Hollister - March 25, 1998

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I didn't have a passenger with me to help take photos this trip, so there are no action photos of my 4Runner in this report. There's plenty of Jeep action to be seen though.

This turned out to be one of the most fun trips to Hollister I've ever had. This particular day I was wheelin' with members of the Esprit de Four club, based in San Jose. The most interesting part about this trip is how quickly the weather turned on us!! Or, I guess I should say, how quickly the weather turned on Dan Quezada, who brought his open-air CJ, instead of his enclosed 4Runner!!

This run started off, a little chilly, but sunny. About half way through the day, rather suddenly, it grew dark and hail began falling. Within the next 30 minutes or so we would experience, rain, hail, snow, and thunder/lightning. Wow!! For many of you, you're thinking "big deal," but keep in mind.......this is sunny Californina, and snow at these elevations, an in these locations is not common.

This is Dan Quezada's CJ. He'd been up till 3am the morning of this run, fixing the P-brake so he could bring the Jeep on this run. I heard him say at least a couple times he wished he brought the 4Runner this day....it was a weee bit too cold to be driving around w/o doors this day.

Here he's crossing what I've nicknamed "Mini Crack" This is the large crack in the ground at the base of Truck Hill. Dan was crossing it when his CJ got a really tipsy on him. Eric, John, and Eric hung themselves off the sides to bring the light side down. It worked well, and Dan got across just fine. Check out the smile he's got in that last frame. :-)

The only one to attempt Truck Hill this Day was John Skiier. His Wrangler was the only vehicle locked front and rear, so he had a bit of an advantage over the rest of us. We were all a bit surprised at the ease he went through the usual 'hard' section of it, and even more suprised when he had trouble near the top, where it's usually easy.

It seems that all the rain this winter deepended the tracks to the top, and even Johns 32" AT's weren't tall enough to keep him from getting hung up on the axles. He ended up taking a sideways approach, and was able to pass the section he was having trouble with.....then it was clear sailing to the top.

Just after John returned from the top of Truck Hill we all suddenly got hit with hail. We decided we wanted to head to higher elevation (Hector Heights) to see what kind of weather they were getting up there.

On the way there I spotted this (what looks to be a) Defender 90, sideways on 5 Fingers. We pulled over to watch what went on. As far away as we were it's hard to say 'exactly' what happened, but a Chevy came down from the top of the hill, and I'm pretty sure they winched the Def 90 straight. What got him in that predicament? We don't know, because we didn't see it happen. I do know the whole park was getting pretty slippery by this time.

This is just after I finished the toughest section of Fremontia. Unfortunately I can't take pics and drive at the same time, so I don't have ANY pics of my 4Runner in action from this trip. You can see from my tires just how slick and gooey the mud was getting.

The white TJ belongs to Chad. He didn't come with us, but we passed him and his friend Scott on the way up Fremontia, and they followed us along. In the first couple shots, Chad is having a BEAR of a time with the slick heavily rutted section I had just gone through.

He asked Joe Maleski (black CJ7) to pass him and give him a tug. Joe did his darndest to pass without incident, but the slope of the hill, the ruts, and the slick mud, pulled his CJ into Chads 97 TJ. LUCKILY, we couldn't find a scratch on either vehicle after we got them apart.

We talked Chad into backing up a few feet with his wheels turned hard right.....it worked, and the Jeeps were separated w/o damage. Then Joe had to get himself up this nasty sectoin of trail. He had to work at it a bit, but was successful.

Then we had to get Chad up. He was ready to pull out the winch, when I inquired about his air pressure....he and Scott didn't plan on staying long, so they hadn't aired down at all! He was at 35 PSI. We aired him down to 15 psi, and he gave it another go. We had to put a few dead branches in the deepest rut, but he made it through under his own power.

Eric Pretorious had an even tougher time, trying this section in his YJ with open differentials. Eventually he gave up, and Joe was kind enough to winch him through it. You can't see that hail actually falling in the shot on the right because I had to use a slow shutter speed because there was no light.......but we were getting POUNDED when I took that picture.

I took this one just to show all the hail that had fallen, and was still falling.

From here we got to the top of Hector Heights. That was about the end of the trip for me, so I headed out. I took only the easiest of the trials on the way out, but even still, the trip down the mountain was a fun one. All the water had made the trails a slippery mess, and it was sometimes hard to keep the back end behind the front end, coming down the steeper areas. What a blast!!