Anyone wanna go snow wheeling?

My wife and I are going to Idyllwild for our Anniversary tomorrow (Friday 1-9-09). We will sleep in Saturday and then hit Toro Peak for some snow busting, assuming it's still there, and I'm pretty sure it will be. I am not sure what time we will hit the trail, probably around 11 AM after we sleep in, eat breakfast, and make our way over to the trail. Would be nice to have some company, another vehicle on the trail "just in case". Give me a shout if you'd like to come. Will be in my big black and gray xtracab Dodge diesel.

s142.photobucket.com/a...e/95Dodge/


CB Channel 1

My Cell PM ME

I got some chains for my truck and tested them out in the dirt tonight. I would recommend having chains, but it's doable if you follow in someone's ruts in the snow, and I'll be leaving some :-)

Bring warm clothes, a meal for the trail, and anything else you think you might need on a snowy mountain.

Directions:


From San Diego - Head North on the I-15 and take the CA-79 South exit when coming into Temecula. Take CA-79 South (its actually more like east) 17.8 miles to the CA-371. Turn left (North) onto CA-371 and take it for 20.7 miles. to CA-74. Turn right on CA-74. At around 5 miles left for Santa Rosa Mountain Road on you right. There is a small dirt area to part right off the road.

From Palm Springs - From the intersection of CA-111 and CA-74. Take CA-74 19.2 miles look for the well sign Santa Rosa Mountain road on your left.


Here's some links to info/directions to Toro Peak. Some interesting stuff:wrecked cars, crashed helicopter.

www.socalcamping.com/o...arosa.html
www.socalcamping.com/n...amp_id=118
www.mountainbikebill.c...RosaMt.htm

links are dead.

i won't be able to make it tomorrow. but i am interested in the trail you are talking about. i'm familiar with the area and didn't know anything about a heli crash... that would be cool to check out.

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/SantaRosaMt.htm

Sounds like a fun run and in my neck of the woods too. Unfortunately I'm out with a bad driveshaft and no funds to fix it right now.

retrying - they work for me now


http://www.socalcamping.com/000SanJacinto/santarosapeak.html

http://www.socalcamping.com/offroad/santarosa.html

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/SantaRosaMt.htm

cool. snap a few pics of that chopper. stuff like that is cool.

meh

meh yourself.


DENIED again! Got up the icy part easy, only managed to get my hand on one set of chains last week. Put them on the front (Detroit) and made it a couple miles 'til the front dshft started clanking. Gotta beef the front shaft and lock the rear and get some more chains. Maybe throw some weight in the bed. Front was working too hard.

will do :flipoff2:

Rainer in his silver Rubicon and Scott and his son Alex in their Navy blue Rubicon met me at the trailhead at 10:45 and we waited til 11:20 in case there were any latecomers straggling in and then departed up the trail after airing down a little for comfort (trail is bumpy some places).

I should have made 4 chains a requirement for this run! A friend of mine from La Quinta told me he had run this trail in the snow many times without chains, and I made it quite a ways last weekend with no chains, but apparently things change.

The first couple miles were dirt trail but then you go into a fold in the mountain at the start of the switchbacks and it's shaded by the mountain and the big trees and cold. There is a steep (for a fire road) climb up out of that spot, and it was packed down in the ruts in the snow from previous visitors and the ruts were iced over. Last weekend I made it without chains by putting my driver side tires to the left in the snow and my passenger tires between the ruts, and tried the same thing this time.

I made a mistake and neglected to advise Scott and Rainer to wait and see if I made made it before they started up, which might have led to some crunched bumpers. Bad run leader form, I apologise. I'm too used to running by myself. :shaking:

I made it 3/4 of the way, but my truck wouldn't hold the high side line, slid down into the ruts, and started to slide back down the hill. I quickly got on the CB and told them I was coming back down and to get out of the way! They scooted back out of the way and big bertha came sliding down, smooth as you please. I chained up the front tires (wasn't able to get 4 chains on short notice last week) and went right up the icy ruts. Was able to go up, stop, back down and start again on the hill - chains are cool! :smokin:

They decided to wait at the bottom while I continued up to see what the rest of the trail held. I found spotty snow and ice for a couple switchbacks and headed back down (in reverse to keep the chained tires uphill on the ice)to see what they wanted to do. I think we could have made it by winching, etc., but it was more risk, work, and loss of time than we were up for (I was trying to make the peak before dark) so they decided to head back and we would continue up and let them know when I got back down so that they could send help if they didn't hear from me.

I continued up the mountain for a few miles and the snow got deeper and appeared to have melted and then refrozen some, making it hard to push through once it got up to the axles. Also, my front axle is locked (Detroit) and had chains and the weight of the heavy Cummins diesel engine to give it traction, where as the rear axle is open diff (not for long) and was without weight or chains, which all meant the front was doing all the work, and the ole 1310/1330 front driveshaft got unhappy and started clanking.

I don't know why they put small series u-joints in the front of one ton trucks, but it will be changed to 1350 at my shop this week. I decided to quit while I still had 4wd and could, so we took some pictures and headed down.


P.S. Anyone interested in giving this another shot in a couple weeks? I need to do some work on the truck and will be at Superstition this weekend, but I love Toro peak and am determined to make it eventually, preferably before the snow melts. Which, by the way, would probably be really cool to see. There is a creek that runs through the icy canyon and when all the snow above starts to melt, it probably turns into a nice river.

Let me know if you're interested in going. 4 Chains required! tirechains.com seems to be a good source, I scrounged around my shop and found some 18 wheeler chains to fit my truck. 33" or bigger tires are recommended and as long as you have chains to keep you from sliding, at least one traction device recommended. Also, a note on chains...make sure you have room between your tires and fenders, etc. for the chains.