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View Full Version : Fearless's Folly Trail in El Mirage

jjmat3
October 1st, 2006, 19:55
A So-Cal club, The Roughwheelers, cut a new trail in a BLM area about 40 minutes from my house. It is near El Mirage dry lake which is already a popular area for dirt bikes, ATV's, dune buggies, and many other dry lake bed toys that go fast. I ran out there to check it out. It was a tough trail to follow as the area has trails running in every direction from all of the other traffic. We finally nailed it down and actually ended up with some of the folks from the Roughwheelers following our lead as they had not been there yet themselves. This is all worthless w/out pics so.....
This is the "Crows Nest", one of the high points that you can drive a 4x4 up too. Nice views of the lake bed and Antelope valley.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM01.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM02.jpg
We found a critter up there, a Desert Tortoise. Looks like he is high centered. We let him be though so he wouldn't spill his water. He should be hibernating soon.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM03.jpg

This was the descent coming down from the "Crows Nest".
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM04.jpg

We drove for a ways before coming to this nice little hill climb. There were a few like this and better.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM05.jpg

Then made our way through a lot of desert terrain over several obstacles like this one.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM06.jpg

One of the optional spurs was this nice canyon that you had to drive up and then back down again. The shorter wheelbase vehicles had a better time here than I did. W/ a good spotter I probably could have gone further than the 100 yrds I made it before deciding to turn around.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM07.jpg

We found a slightly beat up CJ near Resurrection Hill.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM08.jpg
We ended up helping unstick a stuck buggy that had gotten high centered. You can see him in the background of this pic.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a45/Cougarguy67/El%20Mirage%20Trail/EM09.jpg
Of course I HAD to ramp the CJ..... Cuz it was there!

Overall easy but not a bad trail and this is only a small sample of the area. We wanted to make a high speed blast across the lake bed afterward but ended up in a massive sand storm that you could barely see the end of your hood in. My air filter looked like a sand box before banging it out.
rpraterxj
October 1st, 2006, 20:07
Looked like fun JJ. Nice flexing pic at that one area.
Gerr
October 1st, 2006, 20:34
Hey you found my Dad's Jeep lol :)




so when you gona organise a run for this trail??? It looks fun
IslanderOffRoad
October 1st, 2006, 20:54
Wow that looks like fun
chelms27
October 1st, 2006, 21:00
Cool place, where is it exactly? I like the color of your jeep BTW.
jjmat3
October 2nd, 2006, 05:03
El Mirage Dry Lake
Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area Info (http://www.blm.gov/ca/barstow/mirage.html)

Couple more pics my friend took.
This will give you an idea of how steep the descent from the Crows Nest was.
http://www.ucltd.com/BigBear04/Leaning%20John.jpg

This was about where I decided to turn around on the optional spur section.
http://www.ucltd.com/BigBear04/JJ%20on%20the%20rocks.jpg
jjmat3
October 2nd, 2006, 05:07
Hey you found my Dad's Jeep lol :)




so when you gona organise a run for this trail??? It looks fun


We are planning on going back out to GPS and mark it better. The club that marked it did a rough job, it could use a little more ribbon to help make it more obvious. A lot of the trail has seen so little use that it is tough to follow. Our Liberty club, L.O.S.T. KJ WEST, will be heading back out there in the future and anyone is welcome to come along. I will post info when we get a run organized.
Gerr
October 2nd, 2006, 05:46
We are planning on going back out to GPS and mark it better. The club that marked it did a rough job, it could use a little more ribbon to help make it more obvious. A lot of the trail has seen so little use that it is tough to follow. Our Liberty club, L.O.S.T. KJ WEST, will be heading back out there in the future and anyone is welcome to come along. I will post info when we get a run organized.
Keep us posted I would really like to see the trail
rpraterxj
October 2nd, 2006, 09:34
This was about where I decided to turn around on the optional spur section.
http://www.ucltd.com/BigBear04/JJ%20on%20the%20rocks.jpg

Why did you turn around JJ?

Are you thinking of runnig this again before Thanksgiving or after?

BTW, I hope to see and some of the KJ's in Big Bear on Oct 21st or 22nd!!
jjmat3
October 2nd, 2006, 09:47
This spot was tricky and only getting worse after it. My friend didn't feel comfortable spotting me on the tougher sections and we were also looking to hit the road home. I plan on getting back there soon, probably before the end of the month. I will LYK.
cliffv
October 2nd, 2006, 11:16
Hey JJ,

Pleasure meeting you up there!

You should have said something, it would have been my pleasure to spot you through the last section. I'm already getting requests to run the trail in reverse! Not sure about going up some of those decents though.

Best Regards,

Cliff
Riverside Ruff Riders
jjmat3
October 2nd, 2006, 12:48
That would have been cool but we needed to hit the road anyhow. We had already milked that trail for quite a few hours. Heck, we had been there for a few before we ran into your group. I have to agree with you though, A couple of those descents would be tough to impossible going back up. Heck, a few more groups through there and I can already see them getting pretty beat up and needing repair/maintainence. Overall a cool little trail and nice to have another Official trail less than an hours drive from me.

BTW, do you know anything about the clean-up that is supposed to be taking place out there on, IIRC, Oct. 21st? I had seen a flyer for it but can't find a copy now. I was going to volunteer my club to help out, figuring we can tackle the trail areas. I noticed quite a few bottles and cans and misc. in the area.
jjmat3
October 2nd, 2006, 12:51
Here is the clean up info:
http://www.elmirage.org/ElMirageTrashDaysFlyer102106.pdf
SNOOPYX2JEEPS
October 23rd, 2006, 18:32
Hey glad to hear that you found the trail & had a good time. We were out @ El Mirage this past week end for Oct 21, Fall clean-up & trail maintance. We were able to mark the trail to make it more visiable, this time we used blue tape to mark them, you should note that the direction of travel is ALL ribbions will be on the LEFT & single ribbons are easier than double ribbons.
We are working on more challenging trails, this past weekend we found a couple of potential new trails, worthy of 2, maybe even a 3 ribbon ( not marked yet) but we also started on a 4 ribbon trail that will challenge even the hard core rock crawler! It's marked for those who want to give it a try as far as we have gone, actually its only about 300 yards, but dont let that fool ya, as you'll need 35's & double lockers & a good spotter, have fun.
Snoopy, member of Roiughwheelers 4XClub
Sorry about no flicks as i will figure that part out later!!
Gerr
October 23rd, 2006, 19:01
hey can we get a run goin out there some time soon ?
jjmat3
October 24th, 2006, 10:18
I am going to try to put something together w/in the next month or so and I will post up info here. Might end up being in Dec. though as my calendar is penciled in pretty heavy through end of Nov. already. Heck DZ, that area is in your back yard!
Gerr
October 24th, 2006, 19:34
Yeah I know it is thats why I wana go lol just dont know where it is so I can
tcm glx
October 24th, 2006, 22:20
Lets go, lets go!!!
CJBrian
October 24th, 2006, 22:39
The next time we (the Roughwheelers) go run our trail I will post when and where. We are still working on marking and expanding the trail. We have been told that we will get real signs some time soon. As stated by Snoopy the most recent (last weekend) marking of the trail we did using blue ribbon. One blue ribbon is the easy route and 2 ribbons is the harder route, Start at Crows Nest and keep the blue ribbons on your left at all time. We are working on 3 and 4 ribbon routes. Hope you guys get a chance to run it and give us your feedback. www.roughwheelers.com (http://www.roughwheelers.com)
CJBrian
October 25th, 2006, 19:00
Heres a link to Trail Info www.roughwheelers.com/oscar/RunPlanning/ElMirage/ElMirage.html (http://www.roughwheelers.com/oscar/RunPlanning/ElMirage/ElMirage.html)
chelms27
October 25th, 2006, 20:52
Lets go, lets go!!!

X2, looks like fun!!
tcm glx
October 25th, 2006, 21:20
1st week of november sounds doable!