Jeeping With The Big Boys, Then Shutdown

 

This last weekend was very busy with a huge group. They probably had 20 sites reserved but they all congregate at one or two sites. We have had some very good groups and some that were just very disrespectful of the surroundings, property and are just plain filthy. It seems that just because there are a lot of them that the park rules are not for them. This last group fit that category. We were very glad to see them go.

This past Sunday evening we had a motorhome and two Jeep Rubicon's pull in next to us. Of course I had to go check out their Jeeps. After a few minutes of talking we were invited to go out the trails with them on Monday ( our day off). We have not done any of the more difficult trails mainly because we do not want to do them by ourselves incase of a breakdown, and usually there are no Jeepers around on our days off.

This would be a good opportunity to see some different trails and get a little bit more experience on harder trails. Our guides, Glenn and Nancy and their friend Jerry promised to not take us on any thing that my stock Jeep could not handle. They have been coming up here for years and have been Jeeping a long time. We figured we were in pretty good hands and accepted the invitation.

Glenn has a 4door Rubicon and is lifted with 33 inch tires and Jerry has a 2 door Rubicon lifted with 33’s as well. They also have a lot of skid plates and body amour that we do not. So my little sport model looks like a child next to theirs.

Once we got to our first trail we stopped to air down the tires and for them to disconnect their sway bars. The reason to air down and disconnect the bars is for better ride comfort and better control when going over obstacles. Since they carry an air compressor we also aired down our tires from 35 psi to about 20 psi. As soon as we hit the dirt road Max and I could tell an immediate improvement in the ride. I think an on board air compressor is in our future.

Here are a few pictures from our day.

Stopping at a old mine

We then took a pretty rocky road up to the top of "”Tip Top Mountain” to have lunch. It was a road that had narrow spots and steep drop offs and large rocks. The Rubicon's we making it look very easy. Max and I were very nervous when we would drag bottom or come down hard on a rock.

 

I do not have pictures of the rough stuff because my hands were on the wheel and Maxine’s eyes were closed. We just kept following Glenn in front of us and trusted him to give us a good line over the obstacles. Him and Jerry have been doing this for a very long time and we soon trusted their advice and started to enjoy the experience. We were not disappointed with our view when we got to the top for lunch.

We then took another road that took us up to 8000 feet and we found this communal cabin that people use to camp in over night. There was even food and water left in it for those that needed it. I would probably have slept out side instead of those bunk beds.

We finished up that trail and made it back to the main road where we aired the tires back up.

We then made it back to the campground were we had happy hour at Glenn and Nancy’s rig.

That’s Glenn and Jerry then Nancy and Max

We had a fantastic time with them and we really learned a lot from them. Thanks guy’s for taking us newbies under your wing. We will definitely see you all down the road.

This past Wednesday we got word that we would be shutting down the campground due to the government shutdown. We had to go around and tell all the campers that they had to be out by Friday noon. Max then had to call all of the people that had reservations for this weekend not to come.

So we are in process of getting the campground closed and will probably winterize it and keep it closed even if the shutdown ends. Our bosses have told us that our last day will be next Thursday. We were going to be let go around the 20th anyway so we are only losing a week or so. We are so ready to get off the mountain, It is getting pretty chilly here and the night time lows are around 30 degrees. Yep, time to get to the dessert.

So hopefully by next weekend we will be in Menifee enjoying the pool, spa and some pickle ball, and just being regular campers.

Enjoy Your Day!