We made our way to Big Bear over Labor Day weekend. We camped at Hanna Flat campground, which is unfortunately quite a distance from everything since many of the connector trails/road are still closed due to the Butler Fire.
Anyway, Steve & I made the long 2WD journey over to Crab Flats campground where we met up with two TJs (Julie and Jerry) to run Dishpan Springs (Trail 3N34). At the first technical section we came across a group of mostly full size rigs making their way up. The Bronco II tried a number of times on a line that just wasn’t working for him. After wedging his rig against a boulder, he went ahead and took a strap from his buddy.
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| Headed down | Bronco II | A little dropoff |
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The next group in line waiting to come up graciously allowed us to come down so we wouldn’t be stuck at the building log jam. We all made it down without issue. Coming up from the bottom of the trail near Deep Creek there is a wide area of rocks and ruts. I like spots like this where it’s up to the driver to figure out their route. Once again there was a group stopped ahead of us, not moving, but trying to decide if they wanted to continue or not. They let us by and except for a little tire slippage for Julie, we all cruised through.
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| Julie | Jerry vs. rocks | Steve vs. log |
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Once at the water fall section near the top, we could choose a harder line or an easier bypass. The bypass is not a piece of cake, but the main obstacle there is a tree, not the boulders. I took what I guess was the medium line, not the bypass, but also not the near vertical drop part of the falls. Having endured three flat tires on the trailer on our way to Big Bear, I wasn’t anxious to have another break down – of any kind.
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| Steve | Jerry | Jerry |
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THANK YOU to the guys at Fawnskin Fire Station and to Gino’s Tire & Auto Repair for really helping me out of a bind and saving the weekend for me and my family. I had three trailer tires blow out on the way there! Both the fire fighters and the tire shop went above and beyond to help me and get us back on the road. Good people, and I really appreciate it.
