless to say, I crumpled. First aid was not far away, Michael (one of the students) grabbed ice, and I told him where my first aid kit was with my ace bandage. (Good teaching moment as to why we pack first aid kits). I sat for about 20min icing my ankle then decided the show must go on. I tightened my boot tight and led the group over to the stair step.

I led my yellow group for about 2-3 more hours until we came down to Area 5. At that point, my ankle was throbbing and Robert and Ashley had kindly volunteered to bail me out and take over as trail lead.

A huge thank you to Mike Sickles for the Advil (I owe you a new bottle), Darell for the beer, and Jim for the shot of Jameson. The club really came to my aid and even helped me load up my jeep and truck.

I had a great dinner and chatted with folks a bit more. It then became clear to me (finally) that I wasn’t going to be jeeping Sunday now that I hurt my ankle. The Advil and alcohol was wearing off and it occurred to me that sleeping in my bed at home was going to be much better then waking up with a stiff ankle at Hollister the next morning. I quickly gathered my things, and left around 8pm.

Sunday at 11am I got an x-ray and the saw the doc. Nothing appears to be broken. She said it looks like I tore a tendon, but probably no surgery. As of today I am slightly walking on it. It is still hugely swollen, nice black, blue, red, purple, green, blue colors. But I should be fine.

“almost” Lastly, I want to say I am very blessed (lucky) to be part of a such an amazing club, with amazing people. Sitting back and watching clinic “happen” is a sight to see. Everybody gives so much, and everything is down with such care and passion. Despite all of the work going on, people were still willing to help me out when needed. My friend Jarrett who came down for the day to be my co-pilot was blown away by effort, organization, and execution of the clinic. He works with a lot of volunteer organizations and was very impressed by the scope of our clinic.

My apologies for hurting myself and not being able to be a better part of the after clinic ED4 hospitality. I would have loved to talk to more of the students and been a part of their checkout process and personally welcomed them to join our club. That said, I know everyone else in the club was able to do that.

I am very lucky to be president of such a great club, you all make it easy.

Thank you,
CJ Arnesen

Posted in Hollister Hills, Safety Clinic |

Hello all,

I am Vidas Mickevicius, prospective member of ED4. I am traveling right now, so that only now I have access to my laptop to prepare this report.

I attended with my son Lukas who is 18 and will go to college this fall. We arrived on Friday at 3pm. After dropping off our stuff and airing down at Area 5 we went on some trails: Truck Hill, Fremontia, and White Rock. Then we went back to Area 5, set our tent and joined people around the fire for potlock dinner. It was real fun to meet so many 4wheelers in one place sharing their stories and talking about their rigs. To my surprise, I found so many wine enthusiasts at that dinner - thanks for sharing some really good wines!

I took ED4 Safety Clinic in 2002 and did not intend to take it again. But I learned that my duties (as prospective member) in this Clinic are just to help cleanup after the dinner on Saturday, so that I had full day of Saturday to do something. I talked to my son and we decided that he would take the Clinic. I checked with CJ and he said that registration would start at 8am on Saturday, and that walk-ins were welcome. So I registered my son Lukas for the Clinic. Lukas had experience in driving our TJ with manual in the city and some light offroad, but most of his 4×4 experience was “theoretical” - wheeling on the passenger seat and spoting for me. This Clinic was a real good practical experience for Lukas. Also theoretical part in and around the classroom was very useful and fun - instructors did perfect job keeping us all engaged! All trail guides were very knowledgeable and nice people - and I want to thank them all again. Our group had predominantly Jeeps with manuals! I rode along with my son but allowed him to make decisions on his own. He did well, I think. On staircase he wanted to use lockers and crawl slowly. I convinced him that this was his time of learning how to drive without lockers and become a good Jeep driver. Lukas learned what means the right momentum and spin control while crawling slipery stairs. His first attempt failed but second was perfect. After Saturday dinner and cleanup we left because my son had things to do at home on Sunday. Else we would have stayed another night.

We both had very good time. The trails were fun and not dusty as usual for this time of the year (effect of California cooling - I guess and weather was perfect. Our only concern was poison oak. Lukas had a bad case of poison oak just prior to this Clinic and he was still on medications. We took extreme precautions not to touch Jeep and wash our hands and faces whenever possible. It helped.

Overall this Clinic was very good. Organization was perfect. I can imagine that distributing 40+ rigs on trails is logistical nightmare, but everything worked like swiss watch. I was very happy that there were so many young people in this Clinic. It is important for our hobby (or passion) to have young people to get involved and help to promote a positive image of 4wheeling. Once again, thanks to all organizers!

See you soon,
Vidas

Posted in Hollister Hills, Safety Clinic |

I arrived at Camp Area 5 on Friday night and parked next to Tom. V and
Jim. O.  After Tom and I set up, we met up with CJ and Ellen and we
headed out for a meal over at Grillin' and Chillin'.  I have to say
that it that is a great place to eat.  Good beer and the burgers
rocked.  We headed back and hung out for a bit and turned in.  I slept
in my LJ and I found out that when you're parked at a down hill angle,
your sleeping back tends to slide on the carpet and then one winds up
"squashed".

Next morning started really good, with some coffee and some good eats
and I was pretty surprised how many students were driving in.  After a
while it warmed up and was turning into a really nice/toasty day.  I
made my way down to the Stair Steps and helped out with Brian, Lorrie,
and Greg.  Other than the big hole at the top of the obstacle filled
with water, there were no issues, even CJ made it look easy with a
messed up ankle. It's really cool to see a big smile on the students
face as they make it up.
All in all, good time

Posted in Safety Clinic |