So Cal friends!

Hey! Just curious if there’s any groups in LA/SGV area? Or if anyone knows of any up coming meets? New to the scene and would like to check out local areas for day runs in the new rig!

 

Grew up in SoCal (Grad school @ CSUN). I spent a summer exploring backroads in Angeles Forest in my FJ40. Been a while and I don't know what are open. Turned off after Mill Creek Campground (left) at the crest and took that over and came out by Lake Elizabeth. Turn right through the campground at the crest and you can go to Wrightwood (or used to!). Mostly chaparral but some pines as you go up!

Fraser Park has nice areas on dirt FS roads. Used to be good quail hunting for mountain quail. Used to be lots of bears in the area. Some dry camps, so not much use.

There's always the Mojave Road=just don't go alone. Soda Lake gets gooey after rainstorms, so there are narrow windows between winter rain and summer heat. Lots of dirt roads in Anza Borrego State Park (again, watch that summer heat!) and out in the Mojave. Be sure to have a CB besides your cell phone (travel with at least one buddy). Remember the basic rule of off-road caravanning: Car in front keeps the car in back in view at all times!)

 

Welcome from Arizona!

 

Sorry Im in Texas, do you mean Southern California? My son and his wife live in Northern California (Redding).

 

Meetup (dot) com has a few SoCal oriented groups, but there hasn't been much activity since the pandemic.
I live near the Angeles National Forest (ANF), but there aren't a lot of open 4WD routes, combined with seasonal closures due to fire restrictions. Hungry Valley SRVA off I-5 near Gorman is operated by the State of California and has lots of well mapped trails.

Personally, I prefer to 4WD in the Western Mojave area off Highways 14 and 395, north of Mojave. The Jawbone Canyon and El Paso Mountains area is one of my favorite. Look at the Friends of Jawbone website (www.jawbone.org) for maps and information. It's pretty hot out there now, so I tend to head more north to the Eastern Sierra off Highway 395 from Lone Pine to Bridgeport.

Because of the distances involved, these are not one day and back trips, but there are lots of camping or motel options. I've had many enjoyable summer trips in the Mammoth Lakes area. It's relatively high in elevation, so the daytime temps are much cooler than the Owens Valley. Mammoth is about 300 miles north of Los Angeles.

North of Mammoth is the Mono Lake area and Lee Vining/Bridgeport and the ghost town of Bodie (a California State park). There's lots of routes to explore with some campgrounds, lots of "primitive" camping areas and some motels. Personally, I like to rent a condo in Mammoth for 3-4 nights, then venture out on day trips throughout the area.

A note of caution though--the Eastern Sierra has a lot of very remote and rugged terrain with poor to nonexistent cell coverage and not a lot of gas stations and infrastructure. Don't venture too far into the backcountry alone and have an OPEN SPOT (or similar device) and plenty of water with you. Because of the historic snowfall in the area, there's still a tremendous amount of runoff in the streams and some backcountry stream crossings may be unmanageable. One should always check locally for current conditions. Mammoth Lakes and an excellent USFS visitor center as does Lee Vining.

Whenever I venture into new (to me) areas, I like to do a lot of preliminary research. There's a lot of material available online, but also a lot of inaccurate information. Roger Mitchell wrote a series of guidebooks that are still in print (https://www.amazon.com/stores/Roger...ramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true). The books are a little dated as afar as current trail information, but the history and descriptions are still valid.

Part of my pre-trip research involves maps and mapping. I started exploring the backcountry long before GPS became available, so I learned to use and rely on paper maps. Today, I use GPS, but I like to plot routes and reference points on a paper map, the convert it into a KML/KMZ route file and load it into the GPS. I like Auto Club maps for highways and general area coverage, DeLorme atlas and gazetteer for bound, printed topo-like maps and CalTopo for online GIS-style mapping. I have a CalTopo subscription, so I can print out maps and export plotted routes. I also use Google Earth for mapping as I can import KML's and georeferenced maps of selected areas to help generate a big picture areas of interest.

Lastly, there's a thread here on things folks carry in their 4Runners. Use that as a guide, but start with the "10 essentials" (How to Reduce Stops by Packing The 10+ Essentials on Your Next Trip - Leave No Trace (lnt.org)).

 

We recently visited Lava Beds NM=lots of FS roads around there=gas stations pretty few and far between=we got up to about 7500' and turned back because of snow and we were alone without good maps (GPS pretty much sucks for that area!). I'm currently mapping petroglyph and pictograph areas for the west and there are quite a few around Reno, etc. You can download Google Maps and locate places and enter them (I really enjoyed doing it as a "new" project).

 

There are quite a few petroglyphs near Deming, NM, close to Cookes Peak, as well as a few near the Cliff dwellings outside of Silver City, NM.

 

When I'm traveling in an unfamiliar backcountry area, I usually try to top off my fuel tank at every opportunity. I'm concerned that the next gas station may be closed, out of fuel or have a pump malfunction.

In familiar areas, I'll start the day with a full tank and coordinate my routes with mileage and known gas stops. I like to base my off-highway mileage at about half the highway mpg. This gives a reasonable safety margin.

 

I'm envious of you all in SoCal, up here in the SFBA it is a multi hour dr

The 23 gallon tank is a real drag sometimes. I guess one can always carry some gas gas externally when headed to a new area but I sometime wish it was closer to 26 or 30 gallons.

My other offroader is a gas CCLB F250. It is a bit heavy and long but with a 48 gallon tank I seldom have range anxiety.

 

Welcome from OC! Plenty of day trips out to Anza, Big Bear and J Tree are out there.

 

I myself, live next to and work in the ANF. I occasionally will see a Runner or two, around town. I've taken "Patches" into the ANF (6N21)as well as the Eastern Sierra. I'm not a social media person, so finding a club would be great! I'm hoping to return to the high Sierra, this coming week.

 

I'm planning to be in Owens area this upcoming saturday or sunday, but only a few hours on dirt for me. Anyone out that way message me privately for a micro meet / check in.