Great Jeeper weekend!
06-08-2009, 11:31 AM
#1
JK Jedi
Thread Starter
Great Jeeper weekend!
Started out by having breakfast at the Apple Country Resturant (our meeting spot) for an easy ride with some fellow employees who have new JK’s most and for some this was the first venture off-road for them where we ran into a fellow JK-Forum member from our local SD area (Lenny Kimes). He was taking an alternate route and I didn’t want him to be bored with our slow pace so we went our separate ways.
The Oriflamme Canyon trail, listed in the "Guide to Southern California Backroads & 4-wheel Drive Trails" book as a moderate (same as Last Chance Canyon – not sure how), was an extremely easy run for us and a slight challenge for them as we went from 6,000 ft level down to the desert floor. The descent had spectacular views of the backcountry and some pretty tight switch backs but nothing too difficult. At the desert floor we decided to go our separate ways as the work folks had their 4x4 fill, however, dd2 (Dan) and I were just getting started so we decided to head back up Rodriguez trail which in the book showed as more difficult than Oriflamme Canyon.
Dan had posted a thread looking for local runs so Brenda asked me to see if he wanted to join our group of newbies, as it turned out Dan has a pretty nice lifted Jeep and he knows how to wheel and better yet was a good spotter as well! Glad we got to meet him and I’m sure we'll see him on other runs!
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...56#post1170256
Anyway we headed up Rodriguez trail and soon saw that it had more obstacles and presented more challenge. About 1 mile into the trail Dan is on the CB saying “I’m liking this” and another 100 yards and I’m tell Dan going to 4Lo to which he replies “I already did when I said that I’m liking this!”
Anyway we get to a fork in the trail (marked by a boulder with some rocks stacked on top of it) initially we went past it but decided to back up and take a run through the first rock garden…yippee, took a decent line but needed and got a good spot from Dan.
Dan went next and sort of slipped off one of the footing boulders and scrapped his fender for the first trail badge of honor for the day! Anyway we went as far as we could before we hit all large boulders across the trail with no easy way to do it without body damage and/or breakage.
I know most of you hard core rock crawlers could do it and I’d like to go with someone who can show us the right line (probably more prevented by my setup only 3” lift) but we had our fun and it was time to head back to the original fork and take the bail out trail. The Rodriguez trail looks down on this loop we named (Lopez Loop – funny story we’ll tell some day) so we could see that we had made the right choice. It could be done as we saw a set of tire tracks but probably by somebody like Eddie (WOL), or Jake (serveapurpose). -Jennifer - please check my screen names 
Anyway finished the Jeeper weekend with a day of chopping fenders at the house….first up was John (JHT21), thanks again John – more mods at my place anytime, then came our rubi which really could have used the mod for our Lopez Loop excursion as I did rub on full stuff-age. I know I know this thread is useless without pics and they’ll come as soon as they are downloaded was too tired last night. Well this was the first weekend where we spent it solely on Jeeping in one sense or the other and it was awesome!
Oh yeah, almost forgot even received 4/4 waves back from fellow JK’s, TJ’s and a YJ on the way out to the mountains. What a complete weekend!
This is the only issue I had all weekend and I'm hoping it isn't a big one!
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...64#post1170264
Thank You Jeeping Gods above for a safe trip void of major breakdowns, new friendships created, and allowing a new crop of JK'ers to have a safe enjoyable trip.
The Oriflamme Canyon trail, listed in the "Guide to Southern California Backroads & 4-wheel Drive Trails" book as a moderate (same as Last Chance Canyon – not sure how), was an extremely easy run for us and a slight challenge for them as we went from 6,000 ft level down to the desert floor. The descent had spectacular views of the backcountry and some pretty tight switch backs but nothing too difficult. At the desert floor we decided to go our separate ways as the work folks had their 4x4 fill, however, dd2 (Dan) and I were just getting started so we decided to head back up Rodriguez trail which in the book showed as more difficult than Oriflamme Canyon.
Dan had posted a thread looking for local runs so Brenda asked me to see if he wanted to join our group of newbies, as it turned out Dan has a pretty nice lifted Jeep and he knows how to wheel and better yet was a good spotter as well! Glad we got to meet him and I’m sure we'll see him on other runs!
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...56#post1170256
Anyway we headed up Rodriguez trail and soon saw that it had more obstacles and presented more challenge. About 1 mile into the trail Dan is on the CB saying “I’m liking this” and another 100 yards and I’m tell Dan going to 4Lo to which he replies “I already did when I said that I’m liking this!”
Anyway we get to a fork in the trail (marked by a boulder with some rocks stacked on top of it) initially we went past it but decided to back up and take a run through the first rock garden…yippee, took a decent line but needed and got a good spot from Dan. Dan went next and sort of slipped off one of the footing boulders and scrapped his fender for the first trail badge of honor for the day! Anyway we went as far as we could before we hit all large boulders across the trail with no easy way to do it without body damage and/or breakage.
I know most of you hard core rock crawlers could do it and I’d like to go with someone who can show us the right line (probably more prevented by my setup only 3” lift) but we had our fun and it was time to head back to the original fork and take the bail out trail. The Rodriguez trail looks down on this loop we named (Lopez Loop – funny story we’ll tell some day) so we could see that we had made the right choice. It could be done as we saw a set of tire tracks but probably by somebody like Eddie (WOL), or Jake (serveapurpose). -Jennifer - please check my screen names Anyway finished the Jeeper weekend with a day of chopping fenders at the house….first up was John (JHT21), thanks again John – more mods at my place anytime, then came our rubi which really could have used the mod for our Lopez Loop excursion as I did rub on full stuff-age. I know I know this thread is useless without pics and they’ll come as soon as they are downloaded was too tired last night. Well this was the first weekend where we spent it solely on Jeeping in one sense or the other and it was awesome!
Oh yeah, almost forgot even received 4/4 waves back from fellow JK’s, TJ’s and a YJ on the way out to the mountains. What a complete weekend!
This is the only issue I had all weekend and I'm hoping it isn't a big one!
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...64#post1170264
Thank You Jeeping Gods above for a safe trip void of major breakdowns, new friendships created, and allowing a new crop of JK'ers to have a safe enjoyable trip.
Last edited by sm_rubi; 06-08-2009 at 11:36 AM.
06-08-2009, 07:46 PM
#4
JK Jedi
Thread Starter
Thanks!
Here's some more pics...
And a view from the top of the trail!
The trail heads Left is the Oriflamme Canyon and Right is the Rodriguez Trail...this is where we went our separate ways!
Here's some more pics...
And a view from the top of the trail!
The trail heads Left is the Oriflamme Canyon and Right is the Rodriguez Trail...this is where we went our separate ways!
Last edited by sm_rubi; 06-08-2009 at 08:15 PM.
06-10-2009, 07:10 PM
#7
JK Jedi
Thread Starter
