On Friday Jan. 12, 2018:
I headed up to Grass Valley for the Cal4Wheel Winter Fun Fest. I arrived mid-afternoon, checked in to the hotel, got some food and gas for the next day, and then headed to the Nevada County Fairgrounds for the event. When I got there, I found a few ED4 members, including Connie, Arline, Ole, and Dick, already gathered at the end of a table. The group would grow quite a bit throughout the evening as more people arrived. We got in line early for dinner, as recommended by club members who had been to Winter Fun Fest before. After dinner and some conversation, I left the fairgrounds relatively early since Saturday would be an early start (at least by my standards).
Saturday morning:
The Blizzard Brigade group met at the KMart parking lot for staging. There was a little bit of a shuffle as everyone was lining up and ED4 was trying to stay together. Then we found out the trail leader and crew was splitting the the group into A, B, and C groups based on rig capability. Since I do not have lockers, I had to be in group C. Connie was nice enough to stay with me in group C. Most (all?) of the rest of the ED4 people on this run ended up trying to stay together in group B. The trail leader said he would put more crew with group C to help us out and we should have our tow straps handy. At this point, I became a little worried because we were not expecting a lot of snow. What kind of trails were we going to go on that would cause the leader and crew to think we might get stuck or need help if we didn't have lockers? Were there going to be significant obstacles to get over? Was I getting myself in over my head?
When we got underway, we took the freeway northeast a little ways and then continued on a combination of small paved and unpaved roads, passing through the historic town of North Bloomfield and some other settlements. At some point, we stopped to air down. The higher we went, the more mud we were seeing on the trail. Finally, we started to see traces of snow, which became more frequent and larger patches. Just before our lunch stop, there was a significant amount of snow where we made a left hand turn. As I was making the turn, I felt the rear end of my Jeep slide out. Wheeee/Eeeeek! (depending on your perspective. You might guess which one mine was, given I had never driven in snow before.) Fortunately, it was rather wide there, and I was fine once I regained control.
We enjoyed lunch at the top of snow covered Pinoli Ridge, which had a nice view as well. As we continued downhill, we got to enjoy driving in the snow for a while. Then it turned into the damp stuff that threw mud all over the side of my Jeep again. When the dirt trail turned into paved road, we aired up, and that seemed to be the end of the run as far as the leaders were concerned. However, not being familiar with the area, to me it seemed like we were still in the middle of the woods. I would have appreciated it if they at least led us back to highway 49. Overall, I had a good day on the trail and was happy we found snow. I did not have any trouble on the trail despite the concern in the morning.
When I arrived back at the fairgrounds, the dinner line was already forming. I got in line, and the family in front of me looked familiar. I had seen them that morning at the hotel! We got to talking, and I find out that the dad already knew about ED4 and was thinking about attending the Safety Clinic and meeting the group. I invited them to join the ED4 table at dinner and meet some people there. They also told me about the SUV run they had gone on and how informative their trail leader was about the areas they passed through, and convinced me that I wanted to go on the SUV run on Sunday. I lucked out and was able to get a spot on the run from someone (you can reveal yourself if you choose) who decided not to go due to a check engine light. I stayed at the fairgrounds after dinner for the raffle, but did not win anything. Then, I was off to get ready for the next day.
Sunday morning:
I was back at the fairgrounds for staging for the SUV run. Before we left, the trail leader told us a little about the history of the area we would be driving through. Then, we headed out to Alleghany and dropped onto a dirt trail from there. The pace on this run was much more leisurely than Saturday's, and I soon found myself riding the brakes more than I liked in 4Hi. 4Lo turned out to be perfect for the speed. I was able to enjoy the scenery more on Sunday as well. There were portions of the trail that I thought was actually more technical than Saturday's - some steep climbs and descents, looser rocks in places, occasional streams of water that cut across and/or through the trail, and at least one hairpin turn where most of the group needed to make a 3 point turn. I had not been expecting all of this from an SUV run.
We stopped for lunch at a bridge crossing the Middle Yuba River. It was another beautiful location for lunch. However, the trail leader got word that the trail was washed out ahead, so we did not continue on the originally planned route. Instead, we turned around and went back the way we came. The trail was interesting enough that I wasn't too bummed we had to do that. As we were almost at the top of a climb on our return, the line stopped and we got word over the radio that a CJ had gotten vapor lock. That resulted in about a half an hour wait while they tried to remedy the issue. In the end, the CJ was towed a little ways to keep the group moving, and they were eventually able to get it started again. I had another enjoyable day on the trail and was glad I made the last minute decision to do this run. I ended the day by having dinner in Grass Valley with some newly made friends, and then driving almost 3 hours straight to get home.
Wow, that turned out a bit longer than expected. Thank you for reading all the way through. I've attached a few pictures from Sunday.
Joanna (prospective)