Here's the skinny on Bald Mtn.

[sidewall2000]

A group of three of us made it as far as V Rock yesterday. There is still so much snow that you can not even see where V Rock is? There is no mound at the top, no depression at the bottom. The Blazer at the bottom of the hill is still there, covered by 3 - 4'. One of the guys in our group dug down to see if they could find it. And they found it, with a broken (read: caved in!) windshield and tire marks on the top! The snow itself is weird, very wet and water logged. It made reasonable traction but would not pack. Following in the tracks of the guy in front of you left you with 4 tires spinning while not being hung up on anything.
   The way is paved for the next group to further the trail. Be a GROUP though, as the water crossings (just passed Little Snot especially!) are just waiting to keep an unsuspecting traveler overnight.
   The tower is near..... best of luck!

[ZuperDave]

Thanks for the report,.....

Does anybody know who owns the Blue Blazer?

[sidewall2000]

Word is that a guy from Lemoore is the owner. There have been a few attempts from his friends to retreive it but they couldn't even get there with the vehicles they took. Pretty retarded if you ask me, my group has driven by it a dozen times (sometimes upto 6-8 vehicles) since New Years day. Now he's got a hunk o'junk!

[freds40]

Any idea what originally broke? I've driven by it a few times but haven't been able to figure out what is the problem.

[corrupt]

who knows? its a chevy could be everthing

[ZuperDave]

When I drove by it in Feb, it had a missing rear driveline.  Not sure if that is what eneded his day, or someone needed the driveline    more than him?

[PaulW]

Anybody been up there recently???

[Hottrod81]

Has anybody been up there lately?

[BirdDog]

Here is some more info on the condition of Bald. Copied from http://4x4him.com/forum/index.php?topic=589.0


OK,
Just got back and had a great time.  Nothing as "eventful" as Susan's trip, but a great trip none the less.

For those wondering about the condition of the trail, I will try to give you my un-bias opinion.

The trail is a wreck! 
There are more large trees down this year than anything I have seen in the 8 years that I have been going up to Bald.
There are at least 3 huge trees that have fallen accross the trail so a detour has been made to get around them. 
There is still lots of snow down in the trees around the creek.  The creek had been washed out badly last year and a three foot ditch was the result of the snow melt.  This year the ditch has gotten deeper and wider.  Even with large trees in the ditch, the creek is impassible at this time.  We talked to some guys that watched rig after rig try to get through on Saturday.  Not one rig made it through.  Most just ended up blowing a bead, but one full size Dodge pick up ended up on his top.  The problem is not the snow.  The run off has created a deep ditch that is just not passable at this time.  We took a detour around that section and got back on the trail.  The snow was spotty and did cause problems with some of the people in our group.  We did make it all the way to the look out where we enjoyed lunch and a very cool breeze.     As we started back, we found the snow on the hill by Posi to be a real challenge.  Two hours of winching, strapping, and lots of "skinny pedal" and our group made it back to solid ground.  We had some trouble down in the creek, but we finally made it through.  At the end, we came out with no damage, lots of fun, and made some new friends. 

Those persons that made the trip:
Rock Hopper
Iron Man
LouBell
Paul

People that we hooked up with at the start of the day:
55crawler (aka. Stacy)
Steve
Dude in the green CJ5
Dude in the International truck (1940s or 1950s beast of a truck with Dana 70s front and rear.)

Thanks for all those who were up there today.  I had a great time and hope that we hook up again soon. 

Pictures coming soon.