Strawberry Pass Trail Pics

Inc · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 11:22 pm

What a great trail. A little hairy in spots but that made it that much better. We (me, gastip, bthomas and Neal) at the Strawberry in Lodge at 9 and had a nice breakfast. By an almost unanimous vote :wink:

, Ben (bthomas) was chosen as our trail boss for the ride. He was the only one of us that had done any of the trail before as well. The trail was mostly just dirt road with ups and downs but the technical sections of the trail went from manageable to extreme damage and carnage possible. We ran into the "painted rock" obstacle and Ben took off up it and made it through. He did have to turn his locker on but looking back, there would have been no way to do it otherwise. We got his KJ over the obstacle and a group of 8 Jeeps and 1 Toyota FJ Cruiser pulled up and were kind of rude about letting them go first, which we were glad to do. They assured us they would all drive right over the obstacle and we could have at it since "it would take us all day" they said. So the first 2 jeep fly through it, an LJ and a CJ 7 both locked front and rear with 35s. Then ups comes the FJ.

uh... not so much. He almost made it up but had to be winched. Then a CJ 5 tries its luck only to break its linkage and limp back down to have it fixed and then make it over. Then TJ makes it to the top and got high centered and was going no where, and this TJ had 35s as well. :lol:

A few other TJs try and fail, break out the winch again :roll:

and finally the last two extremely built rigs make it up easily. The whole thing took them over 90 minutes while we sat and waited as they struggled and struggled. So much for we'll drive right over this. :roll:

Well, they took off and we helped some people get over the obstacle on ATVs and then it was finally our turn again. I gave it a go and made it to the top and high centered like the TJ on 35s and had to be strapped. Then Neal, same story and finally gastip, also same story. Well the point is that or little mall crawler KJs outperformed an FJ cruiser with a rear locker on 35s (295/80/17), a TJ on 35s and another TJ on 31s. I'd say we represented our LOST family pretty well. The trail was a blast and I can't wait to get out with our NorCal group again.

Here are my really crappy pics. None of these pics do the trail justice. Hopefully everyone else posts their pics too.

06 KJ Sport · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:39 am

Sounds like you all had a great time!! Nice Nevada weather. Sure wish I could have been there to see all the action of Team TJ!! Hopefully next time.

On a side note: I have the two remaining underbelly skids, gas tank skid, trailer hitch and left front tow hook coming from my sister in Montana! She is driving down next weekend so I managed to talk her into going to the junk yard up there. Got all the parts for$175.00!!! :shock:

I love a deal

hoku5 · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:01 pm

Great pictures and I like the awesome scenery. It is also great to see the club wheeling and getting members back togather again. It was quite for several months after Matt passed and I'm sure he is enjoying the picutures also. Man I need to wheel with you guys on those great trails up north.

Inc · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:10 pm

Here are Neal's pics he sent me to post. The majority of them are of the toughest obstacle of the day. Like I mentioned before, bthomas made it up first and then strapped the other three of us after we all got stuck on that big honking rock. Tons of fun! :twisted:

Me getting to the top.

Me again.

Neal getting to the top

Neal right before the big rock on top that got most of us stuck.

Me guiding Neal to the top.

And here is that big honking rock I mentioned. Neal with it wedged against his subframe.

Here is gastip on the top and riding high on his rock rail.

Still stuck

Spirits were never dampened though.

View from the top of the pass

This was one of if not the best trail rides I have been on that I can remember. :wink:

ken · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:54 pm

Now you guys know why it hurt me so much not to be able to go. I'm so glad everyone enjoyed the trail. It is one of those places that I run at least three times a year. Another is slickrock in lake alpine area. Tons of fun. I'm glad to see that painted rock is still in tact too. Let's get another run scheduled as soon as possible. This weather wont be around for long so let's get as many trail rides in as we can, before it's gone.

Inc · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:29 pm

Sorry we missed you Ken, sometimes life throws you a curve.

Painted rock was totall different according to the TJ group we ran into. They said that the trail was much much wider and that the bank had been pushed back or a big rock had been moved or something. Either way the trail was awesome. If you look back on pg. 2 of the "Anyone want to do some wheeling post", I posted a pick of a Tacoma doing painted rock. The rock on our right (looking at the pic) of the trail that made the Tacoma tilt towards the painted rock on our left, that rock is now in the middle of the trail on top after you clear all the boulders below. It is the one we all high centered on. Don't know why they moved it but it is definitely different from the Toyota pic I posted.

I am down for another trail ride.

Neal · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:32 pm

Wasn't the place we all hung up on the water fall and painted rock was near the tree?

Inc · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:35 pm

It was just past it in the middle of the trail. We got to the top of the pile of boulders and then had to veer left to go around the rock we all ended getting stuck on and that was just barely past the tree and dirt bank.

ken · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:13 pm

Ya, life can get a little funny now and again. I'm sure we could do a one day trip. as long as it's not too far away. By reading this posting if we keep it up then those other guys cannot say that Norcal is done or dead or over. I will do whatever it takes to keep that from happening. I may try to do strawberry this weekend. And incubus you summed it all up with "Either way it's awesome".

Inc · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:50 pm

There is no way the Norcal section will die off. Won't let it happen.

Post some pics if you decide to do Strawberry this weekend. Let us know what you think of painted rock now. I would have liked to see it before they moved the big rock off the side and into the middle.

gastip · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:14 pm

Hey Guys,

Great run and good meeting all of you. I had a really good time. Thanks for all the generosity as well with the airing up/down, nutri-grain bar, and L.O.S.T sticker!

The pics that I took were lame, so not going to bother posting them.

I'm gonna be gone for the next two weeks but look forward to getting in on another run with you guys!

Inc · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:22 pm

gastip wrote:

Hey Guys,

Great run and good meeting all of you. I had a really good time. Thanks for all the generosity as well with the airing up/down, nutri-grain bar, and L.O.S.T sticker!

The pics that I took were lame, so not going to bother posting them.

I'm gonna be gone for the next two weeks but look forward to getting in on another run with you guys!

Aw, come on post em anyway. Some is always better than none. :wink:

bthomas · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:51 am

Glad this trip was put together, and want to thank incubusmike, neal, and gastip for sharing the trail on a perfect Sierra summer day. The paint rock obstacle was much different from when I followed Matt to it a few years ago. The flat belly scraping slab was 4 feet earlier, tipped high left side to force passenger side doors into the paint rock, and I don't remember that much of a bowling ball staircase passing to the left side of the paint rock. As I first passed the obstacle, blocking the trail, 2 horseback riders showed up and then motorcycles, all of which managed to thread through hip high rocks to get by, but that slowed us down a few minutes. Then an ATV came down and the 8 jeeps came up from behind, so we decided to let them pass before us, and then another 2 ATV's came down. Think in the end, the KJ's cleared in half the time of all the others, so we held our own.

-

Inc · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:51 pm

Good pics Ben. Glad to see you made the 3 hour drive home ok too. How's your bum leg doing?

Also I forgot Ben,

, thanks for leading the way and showing us all how things get done.

bthomas · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:52 pm

The Willy's guy was great too. He waited for us to clear, and helped spot too. I'm actually glad to see rigs using the trail, cuz with the Forest Service review we have more standing as users.

The guy in the white/grey shirt in the red CJ picture said he knew some of the SoCal KJ guys from a past sponsored Jeep event in SoCal. He was with Capital City 4x4 club.

Edit. Leg, yup probably a torn calf muscle. Okay for driving but not too good for stairs or running a marathon.

Inc · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:57 pm

Yeah, the Willy's guy was really a nice dude. He didn't gripe as we worked on getting through the obstacle, helped move BIG rocks, and had nothing but good things to say about our KJs once he saw what we could do in em. :wink:

I mean, we offered to let him on through and he wanted us to go first and so he helped and waited. Nice to see guys like that on the trails. His rig was really well done too, absolutely sweet, classic ride.

Inc · **Posted:** Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:03 pm

Was lookign around online for some Slick Rock info and saw this video and decided to post it.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=e9xUpYIPT ... re=related

Its funny, this guy in an obviously built rig, had the same trouble that we did on the same obstacle. In another video of this same guy he mentions having 4.88 gears and is running what looks like 35s and yet he still had issues with that dang boulder on top of that obstacle. :lol:

There was some video editing too so we never get to see him get off the big rock. I am pretty dang proud that our KJs did pretty much exactly what this guy did in his "real" jeep.

Neal · **Posted:** Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:22 pm

I remember that rock real well :!:

Inc · **Posted:** Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:24 pm

you get your rails yet? if not any date for delivery?

Neal · **Posted:** Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:56 pm

Supposed to get shipped this coming Monday, Marty called few days ago.
Did you get to "use " yours and if so how did they work?

Strawberry Pass Trail Pics

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