This month the RoughWheelers had elected to do the Molina Ghost run (as the Cal4Wheel event for the year instead of the HDR in May). Although most of the members in attendance at the October run planning meeting voted to do this run only one other member showed up besides myself!!!
Thursday morning I lined up the group at 9:00 am on the street in front of my house, where there was ample parking for the line of TWO. We left heading north on the 405 and continued on up the 5 and on through Coalinga where the group got some gas & Snacks for the 30-mile drive up to the campground.
The campground was a nice place with a creek along side in-between the camp and the road there were fire rings and trees a very nice place. I looked around and found an area large enough for the group and proceeded to set up camp. After camp had been established we looked around and found Jeff and Cat camped next door, they are from San Jose and have been wheeling for about 1 1/2 years with a lifted TJ good people they gave me a Corona.
Friday morning the fun was to start, first things first, we needed to get out of bed, the outside temp was about 0 degrees all night and colder in the morning, but we managed. So its 8:00 am and off to safety for inspectionŠWHAT THEIR NOT OPEN, ok we'll come back. They opened safety about 8:30am then the run that was to leave at 9:30am didn't go on time either. registration was not open until we got back from the run too. The Historical run I had hoped to be rich in the mining & mission history of the area, instead the guide only wanted to talk about his family. Apparently his grand and great grand fathers were some kind of bandits, horse thieves and trail robbers taking the miners ore on the way to town.
Saturday: Last night was warmer but it was too cold for a fire out side so the group crowded into the bus and played Monopoly with the oven providing some heat. Anyway we left on the Saturday poker run and I think we did more sitting than driving that day. It was all pretty mild stuff until near the end we did one loop that had a couple of good water falls every one got through ok, no damage anyway.
Our good friend Jeri Ferguson ran the Raffle; we were sure to let her know that RoughWheelers were in attendance. Big items included a Warn 9000I winch, 2 sets of 2 BFG tires. I won a HRD registration and the rest of the group got squat.
Overall I maintain my original rating of a 2 for this run and only recommend that those that are looking for a SUV run in arctic conditions attend next year. We should have brought more clothes and blankets.
BusStop
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