Big Bear, CA
I quiet mountain community full of back country adventure.
John Bull Trail 3N10
The John Bull Trail 3N10 has the solid reputation as one of the toughest and most challenging trails in the Big Bear mountains of San Bernardino County. This trail should only be done with in a group of well-equipped short-wheelbase vehicles. Lockers are recommended, but not always required. The entire trail is strewn with boulders of various sizes. There are also a number of sharp drop-offs along the way. Be prepared for scratches, dings and flat tires. This trail is not for stock SUV’s.
The trail is part of the “Adopt a Trail” program through the National Forest Service, and has been adopted by the So Cal Broncos (east end) and the Waywegos 4 Wheel Drive Club (west end).
Running the trail west to east is somewhat easier, there is a campground at the western starting point. Most off-roaders prefer to start at the east end of the trail. The official start point is off of the Burnt Flats Trail (3N02), although many catch it at the end of 3N32.
Around April/May 2009 the ends of the John Bull Trail 3N10 has had more boulders pushed in to make more difficult “gateways”, which prevent under-equipped 4x4s from running the trail.
A Forest Service Adventure Passes are required if you plan on stopping along the way. As of September 2016, forest visitors parked in standard amenity recreation fee sites in the four southern California national forests must display a valid recreation pass. This includes sites on the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests. Such is the once great state of California.
Trail Summary
| Name | John bull Trail |
| Location | Big Bear, San Bernardino, California |
| Length | 14.4 Miles |
| Elevation Gain | 1768 feet |
| Route Type | Loop |
| Difficulty | Difficult |
John Bull Trailmap
Website Overhaul
In the past few weeks, the Destination4x4.com website was overhauled to better comport itself to a higher standard. At its core, Destination4x4.com is a list of places that I have been, researched and / or places I want to go. These places are places that interest me, for whatever reason. I have found many of them from family, browsing the web or searching google earth.
The website is going over an overhaul at the moment and work is happening in the following ways.
Resources
Recently, I was on a fellow explorers website researching a site and he / she was lamenting that they were tired of people copying from their website. They made the statement something along the lines of quit “copying my content” and “do what I did and google it”.
At first I felt rather guilty. I was on another website and learning about a site with the intention of writing my own article. Then, I became annoyed as I was simply doing what they did and I found their website. This person is complaining about something that he/she never did. Give Credit where Credit is due.
In an effort to be as honest and informative as I can, I then and there decided that I was going to “do it better”. I am currently in process of adding resource links back to the source material for every page I publish were it is referenced. For example, the definitive research tome in Nevada for ghost towns is “Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps” by Stanley W. Paher. Much of his work serves as the backbone to Wikipedia and all of those who ghost town in Nevada owe him a lot.
Overtime I will add more book reviews, resources, useful websites, research,etc… to the website from my library. It will take a while.
Trail and Area Maps
When I first considered Destination4x4 as a website, it was based around the concept of interactive trail maps. At the time, Google offered their mapping API essentially for free for smaller websites. At first, this allowed me to build maps with Google Earth and then save a KML file which I could then use to produce an online map.
About two years ago, Google decided to charge for this service and started watermarking my maps with “For developer use only”. To date, Destination4x4 is a loss and does not make any money, so it is difficult to justify spending anything on Google.
Over the past two years, I have search for various plugins for WordPress which allowed for free mapping. They all would do somethings well, but not others. I finally stumpled upon WordPress OpenStreetMap Plugin. This is a free open source wordpress plugin which allows me to publish KML file maps. Thank you!
Trail Lists
Additionally, I have done some polishing and clean up my lists on the website. Prior to this update, a list of locations would just contain a title and link to the page. Now, the lists will contain a featured image thumbnail, the title and a description. Essentially this is a little tweak which makes the site look and feel nicer.
Server Upgrades
Destination4x4 runs on a Dell poweredge server installed next to my desk. It runs on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux and features an 8 core processes, 32 GB of RAM and 3.2 Terabytes of Storage on a RAID 5 drive.
WordPress was complaining about running on an older version of PHP 5 and really wanted to run on PHP 7. So about two weeks ago, I made that happen and supposedly the site is supposed to be faster.
Additionally, the server is minifying and caching better, so hopefully the web server and web site are faster for all.
Goodsprings Nevada – Clark County Ghost Town
Goodsprings, Nevada is locate about seven miles west of the I-15 near Jean, Nevada. Mining activity in the area started in 1868 when a group of prospectors formed the New England district and since renamed the Yellow Pine. Early efforts where soon abandoned due to the lack of silver in the ore. The prospectors soon moved on, and Joe Good remained and the local springs were named for him. In 1886, several prospectors from Utah came into the area and founded a permanent site which still exists today.
In 1892, the Keystone gold mine was discovered and established during an increase in activity due to the completion of the Nevada Southern Railways from Goffs, CA to Manvel. The Keystone mine remained active until 1906 and produced some $600,000 in gold before closing.
1901 saw the consolidation of several mines into the Yellow Pine Mining Co. Only the highest grade ore made it cost effective to deliver to the railroad in Manvel, some 45 miles away from the site. In 1905, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroad was completed to Jean, Nevada which shortened the distance to deliver down to 7 miles. Mining activity continued to flourish with improved mining technique, higher mineral costs and lowered delivery costs all of which lean to a peak in production between 1915 and 1918. During this time the site boasted 800 souls, several stores, a post office, hotel, hospital and a weekly paper. As with many towns, mining production and profitability waned and the population fell.
Goodsprings Mines
- Alice Mine
- Argentina Mine
- Belle Mine
- Columbia Mine
- Cosmopolitan Mine
- Fredrickson Mine
- Green Copper Mine
- Hermosa Mine
- Hoosier Mine
- Iron gold Mine
- Lookout Mine
- Keystone Mine
- Lavina Mine
- Middlesex Mine
- Surprise Mine
- Table Top Mine
- Yellow Pine
Goodsprings Nevada Trailmap
Titus Canyon
Titus Canyon has it all, rugged mountains, colorful rock formations, a small ghost town, mines, petroglyphs, wildlife, rare plants and spectacular canyon narrows as a grand finale! Titus Canyon is the most popular back-country road in Death Valley National Park and just plain fun to run. The canyon is easily accessible from Stovepipe wells and Furnace Creek.
Although the Grapevine Mountains were uplifted relatively recently, most of the rocks that make up the range are over half a billion years old. The gray rocks lining the walls of the western end of the Canyon are Cambrian limestone. These ancient Paleozoic rocks formed at a time when the Death Valley area was submerged beneath tropical seas. By the end of the Precambrian, the continental edge of North America had been planed off by erosion to a gently rounded surface of low relief. The rise and fall of the Cambrian seas periodically shifted the shoreline eastward, flooding the continent, then regressed westward, exposing the limestone layers to erosion. The sediments have since been upturned, up folded (forming anticlines), down folded (forming synclines) and folded back onto themselves (forming recumbent folds).
Although some of the limestone exposed in the walls of the canyon originated from thick mats of algae (stromatolites) that thrived in the warm, shallow Death Valley seas, most of the gray limestone shows little structure. Thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) of this limey goo were deposited in the Death Valley region. Similar limestone layers may be seen at Lake Mead National Recreation Area and at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
At one of the bends in the canyon, megabreccia can be seen.
Leadfield was an unincorporated community, and historic mining town found in Titus Canyon in Death Valley National Park.
Titus Canyon Trail Map
Old Mojave Road
The Old Mojave Road (Government Road) is an east-west route that enters the Mojave National Preserve off the highway 95 in Nevada, and Afton Canyon on the west side. Some sections are rough and sandy; 4 x 4 recommended. Roads can become slick, muddy and impassable after rains. Be sure to inquire about road conditions, especially if you plan to cross Soda Dry Lake.
The Mojave Road is party of the Old Spanish Trail, which is a 700 mile long historical trade route that connected the northern New Mexico settlements near Santa Fe, New Mexico with those of Los Angeles, California. The Old Spanish trail’s rugged terrain discouraged the use of wagons. It was always a pack route, mainly used by men and mules. Used by Indians to transport goods from the southwest to trade with the Chumash and other coastal tribes, this route later served the cause of westward expansion. Military forts were established along the route to protect key water sources and provide assistance for travelers.
The route at one time was for all intents and purposes lost until Dennis Casebier and Friends researched the route and reestablished the trail as if it know today and is a popular four-wheel drive road.
The eastern section of the Old Mojave Road leaves US 95 in Nevada near Laughlin moving westward. The eastern section climbs up to Fort Piute and continues past an old corral one a rocky climb. Once up on the plateau, the road continues to travel west to Nipton Road.
The central section starts at Nipton Road and continues west to Kelbaker road near Baker, CA. The road starts rather narrow with high brush offering the opportunity for some new desert pin-striping.
A short declination which offers the only real obstacle near Rock Spring. Burt Smiths cabin and the Government Holes water offer short hikes and distractions from the trail. Once you cross the Kelso Cima Road, about 5 miles of “whoop de doos” will rock you to sleep. The center section offers the most to see, and if you choose one section, this would be it in our opinion.
The western section leaves Kelbaker road and continues west into the dry soda lake south of Baker. The western section of the route can best be described as dry and sandy. A larger mine complex and Afton Canyon are the major sights.
In addition to over 100 miles of 4×4 trail, the Old Mojave road offers access to mines, old homesteads, and other 4×4 routes. The Old Mojave can be run either way and in a single long day, or in thirds with access being provided from Kelbaker road out of Baker or the Nipton Road in the the East. However, for the best experience, take your time and run the trail in Multiple days and overnight in one of many primitive or established Campgrounds.
Old Mojave Road Trail Map