[Kokopeli]

It really was a great day for wheelin'. The weather was good, it wasn't too hot, the flowers were beautiful and the company was awesome. I appreciated the group allowing me the opportunity to be trail boss and thanks again Tony for eating all the dust while tail gunning (which is what I usually volunteer for.) Also, thanks to FJDave for organizing the run and for mtnkraut for navigating and keeping me awake on the LONG ride home.


I really didn't shoot many pictures, but I did get a few.

The first is where we pulled off the road to let MudLovingFJ and Mattmainster catch up with us..

The second is of MudLoving's new CUSTOM FJ body.. We dubbed it the Lemondrop Clown Car..

I have a couple more pics of the snow to sort through and edit. I may add those later.

In the mean time, I'll entertain y'all with some video footage from the trip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM3-kspS-Y8

Had I been thinking, I would have hiked up the rock garden and gotten some footage of Fjamming, FJEssence and SDgator as they made their way up and back. As I look back, I think I should have gone up with them. Oh well, if I did it all last time, I wouldn't have a reason to go back.

And for those of you that are wondering, all I needed to do was engage the lockers and I popped right over the rocks. (Watch the video if you are wondering what I'm talking about.) Although I was secretly hoping to be really stuck so that I would have reason to use my winch.

 

[FunJunkie]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

HAHAH that's awesome, this is my new favorite pick. the mudloving lemondrop.

 

[CADavebert]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

HAHAH that's awesome, this is my new favorite pick. the mudloving lemondrop.

Hmmmm.... looks almost like a smart car now.

 

[Guest]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

I'm exhausted after today! Man, what a great day. Thanks to all that came out and made this trip such a success!! I'm really tired, so I'll post a couple teaser pics. First, I wanna wish MudLovingFJ and Mattmainster good luck for their camping trip tonight. See the third pic for the reason why they'll need luck - and maybe a few extra blankets:


Here is an out of focus pic of some of the flora and fauna.

Kind of a panoramic...sort of......at least the pic puts things in perspective.

ANd the third picture: On CA 78 we were near the top of the hill when it started raining pretty hard. Then we saw snow on the peaks of the hills. Then, it started snowing right on us. In the middle of March. Weird.

More pics maybe Monday. Gotta catch up on my sleep for work tomorrow.

 

[DominicG]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

lol! they are probably freezing right now!

 

[Fjamming]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

What great fun we had today! It's definitely one of the best runs I've ever had! Great mix of everything. The weather was awesome. When we were at Henderson, it was perfect. Clouds and lighting couldn't have been better for a mid day photoshoot. Arrived at Coyote Canyon and there was plenty of water, but not so much that we couldn't cross. Did the rock garden with Fjessence and Sean. James wanted to try it, but really needed a lift and some skids. He did 1/2 of it and I helped him down. As we got to the top, some rain started to drop so we headed back down. The rain started to increase as we left for the visitor center (pit stop). By the time we got to the center, it was coming down pretty good. We took hwy 79 around 5pm. Near the top, it started to sleet and snow! We had sunshine, rain, and snow all in one day. Great bunch of guys to wheel with. Dave, thank you for organizing. Kokopelli, thank you for taking the lead. Sang and Sean, thanks for joining me on the rock garden!

Arien and Matt, I hope you guys stayed dried tonight. It was windy and very wet by the time we got out of there.

Here are a couple of pictures. I have more, but they are being developed.

 

[FunJunkie]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

Junkie is JEALOUS.

 

[Guest]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

Ok, as promised, the rest of my report. EVERYTHING was blooming, even the cacti:

Buddy The Dog was a big hit with the folks at AB. He even made friends with 2 other Boston Terriers. And I found out that that NASTY smell is inherent in the breed. NOW they tell me!

While out taking pictures, there was a small 2' high hill. It had several "gopher style" holes in it. Out of one of the holes crawled a mature sidewinder rattle snake. People hept their distance, as should be. He never sounded his rattles, and it appeared he just woke up from hibernation to see what the ruckus was about. Eventually he headed back down to his room.

Ok, back to the flowers:

There ya have it! The run was a BLAST! There was something for everyone. I didn't attempt the rock gardens in my STOCK 4X2. I walked the trail and foresaw a lot of carnage had I tried. I have no real skids, no sliders, no lift, no locker, and the Dunlop street tires. Speaking of which, one of the aforementioned Land Rovers, an LR3, REALLY impacted a skid at the mouth of the first rock garden. Man, he slammed that thing. Then, he came close to high-centering and even tipping it. Good save on his part! He just took a hard line. It musta been one of those corporate-vehicles. All in all, it was a great birthday. I even saw the snow fall for the first time in my life! Thanks, everyone!!

 

[FunJunkie]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

So lucky, I love the snake one. I'm trying to talk the wife into heading out there right now.

 

[Hanselhoff]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

Thanks to Kokopeli for letting me navigate for him, or we would be in Mexico now. I had a great time and finally got to meet some of you folks. We had some great weather and some snow on the drive back. Hopefully next time we wont run into barefoot jeep freaks or range rover drivers in designer loafers on the trail. Freaks.

 

[Fjamming]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

Did you forget the 500SL that was in Coyote Canyon? ;D

 

[Hanselhoff]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

and the prius'. until their extension cords ran out.

 

[Kokopeli]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

and the prius'. until their extension cords ran out.

It was pretty amusing how many passenger cars there were pretty deep into the trail.

 

[MudLovingFJ]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

It was a pleasure meeting a bunch of new people on saturday.

Matt, MrsMatt, MrsMud and myself ended up camping in Font's point wash about 2 miles in. we had a great night of camping with about 2 minutes of rain. the only weather issues we had were the wind, but it wasnt that bad.

Great pics guys, keep em coming

 

[GTKrockeTT]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

Kokopeli, how did you end up getting off that rock?

 

[Guest]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

ATrac works wonders when engaged, I hear.... But I wouldn't know...my truck is on LSD!

 

[Kokopeli]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

Kokopeli, how did you end up getting off that rock?

IMachU hit the nail on the head.. After a few minutes of turning the wheel and spinning my tires, I remembered that I had lockers.. A push of a button later and I was off the rocks. Eventually, I'll remember these things BEFORE I get stuck.

On a side note.. When I got stuck, the first thing that went through my mind was "sweet! I get to use my winch!!" ;D

 

[Kokopeli]

Re: So Cal Flower Run

My original post was edited to include my thoughts on the trip and to include the video.

Thanks again to all that made the drive. You are all awesome and made this trip fun.
~Brian