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At the last club meeting it was decided to run an impromptu "club sanctioned" snow run to Big Bear this Sunday. Rather than deal with the hordes of skiers heading to the slopes, we had decided to come in from the back side of the mountain. So 5 vehicles met at the Summit Inn on I15 at 8:00am for breakfast and to decide on the best way in. Warren with his Chevy engined Toyota, Cal (and family) in his Toyota pickup, Lyle in his YJ, Mike (a new guy) in his ex-military Dodge PowerWagon, and myself. After some debate, and lots of pouring over maps, we chose to look for a route off Highway 18. With the help of a local Cal-Trans worker (road maintenance) showing us the right way, we aired down and got going up 3N61. 

Having Warren in front paid off, as his V8 made fairly quick work of plowing through the snow and breaking the trail for the rest of us. Lyle's YJ kept having problems with his front axle engaging and disengaging, but he managed to make it through, and in fact stayed with us for the whole day. So without too much difficulty we found ourselves at Holcombe Valley by 3N16. By this time it was about lunch-time, so we pulled out the maps and decided what we wanted to do while we ate. We could have just called it a day, and headed back out to Big Bear city, but we chose to make a full day of it and follow 3N16 all the way through. A good choice!!

Some of our party had been concerned about the condition of the upcoming trail, as there seemed to be a lot of slush and mud, which they worried would screw up their wheel bearings, etc. But any worries were soon forgotten as the  snow soon piled up to diff depth or deeper. We finally arrived at the turn off for Gold Mountain (3N69?). The snow on this unbroken trail was very deep and also was uphill from a sharp left hand turn. 

 Warren chained up both ends of his rig, and I did my rear wheels, as did Mike on his Dodge. Then we gave it a shot! Warren would power in as far as he could get, back up and go again, However, the snow was so deep, it was just piling up against his front end. 

We made it about 200 yards up hill, but it became too much and we decided to go back down to 3N16. Warren had to be strapped by me as he had dug himself in pretty good. Then I had to cut some overhanging branches out of the way as they were preventing him from safely backing down. Having done that, I backed up, slid sideways, and impaled my own left rear softtop window into a different tree with the result that I now have more ventilation than I used too!!

We continued a short way before coming across the winner of this years Darwin award. Somehow this guy had managed to get this far in his Chevy van. 2 wheel drive, no posi/locker, and chains. 

Not surprisingly he was stuck! Well, Warren was still in front, so he got stuck with strapping him out of the hole he'd dug. Once free the question came up, "what do we do with him now?"  He was not going to be able to turn around and go back, and he was never going to continue on, at least not until May, when the snow melts. While we deciding, we were joined by Harry Lewellyn, "the silver fox", who was leading his own party of 16 newbie "soft-roaders", Explorers, Xterras, etc from behind us. That made the decision for us to pull the van forward easier. So with Harry's invaluable help and priceless tutelage, Warren learned how to strap the van to the next clearing large enough for it to turn around, and that's where we left him. Hopefully he was able to get back out, and we were going to let the ranger know he was there. He would be good subject for the next safety meeting. "Why you NEVER go unprepared into danger by yourself!"

We continued up the trail until we realized Had left his party behind to follow us in his bone stock Nissan Frontier to see if the trail was passable. It was to us, but he decided, wisely, to turn his newbies around and head them back out. However, in the course of turning himself around, he got his rear end wedged in a snowbank, and got well and truly stuck! I put a strap on him and pulled him out. Then I got high centered on a snowbank while moving off the trail to let him by! Cal strapped me out, and we continued on.

By this time it was getting late, and we were looking forward to the end of the trail, but there was a perfect place for us to pull over and take group pictures, so we did. 

The rest of the ride out to the tarmac was uneventful, and not much was said on the CB's. I think we were glad to hit the road. 

A long day, but very enjoyable and worth the effort. Lyle's dual compressors were put to a lot of use airing himself, Warren, Mike and myself back up to streetable PSI. After which we went our separate ways.

A couple of important lessons were learnt (hopefully) today.

1. If you are intentionally going out into places where help is a long way away, take the right equipment to ensure you will be able to rescue yourself if need be. Apart from the "gentleman" in his van, there were several other SUV's driving around with NO chains, shovels, winches, straps, or ropes. What were they planning on doing if thing's had gone bad?

2. If you have a nice new spare tire carrier, put the ****ing spare on it!! (sorry. Lyle, had to throw that one in!!)