To celebrate some ancient presidents, we went to Death Valley. I missed out on Saturday’s run that looped around to the racetrack, but I hear it was nothing short of normal, which is a little bit scary. Fortunately, the next day’s trip through Titus Canyon wasn’t such an adventure. We didn’t even get lost.

I’d never been on Clark’s Grade, but I sure like it! Probably because they smoothed out the rough downhill approaching the Bear Creek crossing. It also helps that our guide didn’t get us lost.

Other than Mr. Morey’s jeep and my Grand, there was the ever-confident silver FJ.

Oh, and don’t bother looking for blackberries at Clark’s Ranch. Tom M took the last of them. We did see a great spot for camping. I haven’t a clue where it is, but it’s in a beautiful valley. Tom M knows where it is, though.

We made it to Big Bear by about 12:30 for lunch, some shade, and some lively discussion on RVing. I learned that there’s not much point of having a shower because any campground with the necessary hookups also have shower facilities. And just because you have an RV, it doesn’t mean you can just park it and you’re all set (there’s some setup involved).

The run really was uneventful. The most excitement we had was seeing a forest ranger drive by during our creek rest break, knowing that most of us didn’t have the required forest adventure passes required for just hanging out. The second most exciting part was seeing Greg Hoffman drive by our rest spot and completely ignore us. Yep, real exciting. No mechanicals, no getting lost. It wasn’t a typical Freelanders run.

No fireworks, but Flipper is nothing but consistent. It was a big turnout to see the legend that is Flipper. He was careful. He was cautious. He was shut down by a dead fuel pump late in the first half of the game. Pat gave him a tow back down the hill. He’s probably never seen Silverwood Lake. It’s very pretty. Rumor has it that a more reliable Jeep is making its way across the country as we speak.

For those of us who survived, it was a pleasant outing. Many of the challenging side routes have been blocked off. I only took a few of the challenging routes. My 20 month old actually enjoyed the bumpy parts, so she’ll be out again. I took some video of a few Jeeps on one of the last downhill sections. Read on to see them.

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