Since we had so much fun last weekend we decided to go back for some more. We did John Bull the first day, which is considered to be the most difficult trail in the Big Bear/Arrowead Area. Day 2 we Went Dishpan Springs down hill to a nice river swimming/fishing hole and then Back up. There is a nasty obstacle on dishpan that is more difficult than any one obstacle on John bull but I would agree that JB is more difficult due to tight manuvering as well as the sheer number of obstacles on the trail. The Monteros performed well with no damage to report other than heavy usage of skid plated and rock sliders. Now that I have sliders I wonder how I got by without them..

Here's some pics...Enjoy
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Typical trail conditions on John Bull. The Trail reaches to over 8000 feet even the 3.5 DOHC was feeling the thin air on the tougher obstacles.



Pedro on Bull



MY little bro came on the trip with us..his first time doing any hard wheeling..I think hes converted to a montero believer <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />


Broken and abandoned jeep near the top of the mountain. I think we stumbled upon her just in time before a fellow jeeper had a chance to strip the winch off of it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" />


Monteros staged..


Pedro comming down Bull...


More after Dinner...Enjoy Gentlemen..

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Thats awesome!

Stealing a winch is a Jeep thing, you would'nt understand.

Slightly off topic> Justice, have you ever forgotten to lock in your hubs before you put in four wheel drive? I read that can ruin the t-case.

Yes, and it didnt sound nice..but no damage to note I realized as soon as I heard the "grind" and shifted back into 2wd and locked the hubs.

O.K. boys and girls here is some more of what can be done when you take your rig out. Back to the Big Bear area for only my second time in 2 weeks we had a blast of difficult trails for the 2 days we had. Like Justice said the first day was spent on "Gold Mountain" to start the day. Gold mountain is listed as difficult and is a great start up trail to get the Monteros ready for the second part of the day. Worth noting on this trail: Zig zag up to 8,235 feet to Gold Mountain with great views. It also passes through historic gold mining country. The one part that makes this trail harder and of course alot more fun is taking the alternate route at 2.5 miles. It crosses a massive talus slope. This part was tricky and required good driving skills. It also had a few more obstacles along the way that are not on the regular trail. We missed this last week when we did the trail because some jeepers drinking cheap beer blocked our way into that part of the trail.


Here we start on Gold Mountain trail.


Justice gets warmed up for what lies latter on the day.


Nice spot in the shade for lunch. Better get fueled up and ready before the John Bull trail. The weather up on the mountain the last 2 weekends was great California weather.


Some 3 wheel motion to start the "John Bull" trail. This trail is listed as the hardest in the area in the Wells guide and it was no joke. It was very relentless and technical with large boulders, steep climbs & tippy places.



Here is a good photo of some of what the trail had to offer. Most of the harder spots we didn't get photos since we were too busy concentrating and or giving one another spots. You should defenitely have some experince before doing this trail. The guide stated Lockers with and S at the end and Very High ground clearance.


Coming up one of the big steps.


The Monstero says: "GROOOOWWWLLLLL" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" /> Ready to chew up some rocks!


Like stated in the Wells guide. People don't usually come to this trail for the scenery. One of my favorite photos.


More boulders and tight turns.


Making our way thru the Bull. And it was not all Bull either.

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This is one of the casualties we found that day on the trail. I guess this is part of that jeep thing that I'm still trying to understand. The other casualty said they needed grease for a u joint, but looked more like they might have been really looking for a winch. Thank God I have a Montero. Countless battles, countless hard trails and always treating me good and never breaking down.

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Some hikers went out of their way to follow us for some 30, 50 yards in disbelief of what they were seeing. We had some jeepers and nissans also said they were impressed from what they saw from the Monteros.
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One of many tippy spots.

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The Thornbirds chewing up the rocks. Or was it the rocks chewing up chunks off the Thornbirds?!?

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Further proof that jeepers always drink and litter with the worst kind of beers. I went ahead and picked up this fools trash and others during the day.

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Finishing up the trail and heading back to camp after a hard day of work, I mean fun. This is the photos for the first day. Hope you enjoyed. Stay tune for day 2. "Dishpan Springs" trail. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mrt.gif" alt="" /> I pitty a fool......

Good Shots of the trail and rigs as usual <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

I'm glad to see you guys cleaned up some <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" /> hat's mess. It's those kind of people that give off roaders a bad rep.

Good stuff. Your sliders look like Augie's. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Now I'm jonsin! I've got to get a darn locker so I can do trails like that. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

What kind of problems are you guys having putting the truck in 4wd without locking the hubs? It should work, all it should be doing is spinning the axles inside of the hubs not giving them any power.