The trip included a wide range of trucks. There was 1 H1, 4 or 5 H2s, 5 or so H3s, 4 or 5 FJ Criusers, a Jeep Cherokee Sport, a couple of Jeep Wranglers, and one Jeep Liberty. I wasn't impressed by the capabilities of the H3s. The Jeep Liberty was impressive.
The day started at the Jawbone Ranger Station. The highlight of the day had to be the V-Notch. It was really something to see the H1 tackle the narrow pass. A lot of luck, a few scratches, and one bad ass truck made for a fun show. Most of the trails were pretty easy but there were a few semi-difficult spots along the way. I did get to use my winch on the first outing, and it was to pull an H3 ... the FJ didn't get stuck!
We did visit a couple of interesting places along the way. The first was an old borax mine. It is open in the middle of nowhere. Huge tunnels shoot off in every direction. I would guess that some are almost 700 or 800 feet deep.
The next stop was at Burro Schmidt Tunnel. In 1918, Burro Schmidt started digging a tunnel into the mountain behind his house. It was to be a shortcut. A shortcut to nowhere? He spent 38 years, primarily digging with a hammer a chisel. The tunnel is almost 1/2 mile long and comes out the other side of the granite mountain. His shortcut to nowhere completed. Burro was one crazy old coot.
After a long day of fun a few of us headed to Toots and Bondage's (Adventuere 4x4 handles) house for a BBQ. They were extremely nice. A red piece of meat, some good conversation, and a 3 hour drive and I was home.
