Kern River

Made the trip from Upland, Ca to Kern River after picking up the trailer. The drive was very scenic once we got onto 395. I use Delorme Topo for navigation and every once in a while it takes us through an interesting set of roads...in this case it led us down a dirt road that connected two freeways on the way to Kernville and Kern river. Was quite a kick. In any case there was really no real of road driving, but the camping was at least primitive and somewhat isolated. There are a ton of campgrounds along the Kern River and while I really wanted to go to Monache Meadows we had already made the drive from Sacto so we had already been driving for a good 7
hours before we got to Upland and began this leg of the Journey.



View Upland/Kern in a larger map

Leaving Upland with the new Socal Teardrop 

Passing By Lake Isabella (Our Primary Route with The lake to our left was  closed

Further Down the road to Kernville.

Scene on the road to Kernville

Campsite @ Kern River

From Campsite

From Campsite

From Campsite

Setting up the bed in the teardrop

Tomorrow is Officially Trailer Pickup Day

So tomorrow at 3:00am the wife and I are headed down to Upland, California and the official office of SoCal teardrops to pick up our Krawler 459.  The plan is to make a big U turn in upland and head up by the Kern River and find a site to camp for the night.  If there is still daylight out I want to try and get some flyfishing in around little Kern River and see if I can’t tackle one fish off of the Heritage Fishing Challenge List (Little Kern Gold Trout), if all goes well I will get the Kern Rainbow the following morning but I’m a little worried about the flows being too fast.  After that we are heading to the Kings River and finally home:

View Trailer Pickup in a larger map

So enough about fish…what about the trailer?
The decision about the trailer came after much deliberation, I think I can say that no stone went unturned when I was doing the research on what was the best fit for me. Here are some my key factors that went into choosing a manufacturer:
1. Quality of Workmanship/History of Quality
2. Simplicity of Design
3. Off road capability (should be capable of a 6/10 rated trail…no Rubicon! :-))
4. Level of comfort
I knew I wanted something small and capable that would provide an enclosed environment to sleep in. I looked at a variety of manufactures including:
SoCal Teardrops
Adventure Trailers
Moby 1
Little Guy
XpoTrail
Plus a few others

While I liked the Vision of XpoTrail, it really appeared to me that it would be a few years before they would have a solid production model that had worked out all of the kinks in the design and fabrications process.

Moby1 Looked pretty interesting but I just didn’t see the attention to detail that I would have liked and I’m not sure they really had a History of Quality. Although they had a very tempting pricepoint which did give me a second…third..and fourth look.

LittleGuy trailers looked like a viable option, but I got a feeling that they were somewhat more mass produced and honestly I hated the guy who they had selling their products on the youtube videos…too much of a sleezeball and not enough adventurer.

So that left me with two viable options that really fit well into my overall criteria – the Adventure Trailer Teardrop and the Socal Krawler 459. As I researched this I could not help but note the similarities, and after asking and researching there is a relationship between SoCal Teardrops (SCT) and Adventure Trailers (AT). Essentially SCT provides AT with the teardrop which AT then drops onto their chassis. I’m not sure who does the additional modifications as the both offer similar modifications to the actual teardrop itself, more stuff comes standard on the AT version, but it also has a higher starting price. Being the excel jockey that I am, I started running the numbers and it turns out after you crunch the numbers and compare everything the AT one is a little more pricy then a similarly equipped SCT.

Why is the AT more expensive? My guess would be their advanced suspension. It is some fancy stuff, but that ultimately ended up being what drove me away from Adventure Trailers….the suspension is much more fancy then anything I need (I’m probably one of the few who has not upgraded to Icons ). Really though it was about simplicity…the FJ is a complicated machine as it is, the least the trailer can do is be simple!

So I ended up getting the SCT Krawler, of course I upgraded a few things. Here are some of the options that I went for:
• LED light Package
• 4 Jerry Can Holders
• Tongue Box
• Interior Vent Fan
• Interior tie Down System (for gear lol!)
• Group 31 battery tray
• Kitchen Upgrade
And probably a handful of other things.

I decided to bring my own battery (Sears Platinum Deep Cycle) and wheel and tires (33 inch so they can swapped into the FJ if needed).

Will post once we pick it up. Happy Trails!

Red and Blue Lakes - Side Road Adventure

The route starts off of highway 88 and is within EDNF (El Dorado National Forest), the trail passes by Red Lake, Upper Blue Lake and Lower Blue Lake.  You could also head south on 9N01 at the end of the trail (near way point B on the map below), this takes you on a road down through twin lake and over through meadow creek.
We went around memorial day and actually could not make it through the entire route due to snow, if it has been a heavy snow season I would wait until mid/late June before heading out.


View Larger Map

This is an easy going trail that passes by a lot of great water features and some very nice camp sites (mostly established but there is one disbursed right after forestdale creek), the trail is not difficult and most AWD/4WDs will be able to make it through without a problem (barring any issues with snow!).  If you are a fisherman this area has some great fishing, but really the vast open scenery was the biggest takeaway for me (i'm trying to find some photos..but this was at least 4 years ago so i'm not sure where they have gone!).

Other peoples photos:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13622036

Special Note:
*You will cross over forestdale creek during your journey, but a bridge has been put in place, please use it as it lessens the impact to surroundings.
*You may pass by private property on this route, please be mindful of the land owners and do not make any unnecessary stops while on the private property.

Mosquito Road and El Dorado National Forest

El Dorado national forest is an amazing landscape full of vibrant evergreens, crystal clear streams and lakes. I also consider it my back yard :-). One of the benefits of living in Sacramento.  Mosquito road is actually a fairly simple drive on a fire road that is for the most part in decent shape. If it had not been raining for the last few days prior to our trip I think staying with the WJ's all wheel drive mode would have been plenty sufficient. However, given the rain we encountered I was happy to have option to lock the center differential.


View Larger Map

One of the best parts of this drive is going across the bridge at the south fork of the american river, it is a single lane bridge and only supports one vehicle at a time. It is an absolutely breathtaking river with spectacular granite formation and gorgeous backdrop:

There are very few spots along the bridge to stop, so if you see an opening take it! It is worthwhile to stop and admire the scenery! If you do decide to head down to the river be very careful as there is not a secure way down to the water.

You will drive for a while longer after the bridge before you hit dirt, from then on you cross by a few other water features before finally getting to Wentworth Springs road and stumpy meadows.

This is a pretty basic drive in the forest. I always feel safer in a four wheel drive vehicle, but an AWD station wagon, or a 2wd SUV could easily take this on... weather permitting.  When we went the red dirt had turned soft and the highway tires I had on the WJ at that point in time did their fair share of slipping...the red clay also forever stained the underside of that poor truck!

***Before going on any trail please check with the local ranger station as conditions do of roads do change!!***

Prior Trips

As i was thinking more about this blog I thought it would also be appropriate to share with everyone the prior adventures I have been on in my FJ, or my old Grand Cherokee. I apologize in advance since many of these trails were taken many years ago! This will be my attempt at list out the trail names (or at least the basic locations):

In the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee (stock - no quadratrack*) WJ:

El Dorado National Forest around mosquito road
Red and Blue Lakes
Pony Express Trail
Slate Mountain
Alleghany Trail
***Appologies for the stock WJ photo...i couldn't find one of mine!

In the 2008 FJ Cruiser - Modified (more details on the modifications at some point in time!)

McKinney Creek Trail
North Bloomfield-Bowman Lake trail
Deer Valley Trail
Strawberry Trail
Mount Watson/Watson Lake
Love Lady Ridge
Pacific Ridge Trail
Sierra Buttes
Gold Lake
Gold Valley

I think there may be a few more...very difficult to try remember these from the past. I'm pretty sure I have some photos of each. 




*For those of you that don't know quadratrack was an option available on WJs was advertised as having the ability to keep all four wheels in motion. As I have seen, anything that tries to be a locker is essentially not a locker at some point in time (when you need it most) will simple not deliver the torque required for forward movement.

Regarding a Trailer

So I have been in the market for a teardrop style trailer that has decent off road capabilities for some time now. While I don't consider myself a rock crawler, I love the concept of overlanding and just the general spirit of getting outside and communing with nature. My hope is that an off road teardrop will help me get out more...and in much more comfort!

Now there are obviously many options out there so I need to lay out some basic requirements:
1. It needs to be towable by my 2008 FJ Cruiser
2. It needs to be sturdy enough for miles of washed out roads and well designed enough to handle some fairly rough and rock trails. I'm not talking "rubicon" tough....but just a notch below.
3. It has have all the creature comforts i need/want including solid side walls, comfy bed, galley, and room for a fridge. Any additional storage and electrical wizardary is a bonus.
4. My wife (Katie) has to approve of it. This may be the most difficult requirement to meet! Approval of final pricing also has to be approved by her so i'm trying to keep it below 17k.

So I wouldn't consider these final requirements but they are a start. Next up...taking a high level glance at the available options for this niche.