COMPLETED - 2013-10-19: Second Mountain/Dictum Ridge (GWNF)

[firefox2501]

Matt, a friend of mine, invited me on his work get together off road ride. He drives an FJ Cruiser and the rest of the group was driving Jeeps. I of course had my TB!

We were originally planning on doing Flagpole Run (again...) until we found out that the NOVA Jeepers were having their annual foliage run on Flagpole. They had ~40 Jeeps on the trail. So we switched gears and did an out and back on Second Mountain. After lunch, the Jeeps decided they wanted to go home - but Matt and I weren't ready to leave yet. The FJ and the TB did an out and back on Dictum Ridge, which turned out to be a very enjoyable rock garden trail.

Definitely a beautiful day and a great day of wheeling!






Plenty of room to turn around at the gate closing the tail end of Dictum Ridge:

[RyansTBLS]

Looks beautiful!

[Trail X]

Nice, glad you got to see the rest of those trails. Dictum does have a couple good spots, but its way at the bottom. How long did the trails take to complete? I don't remember myself, but for some reason they seemed long last time.

[firefox2501]

Dictum: The bottom is closed off now - probably because it was so washed out. The picture above with trucks facing different directions is the turn around point at the gate. We hiked down to the closed/major washed out parts and it is stuff that I would not want to do without sliders. The bridging ladders would get some use too.

The out and back for Dictum took about and hour and a half, but we were taking it easy enjoying the foliage. And there were just the FJ and me - and both of us know our vehicles pretty well.

Second Mountain: the bottom of it is effectively closed now, too. It goes on to private property several miles past the high tension power lines that we visited on the last day of TECORE 9. For this section, we toke it slow because in addition to the FJ and me, we had 6 jeeps - two of whom had never gone out before. Add to that the hour that we stopped for the standard "Jeep on a rock" pictures and the 2 hours stopped for lunch and it was a long morning.

We hit second mountain at about 11am, stopped for lunch at about 3pm. The jeeps left and the FJ and I started Dictum at about 5pm and we we were at the bottom airing up (same place as TECORE air up) by about 6:30pm.

[firefox2501]

I will say that I enjoyed the ride, though. The next ride that I lead will do the same route with other drivers. I am tentatively planning one for late November, but I need to make sure that Thanksgiving does not interfere.

Since I will be planning it, it will be posted here and over at wrangler forum.

[firefox2501]

I just looked at the time stamps on my video footage and I got my times wrong...

11am - air down, started filming, Long Run rd to Second Mountain.
12:10pm - paused filming, stupid "Jeeps on rocks" pictures...
12:50pm - restarted filming, continued Second Mountain
2pm - stop for lunch, paused filming
3:50pm - Jeeps left, restarted filming, FJ and TB started Dictum
6:10pm - stopped filming at the bottom of Long Run Rd, air up

I will probably through together a quick "Highlights" reel and post it here...

[RyansTBLS]

We'd like that!

[HARDTRAILZ]

Nice. Dictum was the trail I tried to do in 2wd drive without spinning a tire, but goosed it once and slipped a tire on the way back up. That bottom rocky section would be rough. Some good holes in there to hang ya up.

[firefox2501]

From the sounds of it, the best memories of this trail is the section that is now closed...

It is a shame, I guess...

[dvanbramer88]

Nice Mike. Looks like a fun afternoon.

[firefox2501]

Here is a "highlights reel" of the ride.

Note that there is no audio because I couldn't decide on a song...

[mikekey]

Colors sure are pretty this time of year in VA. I miss that. Looks like a good time.

[firefox2501]

I know what you mean. I lived in Cocoa Beach, FL for 2 years. Definitely missed the seasons!

[dirty anton]

Nice Trip! Wonder What It Would Take To Get Those Closed Trails Open Again. Maybe Some More Local Jeep Clubs Could Coordinate With The Gw Forest On A Weekend Voluntary Wheeling/Trail Maint Bash. You Get 80 Jeepers (Like The Breast Cancer Run) Alot Of Things Would Get Accomplished! Sorry Just Thinking Out Loud. From What I've Learned A Trail Would Have To Be Made To Get Out Of The Bottom Of Dictum Because Once Down There Alot Of People Can't Make It Out So Their Only Option Is Driving Through Private property. Is This True?

[Trail X]

Yep, and I believe that is why it was closed. The property owner got tired of people driving through their lot. Same thing on second... the neighborhood below the trail got tired of people driving through. The only way to get the bottoms open would be to find some other right-of-way, and make a new trail. I doubt the forest service wants to do that... but who knows.

[v7guy]

I've always wondered if groups could go through and repair the trails and get them opened up or extended or if it was purely up to the state.

[RyansTBLS]

I know the central Oregon offroad club is the reason there is so many offroad trails on blm and FS land. They clean them, patrol them, help with SAR, and always carry cb to report any smoke away from trails. We might get one going here in NE Oregon.

[Cable810]

I've always wondered if groups could go through and repair the trails and get them opened up or extended or if it was purely up to the state.

The club that I'm a member too we maintain a ORV Route. I don't think we can go as far as to repair but I'm sure if we were to ask if we could the DNR might let us repair it. Depending on the damage I'm sure. We were working on getting one extended and the DNR keeps shooting us down...