This past Sunday I ran Bald Mt which is located in Shaver Lake, CA, about an hour and 10 minutes from Fresno, CA.
We met at a Denny's in Fresno, had some breakfast and left for Bald Mt. from there. Our Trail Leader was Brian (kj in a tight spot), joining us was Ben (bthomas), Ben's friend and myself. All total we had two KJs, and two TJs, not a bad little group to go wheeling.
We aired down and hit the trail, encountering the first of many obstacles not too far from the trail head. Like many of the obstacles on this trail it had a bypass, however as Tom learned this one wasn't too hard even in his stock TJ.
After continuing on the trail we found a rock that everyone wanted to drive over a, not too big of a rock but enough to high center if any of us took the wrong line. Ben had to prove this to us
. We strapped Ben from the rear giving him the chance to go at the rock again. He gave us a Jeep Wave with his rear tire for thanks.
Next we moved onto a tough spot (with a bypass) that was kind of steep with a couple of logs in the way. Brian made his way through so I decided to have a go for it. Finding the right line was a little challenging however we decided to keep my tires on one of the logs. Since this particular log was out to get me my tire slid off and I became high centered. This was a hard recovery and required Ben to hook a strap to the front of Brian's TJ so the extra power from both Jeeps could pull me off the log. Unfortunately Ben was unable to attempt this obstacle since he had to help pull me out, sorry Ben
.
Finally came some challenging rock faces for us to climb. These over all weren't too bad, but were quite intimidating due to the angles we were climbing. I had 4 kids in my KJ ranging from 7 to 14 and they all loved it
. Reaching the top of Bald Mt. makes this trip worth it. From here we had a great view of Shaver Lake and the surrounding areas. There is also an old Fire Watch Tower up here to climb. We met some other four-wheelers, jeepers and dirt bikers up in this area having lunch like we did.
We took the same trail down from the mountain because it was the most challenging way. It was nice to have gravity on our sides but the ledges and shelves we drove up sure made great used of our skids. There are plenty of opportunities for good wheeling pictures up here.
After scraping the bottom of our Jeeps some we finally made it back to the log. Brian made it over without much of a hitch, only hitting his steel rear bumper. My luck of course would have me high-centered on the other log in this area. Once again Ben was needed to pull me out and this is where I believe I hit my plastic bumper in the same area Brian hit his.
We made it through the rest of the trail without much hindrance, a few scrapes on our jeeps, somehow I managed to bend my spare tire mount and Tom had a close call with his steering box.
All in all this is a great trail to run with some challenging spots, great views and plenty of opportunity to have fun and explore.
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