Originally Posted by Christine

What a rush! Yesterday I set up a trail run for all types of 4x4's. It's mostly Jeeps but we had a F250 and 2 F150's, Explorer and the rest Jeeps, mostly JK's. There was about 14 of us.
We started out at 2700 feet, light rain, little wind. At first there were some pretty steep inclines. We all did great. I left my Jeep at home and went with my husband in his F250. A decision that will haunt me later.

We started out with very light rain, clear conditions and wind. As we continue to drive the weather is getting worse. We climbed to about 5200 feet. We hit 70 mph winds, horizontal rain, ice rain, very dense fog and mud like you wouldn't believe. We spent a lot of our time going sideways.

The wind ripped the fiberglass tonneau off its locks on one of the F150's. An older Cherokee's drivers door got caught by the wind and bent it backwards. It bent the hinges that are welded to the unibody. My husband and Glen spent, what seemed like 10 minutes tyring to get the door closed. All the time, pouring rain. Poor Glen had to finish the trip with his door ajar.

We were really starting to get worried about the weather. It was hurricane conditions and the roads were becoming almost impassable. We slid and spun our way only to hit a locked gate. We tried to pass but couldn't. Everyone got turned around except my husband. He buried the F250 in mud that was almost liquid. A couple of the JK's were helping us out. We were going to get winched out only to find our F250 has NOTHING to hook up in the front. One of the JK's told us to put some rocks under the back wheel. He was able to reverse and take a different line. He was completely soaked down to his skin. Needless to say, I had to take over the driving after that. He was skaking so bad from being wet and cold, and didn't bring a change of clothes. We had to make our way back through the liquid mud roads. Another F150 got stuck. He had to be pulled from behind by the other F150 to get out. A little further one of the JK Rubi's got stuck (that's how bad it was). A little winching got him out. The driver of that JK became the spotter for that part of the trail. He and Glen were standing out in this horrible weather making sure all the other vehicles got through. Our F250 was mostly sideways down the roads. I kept the RPM's up. One side was the mountain which the wind was blowing me into, the other side was a LOOONG drop down. If I hit the RPM's too hard and got traction, I'd be down the mountain. It was that way for everyone. I had a blast! The fog was so thick you couldn't see the vehicle in front of you much less anything around you.

The only time I was nervous was when we were parked at the top of a hill waiting for others to fix the tonneau cover on the F150. We were sitting on mud, BLASTED by at least 70 mph winds and horizontal ice rain with thick fog. I thought "what did I get my people into?"

Everyone had fun and loved the experience. Definitely a trip we won't soon forget! Some things we learned:
Always bring extra clothes, make sure everyone has their recovery gear AND rain gear. The Jeeps by far, out performed the other 4x4's.
Would we all do it again? In a heartbeat!

Originally Posted by EvolutionIXMR

Originally Posted by Christine

Shoot, the pics worked when I did it. Okay.....I'll fix it.

The trail ride was in the mountains between Palmdale and Aqua Dulce. We were trying to find alternate routes bypassing the 14 freeway in case of a major disaster.