West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club Gold Mountain (3N69) Adopt-a-Trail Annual Cleanup: July 22-23, 2000

By: Steve Friend

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club and Guests

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club and Guests
Photo by: Renie Friend

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club, Inc. performed their annual Adopt-a-Trail maintenance on the Gold Mountain Trail in Big Bear, CA. on the weekend of July 22, 2000. This year marked the 13th year of WC4WDC participation in the Adop-a-Trail Program. Again this year, we found the trail in very good shape, with most of the fences in place and most of the trail bypass obstacles still in place. We had no garbage dumped at the trail head as we found in years past. It is sort of a good feeling to see all of last years efforts still in place and working. Heck, even our signs were still in place, although we decided that we needed to move one of them.

The event started with several rigs, motor homes and tents alike, staying at a ranger's designated camp, just outside of Big Bear. In all, there were about 50 club members and guests, not including kids, in 21 rigs. It was a great turnout. The ranger that worked with us this year, Ranger Bob Poole, was excited to see all of the participation.

We started the official cleanup at 9:00 am on Saturday morning. All participants were on time, with some of them driving up only for the day. After a brief introduction about what was targeted for the day, a few rigs started up the trail to start repairing a water shed problem on a switch back. They moved a bunch of concrete to stabilize and preserve the area.

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club Moving Stumps

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club Moving Stumps
Photo by: Renie Friend

There was one spot on the trail where Ranger Bob wanted the trail to be more difficult because it is designated as "Most Difficult". One of our club members made this great rock slide for just this occasion. Some of the team worked at a rock outcropping up the trail and when they had the slide full of rock (sometimes only on huge rock), they would tow the slide down to the area that needed to be addressed. They worked this spot all day. Man, did it look good when they were done. The hopes were to make this one of the more difficult parts of the trail so that the standard two wheel drive rigs cannot to do the trail. Gold Mountain is designated as most difficult and has never really been difficult. Great job.

Another group continued up the trail, working spots that had previously been mapped out by our President, Steve Gardner, and our Field Rep, John Hively. The rest of us started cleaning up the entrance. The entrance may be a futile spot to try to control, as it is only about a 1/2 mile from the dump, making it a natural spot for dumping to happen when the dump is closed. Also, because the nature of the entrance of the trial, folks like to make their own obstacles there, causing erosion of the hill side. We positioned one rig up the road and attached his winch to some huge stumps and started pulling. In a short time, we had moved some pretty impressive stumps and rocks up the more obvious creations and bypasses. Next, we daisy chained five rigs together and moved a 40 foot tree in place, effectively blocking another bypass. Then, we positioned a couple of rigs and winched some huge foundation pieces that have been in the area for years in place to block the last bypass. This place now looks spic and span.

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Clubtoorking ot Block a Bypass

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club Working to Block a Bypass
Photo by: Renie Friend

Using a gasoline powered post hole digger provided by Ray Pfeifer, we moved a sign to better designate the 3N69A trail. This is a pretty neat portion of the trail where we actually had to put the rigs in 4 wheel drive. There is a rock climb in that area that we may want to make part of the trail one day.

During the first part of the day, Victor Valley 4WDC folks came up the trial, escorting some potential new members. They started counting our volunteers and commented that this was probably the largest volunteer work group that they had ever seen. This was from the club that built and maintains the Hammers. Nice compliment.

A good time was had by all. We were all tired but satisfied with a job well done. Bob complimented us, saying that the turnout was awesome and he was very impressed with all the work. This kind of work and commitment is what is needed to keep these and other trails open.

West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Clubtoorking ot Block a Bypass

Almost everyone stayed the evening. As a reward for all the work, West Coast 4WDC bought 13 EXTRA LARGE pizza's and drinks for all that worked. We made it to camp at about 6:00 PM. By 6:15, there were only 13 pizza boxes left. Shesh. I think some of the members must have been waiting all week for that dinner.

The West Coast 4WDC meets the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 pm at the Carl's Jr in Fullerton, CA. The club presently is accepting applications for new memberships. Guests are always welcome at meetings and runs. A minimum of one run per month is scheduled and all vehicles must pass a safety inspection.

The club is a member of the California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs and supports Tread Lightly.

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Contacts:	Related Links:
Steve Friend, West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club	West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs Tread Lightly! 4x4Wire's Environmental Policy Links from the 4x4Wire Link Index