BajaNomad

Mini Summit (powerline summit?)

PaulW - 3-7-2018 at 10:19 AM

!Made it going down hill!.
Started out with 6 rigs. Two broke down very early so 4 of us continued while the other two went back to San Felipe. We had lunch just after the summit where the road was OK. Then we spent the next 7 hours stacking rocks. winching, and jacking. I got home In El Dorado at 9:30PM. Then I patched up my arm when the tree I cut down fell unexpectedly and got my arm. The low hanging tree was about 6" diameter and was about 4' high above and across the route. This allowed all to pass.
So if anyone wants to do the trail now is the time because we made the darn thing passable. I guess I was the only one with damage physically. All the rigs had superficial body damage and one had suspension damage caused by bad driving. More rocks would result in zero damage to any of the rigs. -- Sigh --
What you need for this serious trail. Minimum 3 Jeeps all with winches to allow help from each other. 32/33" tires and appropriate lift. (Bigger is much better). It can be done without lockers, (and was), but they sure help. Everyone should have a big bottle jack to lift the tire to allow rocks to go under.
This is not the end of this thread because we have lots of pictures to post after we all get together and sort out the stuff. Yes, when we got tired of stacking rocks we took pictures.

TMW - 3-7-2018 at 11:53 AM

That was a rough section even at it's best.

bajatrailrider - 3-7-2018 at 03:06 PM

HAAAA trips where I need stack rocks for my 4x4 to pass not needed. I save those for the dirt bike good write up thank you.

track

PaulW - 3-7-2018 at 03:23 PM

Our Mini Summit track headed north on Hwy 5 to Clamaty then intercepted the power line and followed it to the summit. Then headed back to hwy 5 at 2 Poles.
The image is from the '1 second' file, but zoomed out for the purpose of showing the whole trip.






[Edited on 3-8-2018 by PaulW]

[Edited on 3-10-2018 by PaulW]

PaulW - 3-7-2018 at 03:33 PM

Some background
The Mini Summit was used by SCORE on the old days. Before hurricane Nora (1997) and has been pretty much dormant since then. There have been several documented trips by moto guys who drove it going west to east. 3 jeeps from San Felipe did the east to west trip and used winches most of the way about 5 years ago.
My records do not document when the last Mini summit was raced.
I found that Murdock Nav has the track on his GPS map so someone with a GPS did make a track at one time. I will ask him what the date was.

David K - 3-7-2018 at 04:47 PM

How about some photos? This may be right up Ken Cooke's alley?

PaulW - 3-7-2018 at 05:34 PM

The west side approach

After the summit


Very narrow passing the wrecked SUV


We all had to follow the leader down this

Rock stacking. All eight of us participated

The last pics before it got very dark.

The overhanging tree


David K - 3-7-2018 at 05:55 PM

Oh awesome... maybe even worse than going to Mission Santa Maria or the Pioneer Mine Road!!!???

bajatrailrider - 3-7-2018 at 06:11 PM

Real happy I missed that ride Jeeps are the best

rts551 - 3-7-2018 at 06:24 PM

cutting down trees? no wonder people get peeed at trespassers....and if it was public land...it is illegal.

bajatrailrider - 3-7-2018 at 06:37 PM

Dang RTS now your the tree police you have many jobs in Mexico.

rts551 - 3-7-2018 at 08:38 PM

No. As someone that likes to take my quad and jeep in the desert...I am jut sensitive to why it is getting harder and harder to do.

PeregrineA1 - 3-8-2018 at 08:37 AM

Wow! I last went over the mini-summit in 1992-93 as a part of the SF 250. Our truck, the pink GMC Jimmy if anyone remembers that pile of feces, got stuck twice going up the north/west side in the sand. We had to chase up to it in my old Datsun pick-up and dig/pull them out. Then we followed on over the top and down the rocks back to the highway (5). It was tough then, but the pics here are impressive. The old Datsun would have a tough time now....

PaulW - 3-8-2018 at 08:43 AM

Do you remember the Chevy wreck when in 1992?

bajatrailrider - 3-8-2018 at 10:12 AM

Quote: Originally posted by rts551  
No. As someone that likes to take my quad and jeep in the desert...I am jut se nsitive to why it is getting harder and harder to do.
Is it because your in populated area or what . As I'm in north Baja. I make trails every chance I get since 1976 still finding new abandon routes and cow trails. Only sad thing is we had big fires here. Good thing now you can see more abandoned routes. No worries on cutting trees as all burned down. Can not understand how the fires start as no ranchos in the area. Most ranchos burn there old stock wondering if sparks carry for miles.

TMW - 3-8-2018 at 10:23 AM

The mini summit was used in the 93 and 94 Baja 1000 as a loop inside the 1000 loop. I believe it was cut as a road for the power line service trucks to use but as mother nature showed her power it soon was put out of commission except for some races and hardy explorers.

rts551 - 3-8-2018 at 12:10 PM

Quote: Originally posted by bajatrailrider  
Quote: Originally posted by rts551  
No. As someone that likes to take my quad and jeep in the desert...I am jut se nsitive to why it is getting harder and harder to do.
Is it because your in populated area or what . As I'm in north Baja. I make trails every chance I get since 1976 still finding new abandon routes and cow trails. Only sad thing is we had big fires here. Good thing now you can see more abandoned routes. No worries on cutting trees as all burned down. Can not understand how the fires start as no ranchos in the area. Most ranchos burn there old stock wondering if sparks carry for miles.


Fire probably started by some trailrider. Believe me, where I live is much less populated than where you live... but anymore we can't just "make trails". We must stick to established trails. It is the "making of trails" that has caused land owners to be a little reticent about people crossing their lands. I believe you posted about problems with landowners you have had in your area. As Ron pointed out, things are changing fast...every year we wonder how much more is going to be cut out of the major races.

rich t - 3-8-2018 at 12:45 PM

rts551, As for the tree we did it a favor, it was almost dead, it was at the end of the trail and there was no going back up, the trail used to go to the right of the tree but was wiped out by the last big storm, we do not cut trees down for the fun of it, in this case there was no other option to get out and even then it was rough.

PaulW - 3-8-2018 at 01:55 PM

Quote: Originally posted by TMW  
The mini summit was used in the 93 and 94 Baja 1000 as a loop inside the 1000 loop. I believe it was cut as a road for the power line service trucks to use but as mother nature showed her power it soon was put out of commission except for some races and hardy explorers.

=
Hi Tom,
Your post got me to look again. The result of my research using Murdock for which races crossed the Mini Summit:
SF 250 = ’91, ’92, ’93, and ’94
1000 = ’94
Two of those maps are hard to decipher.
The first documentation Murdock made of GPS use was 2000?

The Power line contractor did build the road and the remaining side roads still exist. They are short spurs that go up the hillside as far as possible

New USR GPS file

PaulW - 3-8-2018 at 02:02 PM

I found another pitfall when converting the '1 second' Inreach file to GPX then to USR. The files are huge and the gpx to usr fails. So I cut out the fluff and created a small enough file attached.

As before the reader can use their own tools to create the smaller GPS and KML files for their own use.

Attachment: Mini Summit R.usr (52kB)
This file has been downloaded 330 times

bajatrailrider - 3-8-2018 at 06:21 PM

Quote: Originally posted by rts551  
Quote: Originally posted by bajatrailrider  
Quote: Originally posted by rts551  
No. As someone that likes to take my quad and jeep in the desert...I am jut se nsitive to why it is getting harder and harder to do.
Is it because your in populated area or what . As I'm in north Baja. I make trails every chance I get since 1976 still finding new abandon routes and cow trails. Only sad thing is we had big fires here. Good thing now you can see more abandoned routes. No worries on cutting trees as all burned down. Can not understand how the fires start as no ranchos in the area. Most ranchos burn there old stock wondering if sparks carry for miles.


Fire probably started by some trailrider. Believe me, where I live is much less populated than where you live... but anymore we can't just "make trails". We must stick to established trails. It is the "making of trails" that has caused land owners to be a little reticent about people crossing their lands. I believe you posted about problems with landowners you have had in your area. As Ron pointed out, things are changing fast...every year we wonder how much more is going to be cut out of the major races.
The fires where never started by trail rider as no trails there because of heavy brush. After fire I did in fact make new trails with owner permission. Only problems we have had here is the one that takes over 60 motos on a ride. He ruins it for all I keep my trails secret as there on Friends Ranchos. So yes I do make trails all the time but not on property of stranger. Since I'm local I know every rancho owner. Still I'm amazed that I can come up with new routes all the time. Where I ride there is nobody after 20 years. On one trail saw the owner on horse back he was happy to see us. To get a candy bar and cold water.:)

TMW - 3-8-2018 at 06:36 PM

Quote: Originally posted by PaulW  
Quote: Originally posted by TMW  
The mini summit was used in the 93 and 94 Baja 1000 as a loop inside the 1000 loop. I believe it was cut as a road for the power line service trucks to use but as mother nature showed her power it soon was put out of commission except for some races and hardy explorers.

=
Hi Tom,
Your post got me to look again. The result of my research using Murdock for which races crossed the Mini Summit:
SF 250 = ’91, ’92, ’93, and ’94
1000 = ’94
Two of those maps are hard to decipher.


Paul which maps are hard to decipher? I may have the original maps and course notes from when we raced it. My son and I did the SF 250 in 91 and my team did the 92 to 94 and the 1000 in 94.

PaulW - 3-8-2018 at 09:18 PM

95 1000 has confusing arrows for mini summit
91 250 is hand drawn ant we think it uses the Mini summit
The notes might help. Your take?
I have checked all the 1000 & 250 Murdock maps from 89 thru 97. I think that covers the list. I did not look at the notes.

TMW - 3-9-2018 at 12:27 PM

The 91 SF250 went down the mini summit shown as RM152 on the map.
The course notes are as follows:
RM150 Begin climb of mini summit.
RM153 Caution-descending mini summit.
RM156 Bottom of mini summit.
RM158 On powerline road.
RM162.3 Check Point 6, turn off powerline road (double checkpoint).

The 1995 Baja 1000 is a huge paper map that covers 8 pages of normal paper. It started at the Lucerna Hotel in TJ and went down the La Rumorosa grade.

From the course notes:
RM273.3 Left turn onto powerline road to mini summit.
Rm280.2 Top of mini summit.
RM282.2 Back on powerline road.
RM293.3 Cross Zoo road.

Interesting note, in the 91 SF250 race the mini summit was 3 miles long but in the 95 Baja 1000 race it was only 2 miles long. I guess it could be as to where the actual reference points were made.

Also the actual paper map of the 95 1000 shows the course crossing Hwy 3 at Borrego with an arrow onto the powerline road then the next map section shows an arrow before the Zoo road. It doesn't actually show the mini summit. Only the notes explain it.






[Edited on 3-9-2018 by TMW]

PaulW - 3-9-2018 at 05:36 PM

Tom, Excellent - Thanks

advrider - 3-9-2018 at 07:26 PM

I had no idea there was any good rock crawling down there! I need to load up my scrambler and come hangout!

PaulW - 4-10-2018 at 07:47 AM

Historical info of past Mini summit crossings
Races with associated with related pre-running
Races: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 San Felipe 250, 1994 Baja 1000
Then Hurricane Nora came in Sept 1997
The interval between 1995 and 1997 is unknown to me.
Based on local contacts here are other notable crossings.
Since Nora several bike guys have done the crossing down hill
In the winter of 2012 several Jeeps crossed going uphill with extensive use of winches.
In the winter of 2018 4 Jeeps made the crossing going downhill. Minimal winch use needed as compared to 2012.
IMO, based on my trip - Now the crossing should be passable for bikes and UTVs and similar rigs using large tire. Help from others doing the same thing would be required. High clearance is necessary for any rig. Still I would think a winch would be good insurance, because there are really large holes that a rig can fall into in the difficult places.

StuckSucks - 4-10-2018 at 09:37 AM

Thanks PaulW and TMW for the great info. I remember racing over that in probably '91 and it was not bouldery at all, at least not what you guys had to traverse. The photos tell all -- wow.

Paco Facullo - 4-10-2018 at 10:01 AM

THAT'S NO road !

Looks more like a dry stream bed ? Way too much work for me to have fun...

But, have at it Boy's......

TMW - 4-10-2018 at 10:51 AM

Back in the day going down was not to much trouble but going up was a real pain in the a**.

mtgoat666 - 4-10-2018 at 11:13 AM

those pictures make rock crawling look like work. if you are going to do physical work, why not do something more enjoyable like mt bike, hike up a mtn or go kayaking?
spending all day stacking rocks in the canyon bottom sounds like a wasted day!

if you really want to spend all day stacking rocks, I got a backyard that needs a new retaining wall

ehall - 4-10-2018 at 12:32 PM

Those kind of roads are not much fun on a bike either. How much of it was in the dark? Any rattlesnakes?

PaulW - 4-10-2018 at 02:45 PM

One rig slid off the rock and we had to anchor off to the side and winch him back in place. That took a significant amount of time even though it was twilight at that time. It got dark when he got past his problem. In the dark 3 or 4 people holding flashlights were used for tire placement. Of course I was last and it was very dark. Too dark to see snakes if there were any.
A trip to remember for sure.