Social Rhino Invasion

As our group pulled into the staging area, other ATV and dirt bike riders looked on with astonishment at our invasion of this area with all of our trailers. Everyone was quick to unload their vehicles, cinch down their ice chests and line up to hit the trails. Erik and I conducted a brief drivers' meeting to go over our routes, destinations and plans for the day. Another member from the forum, Ron (aka Eat Dirt) helped us even more by making copies of a map that had our planned route and destinations for the day.

Maps in hand, everyone strapped themselves in, fired up the engines and started up the trail. The sheer number of machines stirred up dust that resembled a herd of wild animals running through the forest. The first 10 minutes of the trail would prove to be challenging as my cooler lid popped open (with minimal losses) and soon after we had what we thought was our first casualty of the day. One driver came through a corner a little hot and proceeded to snap a tie-rod, which sent him off into the mountain. We were informed he was OK and were instructed to continue on with the rest of the group.

At the top of our first climb, we were graced with a spectacular view of the high desert as well as the tranquil Silverwood Lake. Within the first 10 to 15 minutes we reached awesome scenery that looked like a postcard and had nothing but the whole day to ride ahead of us. Our group followed each other atop the mountain ridges that had endless paths to test the articulation of your rig if you dared try it, or an easier side trail if you just wanted to enjoy the views. As much as I wanted to run in the snow, Southern California had just experienced a tremendous heat wave that melted quite a bit of it away. But if you stayed on some of the more shaded trails, there were definitely patches of snow and ice that could keep you on your toes.

After about an hour of gorgeous trails through the mountains, we arrived at the halfway point, which was Pinnacles OHV staging area on the backside of Lake Arrowhead. This is where our group was surprised to see the first victim of trouble back in the lineup. Our sweep driver, Ron, had stayed with the broken rig and opened up his bin of spare parts to get him back on the trail so he could continue to enjoy the remainder of the day with our group. Way to go Ron for your time and help on the trail!

Once everyone had enjoyed a quick time-out for a snack or anything else, we were back on some high-speed fire roads trekking toward Deep Creek. Anytime our group came to a turn in the road, everyone made sure to keep an eye out for the vehicle behind them so nobody would be separated from the pack. It was on this section where I experienced a mechanical issue of my own. Through some of the deep whoops, I somehow lost a circlip off one of the ball joints, which allowed it to come out of the A-arm. With the help of Ron again, we reinstalled the ball joint and secured it into place with a temporary fix. Not long after, the group arrived at Deep Creek to enjoy whatever lunch they'd brought sitting next to a relaxing stream. Man, this was living life to its fullest.

After snacking on some PB&J sandwiches and taking some time out of the saddle, it was time for the group to separate for two side trails. One was for the extremist who wanted a challenge of rock crawling, the other was for those seeking a less technical trail to a more picturesque area of the creek further downstream. I chose to stick with my photographer and ventured up the more challenging of these two trails where the machines were severely tested. One machine suffered a broken axle, but there were no further mechanical problems from that point on other than those suffered by a couple of Jeeps we encountered further up the trail.