Over a dozen club members rallied in the Upper Kern River valley the first weekend in October. This particular club run is becoming one of our club members favorites. Brent arrived several days ahead of the main group to secure campsites in Calkins Flat, just south of the famed McNallys Resort.
Here we had space for at least a dozen campers including 3 expedition trailers, a couple of truck campers and motorhomes flat towing their jeeps, a couple of R-pod trailers as well as many tents which were able to be set up right near the river. 
4WD Trail expeditions began Friday with a warm up run along the access trail to the power plant aqueduct below the Fairview Dam. 
This provided some skill tests where multiple rigs needed to pull a 180 in a packed trail environment. 
Good opportunity to relearn the boundaries of your rig and test your turning abilities. 
Some stayed in camp and enjoyed the local stream for fishing. 
A few lively catches were made, yet the impact from increasing other explorers in the water did limit the number of catches.
Later on Friday most of the group proceeded up the Sherman Pass paved road to Forest Route 33E29. 
This trail takes us by some remote cabins and eventually a communications tower site overlooking the upper Kern River canyon.
After the lunch stop we connected to the Sherman Pass 4WD Trail to evaluate a challenging hill for the next day’s run.
This climb area presents a number of clearance challenges and allows us to precheck lines and bypass options for the following day. 
Next we followed the lower section of the Sherman Pass Trail which provided width issues, tight turns and steep descents.
Radio call outs of tip angles above 20 degrees were numerous. All went well, some new trail pinstripes were acquired and we eventually landed back at the pavement before 4:00 pm.
Another night at camp provided another artificial campfire circle. We followed the wood campfire restriction rules as the humidity was around 10%. 
Saturday we broke into two squads, one exploring scenic views and some easier forest trails on the western divide of the Kern and the rest tackling the full Sherman Pass 4WD trail.
The western squad saw a number of logging activities, cruised some side trails and waterholes. 
The eastern squad enjoyed the sights and bigger terrain challenges. 
Eventually each squad split again to accommodate personal choices, including a lunch stop at McNally’s Grill for some awesome burgers, fries and shakes.
One pair of the eastern squad chose to repeat the much tougher lower section of the Sherman Pass Trail the team had done the day before. Fortunately they were the sub group with the portable welder because a steering component bracket pulled loose on a J K and they were stopped. After removing their batteries to form the 24V needed to power the welder, they proceeded with a trail side repair. Via GRMS communications the rest of the squad agreed to give them 2 hrs to attempt this on their own before we put a crew together and head up for some additional help. They reported back within the time allowance they had it back together and were proceeding again. Everyone was back to camp before sunset and lots of stories to share around the (artificial) fire pit. 
In addition to a great adventure and while we had fun, we now understand the first weekend in October in Kernville is a very well attended motorcycle rally. This crowd impact plus the warm temperatures had many discussing a later event schedule for future years. 
Club Members: be sure to you use your member access to check out the 240+ photos contributed to this trip album.