Red Elephant Hill Sunday - Sunday 8/30

[gcmandrake]

Sorry for the late posting of this run. (Blame me, I've been really flakey this entire year.) I was thinking of running Red Elephant Hill on Sunday morning (8/30). It's not a bad trail unless things have changed in the last year or two. I plan on running it in my mostly stock FJ Cruiser.

Currently we plan to meet about 9am at the Downieville Burger King. CB Channel 4? It's supposed to be a little stormy in the afternoon, I think. We'll plan on Red Elephant Hill and use Bill Moore as a backup, in case I can't remember the trail. There's a nice place for lunch beside a creek.

If I remember correctly this is not a nice trail to run in inclement weather. There was only one tricky place on the trail, and as long as you stay to the left you're fine.

 

[Air Randy]

Dee and I are in with the Mule. I think our friends with a J**p, Guy & Sue are coming too.

 

[RicardoJM]

At this departure time, I might be able to get back in time to watch my niece and nephew. How long till we would be at trails end? I might even bring them along - Randy does the Mule have a back seat for my niece?

 

[gcmandrake]

I'm not exactly sure. There are some bailout points, but we'll be testing my memory. If it's a small group, we'll go a bit faster.

 

[Air Randy]

At this departure time, I might be able to get back in time to watch my niece and nephew. How long till we would be at trails end? I might even bring them along - Randy does the Mule have a back seat for my niece?

Sure does, room for 2 with seat belts, bring em along. What a great thing for kids to get out and do!

 

[Jacket]

At this departure time, I might be able to get back in time to watch my niece and nephew. How long till we would be at trails end? I might even bring them along - Randy does the Mule have a back seat for my niece?

When I ran it a month ago, I started REH around 10:15, and made it to Bill Moore Lake before Noon. There's a couple of tippy, somewhat tricky sections of REH, but otherwise it's just a narrow hillclimb so you can move quickly. If its a small group, I'd bet you could be up there pretty quickly. But REH has a bunch of forks in the road, so don't take a wrong turn...

 

[RicardoJM]

Could the LX470 do this REH? I took it up Bill Moore a couple of years ago and it did just fine. Remove the running boards and push the lift it 3" button and it has more ground clearance than the Bronco.

 

[Crash]

Some of the tippier section of trail is right above the only real switch back on the front portion of Red Elephant. There are aspen that line the section and can be unavoidable along the roofline in a 60 series. When you get to the top of RE you can go left to Bill Moore, easy, or you can turn right and head down to the creek and some serious rock garden action that gets pretty narrow in places too. Not for a casual trip in the LX470, IMO, Ricardo, and the 40 would be more at home here.

 

[myfirst80]

i did red hill and bill more on my lx470 this year with out damage i did coney flats plane crash too and much more so lx470 is good off road but not like my new 80

 

[MDH33]

I agree with Steve. It's a really narrow trail and you'll likely be banging your sides/roof into trees with anything wider than a 40. look at the trip report from the 2008 40's Only Run for pics of REH.

 

[RicardoJM]

I'm currently bypassing the oil filter on the FJ40, so I'm going to not make this run - bummer.

 

[gcmandrake]

I'm so sorry about the late cancellation of this run. I've had to take some pain meds this morning for my shoulder, so I am unable to drive (at least not safely). I'll try to PM everyone, but I really appologize for the trouble.

The Other Matt

 

[Air Randy]

Sorry you couldn't make it. We knew something was up when by 9:30 no one else had showed up at the meeting point. So I called Ige and she checked online and confirmed the run had been cancelled. Bummer.

So we went to the Spring Creek trailhead and hung out for about 15 minutes until a group of Jeepers came along and they were kind enough to invite us along. So we ran Spring Creek, had a great run and met lots of nice people, AND there was not a cloud in the sky and it was in the low 80's. Not a rain drop to be seen either until we got down to I-70 and C470.