By: Gary "VP" Karp

(See the awesome snow run photos below!)

As you may be aware, the Dirt Devils volunteered to lead a few trails this year for convention. Quinn asked me to co-lead one of the trails (the Onyx summit trail on Monday, presidents day.) Since I had the day off, I accepted. When the day arrived, I bummed a ride from Lance since my Jeep had no front bumper!! Lance chauffeured me in his bright yellow CJ-7. At 7:30 Monday morning we met Quinn and the rest of the group at the hotel in Riverside where the convention was held. At 9:00 am there were 8 vehicles ready for a snow run. Dirt Devils in attendance were Quinn, Lance, Jesse & Cheryl, Steve Salisbury and his son Steve, and myself. It was raining in Riverside when we left and the night before had been quite a storm. We headed up Hwy. 38 and when we reached the first switchback, we hit snow. A CalTrans worker asked us if we had chains (which we all did) and let us pass. It sure is nice to have a four-wheel drive and not have to get out in the cold to put on tire chains. Anyway, we made it to the start of the dirt on the downhill side of Onyx Summit with no problems (no one wanted to pull out a dually from a snow bank). The trail had about a foot and a half of snow on it. Lance barreled right through the snow a few feet to allow all of us to air down our tires. By this time, the sun had come out and it was starting to warm up. That sun felt really good!! We headed down the trail - boy what a sight. The trees had a layer of snow on them and the trail was reduced to just a flat spot on the surface of the snow. While we cut the trail, we took pictures until we came to some tracks from someone who had come up the trail and then turned around. Eventually we made it to the real trailhead and then had lunch at the yellow post site about a mile from the trailhead. While eating lunch, Steve Salisbury’s son, Steve, started throwing snowballs. We had a pretty big snowball fight. He about wore me out, but I think that more of my snowballs hit him than what hit me!! What I’m worrying about though, is next year!!! After everyone was worn out, (except Steve) we hit the trail. Quinn was very tired and decided to stay in that area to take a nap. It was really peaceful there and not too many people were around, so it made for an ideal place to recoup. Lance cut the trail again and we noticed bear tracks up the center of the trail, until we got to the area just past the sluice box where forward momentum was halted (and the bear tracks left the road). The BFG All Terrain tires were filling up with snow and mud and were acting like slicks. We backed up and let another CJ with BFG Mud Terrain tires have a try. He struggled a bit but made another 200-300 feet where he got stuck in a real narrow spot on the trail. His rear wheel was an inch or so from going over into the ravine below. We winched him back on the trail and we all turned around. We left the trail about 2:30 and got back to the 38 about 4:00 pm. On the way down Hwy. 38, the traffic came to a grinding halt. Jesse hailed a car going the opposite direction in an effort to find out what the problem was. The person said there was a jack knifed big rig blocking the road. We all turned around and headed back up the mountain. Then, we turned on our HAM radios to find out the situation on the other highways down the mountain. From the scattered bits of information that we gathered, we determined that Highway 18 on the backside of the mountain would be the best bet. We took some shortcuts and made it down to the desert below in record time. I got home about 10:30 that night. I believe that everyone had a great time on the trail that day. I know Lance and I did!