Southern California Club Xterra
Southern California Club Xterra => Off Topic => Topic started by: TerraX on October 28, 2015, 01:40:24 AM
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http://gravelmap.com/embed/5523&600,300,i,0,roadmap. So yea this was a fun not to do even with 33s....😜
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Interesting. I've always wanted to head up to David Mountain, but never gotten a chance to give the road a try. Was it only bad because it was night, or was it just bad all around?
There's remnants from an old missle testing lab back there in the hills, southwest from the peak. Nothing but a few slabs and maybe a water tank left, but I've always wanted to go check it out.
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There's remnants from an old missle testing lab back there in the hills, southwest from the peak. Nothing but a few slabs and maybe a water tank left, but I've always wanted to go check it out.
Aaaaaand now I kinda want to too!!
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Aaaaaand now I kinda want to too!!
The main site stretches from here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'47.5%22N+117%C2%B001'46.9%22W/@33.9131904,-117.0318761,480m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0) to here. (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'12.8%22N+117%C2%B001'49.2%22W/@33.9035494,-117.0325231,480m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0)
Looking at the satellite images, the roads look fairly passable from the Beaumont side near Mt. David (starting here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'46.6%22N+116%C2%B059'50.8%22W/@33.9129454,-116.9996291,480m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0)), but I'm a little worried now with this trail report about the road to Mt. David.
It also looks like you can access it from the Jack Rabbit Trail side here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B055'08.1%22N+117%C2%B003'05.7%22W/@33.9189212,-117.052676,240m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0), but that route seems to be gated off in a few spots. Which brings up the bigger question about overall access to this area - I'm not sure if any of this is private property or wilderness areas that would be off limits to motor vehicle access. I guess the only way to really find out is to get out there and avoid routes that have gates and no trespassing signs.
Seems like it could make for a fun day trip. That whole area is known as "The Badlands" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Badlands_(California)) and is riddled with tons of crazy little hills. It's a mecca for dirt bikes and quads, but is kind of a challenging area for SUVs, trucks and Jeeps.
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http://gravelmap.com/embed/5523&600,300,i,0,roadmap. So yea this was a fun not to do even with 33s....😜
The trail I took had ruts as big as the X and 70% of the trail had to be a foot skinnier than the body of the truck and I couldn't count how many times my tires were more than half way over a ledge. Oh yea and the countless near roll overs, due to nothing to split the difference on some of the huge ruts that riddled these nasty 40+ Pitch downgrades.
Either way I'm happy to be alive and would gladly come along with anyone to show them the line I took just pm me and let me know the day you want to go. Now I won't go down or up it again but I'll watch you for sure maybe even join you if u make it look to easy.........lol
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Which route did you take specifically/where exactly did you start? The map you posted says "Jack Rabbit Trail to Mt. David" but it shows your starting point as being way out in the middle of no where, close to where the old rocket facility is. Did you take Jack Rabbit Trail to the big gas pipeline road and head east from there? And if so, how far back were you able to get before it got super bad like you describe? Based on what you describe, it sounds like accessing the old rocket facility from the Mt. David side is a bad idea and I'm probably better off trying from the Jack Rabbit Trail side.
I've always wanted to go explore in this area, but it's sketchy with the terrain and I've heard there can be some sketchy characters out there sometimes too. I've never wanted to go alone but I've also never wanted to invite someone along in case it turned out to be a really bad trip
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Which route did you take specifically/where exactly did you start? The map you posted says "Jack Rabbit Trail to Mt. David" but it shows your starting point as being way out in the middle of no where, close to where the old rocket facility is. Did you take Jack Rabbit Trail to the big gas pipeline road and head east from there? And if so, how far back were you able to get before it got super bad like you describe? Based on what you describe, it sounds like accessing the old rocket facility from the Mt. David side is a bad idea and I'm probably better off trying from the Jack Rabbit Trail side.
I've always wanted to go explore in this area, but it's sketchy with the terrain and I've heard there can be some sketchy characters out there sometimes too. I've never wanted to go alone but I've also never wanted to invite someone along in case it turned out to be a really bad trip
The black line is where I went before I turned around.
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Ah, that helps tremendously. I can see now on Google satellite view where you started and how you went. Looks like you took David Mountain Road until you got to this trailhead here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'08.1%22N+117%C2%B000'32.5%22W/@33.902235,-117.0112057,624m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0) and then worked west. That does look like a pretty narrow trail on the satellite - much more narrow than the road to the north that I planned to take that begins here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'46.8%22N+117%C2%B000'12.9%22W/@33.913009,-117.0057767,624m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0) and runs west. Maybe I'll still give it a shot. :) Would you be up for another trip through this area sometime soon? I'd love to go find the old rocket test lab. :)
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Ah, that helps tremendously. I can see now on Google satellite view where you started and how you went. Looks like you took David Mountain Road until you got to this trailhead here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'08.1%22N+117%C2%B000'32.5%22W/@33.902235,-117.0112057,624m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0) and then worked west. That does look like a pretty narrow trail on the satellite - much more narrow than the road to the north that I planned to take that begins here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'46.8%22N+117%C2%B000'12.9%22W/@33.913009,-117.0057767,624m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0) and runs west. Maybe I'll still give it a shot. :) Would you be up for another trip through this area sometime soon? I'd love to go find the old rocket test lab. :)
Name the day after this weekend. I'll be free anytime after that maybe we can get a few more people to go that would be great!
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The Badlands are barely 10 or 15 miles from where I live, I'm in to explore. Whenever I poke around there I either run into a gate or a private property sign, but I haven't really looked around there in earnest yet.
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The Badlands are barely 10 or 15 miles from where I live, I'm in to explore. Whenever I poke around there I either run into a gate or a private property sign, but I haven't really looked around there in earnest yet.
This is my fear, Alex. I think the area is riddled with private property, and even some "fake" private property where they're trying to limit access to county land. I think if we go in from the right areas, we might be ok. I'm pretty confident the actual rocket site is county land, but the old Eden Hot Springs property to the south is for sure private property (about 400 acres, I think), and some of the property on the north off of Jack Rabbit Trail is for sure private as well.
My fear with leading a big group back there is that it could be a bust due to access issues (private property) or bad road/trail conditions. I wouldn't be able to make it out there until after the DV trip - truck is still in the shop right now having the 4WD repaired so this weekend is out of the question. But maybe a weekend or two after I get back from DV would work.
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Yeah, I wouldn't try a whole group out there without some more solid info. Not this weekend but probably later on I can look near the areas mentioned and see how it is.
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I'm just over in Moreno Valley as well. I live maybe 15 minutes from Jack Rabbit Trail. Haven't been back there yet but here's a YouTube video that shows the site of one of the test stands and may have some useful info in the comments. https://youtu.be/pHJqJV0AZso
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Awesome video! But....... that's actually a different rocket testing site, believe it or not. There are two different sites in the same general area - Laborde and Potrero - but they're on opposite sides of Lamb's Canyon (Highway 79) from one another. Through the extensive research I've done on these sites, I've learned that they began as smaller, independent companies from one another, and both were acquired by Lockheed Martin when their parent companies were bought up. Lockheed Martin developed several programs and weapons at the Potrero site, and used the Laborde facility on a smaller scale, mostly for testing. During the late 90s and early 2000s, Lockheed Martin sought government financial aid to clean up the sites and, because of this, there are some pretty cool environmental studies and reports that were done on both sites. These documents can be found online and include maps and other descriptions of the sites and what was done there.
The Laborde facility, which is the one I'm trying to access, is the smaller of the two at about 2000 acres. It sits in the hills north of Gilman Springs Road, East of Jackrabbit Trail, South of Highway 60 and West of Highway 79. The center of the facility is here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B054'23.5%22N+117%C2%B001'46.5%22W/@33.9065422,-117.030692,221m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0), and you can see all kinds of old concrete pads in the area if you scan around on the satellite images. Per the environmental reports and maps, the largest slab (in the northernmost portion of the site) was a rocket assembly factory, and there were several smaller buildings around the site used for various purposes. There were a few tunnels/bunkers for testing rocket engines (most may be gone now), and there is also a massive man-made hill known as "the prism", which was built to test radar systems and was constructed from the tailings of the tunnel/bunker diggings.
The facility shown in this video is the Potrero testing site, which is about 5 times larger than Laborde at about 9500 acres. It's located East of Highway 79, North of Gilman Springs Road, South of the southernmost tip of Highland Springs Ave. and west of Highway 243. It's a HUGE site and had facilities spread all over the place, including underground/hillside bunkers, buildings, factories, living quarters, etc. Nearly all remaining buildings were destroyed in the Esperanza fire during 2007. Because of the size and dispersed nature of the site, it's hard to show on satellite images, but it's roughly centered here (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B052'13.8%22N+116%C2%B056'27.8%22W/@33.8705054,-116.9432351,443m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0). Because it was used on a much larger scale, there are MANY more "goodies" to explore around there. But unfortunately, the area is all a state wilderness preserve owned by the State of California and controlled by the State Fish and Wildlife Department. As with all wilderness areas, motor vehicles are strictly prohibited and all access roads are closed off with high quality fencing and gates. The Fish and Wildlife game wardens patrol the area regularly, and I've heard of people being arrested or fined for driving within the preserve. It is open to hiking and hunting, but you have to enter on foot. Additionally, Lockheed Martin still owns about 900 acres in the dead center of the preserve. The groundwater within that 900 acres was too contaminated with chemicals and therefore, the state refused to purchase it as part of the rest of the preserve and the EPA required Lockheed Martin to clean up the ground water. Lockheed Martin uses an environment contractor to maintain ground water monitoring and clean-up equipment at the site, most of which is contained within an underground bunker left over from when it was still a rocket testing site. The bunker is heavily secured and has extensive video cameras, and Lockheed Martin uses a national defense contractor to patrol the site and keep trespassers out (that's probably what people are talking about in the comments on the youtube videos where they say they were escorted out by armed guards). There are lots of stories all over the web of people in black SUVs patrolling the site with AR-15s or M-16s (mostly in the late 90s and early 2000s), which of course has led to many conspiracy theories that there is an underground military base and all kinds of other crazy stuff. But, simply put, you're allowed to access all of the site except for the center-most portion, but you have to do it on foot. Lockheed Martin still owns the center-most portion and doesn't let anyone in because they have a very expensive and sensitive groundwater cleanup operation taking place there, but some people have successfully accessed this area and there are some photos around the web.
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Great post Joe...you are definitely in the next time we head to Groom Lake. ;)
Sent from Cygnus X-1
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Very nice Joe! Knowing that the Potrero site has legal hiking access to the outer portion gives some hope for exploration, and I'm hoping the Laborde facility will have similar qualities.
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My roommates grandfather used to work for convair at sycamore canyon down here testing atlas and cruise missiles.
We used to hike out to them quite often but one time, my friend and I decided to go down into one of the underground bunkers.
Huge mistake as the rope we had brought broke. My other friend who didn't go down ended up finding a large piece of steel cable and we used that to climb out... I'm pretty sure it was haunted down there as there were some crazy noises down there and our flashlights stopped working right after the rope broke. Have not been back there since.
Sent from my rooftop tent while stargazing
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My roommates grandfather used to work for convair at sycamore canyon down here testing atlas and cruise missiles.
We used to hike out to them quite often but one time, my friend and I decided to go down into one of the underground bunkers.
Huge mistake as the rope we had brought broke. My other friend who didn't go down ended up finding a large piece of steel cable and we used that to climb out... I'm pretty sure it was haunted down there as there were some crazy noises down there and our flashlights stopped working right after the rope broke. Have not been back there since.
Sent from my rooftop tent while stargazing
Now that sounds like the makings of a good Halloween movie....
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Jordan, that's crazy!
Joe, what area is this (https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B052'13.8%22N+116%C2%B056'27.8%22W/@33.922566,-117.0123486,2129m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0)?<--Google Maps Link.
We always called it Beaumont
We use to ride our dirtbikes there as kids.
I seem to recall concrete structures in that general area. Nothing as extensive as the video someone posted, more like bunkers.
I once was chased by a pack of dogs there. That was scary.
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Steve - that's the same area where TerraX was wheeling at night, and is the same area as the Laborde site. The concrete structures you saw were probably part of Laborde. In the image on your link, there's a wide dirt road toward the left side of the image that runs north-south in a pretty straight line. Toward the bottom of that road in the image is the first concrete slab related to the site, which was the assembly factory. If you follow that road south a little (scroll in the image), you'll see a bunch more concrete pads where other buildings used to be.