Woke up yesterday and decided to hit the trails. I called up my buddy Michael, picked him up and decided we'd go look at some of the creeks and streams now that we've been getting a lot of snow and rain lately. Everything was roaring really strong with lots of white water! Had a great time, broke a swaybar link and don't care, it's already off.
Here's one of the Runner on the way out to deep creek (sorry for the bad pics, only had the cell)...

Here's one of deep creek (right under Dishpan for those of you who know the area)...

Another of deep creek (and my homie Mike)...

A couple of shots of the muddy Runner at Dishpan...


On the way to Dishpan, we heard a nice thunk, then another, and another so we pulled over and found the passenger swaybar link had bent and then snapped. Made sure the pieces were out of the way of the CV boot and kept rollin until I got it to my buddy's shop and took the swaybar off. My first impressions... wonderful actually. I feel the front end dip a little on tight turns, but not a big deal. Here's what the sway bar/link looked like, it snapped like a twig...

After the fix, we took it back out on the trails and I'm liking the new improved travel. I was going over and slamming down on some 1' deep mud ruts at full (or near full) lock and no rubbing. Removing the swaybar actually made my ride noticeably less stiff too, so for those of you who think your OMEs ride harsh, try taking it off, I'm soaking up the bumps way better now. Ahhh...you gotta love it when you break a part and not only do you not need to spend $$ to replace it, it actually improves the ride and performance!
So anyways, at the end of the day we went out North of the spillway for Lake Arrowhead, hiked about 1/2 mile and when we got down to the stream, it was moving fast! The lake is overflowing right now and this is the product. I told my buddy, "If you fall in, I'll race you to Victorville!". Here's some shots of the overflow...

 

Nice!

 

Definitely looks like a good time

 

Yeah, we had a blast. It's nice to see the water overflowing, it means the lake will be full all summer!

 

looks nice out there what was the temp??

 

Great pics! Really like the look of your truck (nice stance/black wheels)

 

Thanks guys!

It actually snowed 6" the day before at my house (which is at about 6000 ft. elevation and about 1000 ft. higher than where we were on the trails), but it cleared up and was in the high 60s on Sunday, so most of the snow melted and left lots of mud! Probably the nicest day we/ve had in months!

 

kinda off topic, but do you know if those parts of the creek have any fish? I've heard there is a decent population of native trout up there. Is the creek near the trail? I've never been to that area.

 

Actually, there is some great fishing down in Deep Creek. Fly only AFAIK. Don't know about this time of year with the fast water, but I've caught fish in there in the spring/summer (there's water year round). The 2nd pic in my post is of one of my summer swimmin holes (only it would be deadly right now!) and it's like 100 yards from the trail/creek crossing. Easy trails to get out there, there's parking at the crossing and it's a nice hike as far as you want to go up or downstream.

If you want to wheel the area too, the trail gets very difficult with lots of big rock gardens immediately after the crossing and if you're up for it, it will take you to Green Valley Lake, Holcomb Valley, John Bull and other great Big Bear trails. But it's no fire road, I think it's one of the top 10 off roader trails in CA. (I'm talking all after you cross Deep Creek).

 

Nice pictures Brian, this is the best time of year to live in CA!

Are you gonna leave the swaybar off? New links? Addco? Your testimony makes me wanna pull mine off and drive around for a while.

 

Thanks okie, yeah I'm gonna leave it off. It has been a big PITA ever since I lifted my truck... creaking, popping, constantly coming loose and making noise. I replaced a link about a year ago, now the other side broke... screw it.

I actually like it better, I can barely tell a difference on road (except it soaks up pot holes and stuff better - not as stiff), but it made my ride a lot better off road and gave me a bit more travel too. I haven't heard any rubbing so that's good.

 

Sounds awesome man. thanks for the tips. So how do you get to the creek? We ought to wheel it together sometime

 

Yeah that would be fun! Definitely hit me up if you're gonna come up here. Basically, you just take hwy 18 up the mtn, make a left on hwy 173 towards lake arrowhead, go about 2 miles and turn right at the entrance to the village (you'll still be on 173). Go about 2 more miles and turn R on Hook Creek road (go about 2 more miles again and it turns into dirt and within a few hundred yards the road will split and you'll see the deep creek sign. Go R and you'll be at the creek in about 1/4-1/2 mile and park. Continuing on will take you to GVL/Big Bear.