GOLD MOUNTAIN - BIG BEAR |
|
|
The Gold Mountain starts on the North side of the lake and runs 4.5
miles up to a fire road. My trail book says "A few steep rocky sections
that require a black diamond rating but mostly moderate." Our first "black diamond" in the nearly stock Liberty? Sounds pretty scary. I decided to go buy some tow straps. Good thing too, we needed them a couple of times. |
 |
The Liberty had no
problem with most of the trail. Our first trouble spot was a steep
section with a tree one side and a big rock on the other. We spun the
tires on the first try, then we moved a rock and made it the next time.
The top two pics are the first spot looking up and down. There were two more trouble spots, both were solid rock. We got totally hung up at the first one and almost made the last one. The tow straps worked great and got us out with just a tug. But by now we had another truck waiting behind us so we couldn't stop to take any pics. |
 |
The Liberty really did okay, although we really
worked the skid plates on the second rocky spot. I'm really going
to need some bigger tires and lockers if I'm going to keep doing
black diamonds though. The bottom pic was taken from a fire road on the south side of the lake. Most of the trails up there have some awesome views. Lastly, we tried to take the "Deep Creek" trail. We drove 45 mins only to find a locked gate. So be warned, call the Ranger ahead of time. |
 |
