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Well, the Miller Jeep Trail & Lockwood Creek were
fantastic! I was very pleased with the quality and
difficulty of the run. Located in the heart of Los
Padres National forest, otherwise known as
"Gorman", the Miller Jeep trail offered some
spectacular views and 4x4 challenges. Attending
the event with vehicles and driving buddies were Sean
Poliseno, Scott Poliseno, Randy Scales, & Justin
Cryan. We all arrived and met up at the McDonalds
just outside the gates of the park. We headed into
the park around 11:00 am and hit the Miller Jeep Trail
head by 12:00. The first 30 minutes were
fantastic. Straight down the mountainside.
The pitch off of some of the rock ledges were pushing 80
+ degrees. Both Sean and I in the longer wheelbase
vehicles threw out backends high into the air, Sean
nearly tipping his rig over! We have some video
and pictures and I will be adding them to the site
within the next week or so. After getting to the
bottom of the mountain through the many switchbacks we
all were excited and looking forward to the next
obstacle. As the Miller Jeep trail ended the
Lockwood Creek trail began. Due to environmental
reasons the Lockwood Creek trail no longer runs up the
creek but they have created a by pass over a
mountain. Straight over a mountain. This was
one knarly hill climb. It wasn't very rocky but
there was no room for a mistake. To be honest at
first glance none of us thought that the trail was even
a Jeep trail but more of a dirtbike trail. Once to
the top we decided to stop for lunch and to enjoy the
vistas. After some chatting and food we headed
down the mountain through the most difficult sections of
Lockwood Creek. Through the woods even the Jeeps
had to make several 3 point turns. This trail is
tight and rocky. All of the toughest sections of
trail that we ran were down hill runs. The trail
can be and is often run in the opposite direction that
we took making all of the challenges up hill and more
difficult. All in all it is a great day run and I
am looking forward to taking the trails on in the
opposite direction again soon. As we all exited
the last trail over a nice little difficult drop off I
decided to see if I could get a cool picture of my
Toyota in the creek the trail emptied into. So I
drove over and down a small waterfall and turned
around. Hoping to get my tires up onto the rocks
for a nice picture opp. Well getting the front
tires up there was no problem but getting the rest of
the pickup up and out of the creek wasn't as easy.
After smashing many different pieces of metal under my
truck I picked a line that was able to pull me out only
because of the new locker I had installed. It has
already paid for itself. All in all a half hour of
arguing with my brother and very little damage it was
fun to push my truck and to see it perform. I hope
to see you all out on the next run!
Scott
Poliseno |
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