2011-01-06: Cajon Junction to Arrowhead Village
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:20 pm
One of my favorite runs is a series of three trails that run from Cajon Junction to Arrowhead Village. The three trails that make up this route are Cleghorn, Pilot Rock, and Willow Creek Road. Total distance is right around 36 miles of trail driving. The technical rating ranges from 0 to 7 on a 1 to 10 scale. It's great for beginners to get a feel for their rigs and the scenery is quite spectacular.
Well yesterday I decided to take Skytrax and his family up there. He had never been in that neck of the woods so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. My son had never been to the snow before and I'd received reports that we could run into some up there. So we packed up our rigs and headed two and a half hours north. We hit snow alright. seven miles into the twelve miles of Cleghorn we had to turn around. Without Skytrax having a winch we couldn't push it any further. Especially with my son with me. I have run these trails in the snow before and never have had to turn around. The main road on Cleghorn is usually passable by cars during the clear season. Even the main road is a challenge right now.
So we turned around and headed back to the highway and diverted to our next trail which starts at Silverwood Lake Campground. After eating some lunch at the Lake we headed up the trail. About 1000 yards in road conditions made us turn around. We then diverted to willow Creek Road trailhead. If anything we were getting some mountain road sight seeing in. Chains or 4WD were mandatory on the roads up there.
Willow Creek Road isn't shelf road so we pushed through that. It was a lot of fun. We ran into about 20 water crossings, slippery hill climbs and descents, ruts, you name it. I have some video I'll post up later of some water crossings. We wrapped our day up with some food and pictures in Arrowhead Village and headed home. I left my house at 5:00 am and got home at 8:30 pm. All-in-all it was a beautiful fun filled day. I'll be putting a post together about the prep going into this run in the next day or so too.
So here's some of the pics of the day.
Well yesterday I decided to take Skytrax and his family up there. He had never been in that neck of the woods so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. My son had never been to the snow before and I'd received reports that we could run into some up there. So we packed up our rigs and headed two and a half hours north. We hit snow alright. seven miles into the twelve miles of Cleghorn we had to turn around. Without Skytrax having a winch we couldn't push it any further. Especially with my son with me. I have run these trails in the snow before and never have had to turn around. The main road on Cleghorn is usually passable by cars during the clear season. Even the main road is a challenge right now.
So we turned around and headed back to the highway and diverted to our next trail which starts at Silverwood Lake Campground. After eating some lunch at the Lake we headed up the trail. About 1000 yards in road conditions made us turn around. We then diverted to willow Creek Road trailhead. If anything we were getting some mountain road sight seeing in. Chains or 4WD were mandatory on the roads up there.
Willow Creek Road isn't shelf road so we pushed through that. It was a lot of fun. We ran into about 20 water crossings, slippery hill climbs and descents, ruts, you name it. I have some video I'll post up later of some water crossings. We wrapped our day up with some food and pictures in Arrowhead Village and headed home. I left my house at 5:00 am and got home at 8:30 pm. All-in-all it was a beautiful fun filled day. I'll be putting a post together about the prep going into this run in the next day or so too.
So here's some of the pics of the day.
- Airing Down
- 12-2010-0371.jpg (309.03 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- Skytrax testing his JK out on Traction Control Mound
- 12-2010-0372.jpg (533 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- My son getting his first taste of snow.
- 12-2010-0374.jpg (766.31 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- View of the San Gabriels from Cleghorn
- 12-2010-0376.jpg (987.8 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- San Gabriels
- 12-2010-0380.jpg (712.95 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- The snow kept getting deeper the farther we went.
- 12-2010-0389.jpg (1007.28 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- Working our way to Silverwood Lake
- 12-2010-0392.jpg (928.96 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- My son getting his snow legs.
- 12-2010-0396.jpg (811.62 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- Silverwood Lake down below.
- 12-2010-0397.jpg (1.18 MiB) Viewed 3329 times
- Lunch at Silverwood Lake Campground
- 12-2010-0400.jpg (898.52 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- My sons first snowman.
- 12-2010-0405.jpg (850.68 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- Lake Gregory
- 12-2010-0414.jpg (502.46 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- Arrowhead Village
- 12-2010-0444.jpg (653.91 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- The sunset under the clouds when driving home on the 18.
- 12-2010-0456.jpg (477.7 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
- 12-2010-0390.jpg (213.67 KiB) Viewed 3329 times
