Cool! I just went off-roading for my first time ever! It was a lot of fun, and Kirk and I are planning to do it more often! After staying at Bill & Sue's late the evening before, and waking up at 5AM in order to arrive in Big Bear by 8AM, we were pretty tired! But we were both glad we went! We arrived in plenty of time, and started to meet some of the others who were also there for the 2nd Annual Big Bear Run. Many people (most, even) had camped overnight and were actually there for the full weekend.

It was an interesting experience - some people asked you what kind of jeep you had (model, year, modifications) before they even asked your name! But they were all very nice. All total, we had 36 jeeps, of which about 26 of them were Libertys (KJs). We were the only vehicle on the run that was completely stock (no modifications). We all took the initial trail, a trail sponsored by another club, together. It was quite a sight to see all of those vehicles caravaning down this rocky (VERY rocky in some spots) road. We eventually hit a sort of staging area, where we split off into sub-groups. Each group went off to hit a different trail. Since we were running with the basics, we decided to stick on the "easy" trail. There were 6 of us travelling together, all KJs. Don (in a black KJ) led off and Garland & Pam brought up the rear in a Cactus green KJ. Roger & Connie (in a steel blue KJ), Nannette & Liz (in a black KJ Freedom edition), Igor & family (in a white KJ) and Kirk & I (in our white KJ Limited) were in the middle. While we were talking an "easy" run, we still had a great time.

We started off on Jacoby's Canyon, headed onto 3N16 and then headed over to 3N08. Some of the stuff we hit was pretty interesting. There were certainly plenty of photo ops! One of my favorites is one where Kirk caught some serious air with the back tire! Pam, Liz and Connie all took turns driving their respective vehicles. We could hear Connie screaming a time or two when she went through some stuff that was a bit scary!
We stopped by the Holcomb Creek Crossing, which is pretty hairy mainly due to the steep uphill on the far side. A couple of people tried it, but without locking differential (we only have limited slip right now), it wasn't possible. Only two of the three jeeps that tried made it up the hill.

From Holcomb Creek Crossing, we drove about 5 miles or so to Bishop Peak. Bishop Peak is home to an old fire watchtower, built in 1936. It was built right on the rocks at the top of the peak, an altitude of 8,535 ft. We hung out up there for a bit and talked with some of the volunteers that staff the lookout. Many of them were HAM Operators and were participating in a contest while we were there (they were trying to contact as many people, from as far away as possible). After hanging out there for a bit and chatting, we finally headed back down the mountain.

One of the members of L.O.S.T. KJ West had invited everyone on the run that day (about 75 people or so) over to his cabin in Big Bear for a barbeque. We originally hadn't planned to go, but were having so much fun, we decided to. Although we had a long drive ahead of us to get home (2 hours), we figured we could always go to a later church service than our normal one if we got in too terribly late. We stopped by a grocery store and picked up some beef for dinner and then headed over. We were right on time. As we pulled into one of the few parking places at his house, a steady stream of KJs turned onto his street and started looking for spots. The barbeque had a great turnout! And enough food to feed a small country! We stayed and chatted with people we had met on our trail as well as the many others who had heard about "the couple who had been around the world" or the "folks in the stock jeep". Near the end of the feed, KJ West had a raffle. A number of prizes were handed out, all Jeep-related, of course. We bought two raffle tickets and won 3 prizes. How did we do that, do you ask? Well, we won one prize with each of the raffle tickets, but in addition to that, they were planning to raffle off a lift kit for a jeep. The only thing was, all the jeeps were already lifted except one...ours. So, rather than raffling it off, they GAVE it to us! Wow! What a blessing! We are VERY grateful! Especially since there is no way we could have afforded to do anything like THAT in the near future. We are now considering heading off to Camp Jeep later in the summer, and a lift kit makes that much more viable.

Shortly afterwards, we had to call it a night and drive home. It was a long two hours with Kirk and I trying to chatter ourselves awake the whole time. We made it in one piece, obviously.

More photos!

Labels: Offroading