2006 Iron Mountain Road Patrol I
From Gold Hills Posse 4x4 Club
February 11, 2006
Write-up by John (JohnDF)
We met at the El Dorado Hills Starbucks on February 11 at 8:30.
There was:
- John (TJ)
- Fred (TJ)
- Lee (TJ)
- Rob (TJ)
- Bob (TJ)
- Brendon (TJ)
- Kristy (YJ)
- Mark (YJ)
- Pat (Commando)
- Rod (Dodge P/U).
While at the gas station, Fred met Matt (XJ) and invited him to join us. We arrived at the information booth on Iron Mountain at 9:45.
There we met up with:
- Steve (EB)
- Earl (YJ)
- Earl’s friend John (YJ)
In total we had 14 rigs in our group. Great turnout!
We waited for an hour for the Ranger to show up. He was a no-show so we headed up the road to take our vehicle count. We count the vehicles using the road for that day and report the information to the U.S.F.S. The snow had been disappearing quickly in the Sierras. We had to drive up over 6,000 feet in elevation to find some decent snow. We set up on the side of the road and counted cars until 1:00. We counted (2) quads, (1) car, and (5) SUVs. Obviously people had heard about the lack of snow. Our club outnumbered everyone else on the road that day.
While we counted we had lunch and the kids had fun playing in the snow with sleds. Not to be outdone, the grown-ups had their own snowball fight. At 1:00 we loaded up and went for a drive. We found a nice side trail (#10N87) to explore. The snow was patchy. It was 4 feet deep in some spots and bare ground in others. That made the trail much more interesting in spots. We made excellent progress and everyone showed good driving skills. Then John tried a small creek crossing with 3 foot snow banks on each side. He ended up breaking a front axle and put a stop to all the fun. After that we turned around and headed home (some of us in 2WD). We all had a great time. We look forward to our next run.