4runner – Page 2 – Not Your Average Engineer

October 1, 2019December 13, 2021

Truck Maintenance Day

Over the weekend I rebuilt the front axle bearings and replaced the tie rod ends. There’s always some sort of maintenance to do on the truck.

December 23, 2018December 12, 2021

Bald Mountain in the Snow With Dmitri

Snow Wheeling in the Central California Sierra Nevada

Over the long holiday weekend, I took Dmitri up on Bald Mountain outside of Shaver Lake, California to go play in the snow. While the steepest parts of the route were clear of snow, there were several feet of the white stuff to play in on several tree-covered sections of trail. Here are a few photos of our fun.

Dmitri and I traded time in the drivers seat on our way up the mountain. On the flats, there was about 2-3 feet of snow. As long as we stayed in the ruts, we did fine. If we got off into the heavy, deep, and uncompacted snow, it became much more challenging.

We had to stop off at the Hollywood Hills area to take some photos on the poser rock.

Hanging out on the poser rock. The Central Valley was completely shrouded in low clouds and fog. We could see the coast mountains in the distance.

Driving around on Bald Mountain is so much fun any time of the year. In the snow, it’s a great game of figure-out-where-the-trail-goes. There are a lot of different tracks bashed in the snow going in all different directions.

The old fire lookout is on top of Bald Mountain in the background.

Looking out from the lookout tower on top of Bald Mountain.

My little 4runner did a great job getting up the mountain. We saw a few other old 4runners and Toyota Pickups on the trail. There was a SxS and one or two Jeeps as well. It was a pretty quiet day all things considered.

My 4runner and someone else’s 4runner. Our two runners looked pretty good together.

An interesting note: this is the first time I’ve used the new WordPress Gutenberg editor. I’m still on the fence about how it works. Uploading multiple images is now more complex and annoying. But these blocks are pretty nice.

May 6, 2018August 14, 2018

Taking the Albino Rhino up to Dinkey Creek

We took the Albino Rhino up to Dinkey Creek to take the hard top off and put the soft top on.

Playing around out in the meadow at Forked Meadow.

The water retention systems are working pretty well.

Truck looking good!

Up on one of the logging roads.

The “Grand Canyon” is starting to fill in. After every winter, it gets a little better.

The spring was flowing well.

Some snow plants pushing up through the forest floor.