Jake's XJ build.

[Jakeleverett]

Yosemite 2012 continued:

Ok so I got my Photobucket account sorted out... on with the rest!

Here is the entrance to the lodge and the lobby:

My girlfriend was definitely nervous and I was too when we first heard "lodge" as they tend to be tacky, dark, and have animal heads and furs galore(I enjoy these things but only to a certain extent...).
We were pleasantly surprised as this place is the perfect mixture between a nicer hotel with ALL the amenities and a rustic lodge.
It was an enjoyable experience all around with multiple restaurants, a spa, a gift shop, and both an indoor and an outdoor pool.
It was a little overboard especially for how little time we would be spending there, but we got an amazing deal on the room and it was nice to be able to go swimming and not have to make food the entire time.
We had planned to make as many meals as we could in an attempt to cut costs but we broke down and ate at the nicer of the restaurants for her birthday and then at the more relaxed restaurant after a long day and being out late(The night that we decided to watch the sunset from Glacier Point).

This was a balcony that was just outside of our room and a great place to unwind after the days activities:

Right before we got to our hotel we also visited a train museum which is always a fun thing to do and worth checking out especially if you are early to check into your hotel. The train rides were too pricey for our trip budget so we passed this time around but it looks like it could be an interesting experience as I have never been on a train before (I do plan to someday as the old school trains are awesome)

This is the garage where they perform maintenance on the trains, it was cool to see all the tools and train parts that were inside.
I hear people complaining about oil changes on a car, I couldn't imagine the maintenance schedule on one of these things... and they had 4 in service!

Next up is going to be the first day in the valley!...

 

[Jakeleverett]

@jeepdreamer, I have thought about that and I couldn't possibly imagine their hardships and the utter awe of seeing this for the first time. The whole area truly is amazing inside and out!

 

[jeepdreamer]

I hear ya man... Its on my bucket list for sure.

 

[Jakeleverett]

So for my birthday, my female surprised me with a trip to big bear for snowboarding and season passes so I'm leaving in a couple minutes for some white fun!!
We hear it's snowing there now so it should make for some fun offroading and exploring of the area.
If anyone wants to join we will be driving the little mine trail tomorrow mid day/afternoon.

 

[stioc]

That's awesome. Have fun and take pics! I've been looking to rent a cabin up there for a couple of nights to make a more family trip but haven't found anything reasonable.

 

[mikeam7750]

When you stopped at the "Hunters Cabin" You can almost see the Hangman tree in the background. Holcomb Valley had over 1500 people living there at one point. Crime started to get out of hand so they started hanging people. After the person was dead they would just cut the branch down. Crime soon got better. It is such a cool place visit. Good looking trip.

 

[Jakeleverett]

Hey everyone, I am taking longer than I planned to get the Yosemite pictures up and they don't really have much to do with the Jeep so I may make another thread for them and post the link here...

I had an awesome time in Big Bear and did some off roading!
We got a little snow which was exciting and did plenty of relaxing and some shopping as well.
I will hopefully get the pictures up soon from that...

Also for my birthday I got season passes to Bear Mtn./Snow Summit so let me know if anyone wants to meet up for some snowboarding and offroading!
I am not a crazy boarder, I just like to cruise around and enjoy the mountain, same goes for on the trails.
Let me know I will be 100% down to go!

 

[Jakeleverett]

So while in Yosemite, I realized that my radiator wasn't doing it's job as well as it should...
My mechanic friend helped me get a hold of one at cost which saved me a great deal of money, and also gave me the tool that would make replacing the radiator much easier.
I ended up taking most of the front clip apart and eventually got it out!
I replaced the radiator and the lower radiator hose (replaced the upper radiator hose in Yosemite when it exploded on us... Fun!)

Here is a comparison:
new below and old above obviously.

And no that's not coolant that I spilled, It was water that I dumped on my head as it was almost 100* out the day I replaced it.

I also finally installed a couple door pockets that I found at the junkyard:

Before:

After:

I installed them on both doors. That door handle in the "after" picture was broken when I got the Jeep, I just have yet to find one in better condition at the junkyard.

 

[Jakeleverett]

I apologize for the lack of updates recently.
A lot has been going on... New job... Family "fun"... Moving to Pacific Beach... Almost selling the Jeep... Etc. Etc.
Anyways, one of my friends who I used to go backpacking with was heading off to bootcamp so we went for a last minute camping trip with my girlfriend.
We decided to check out an area that is local to us and we used to camp in when my friend and I were younger.
We have only backpacked through the area on the Pacific Crest Trail, so seeing this area from the OHV trails would be a new experience for all three of us.

We took a little hike up the side of one of the canyons for a little cardio.
You can barely see our campsite in the left side of the second picture.
I am wearing the white shirt, my friend in the grey and my girlfriend in the white tank top.

The little stream going through this campsite had much less water in it than we had seen in the past but there was still a small amount of water.
I always loved these giant trees in the area that arched over the stream.

This is looking from the stream up to the campsite we were staying in:

And this is looking at the stream from the campsite:

This is apparently the steps to a ranch house that used to be in the area some time ago:

I wanted to find out more about it but my girlfriend and I had a test that we had to get home in time for so we couldn't stop on the way home.

We took another hike just checking out the area, this one is Jakob and I (Jake) deciding where to head next:

Here is a shot of our campsite with the tent open and rain/kitchen cover set up:

We put it up for the sun and because it was supposed to rain and possibly snow on us that weekend.
...It did little more than drizzle.

Here is our little campfire:

And packing up on the last day:

My girlfriend is amazing when it comes to anything edible. She can cook and bake as well as make tea and coffee like no other! She has literally ruined *******bucks for me forever. I used to be able to eat just about anything and enjoy it thoroughly, but since she has cooked for me for some time, I am much more picky about what I eat/drink.
She cooked for us on this trip and it was quite a menu. Jakob was laughing because he doesn't even eat that well at home, let alone on a camping trip in the desert.

Here we are on the way home:

This wash, every time Jakob and I were here, was full of water. We could remember being able to wade through the water at some parts and even taking our back packs off and laying in the water! As you can see though, the sand is barely wet and we could drive up the wash!

My jeep was pretty loaded down on this trip. I need to get some heavy duty rear springs as well as lighten up our load.
It was a ton of fun and all three of us definitely needed to get away this weekend in particular so it was perfect.

 

[Morticon]

What kind of mpg with the rtt up there?

 

[Jakeleverett]

It doesn't get the greatest MPG anyways... On this trip, we were estimating about 14 MPG.
Normally if I drive well and aren't rushing to get places I can stretch it to 18 MPG which is the best but I normally get around 15-16.
I think the MPG may also have been poor because we were definitely weighed down a lot with having a third person and his genius idea ...cough. cough... to pack two 30 lb. weights that he planned to carry the whole time (he is trying to "man-up" because he was heading out to bootcamp soon after the trip).

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

Kool report, and glad you didn't sell the XJ.

 

[jeepdreamer]

I think I said it before but you keep reinforcing my opinion... She Wheels, She camps, She COOKS well..
That one is grade "A" marriage material...
And tell your buddy not to stress to much about heading to Basic training. Its a long way from what it used to be when I came in.

 

[Jakeleverett]

@GregB_00XJ, Thank you! I am very glad I didn' t sell it either, I couldn't bring myself to do it and my girlfriend talked me out of it so I still own it!

@jeepdreamer, Haha thank you, she definitely is and we will actually be getting married in October!
That is why I moved to PB, we are getting the place ready for when we are married and move in together.
It has definitely come a loooong way from what my dad and others have told me about book camp back in the day... He has even had access to Facebook so I don't think he's freaking out too much haha.

On a side note, I started driving the Jeep again yesterday!
I hadn't needed to for a couple months because I am now self employed and working from home (or wherever I please for that matter) and I just moved to PB so I can walk/ride a bike literally to everything I need.
But anywho, it has been consistently in the 80's and sunny lately so I took the doors off before driving to visit my mom for Mother's Day!
It was awesome!
It was spurred by my new neighbor who has a JK that I have yet to see with the top on...
So I got jealous and decided to unbolt mine and then shave the lower portion of the mounting hardware off so that I can more easily slip them on and off as I want.
It is definitely weird having no right side mirror so I may buy a second one but I rigged up a mirror that I had laying around my parent's house as a driver's side mirror so that I am legal.
I had never had so much fun driving before in my life!!!
I also started talking to my dad about building some tube doors which could be cool but we've both been pretty swamped with work...
Ill get some pictures up in a couple days so stay tuned!

Also if anyone is interested in purchasing my roof rack, make me an offer. It could be easily modified(My dad and I will assist with modifications) to fit any type of vehicle or any type of roof bars. ...I want to get rid of my current one before we start building a new one.

 

[Jakeleverett]

I wouldv'e liked to have taken a few pictures of the doors (or lack thereof) with some cool scenery... but I haven't really been able to drive it much.
That should change fairly soon as summer is rolling around and the weather a block and a half from the beach is getting better and better!

I did however get to do some hiking which I forgot how much I love!

We went to Three Sister's Falls for the first time.
The hike was awesome and had some pretty cool scenery.
I unfortunately didn't take too many pictures because my phone was in my camelback and the hike ended up being more of a climb than a hike in the parts where the scenery was cool.
We saw quite a few snakes, did some bouldering and did a test flight of my cousins new quad-copter.
It is powerful enough to carry a DSLR and has a pretty crazy range(though he hasn't set up the first person camera/goggles yet and your depth perception at farther ranges cause it to get dicey to fly through/under things as well as fly low.)
We had it mounted to a little GoPro because he just swapped the props and didn't trust it with an expensive camera.
It is a pretty crazy little set up, Ill get some pictures of it next time I get to see/play with it.

These are some shots my cousin took during the more vertical parts:

It was a ton of fun except my cousin and I thought it'd be a good idea to break in our new Vibram 5 fingers "shoes".
BAD IDEA.
I had been wearing them a little here and there, but nothing to this extent.
When first purchasing them, you are supposed to "ease into them" because they have ZERO padding/cushion which is better for you, but as we all "progress" and get more "advanced" with our insoles, the lazier our bodies get.
Apparently humans have learned to take heavier steps due to the excess of padding in our shoes so when one switches back to more "barefoot" styled shoes, the heavier steps that we are used to taking have some affect on our bodies.
In addition to not needing the heavy steps, the Vibrams change our posture and strengthen different leg muscles because insoles and other padded shoes do not let us use all of the muscles in our legs.
I am no leg/foot doctor but it makes a ton of sense and these "shoes" definitely kick my *** when I wear them for long periods.
It would have been an easy hike had it not been for these damn shoes!
The back of my thighs, calves and ankles were in a good amount of pain when we got back.