A Ride Over Preacher Pass and a Loup Around the Mountains.

The Plan.

The plan was to invite John (the guy that bought Clifford) for a ride through the north Plomosa Mountains.
We also invited Denis and Sue, their friends Frank and Lise and Jo Ann and Dave.

We stopped at John's place to invite him but found out that Clifford had failed the smog test. John said that he fixed what the smog guy told him was wrong and was going back to Blythe to try again.

A change of plan.

We met the others at the fire station and after discussing the plan I found out that Frank had already explored the north Plomosa's pretty thoroughly so we decided to go over Preacher Pass instead.

The Ride.

We headed north on 95 to Plomosa Road where we turned east and drove to just pass mile post 7  where we turned south on a small trail. Here we stopped to air down the tires.

After airing down we headed out the trail. At the beginning of the trail is a small steep hill that we went over. It's not much but it is a good way to start the trail.

We followed the trail southwest across the flats and through several gullies. We went around the west side of the mountains.

Eventually got to an intersection where a trail goes east into the mountains.
We turned east on this trail and followed it to an overlook where you can see some of the Preacher Pass trail going up the hills to the south.

We headed along the trail going through the first big wash.

The first time Patti and I took this trail about seven years ago these washes were pretty challenging but now there has been so much traffic through here that all the big obstacles have been cleared so now its pretty easy.

We continued up the first steep hill.

From above we watched the other jeeps follow us along the trail.

 We went through one more wash that used to be the worst one but now is no problem.

We climbed the final grade to the pass.

Once on top we stopped to take in the view.

After standing around for a while taking pictures of each other we headed down the other side of the pass.

Once we were off the mountain we followed a wash for a while and found a spot to have lunch.

After lunch we continued along the wash until we got to Stage Coach Road. Here we headed north.

We stopped at the Vicksburg Arrow since the other folks had never seen it before.
Here is Denis trying to get enough height to get a good picture.

After leaving the Arrow we drove about a mile to a road that goes west along the north side of the mountains.  We followed this road west and stopped at a mine that I call the Double Decker mine as it has two levels inside.
The trail to the mine is washed out to the point that there is an uncrossable crevasse.
We could only get to an over look where we could see the mine from a distance.

From here we headed for Plomosa Road.
We stopped at the Quartzsite Arrow so the Canadians could take a look, then headed for home.

Jo Ann, Dave, Patti and I stopped at the Mountain Quail Café for dinner. We had the special (Salisbury Steak) it was quite good.

Okay that was our ride over Preacher Pass.