This was to be the "Welcome to California" trail run. Not only was my good friend Jason Head in town from Kentucky...but a friend of Bud's from Texas, Mike Green, was also riding JAFO for the weekend. My plan was to leave around noon on Friday, but Headman and I were up partying until 5:30am Thursday night. Personally, I had written off keeping with that schedule! Headman knew a bunch of the Dehesa gang through Jeep-L but had never met them personally, so, he was stoked to get going and meet the crew. Friday morning at about 9:30am, I was awakened by the sound of a slamming door and the rustling of paper bags. One of which hit me in the mid-section. Ooooo, boy...early morning Jack-in-the-box breakfast. Ha! I was still digesting that damn Robeto's meal from the night before! Being the vampire that I am, I was unamused at the hour, yet managed to struggle out of bed and meander around my beach hut getting the blood flowing. After drinking about a gallon of water while reminiscing of the night prior, we started packing up the YJ. After gathering some grub, Corona's, Bacardi Limon, and manifold burritos (now there's a story....) we were on the road. 12:14pm, 14 minutes behind schedule. Unbelievable.

We arrived at Los Coyotes about 2 hours later, give or take. Paid our $12 after explaining how much change I got back from a twenty, and headed towards camp. We knew Bronco-Boy Mike Simpkins was already in camp, so we scouted out for his motorhome and found him quickly. Parked the Jeep, hopped out, and immediately felt a squish under my sandals. Rut-roh...cow-pie country! Holy shit, these things were big. Put my boots on and visited with Mike and his boy Eddy for a while. Before long, Brett Culpepper showed in his orange SOA YJ following his motorhome. Next thing ya know, we're heading out on a quickie-run before dark. Quickie? Right. We pass Brad Kilby (Dick) on the way in, and he says he'll hang out at camp. First we hit "Left-Turn Hill", of which Mike and Brett had no trouble with. I pounded into it quite a few times trying to get over this rut, but couldn't quite do it. Ok, maybe I DO need lockers! Backed down and we went around to an area called the "Jeep Squeeze." This was a fun little area with some cool rock-steps and small climbs. Prior to this, we had to drop into a mudhole, where Mike busted off part of his right-front flare. First fatality of the weekend. It was beginning to darken, so we decided to see who had showed at camp. On the way back we hear Dick on the radio, who had apparently gotten himself lost within some picnic tables. As we're tooling down the grated road, which had steep drop-offs at nearly every corner, Brett stops up front. Seems his right front tire completely siezed up on him. Guess we figured out what that squeak was earlier, huh? We struggled with the hub for a while, pulling everything out we could when we realized we weren't gonna get much further. So, we put 'er back down without the hub, and rolled her home slowly. Back at camp it was verified that the bearings were toast, and the race was pretty much welded to the spindle.

Head and I mixed up a couple of Corona's and Bacardi Limon and ventured to meet the newcomers. Mike's friend Kenny had showed. Not long after, Eddy smashed his lip on Mike’s motorhome step. Ouch! We convinced him he was a tough guy, and all the little chicks would dig him, and he managed to quiet down some. Man, that musta hurt. Quite the puffed out lip, too! Eventually Matt Brookins showed up in his SOA YJ, along with his friend Chris - who was apparently quite the psycho-mountain-biker. Getting the fire going was a tough one, it had rained a few days prior and all the local wood was very wet. Even the stuff some folks brought was wet. So, Kenny managed to round up a few cups of gasoline and started dousing the fire with them. Sure enough, after multiple soakings, the fire kept up on it’s own! Good thing, ‘cause it got cold fast! Later in the evening, two more friends of mine (Jack Bell and Rob Valentine) showed up in Jack’s stock XJ. They brought some nice dry lumber that kept the fire roaring into the wee-hours and even managed to provide some ramping-entertainment the next evening! Introductions, grub, feasting, bullshitting, lying, drinking, socializing, more lying, etc. You know how it goes. The hours wore on, and everyone started passing out in their chairs and falling in the fire.

BRRRR! The mornings sure are cold out there! Good thing I’ve got a zero-degree bag. Crawled my way out of Brett’s motorhome (thanks for the bed, dude!) and snagged a seat by the already-roaring fire. Ahhhh. Sun on my face, chorizo cooking (thanks Matt B!), and a warm fire. Great way to start the AM, don’t ya think? Had to be around 7am at this point. Around 9-10am, the rest of the crew showed up. Let’s see...new arrivals were: Brad Dokken (TJ) and wife Michelle, Matt Osburn (YJ), Brian Williams (CJ), Bill Cue (CJ), Bud Boren (CJ) and his JAFO Mike, Steve McKay (CJ) and his boss Mark Olson (who is apparently now Jeep shopping), Donald Clark (YJ), Steve’s friend Paul Hayford (YJ) and passenger? I think that’s everyone. Hope I didn’t miss anybody. Soon after, we were on our way! 12 vehicles in all, 11 Jeeps and of course, 1 Bronco!

The trails were very tight... many paint jobs were scraped this weekend by the brush and other harder-than-paint obstacles. Surprisingly, there was a lot of green out there. I had expected more of a desert-type atmosphere, but that wasn’t the case at all. Since I’ve been in California, the only type of wheeling I had done were desert runs. Reminded me of the times I would head down to Kentucky to wheel with Jason, and I know he felt quite at home on the trip!

(ok, from here on out I’m writing this WAY after the trip so details are a bit foggy in the brain)

After driving a dusty ridge road for quite some time, we reached some form of a trail. I lost the email where Matt Brookins told me the names of the hills, so maybe he’ll be good enough to email them again so I can pop them in here (nudge). There was some great twisty-rocky stuff along the way, small rock-climb after another. In between, the trails were quite windy and tight. Not long into it, we heard Bud over the radio saying something about not being able to turn left. Most of us ignored the geezer until he came back on and said he wheels were a little cross-eyed. Oops! He bent Pokey’s tie-rod pretty nicely. Didn’t look like it hit anything, simply bent under stress. So, after pulling the rod and straightening it using the Simpkins-HiLift-BumperHitch method, Brad Kilby’s Hi-Lift handle was slid over top of the rod for added strength. Movin’ on... Well, we reached a hill that was quite steep. And muddy. And, well, none of us made it. There was simply no traction, and no matter what line tried to take, you always fell in to the same ruts. Twelve Jeeps...and a few winches. Well, the Jeeps were slowly making their way to the top. Unfortunately, there were a couple breaks up near the top of the hill that caused more delays. Brian busted a hub and a couple u-joints or something along those lines. Bill Cue had a spare hub for him, and I think Brian ran the rest of the trail in 2WD due to the front u-joint problems. Apparently no one had any matching spares. As well, Don’s starter would occasionally start running for no reason. So, I followed him for a bit with a BFH. Seems every time he got on the gas it would kick back on. Somewhere in there, Brad Kilby sliced a tire on some metal that was sitting in the trail. After a few (who knows how many) hours, we were all up the hill. Bronco boy had to head back home for a family gathering, and Bud had gone back with him to be safe, so that was two less Jeeps that needed to be winched up. I was the last one up, and it had become so sludgy from the previous 9 Jeeps that it turned out to be a challenge just getting to the winch point! After getting to the top, there were a few more really cool rock climbs that needed to be navigated. Bud caught up with us later on down the trail and we made our way back.

So, we’re back at camp and everyone’s swapping stories from the days events. Jason (Headman) and I had this great idea of making manifold burritos when we got back. Well, apparently we didn’t quite have the concept down. From what I hear, you’re supposed to have a basket in the engine compartment, and ride with the burritos in there all day. Well, we figured we could get back and just slap ‘em on there to heat ‘em up! We even brought tin-foil for the occasion. I gave Headman the store-bought burritos, and the tin foil, and told him to get ‘em ready. I popped the hood and searched for a hotspot. Well, the Jeep had been sitting for a bit, and there just wasn’t anywhere that was doing anything worthwhile. I was hungry, and my patience was wearing thin, so we decided to toss them on the fire. MmmMmmmboy, can’t wait ‘till them burritos are done! We pulled ‘em off the fire and I started unwrapping them. As I did, I noticed that under the foil, one of the burritos had a lot of red and black coloring on it. Perplexed, I continued to open it... only to realize that Headman left the damn plastic on the burrito when he wrapped it in foil! NO! After a few expletives, we realized the other burrito had survived without any toxic coating welded to it. (laughing) The best way to learn is through experience, right? (rolling eyes)

We were also provided with some entertainment by Matt Brookins and his son’s motorized Jeep crawler! What a trip this thing is... Matt’s totally gone through it and rewired the Jeep to handle a fork-lift battery! The thing runs for days! Anyway, Matt hopped in the beast with his legs sticking out the sides and was cruising around the campfire to everyone’s amusement. Someone built a ramp out of some firewood and voila, Matt ramped that baby well over 1000! Most of the crew took off as the evening rolled around. Dick and son, Brookins and Chris, and Myself and Head were the only ones left. We decided to stick it out and have some fun the next morning.

The crack of dawn struck me as it normally does. By surprise. Thanks for the motorhome bed, Brad! (Jason and I were motorhome mooches that weekend) As usual, I was the last one up and grumbled my way to the camp fire to soak up some early morning sun. I tossed Headman the keys, and let him drive me around that day. Man, what a weird feeling sitting in the passenger seat of your own vehicle. A couple minutes into it, Header got my Jeep hung up on a rock. He goes, "What the hell was that?" I reply, "Uhm, that ROCK you just ran right over top of?" He says, "WHAT rock?!" Luckily, I’m aware that his Jeep back in Kentucky has about a mile more of ground clearance, so I let him slide on that one. The first obstacle we got to was called Bronco Hill. There were three ways up. We all gave the middle lane a shot first. Basically, a loose climb with a steep ledge mid-way up. Brad had difficulties with it, and backed hisTJ-tire-liftin-pucker-o-matic back down. Certainly didn’t blame him. It's one bad-ass Jeep, but for some reason with so much lift on a TJ they start acting funny at times. Jason attempted in my Jeep and failed as well. Time to get lockers, I guess. (grin) I dunno what’s stranger...riding in the passenger seat of my own Jeep, or watching it attempt to climb up a hill in someone elses hands! Matt Brookins popped up the hill in his SOA YJ and made us all feel silly. I decided I wanted to go up the right side, which was much longer, and pretty much solid rock. With help from my expert spotter friends, I crept (ok, there was some banging too) my way up to the top. Kilby also did the deed in his TJ with a little coaxing from me (give it a little bump, dude!) After playing around here, we decided it was time to move to the next one. The almighty "El Hill." Holy shit, this was a LARGE rock face. Biggest I’ve personally ever seen. Brad and Matt said they weren’t going to do it, but I didn’t come out for the scenery...so I attempted to rename it "Al Hill." To make a long story short, I made my way up to a point, and eventually just lost traction. I kept bumping it, but couldn’t quite make the pop over whatever I was on. I decided to get out and take a look at things myself. As I did I slid a chunk of dead tree underneath my left rear that needed some traction. As I climbed back in, it was apparent that I wasn’t going any further up this hill. The angle was so steep that my seat belt was locked up and there ain’t no way I was doing it without a belt on! That silly piece of rotted wood probably wouldn’t have helped anyway. So I backed down (which was scary enough) and decided I’d come back after I got some lockers.

That’s pretty much it. Had a blast, as usual, with this group of folks. Boy do I miss Michigan!

The following is what Jason Head had to say about his visit...
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that I met at LCIR last weekend. I had a blast!!! You guys have a truly an excellent group to wheel with & socialize with. Thanks to Brett Culpepper, Matt Osburn, Bill Cue, Bud & Brad Kilby for letting me ride their Jeeps (Yeah I was a major Jeep whore) & extra special thanks to Brett & Brad for letting Al & I crash in the motorhomes for the night. I hope to make it out again sometime soon, maybe even with my Jeep.

For those of you don't know what I'm talking about I took a few days off from work & used a frequent flyer ticket to go out to San Diego to visit Al (aka: Jeepaholic), a college buddy of mine. He took me out the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation to meet up with a bunch of other So. Cal Jeeplisters (Bud, Matt Osburn, Bill, Cue, Brad Kilby, Brad Dokken, Brett Culpepper, Matt Brookins, & some others that I'm sure I forgot) for the weekend. The main group wheeled on Saturday, but Al & went Friday, Saturday & Sunday with various people. Al was even nice enough to let me drive a little on Sunday, but I think I made him nervous when I dragged the front diff on a rock before we even hit the trail. Guess my perspective for obstacles has been slightly skewed toward 36" tires instead of 33's. :-)

One of the funniest things that I forgot to tell everyone was that I cleaned up the garage before my trip & came up with over $200 worth of unused parts/core exchanges that I used for spending money on my trip! Kind of a sick version of scraping the couch for change to go to the bar, eh? Anyways, thanks again guys & too all you other Jeeplisters, I would highly recommend getting together with these guys if you ever get the chance.

Regards,
Jason Head
http://www.off-road.com/~jeeplist/headj.htm
"Neither mud, nor rocks, nor common sense..."