Bald Mountain Night SNOW Run - Friday/Saturday Dec. 11th 2004

[BigMike]

Hey guys,

Well lets just say that this was one CRAZY trip.

TrackVino posted some pictures in his project thread, so here's the actual report of all the chaos!

[BigMike]

It went a little like this..........


A local snow guru who goes by the handle Squirrel, always seems to be the first person up good ol' Bald Mountain (around 7,800' elevation) when ever there is new snow fall. We had a storm come through on Sun-Tuesday of last week, so this (past) weekend was an ideal weekend to hit the trail. Steve, a good friend of CruzrDave, thought it would be cool if he got a group together late Friday night and went up before Squirrel did and then by morning we would be on our way out while Squirrel is coming up. As I am told, Squirrel is apparently one of the best snow-going driver/truck combo our area has to offer (refering to the Toy crowd) as he hits the snow almost every weekend. He has a basic setup, 2nd gen truck with 38" (?) Cepek fun countries, but he has a niche for knowing when to hit the snow and where his truck grabs the best. He basically walks all over everyone else who even have similar setups; he is a great snow driver.

So the idea was that we would go up and beat him to the top of Bald Mountain -- because he is usually always the first one up after each new snow fall...

...then later we find out that Steve changed his mind and decided to go up Saturday morning, but Dean (4THEWKN), Tim (TURBO), Myself, and two others were set and ready to go by 12:30am Saturday morning.

Of course its NIGHT TIME so my whimpy sony camera can't catch much light with its small lense, so I'll try my best to lighten-up these pics, but you'll get the idea. Seriously, these pics are pretty crappy quality, but oh well...

Everyone who came with us was locked front and rear.
And here is a list of who came with us, in order of how we parked at a Starbucks before leaving Fresno:

• The clean restored Blue Landcruiser belongs to Bruce, a friend of 4THEWKN's. It's got 35" MTRs with a 4.3 VORTEC
• Of course the '81 two tone is mine. I'm running 35" MTRs and my Tacoma 4cylinder
• The White '83 long bed belongs to TURBO. The only tires he has at this time are some worn out 32" Swamper TSL radials. This is his daily driver and is mostly stock with the carburated 22R.

[BigMike]

• The clean Extra cab belongs to 4THEWKN. He's got 35 MTRs and a 4.3 VORTEC as well.
• And this is Carlos' rig. It's a JEEP RUBICON and there is a long story behind this one. He had a SWEET flat bed '83 Toy with ARBs all around and an on board welder, but he sold it to his son and replaced it with this Rubicon. Why people do this kind of thing is beyond me but he did really well and I like Carlos alot, he is a great customer of ours and a really nice guy who you always want to have tag along on trips. TrackVino rode with Carlos 

[BigMike]

Oh I almost forgot about the co-pilots

Bruce took Ryan,

Rocky's brother in the Blue Cruiser
I took my friend Jeff from Madera who is interested in buying a 4WD truck.
Tim took Becky a good friend of his.
Dean took Taylor, a pal of Bruce.
And Carlos took TrackVino.[/list]
So we had 10 people total.

So we get to the trail head around 2am, and then to find out, because of us goofballs, only two people brought air gauges and we only had one valve stem remover . What a bunch of crazy guys, myself included. You know how it goes, you spend the last 10 mins walking back and forth through your garage before leaving your house, and then when you get to the trail you realize what you forgot . Dean and Carlos were the only prepared people this time Cheers to them

So it took us a while to get all aired down, to which we chose 8-10psi as a good level to start with. It was late, we had a long day (morning) ahead of us in the dark, and really no one wanted to blow a bead (no one has beadlocks) so we played it safe.

I happened to be the rig that was nearest the trail head, so I began to lead...

[BigMike]

At first there were already tracks, for about the first mile or so, but then as you can see in the above pics, the tracks stopped and it was all me

The snow here wasnt bad at all, maybe 1' or so. Reports had indicated up to 3' of snow in some areas

So I began breaking trail, and TURBO who was behind me, began to fall behind as he was not able to follow my tracks. His tires single-handedly ruined his trip. If I had my bald 33" Xterrains I would have had the same exact trouble TURBO had the whole day. He continually got stuck time after time.

So I was cruising really well, about 20 mph or so, in 2nd gear with just a single 2.28 case. The snow was nearly perfect. It was very light, not quite powder, but very close to it. I had plenty of power also. I could give it more gas and spin out all four tires, and I could actually *feel* the truck sink and then I would loose momentum. There was a sweet spot of power where I would literally surf the top of the snow and maintain all kinds of momentum and just fly! down the trail.

It was so cool..............until I took a quick glance at my gauges My temp gauge was reading about 70%. I kept going and kept watching it and it was slowly climbing. The problem was that I was on it in 2nd gear but since I was only going 15-25 mph, it wasnt enough air flow to cool the engine. So the 14" electric fan that has been so faithful to me just isnt cutting the mustard under a load without ample air flow.

So I stopped a couple of times to let the 3RZ cool down and to let the rest catch up to me, and then the snow was getting a bit deeper and I had less momentum, so it was over heating within a couple of minuets now, so I knew I had to do something.

So fortunately I carry the stock Mechanical fan around with me, so even before hitting the actual trail head gate (as we were still on the access road) I already had to stop for a repair.

[Mike D]

and it was even freezing out and you over heated. what ya gonna do to fix it? and great pics 

[BigMike]

So I CB'd back to the other guys to let them know that I had stopped to swap out my fans and they were so far behind me I never got a response.........so I figured I had alot of time to pull the electric fan out and throw the stock fan/clutch on, oh at least that's what I thought

For those who watched the Mike Ground Clearance.mpg video from the Lunch Time Play Time at the Fig Orchard thread, you will remember my truck making a horrible sound when I was pulling out of a fig tree stump hole. I didnt know what it was, it also made this same noise at Claw Hammer, and I just figured it was the e-fan blades hitting my radiator -- which isnt good at all -- and that I would fix it "later"

Well it turns out that the noise was from my engine moving forward under load, and since the fan and water pump are so close together, like 1/4" clearance or so, the studs on the water pump that are used to mount the factory clutch fan were contacting the electric fan housing and both the housing and the studs were battling it out

So for a simple fan change that should have taken no more than 10-15 mins, it took more then a half hour, because most of the threads on the studs were jacked up. Fortunately, TURBO found a small file one day when we were at a local wrecking yard, and he gave it to me because I was the only one with a tool box at the time, so I pulled out that little rusty file and salvaged what was left of the stud threads.

Needless to say everyone caught up to me and passed me, and I told them to just keep going and I would play catch up.

Here's a pic of my electric fan housing:

[BigMike]

So leave it up to your crazy friends to bring up mention of a horror flick when its 3am in the morning and your in the middle of the woods, in the snow, broke down, and your group is moving on ahead.

My buddie says "Hey man hurry up, I think I hear banjos"
I said "what is that some blair witch :bull crap:"
buddie: "Havnt you seen deliverance?"
me: "no, now Im trying to get these studs to go back in"
buddie: "Well these guys get stuck in the woods and then they hear banjos and then these guys jump out and cut off their heads" <-- he said something like that

and Im like "damnit man, I'm going as fast as I can, I should be finished in no time." Just then some lights appear from behind us. And my friend is like "DUDE, MIKE, SOMEONE'S COMING! I DONT TRUST THESE MOUNTAIN FOLK" And Im like "DANGIT I gotta get this fan on" as this simple job is turning into a real task now
and can you believe it, a CRAZY guy in a late 80's Cherokee with 31" tires aired UP with SNOWCHAINS, comes rolling up behind me and hops out. I pull my head out of my engine bay and introduce myself. The guy turns out to be from Clovis (next to Fresno) and he just came up by himself to check out the snow. Hello?? It's 3 in the morning! and he's by himself!

Anyways, he turns out to be one hell of a nice guy and after I get my fan installed, we hit it hard to make up for the lost time, and then just after a couple of corners, here is the Nice blue landcruiser stopped in the middle of the road. Apparently Bruce's 4.3 VORTEC is giving him some real headaches and it wont start.

We wait about another half hour and then after constant trouble shooting, it just all-of-a-sudden fires up, so we take off.

[BigMike]

So we get moving, we make it to the gate, finally, we are officially on the Bald Mountain trail, and it's like what, almost 4am now?

We head on up, following the trail that 4THEWKN and Carlos have already broke for us. The Cruiser gets way ahead of us because TURBO continues to get stuck over and over again. We all get out and assist by digging in the snow with shovels to help him out, and TURBO figures that because the trail has already been broken a good 15 - 20 mins ago, and multiple vehicles have driven over it, the snow has turned into ice and its just to much for his tires. So I help him air down a bit more, and I move in front of him to help loosen up what ever snow I can, and Im going for a while, and then I catch the rest of the guys as they have stopped for a 5 am snack.  

And I really want to help out with breaking the trail, so I just take off by myself and just start following the Jeep signs on the trees and trying to figure out in which direction the road goes.

My truck does pretty good in the snow and the power is really nice.

A bit later Dean radios up to me "Hey Mike! TURBO blew both of his passenger side beads!"
So I turn around and head back to help out with the remounting of the tires....

[BigMike]

.

[BigMike]

No sooner do we get both of TURBO's tires remounted, then he goes and gets stuck, no, really stuck

[reklund5]

Becky doesn't look nearly as excited as I'm sure you were at that exact moment. 

[BigMike]

So I get off the trail, and in this ravine the only option is for me to back up and make a run-way that I can try to tug him out in reverse with.

Anyways, we get him out but each time I would give him the initial jolt, I would get stuck since Im trying to go up hill backwards, but TURBO would get a boost of momentum, and on the final pull, he got out all right and I stalled in place with my tires just doing a four wheel burn out and TURBO backed right into the front of my rig            

But it turns out that his bumper hit my passengers side frame rail, so no body damage was dealt. Man I've gotta get some bumpers on my truck before I beat it all up

[BigMike]

Becky doesn't look nearly as excited as I'm sure you were at that exact moment.

Man we were all so tired it was crazy



So we get TURBO out and we air him back up to 10psi, and man at this pressure he can't go anywhere with his tires. He tried forever to get up a simple hill. The Cherokee gives him countless tugs with a tug strap and TURBO is getting so mad at his tires that he just stands on the throttle in 1st gear, then in reverse, then back in 1st, over and over again at what ever the redline is on his poor 22R, it's just screaming away giving everything it's got and finally he makes it up..........

and then on the other side of this hill the Cherokee gets stuck, so TURBO goes on ahead while I prepare to tug the Cherokee out -- and all of this is going on while 4THEWKN, Bruce, and Carlos are all wwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy ahead of us breaking trail. We aren't even breaking trail and we are having so many problems....

[BigMike]

so we motor on and after about 10 mins of the Cherokee and I just flying down the trail we come up to TURBO, stopped in the middle of the trail, his engine turned off, and he is out side his truck. He is very calm and is just standing there.

I get out and approach him, and he says "My engine blew up"

It turns out that his truck really did give everything it had. From the sounds of it, TURBO spun a rod bearing and this is his daily driver so he is really in a pickle now.


So man, this is how our day went. Like I said, this was one CRAZY trip.
I'll spare everyone another 10 hours of their lives by wrapping this all up.. I wrote a bit to much, but if you read it all then thanks dood

This trail normally takes a group this size 3 - 4 hours to get to the top of Bald. Are you ready for this? It took us 8 hours.

Then to make matters worse, after TURBO had to abandon his rig, on the way out, his battery was dead so 4THEWKN had to tow him for a while until he could get it jump started. And the Cruiser kept stalling out, maybe 4 or 5 times (back in town it was determined that it was his fuel pump), also the Cruiser broke his winch cable trying to winch up Snot Hill, I blew the guts out of my steering stabilizer, then I almost lost control of my truck while heading back to Shaver because my temporary e-locker harness isnt finished and what I thought was unlocked was really locked, and I did a fatty drift and then an extreme oversteer and almost spun out and into the trees, we lost a complete engine!, the Cherokee lost one of his tire chains, all in the wee pitch black hours of the morning.......................... oh it was a crazy trip indeed.

I'll just cap this off with a crap load of pics from when we got daylight and the pictures came out better

Cya
BigMike

[BigMike]

This is on the final hill before snot hill. It took us a good hour to get up it.

[BigMike]

Finally up Snot Hill after many attempts and a broken winch cable on Bruce's Cruiser.

If my memory is correct, Ryan told me that Bruce had to be winched 3 times and Carlos (Jeep Rubicon) had to be winched twice. No one else was winched.

The trip from the pavement at 2:12am, to the top of the world at 9:46am, took a total of 7 hours and 34 minuets.  

[BigMike]

Here is over looking Shaver lake, which is 5,400'-something elevation. I don't know what elevation the top of Bald is. I would guess close to 8,000'

Also there is the famous land mark Watch Tower that has been out of commission for at least 20 years..

[BigMike]

Some more from the top       


I didn't get a chance to take any group pictures up there because while I was still trying to come up, 4THEWKN and Carlos were on there way down. Remember I stayed back with Bruce and Ryan and helped get his broken winch cable sorted out.

[BigMike]

And to cap the day off, on our way out, we picked up Squirrel on the CB. He was really surprised that we were there and that we had beat him up. and on our way out, sure enough, coming up the trail was Squirrel and about 3 other rigs with him.

So the whole purpose for this trip was a success

Here is a final shot Saturday back at the start of the trail where we aired back up......


As for TURBO, he decided to just take off ahead of everyone because he needs to get his truck home ASAP while the engine is still operating, and on my way back into Fresno, about 20 miles shy of it, we found TURBO on the side of the road waiting for his father, who just so happens to own his own towing company, and he arrived there shortly after I did and TURBO got towed home.


I got home around 2am and took a nap around 5pm. On Friday I had woke up at 9am. That means that I was awake for 32 hours straight. Sure this is no accomplishment, but when you add all of the crap that we had to go through it wore us all out pretty good.

This was a 26.5 hour non-stop round trip snow run from hell, and I can't wait to do it again!

[gturismo]

Wow BigMike! what an adventure I just read the whole story all at once.  I couldn't stop.  Had to find out if you beat squirrel.  Glad, after all that, you did!

Oh yeah.......AWESOME pics man! 

[RUGER]

bigmike

i remember squirrel. he is a jackass. at the mountain toppers poker run a few years ago he was there. my club brought our rti ramp. he kept comming back and trying it and using every trick in the book...driving on the side of the ramp, talking off shocks, loosing u-bolts, ect. on the run he was a nuisence too.

he won the 'competition' in his wheelbase because he kept on cheeting.

sounds like you had quite the adventure bigmike.

happy trails
rich *ruger*

[BigMike]

Thanks guys.

Hey Rich, that's too bad about Squirrel. Marlin has known him for many many years and I've only heard good stories about him. He is always really cool when I've met him and I really like him. One of these days I should go to the snow with him so I can learn from a professional  

[RUGER]

bigmike

i guess bad things give lasting impressions. it has been several years and i could of caught squirrel on an off day. i was just posting my expireence with him.

i would like to give squirrel another chance and wipe away the image that i have of him.

happy trails
rich *ruger*

[BigMike]

that's cool man. I've had similar things happen to me where I didnt like someone and then when I saw him again he was really cool and we became good friends.

[NUb]

good story. Makes me wish I was there.
Maby another day.

Jeff

[Lady Di]

Holy Moly Big Mike! What an insane adventure. MrW sent the link to this thread to me here at work, I was just going to look at it real quick like but I could not stop reading!! Makes me shiver just thinking about it! WILD SHTUFF!!  I loved the 3AM Deliverance thing! too funny!  I'll be looking forward to reading further adventures (and especially looking forward to experiencing our own!) 

[FIREBALL]

BigMike still thinks i'm an A-hole.   
Cool trip Mike......keep goin, you'll find out it wasn't all that unusual. I've never seen more strange crap happen than on snow runs. Here's a helpful hint, never tell your girlfriend that you are going to be home at a certain time. You will jinx yourself, and never make it on time, and be in a load of crap. And almost everytime you say, "well, we should start heading back, so we can make it home on time", that's when everyone gets stuck, blows beads, and breaks down.
Oh ya, the really scarey part about Deliverance isn't getting killed it's more of a    kind 'a' thing. Watch yur back man!
Glad you had fun....I love snow wheelin, can't wait till you come up and tear it up with us. We can even do a snow camping trip if you want. It's a blast!

[BigMike]

that's cool man. I've had similar things happen to me where I didnt like someone and then when I saw him again he was really cool and we became good friends.

BigMike still thinks i'm an A-hole.

Yeah with some people there's just nothing you can do

[lilbuddy]

Awesome story BigMike. I read the whole thing last night. Nice and detailed  . Glad you had a good time. The snow is lots of fun to play in. Those were some good pictures too!


Chris