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Matino Wash

Date: 
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Type:
Club Run
Leader(s): 
Michael Whittington
Rating (min):
3
Rating (max):
3+

Event Reports

Matino Wash

Submitted by Michael Whittington on Sun, 01/18/2015 - 16:00
Run: 
Matino Wash

Matino Wash
January 17, 2015
By Mike W.

Attendees:
Mike W. and guest, Jim Robertson
John C. and Nova The Wonder Dog
Bob B.
Sully
Russ M.

With the exception of John C. the group left the Porter Ranch P&R on time and headed out for the trailhead. John C. spent the night out nearby and met us at the Rattlesnake Canyon trailhead. After airing down and loading up, we all headed for Matino Wash.
The weather was perfect. Nice and cool in the morning without a cloud in the sky. It only got nicer as the day progressed.
This was supposed to be a snow run but unfortunately there wasn't a flake in site, not even in the shadows.
After turning into Matino Wash, at our first real obstacle, our only real mishap of the day happened. Sully broke the drivers (short) side front axle shaft at the u-joint. Thankfully, Mr. Sully had a spare with him. We made the quick repair and while we were at it, ate our lunches.
As always, Matino Wash is a lot of fun with plenty of challenges for any reasonably prepared crawler.
Once we exited Matino Wash it was still relatively early in the day so we decided to do some exploring in and around the Joshua tree forest. We followed one trail to the beginning of a mine that went into the side of the hill about 30 feet. We also visited a cabin that was now abandoned but you could see that at one time it would have been a really nice place to have. We also visited an old water well derrick and nearby artesian well. As we drove around the Joshua trees we saw obvious signs that quite a few people lived up there at one time. Most likely a long time ago.
We ran into one other vehicle while up in the Joshua trees; a very nice older couple trying to find their way to Big Bear. They looked to be in good shape and in no real hurry. We said goodbye and they went one way and we the other.
After we finished poking around the Joshua trees we headed back down Rattlesnake for the trailhead.
After we loaded up we said our goodbyes to John C. who returned to his motor home the rest of the group headed for Apple Valley and dinner at Nick's Pizza then we headed for home.
It was a long day but a good day. Thanks for making it so much fun guys!

Matino Wash Run

Submitted by John Labbett on Mon, 03/12/2018 - 00:00
Run: 
Matino Wash

March 10, 2018

It was a great day, it started at 6:30 am, at the Park-N-Ride with Mike/Laura Whittington, leading Kenny Lombino, Roman Cooper, and Bob Besch. Chad O. and family traveled separately. I arrived at the El Coyote Loco, in Lucerne, at around 8:30 am, to meet our guests Mike/Kristina Demers, and Brian/Brenda Harris. It was good location for everyone to converge. The breakfast was very good, filling, and it gave us a chance to meet and relax before heading out to the trailhead, where Diane and Richard/Vickie Hunt were waiting.

After everyone unloaded, we had our drivers meeting, headed up the road, and into Rattle Snake Canyon with nine capable rigs, all ready to handle the challenges of the day, at around 10:30 am. There was some rain, mostly during breakfast, then off-and-on throughout the day. The rain had the benefit of keeping the dust down, the clouds hung on the mountain ridges, and the temperature was very mild. Going through the canyon is always fun, we spotted several cows, and some quail, as well as, had lots of chatter over the radio.

We made one stop, to soak in the scenery, and took some pictures with a cow, prior to heading into Matino Wash.

The rock crawling starts immediately after turning into the Wash. The first obstacle is near the entrance, with two ways to get around it. Just past this “gate keeper” Richard decided to take on an extra credit rock outcropping, were he ended up getting high centered, and Chad ultimately had to winch him off the rocks. Of course, Chad had to attempt the same obstacle, and also found himself high centered.

The wash meanders back and forth with many rock challenges, fun lines, and several bypasses. Kenny handled things very well as this was his first “real” rock crawling experience. About a third of the way up is probably the hardest obstacle which is a large v-shaped rock formation, where the driver’s front wheel has to go up a vertical rock face, and the passenger side has to maneuver over a rock ledge, under cut rocks, and have a little extra oomph [maybe a sky hook] to get over, and the “sprinkle” of light rain made for a very challenging but fun time – and good video. There were only two of us that made it over – Kristina B., and I. The bypass also seemed extra challenging, maybe it was the extra moisture. Both the Demers’ and Harris’ JKs’ were amazing, but the 40’s on Mike/Kristina’s rig won out.

We continued up the Wash, had lunch, and were at the top around 4 pm. The end of the trail has another fun/challenging rock obstacle which gets your vehicle tippy as you slip and slide up and over the ledges.

Overall, the Wash proved challenging for short and long wheel based vehicles.

We circled back to Rattle Snake Canyon, made one stop on the way down, and were back to the highway at round 5:30 pm.

No breakdowns. Mike W. did have a “catastrophic failure” of his wheel well liner, but he tried to convince everyone that it was not worth mentioning. I’m sure that everyone was left with a few new “memories” on their vehicle. It was a good time had by all. Thanks for joining our day in the rain.

Robert Marshall