Strawberry Trail Spring Maintenance
May 20, 2007
The Posse held their annual Spring maintenance run May 20, 2007. We maintain the
Strawberry Trail in cooperation with the US Forest Service. It's a
beautiful little trail in the Sierras that runs between Hwy 50 and Hwy
88 out of Kyburz, California. The trail is easy to moderate depending
on the lines you take over the few obstacles that there are along the
way. This is not a shortcut to Hwy 88.
We met at our usual meeting place in front of Starbucks in El Dorado Hills. We did the usual standing around and chatting for around half an hour. It's a great time to check out all the recent upgrades people have made to their vehicles. The Posse rigs are really nice. Some built mild and others built up pretty big. Jeeps and (cough...cough...) Toyotas mostly. All street legal and all very capable off road.
Meeting at Starbucks was:
Lee and Pam - TJ
Don - TJ Unlimited
Earl - YJ
Rod - XJ
Larry and Cole - CJ
Brendan - TJ
Dan and Eric - TJ
John and Rob - TJ
Fred and Teddi - TJ
Justin and John - TJ Unlimited
Alex and Heidi - 4Runner
Chuck and Jim - TJ
We pulled out in a big parade and headed up Hwy 50. We were meeting Keane, Kelly, and Eric (4Runner) at the new Chevron in Fresh Pond along the way. Keane said it looked pretty impressive when twelve 4x4s pulled in all at once. We stayed longer at Chevron than we expected. We probably should have just met up there. Finally we winched Alex out of the store and were on our way up Hwy 50 again with thirteen rigs all lined up.
We hit the trailhead around 9:30. In true Posse fashion we aired down and chatted for another half hour (we are not a fast paced club and like our chit chat time). FINALLY we were on the trail where we met up with Chris in his Toyota truck. He called down on his CB and told us he was waiting by the big rock in the middle of the road. I said, "what big rock?" About that time we rolled up to a huge boulder that had fallen down the hill and landed in the middle of the road. This thing was as big as a quad. We muscled it out of the way with four guys and a pry-bar.
So we headed up the trail to find some work to do. In total there were fourteen rigs and twenty four people. Our Spring maintenance only covers half the trail because the upper half is still covered in snow this time of year. This year was no exception. There was hardly any work to do. I think in total we picked up a half dozen pieces of trash and trimmed three bushes. WOW! That was hard work. But all kidding aside, we have worked hard in years past to get this trail in shape and now it's just a simple upkeep job. We may have more work to do in the Fall.
With all the hard work out of the way it was time to play. Like I mentioned earlier, there are only a couple of challenging sections on this trail. The first one we come to is a section of exposed rocks that we call the Waterfall. It's not very long and only a little steep but the rocks are big and the ruts are deep. There is an easy line to the right hand side, a moderate line to the right hand side, and a difficult line right down the middle. The LWB Toyotas make the middle line look like child's play. They drove right up with little difficulty. The SWB Jeeps however have a tougher time of it. We get both back and front tires trying to climb big rocks at the same time. In true Posse fashion, almost every Jeep at least attempted to climb the middle line. Almost every one of them were DENIED! They then opted for the moderate line. Although one dumb-dumb in a white TJ wouldn't be denied and almost rolled it. But to his credit, he didn't quit and made the climb to victory (pats himself on the back).
The second obstacle is the V-Rock. It's not a particularly hard obstacle unless you take a line that gets you wedged into the big rock on the right. Then you end up leaving paint on the rock or body panels laying in the trail. Larry in his CJ managed to fall into the bad line and wedge his rig into the big rock. The resulting damage was a mashed rocker panel and tore up side step. He was heard by everyone to say, "My Mom's going to kill me." Poor Larry. I hope he gets to come play with us again. Another victim of the V-Rock was Fred in his TJ. Fred hung up on both differentials. When we pushed him off the wheel spin broke a driver's side u-joint. We strapped him over the obstacle and watched him fix it licket-split.
From here on out the trail turns into snow. At that time John, Rob, and Brendan decided it was time to go fishing. We said our goodbyes, turned around with fly rods in the rigs, and headed back down the trail to try our luck at Silver Creek. The fishing was hard but we did manage to catch a few each. Dinner at In-N-Out topped off a great day.
The rest of the group continued up the trail. We stopped off and on to pick up some bullet shells and made good progress. Our first real obstacle proved to be a large snow bank. Keane attempted it several times before realizing that the winch would have to come out. Unfortunately, his winch rope wasn’t up to the task and broke shortly after he started pulling. Chris pulled the 4Runner back with his Tacoma and with some winching made it up the bank. After several folks packed the bank down a bit, Alex took the opportunity to prove that 4Runners really know how to fly.
The group came to a second, steeper snow bank. This bank proved to be the end of the line as Dan destroyed his front axle. Fortunately, we were able to answer which breaks first… the axle or the u-joint. Dan broke the axle first but managed to take out the u-joint while getting in position to fix things well enough to get home.
Not everyone was impressed with Dan’s impact wrench and knowledge of how to fix his front end.
After getting running again, we aired up and headed down the hill.
Written by
John, Trail Master 2007
Keane, Vice President 2007
We met at our usual meeting place in front of Starbucks in El Dorado Hills. We did the usual standing around and chatting for around half an hour. It's a great time to check out all the recent upgrades people have made to their vehicles. The Posse rigs are really nice. Some built mild and others built up pretty big. Jeeps and (cough...cough...) Toyotas mostly. All street legal and all very capable off road.
Meeting at Starbucks was:
Lee and Pam - TJ
Don - TJ Unlimited
Earl - YJ
Rod - XJ
Larry and Cole - CJ
Brendan - TJ
Dan and Eric - TJ
John and Rob - TJ
Fred and Teddi - TJ
Justin and John - TJ Unlimited
Alex and Heidi - 4Runner
Chuck and Jim - TJ
We pulled out in a big parade and headed up Hwy 50. We were meeting Keane, Kelly, and Eric (4Runner) at the new Chevron in Fresh Pond along the way. Keane said it looked pretty impressive when twelve 4x4s pulled in all at once. We stayed longer at Chevron than we expected. We probably should have just met up there. Finally we winched Alex out of the store and were on our way up Hwy 50 again with thirteen rigs all lined up.
We hit the trailhead around 9:30. In true Posse fashion we aired down and chatted for another half hour (we are not a fast paced club and like our chit chat time). FINALLY we were on the trail where we met up with Chris in his Toyota truck. He called down on his CB and told us he was waiting by the big rock in the middle of the road. I said, "what big rock?" About that time we rolled up to a huge boulder that had fallen down the hill and landed in the middle of the road. This thing was as big as a quad. We muscled it out of the way with four guys and a pry-bar.
So we headed up the trail to find some work to do. In total there were fourteen rigs and twenty four people. Our Spring maintenance only covers half the trail because the upper half is still covered in snow this time of year. This year was no exception. There was hardly any work to do. I think in total we picked up a half dozen pieces of trash and trimmed three bushes. WOW! That was hard work. But all kidding aside, we have worked hard in years past to get this trail in shape and now it's just a simple upkeep job. We may have more work to do in the Fall.
With all the hard work out of the way it was time to play. Like I mentioned earlier, there are only a couple of challenging sections on this trail. The first one we come to is a section of exposed rocks that we call the Waterfall. It's not very long and only a little steep but the rocks are big and the ruts are deep. There is an easy line to the right hand side, a moderate line to the right hand side, and a difficult line right down the middle. The LWB Toyotas make the middle line look like child's play. They drove right up with little difficulty. The SWB Jeeps however have a tougher time of it. We get both back and front tires trying to climb big rocks at the same time. In true Posse fashion, almost every Jeep at least attempted to climb the middle line. Almost every one of them were DENIED! They then opted for the moderate line. Although one dumb-dumb in a white TJ wouldn't be denied and almost rolled it. But to his credit, he didn't quit and made the climb to victory (pats himself on the back).
The second obstacle is the V-Rock. It's not a particularly hard obstacle unless you take a line that gets you wedged into the big rock on the right. Then you end up leaving paint on the rock or body panels laying in the trail. Larry in his CJ managed to fall into the bad line and wedge his rig into the big rock. The resulting damage was a mashed rocker panel and tore up side step. He was heard by everyone to say, "My Mom's going to kill me." Poor Larry. I hope he gets to come play with us again. Another victim of the V-Rock was Fred in his TJ. Fred hung up on both differentials. When we pushed him off the wheel spin broke a driver's side u-joint. We strapped him over the obstacle and watched him fix it licket-split.
From here on out the trail turns into snow. At that time John, Rob, and Brendan decided it was time to go fishing. We said our goodbyes, turned around with fly rods in the rigs, and headed back down the trail to try our luck at Silver Creek. The fishing was hard but we did manage to catch a few each. Dinner at In-N-Out topped off a great day.
The rest of the group continued up the trail. We stopped off and on to pick up some bullet shells and made good progress. Our first real obstacle proved to be a large snow bank. Keane attempted it several times before realizing that the winch would have to come out. Unfortunately, his winch rope wasn’t up to the task and broke shortly after he started pulling. Chris pulled the 4Runner back with his Tacoma and with some winching made it up the bank. After several folks packed the bank down a bit, Alex took the opportunity to prove that 4Runners really know how to fly.
The group came to a second, steeper snow bank. This bank proved to be the end of the line as Dan destroyed his front axle. Fortunately, we were able to answer which breaks first… the axle or the u-joint. Dan broke the axle first but managed to take out the u-joint while getting in position to fix things well enough to get home.
Not everyone was impressed with Dan’s impact wrench and knowledge of how to fix his front end.
After getting running again, we aired up and headed down the hill.
Written by
John, Trail Master 2007
Keane, Vice President 2007