4x4/fire road exploring San Jacinto Mtns sat july 14. pic heavy :-)

[ElCaminoManT]

routes taken:

bee canyon, san jacinto ridge trail, indian mountain/jeep trail, black mountain, poppet flats/ranger peak, indain canyon, bee canyon, home

vehicles:

1998 GMC S15 Jimmy 4x4 (solid front axle conversion)
1979 Jeep CJ7 Golden Eagle
1948 Willys
1985 Toyota pickup 4x4

this was basically a trial run for the jimmy as its first real 4x4 outing and we wanted to get into the pines and cooler weather as well as awesome views

at 8am we met at the taco bell at intersection of highway 74/ramona expressway in east hemet. convoyed to the staging area of bee canyon and set off from there

buddy of mine in the golden eagle with us behind

my brother and his rad pooch brutus

the group (dont mind my shirt )

getting ready to go up the jeep trail to indian mountain

made a wrong turn to what i thought was the bypass for this part but as you can see, i ended up in a tight situation. the CJ and i went up and made it around. the willys and the yota opted to bypass and wait for us to come around. i must say that the trail up from where we turned off san jacinto ridge trail to indian mountain was REALLY steep with lots of ruts and rocks and off camber turns and such. there is no way a 2wd would make it up. the willys and the yota both had open diffs and several times they had to back up and run with a little more oomph to get over something stopping them when wheels came off the ground

met back up with the other 2 where there was nice views

made it up to the lookout at indian mountain for a little hanging out and talking about vehicles as usual

to be continued....

 

[ElCaminoManT]

the old willys rockin classic OG goodies

the golden eagle makes those corr spec 35" tires look good

lizards view of the jimmy

we continued on up the jeep trail and popped out on 243 right at vista point. went up 243 about a mile or so and turned up the road to black mountain campground and lookout. this road is pretty well maintained and lest some heavy 'washboard' if you will, not a challenge in the slightest. did stop as we neared the campground to wash our faces in the nice cold water from a faucet that is tapped into an underground water source that comes down the hill by gravity. felt so nice!

once we reached the campground it was a nice 75* compared the nearly 90* most of the way lower on the mountain. we broke out the sammiches and had a tasty lunch and enjoyed the weather and huge pines surrounding us.

we then hiked/trekked up the 1/2 mile or so to the fire lookout tower at black mountain peak. we were here last year but the tower had been struck by lightening only a couple hours before we arrived so we werent able to go up n have a look from that vantage point. this year however we made it all the way up. the views were spectacular and the weather was AWESOME with a nice cool breeze

after we made our way back down to the campground and vehicle, we went back down to 243 and headed a few miles to the turnoff for ranger peak. i didnt take any pics i guess now that im looking back thru my pics (that was dumb). we then took the trail down thru east indian canyon back to bee canyon and to highway 74 for the short drive home. i didnt bother taking any pics of that drive as they had recently graded it and it was EXTREMELY dusty. we let the open jeeps and yota go up front since we had ac and could roll our windows up to avoid the dust. the dust part was kind of a bummer and they bladed thru the several fun creek crossings and the water was gone anyway, oh well

overall the day was an absolute blast! amazing views, great times wheeling and hanging out with great friends/family.