Hollister Hills SVRA
February 22nd, 1997

Trip Report

Note - for some reason, my camera was taking
blurry pictures on Saturday (sometimes). I suspect
I had the shutter speed set too low, but who knows with
these computerized automatic cameras, anyway?

Introductions

On Saturday, February 22nd, 1997, a bunch of people from the Jeep-L and the Offroad List arranged to do a day trip to Hollister. I went down with the usual cast, and included a new member to our little "Hollister" club from the Jeep-L.

The cast (in our little group) was:

• Jon Hylands (that's me, '85 CJ-7)
• Joe Maleski (fellow Jeep-L'er, '83 CJ-7)
• Joe Sand (from the offroad list, '83 CJ-7)
• Brian Smith (from the Jeep-L, '90 Wrangler)

Brian brought his 2 1/2 year old son Lucas, and I brought my two-year old son Nicholas. Joe Sand brought his six-year old son Charlie, and Joe Maleski came alone.

We met up at Joe M.'s house at around 8:30, and Zen showed up to try on Joe's old shocks. He got really excited when Joe pulled out a couple Rancho RS-9000 shock boxes, but of course the boxes held the RS-5000 shocks that Joe replaced with his 9000's. Oh well... :-)

So, in no time, Zen replaced his rear shocks with these, and we got on our way. Neal, a friend of Zen's, also showed up in his killer Cherokee. Brian Smith met us there as well, and we left on our way. It was pretty cool to travel in convoy with five tough-looking Jeeps. Two CJ-7's, two Wranglers, and a Cherokee.

We met up with Joe Sand as we were pulling into Hollister, completely by fluke. We also met another guy who was in a newer stock wrangler while I was gassing up, and since he didn't even know where the park was, we offered to escort him. So, we were now seven Jeeps on the way to the park :-)

We pulled into the ranger station, and there were half a dozen Jeeps sitting there, airing down. David Gray was there, as were a bunch of other people from his club (Gettin' Off) and/or the Offroad List. We paid the entrance fee, and aired down as well. I decided to run 12 psi in the back, and 15 psi in the front.

Once we got to the schoolhouse, we locked & rocked and headed up to the obstacle course, where most of the people tend to hang out. We each did the usual stuff (stair step, frame twister, tire pit), and then headed off for what was going to be the highlight of the day, the creek-trail run.

The Creek Trail

The Creek Trail is probably one of the nastiest trails in the park, especially at this time of year, when the water is still running a bit, and the ground is still soft. Most of the tough stuff is at the lower end, where we start from. The trail is basically carved out of the bottom of a canyon, with pretty-much vertical walls on the side, ranging from a couple to 25 feet high. There are a number of obstacles, and it's very tough (or at least time consuming) to anchor a winch (if you're fortunate enough to have one).

Joe Sand was the first one through, which, in retrospect, was probably a mistake, since he's open on the front, and limited slip on the back. However, he does have a winch, so he was able to get through. Joe Maleski went in next, followed by Brian (who is open), and I brought up the rear. The first really tough obstacle was a steep mound, about six feet high. The water had carved a couple big grooves in the trail, which made picking a workable line somewhat difficult. After scraping a bit of the hill off with his little shovel, Joe Sand gave it a shot, and promptly got stuck. He tried for a few minutes to get up the hill, but it just wasn't going to do it for him, and he kept digging in deeper. Finally, we decided it was going to be a winch-out, and he anchored his cable to a tree up on the side, and pulled himself up and over, and promptly got stuck at the next hill, about thirty feet up the trail. Oh well.

Joe Maleski tried the first hill next, and we determined after a number of tries, it was a winch-only hill. Since he has a winch, he also pulled himself up. Brian gave it one shot, and then we hooked a tow-strap to him from Joe's Jeep, and tried to pull him up the hill. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to be working all that well.

We eventually decided that we could be doing this all day, and since the trail only got worse, Brian and I would turn back and go out. Joe & Joe decided to keep going, since they both had winches. Also by this time, there were a bunch of guys behind us, lined up, and everyone had to back out.

After another hour, Joe Sand had made it out, and we went looking for Joe M. on foot. He was in a bad spot, but it only took us another half an hour to get him out.

All in all, it was a pretty wicked trail, and I think we'll try it again when the ground is a little drier.

The Rest

After we got done with the creek trail, we headed back to the obstacle course, and then on to Five Fingers. We all went up the hill with no problems, and sat around at the top for a few minutes. We decided we wanted to do Truck Hill as well, and headed back down and over that way. Brian decided to head out at that time, since he had a much farther trip home than the rest of us. On the way to Truck Hill, I spotted a very interesting looking side trail, and we decided to run it. It was basically a mini-version of the creek trail, with the exception that you could actually drive this one :-) Near the end of this trail, things were getting kind of hairy, and I watched Joe M. get his Jeep over on his side pretty far. I decided to try a slightly different line, and boy was it interesting.

I had always up to this point assumed my end point of side-to-side stability was about thirty-five degrees. I know better now. I got my back left tire in a hole, and my right front tire reached for the sky. Joe M., who was watching commented that he had never seen a Jeep hooked up that far. He asked me (over the CB) if I could hold that pose, so I jammed my foot on the brake, balanced precariously, while he snapped a quick shot with his camera. I glanced at my levo-gauge, and was kind of surprised to see the little black ball pinned to the edge of the gauge, which reads all the way up to forty-five degrees. The Jeep felt like it was right on the ragged edge of balance. Now, it may have been that the side of the tire was holding the Jeep up, but somehow I doubt it would take the weight without having the Jeep fall over, so I'm inclined to believe that I was really tilted over to forty-five degrees, plus tilted back a bunch, and balanced there.

Anyway, I backed down, and took the same line that Joe took, and got past that little obstacle. Amazingly, my son didn't complain even a little bit throughout the whole thing.

After that, we went up to the top of the park, right up Fremontia to the end. My son fell asleep about half-way up, and he was dead to the world for the next hour or so. We parked at the top for about half an hour, and enjoyed the awesome view. We headed back down, and cut over towards Truck Hill on the way down so we could climb it (neither Joe had ever tried it). We went down Hill Climb Return road, and the went up Truck Hill, one at a time, with no problems. It was starting to get late, so I suggested we head down and start heading out, with a stop at the sand-pit on the way out. Joe M. wanted to stop at the obstacle course, so we went there first, and ended up sitting looking at the mini-rubicon. Earlier in the day, a Hummer had gone through, so Joe M. decided that Jeep honor was at stake, and he was going to do it.

We walked the rocks for a few minutes, deciding where the best line was. We picked out the line over the tough spots, and Joe got in his Jeep (and I grabbed my camera). He started inching his way through, until he got the middle section, which was probably the toughest part. He tried a couple of times to get on the rock that he wanted to take, and then got out to look.

Joe Sand suggested a different tack, involving a sharp left turn. Joe M. & I both agreed that it looked better, so Joe backed up about a foot, and cranked it hard over to the left, and slipped through just perfectly. The rest was relatively easy, and Joe was pretty happy about it, since he had made it through without any assistance, without requiring any rocks to be thrown, and without using a Hi-Lift.

Anyway, at this point Joe Sand got a little red in the face, since he had sort of parked in the first ten feet of rocks, and managed to get both his front and rear differentials high-centered at the same time :-) We hooked a strap to him from Joe M.'s Jeep, and pulled him free.

After that, we headed down to the sand-pit, and played around there for a while. There was a big blue pickup there, lifted, with big tires and a big V8. I always find it funny how these guys go up the sides of the sand pit, gunning their engines, spinning madly, making lots of noise while bouncing wildly. Then, me in my little four-banger Jeep go up right behind them, sedately idling up in first gear, without spinning a tire...

At this point, my time had run out, so I said good-bye to Joe & Joe and headed out to the schoolhouse gate, where I stopped to air up. I was halfway through when Joe M. pulled up, so I offered to air him up, and the Joe Sand pulled out, and I aired him up as well. Gotta love that on-board air :-) Plus, being able to do two tires at once, and check the air pressure without unhooking anything, makes airing up or down very quick. Joe and Joe are both getting pretty jealous of my air setup, so I suspect they'll be building their own pretty soon....

Return to the Trip Reports Page