I asked a few friends I work with if they would like to hit Holister the local 4X4 park or a semi easy trail up in Sierras that I like called the Sour Grass trail. I posted pics last year from a run about the same time.
The run grew from a guy with a 07 TJ on 33 in tires, (the original year for the TJ type Jeep), and a 72 Scout2 on 32s. Then another work friend wanted in, and I remembered another one had asked last year if I was ever going to do an easy run, to let him know. So I asked him. We ended up with a 96 jeep Cherokee with a tiny lift and 30 in tires. The fourth friend has a 70 Landrover, I think its on 30s or 31s. It had no trouble with anything at all; it was really interesting to watch.
This is the end of the trail, it’s a huge flat area, you could camp 25 vehicles easy and not be crowded if everyone was cool.
The last time we did this run was with my sister and my brother in law, and their Xterra. The Xterra was not as capable as even the Jeep Cherokee on this run. We had a turkey sandwich lunch.
This time, the TJ guy brought a portable gas grill, and two tri-tips. The land rover guy brought a portable gas Korean grill and made Korean BBQ ribs. I brought Macaroni salad, and there was wine and beer, also some home made salsa and guacamole. We hung out at the camp area for about 3 hours.
This is the river right by the camp, about 30 yards to the right of the pic above. It’s the Stanislaus River.
This is a shot from the other direction, the way the river is flowing, (west mostly)
Is this bear ****? This was between the camp area and the river.
It was a really nice day, about 75 along most of the trail, we only saw one other group of wheelers and a group camping in the middle section of the trail. Also one strange asian guy with a scoped .22 rifle who was a bit creepy who stopped and watched us for a bit on a section that was a bit hard. I didn’t take a pic of him.
This section actually, but he was gone by the time this Jeep got here.
Here is a shot of the land rover. I was the lead car on the convoy up, and he had not intended to convoy with us, but had just happened to run into us on the way up and tagged onto the end, I kept it at the speed limit cause I figured an old truck like that wouldn’t be able to do 65 let alone 75. Turns out he had the gears in the transmission and transfer case changed out so he has a low, 4lo low, but can do 70 on the highway with no problem. It’s carbureted though so once we got up around 5000 feet so he was having a bit of trouble keeping up on the hills so he didn’t mind. We didn’t get passed all that much by pissed off people either; it was pretty empty out there.
Here is a shot of the scout, its in pretty nice shape for its age, the interior is warn but not warn out. It runs strong. It needs new body bushings though, and it was rubbing the front tires a lot.
This is the Cherokee, I was a bit worried since he didn’t have front tow hooks, but the driver picked up picking a line really fast and handled everything fine. Having all the rigs on the trip being more the capable of doing the trail was very nice, it made things easier, with less frustrating spotting and slow spots.
Cool tree pic
Shot from the camp site at the trail head.
It was a really good time, everyone had fun, and we only had 2 minor problems. The pin for the transfer case shifter fell out and he couldn’t get it out of 4 wheel drive. We got this fixed though. I also put a nice gauge in my left rear rim and ripped the sidewall of one tire, but not bad enough to puncture it. No pic, yet though.
Everyone wants to go back and camp, and do some other trails; I guess it is to bad I waited so long to ask if they wanted to go lol.
