Heart Bar Peak – Big Bear

Run Report by Flatty Mike
On Sunday Sheri & I took the short drive from Heart Bar campground to run Heart Bar Peak, Trail 1N38. The trail head is only 1.5 miles easterly from the campground turn off on Highway 38. My power steering pump had started failing on Saturday during the Adopt-A-Trail maintenance, but being that this trail was just a long walk from camp I decided to make a go of it anyway. The first obstacle came at less than a half a mile in – a fallen tree was blocking the trail. “Are we going back?” Sheri asked. “Uh, no” I replied. This was the perfect opportunity to use my old school Warn winch.
I had saved it from a '63 CJ3B I used to have. This sucker weighs a ton and I’ve never really tested it except for in my driveway. With all four wheels chocked with rocks (my e-brake cable broke on Saturday) and Sheri stomping on the brake, the winch just dragged the Jeep towards the tree. It was wedged in by other trees on both sides of the trail – so on to Plan B.
I took out my axe and chopped a notch in the trunk a few inches deep. That along with breaking loose the smaller limbs from the uphill side allowed the winch to snap the tree and break it free. I pulled it back and off to the side of the trail and we were underway.
This trail is adopted by Jeeping Jeepers, but it didn’t appear that anyone has been on it lately. It's hard to say how long that tree has been there. The majority of the trail is easy / moderate, but it earns its “more difficult” rating from a couple of long steep climbs as you near the peak. They’re littered with loose rock that will spit out behind you as you try to maintain your momentum. Vehicles without at least a rear locker may have some difficulty on these climbs, but it’s probably do able with a willingness to stay heavy on the pedal.

After a short rest at the summit we headed back to relieve my babysitting mother-in-law. Coming down the steep, loose sections I was really pleased with my newly lowered crawl ratio (110:1). Descending with engine compression, not relying solely on the brakes, gives a great feeling of control. No issues other than my now fried power steering pump forcing me to make a couple of three point turns at some of the tighter switchbacks. Sheri caught a glimpse of a deer darting up the hill as we rounded a corner. Total time, excluding tree removal, was under two hours. This would be a nice little detour for the club to run some afternoon after finishing up trail maintenance on 1N37.

12 Volt Trail Drill

I've seen write ups on this before, so when I came across this 12v Makita Drill I decided it was a good time to make a portable drill for my Jeep. The concept being that you'll always have a usable drill on the trail, not needing to worry if its battery is charged or if the charge will run out

I found this one on Craig's List for twenty bucks! It came with a flashlight, and a case. No battery, no biggie, I didn't need it anyway since I wired it to work off a 12 volt car battery. I took the case apart and soldered some wire connectors to the battery contacts. Then I attached those to a standard 110v electrical cord prong. Then by plugging that into a spare extension cord with some alligator clips attached, I can now hook up to a battery. I'll make a similar conversion for the flashlight as well and the extension cord can be used to power either device.


In place of the charger and battery in the case I'll load up some drill bits, grinder discs and cut-off discs.

Now I just need to make room for it in the Jeep!







By Flatty Mike