The Santa Barbara 4WD Club joined the 2024 Goleta Old Town Holiday Parade on December 7, 2024. This year’s Parade Grand Marshals were the George Washington Hill Family and was also the largest in event history with more than 1,700 people and 83 entries joining in the festivities in Old Town Goleta.
Our club members decorated their Jeeps with a variety of decorations including a multitude of lights, garland, large lighted ornamental figures as well as various types of holiday themed inflatables including grinches, snowmen, nutcracker soldiers and even Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.
Everyone up and down the packed parade route were definitely in the holiday spirit.
With Christmas music abounding, the parade entered Hollister avenue at Orange Avenue and proceeded up to the Goleta Community Center.
The Goleta Old Town Holiday Parade is a wonderful community event that celebrates the holiday season and brings people together. We were proud to be a part of it and look forward to participating in future events.
Thank you to all the volunteers, sponsors and the Greater Goleta Santa Barbara Lions Club for organizing this event.
Bryan Slattery tallied the most runs and club events for the calendar year 2024!
Sometimes he was wheeling in Chub Chub, other times the Gladiator was the rig for the event. Give him a ring, he is usually ready with ideas for an adventure
Danny Kato earned the Club Rookie of the year, pulling in the highest participation points for a member in their 2024 inaugural year with the club. Danny led his first run, Trail Boss on the November 24 outing to Death Valley.
We had a great time camping at Stovepipe Wells, and we did three runs:
1. On Thursday, Brad and I went up Echo Canyon (FT43)
as far as the dry falls obstacle, which is about 12 miles up the road.
The obstacle is basically three rock ledges, and with more experienced people to help out, we might have tried it, but we turned around them. We didn’t explore the Inyo mine site, as we were running out of daylight.
2. On Friday, Dick Hoppe, Matt (from Lompoc) Brutosky, Brad and I went to Chloride City (FT 42), which was a fantastic, not too difficult run to some expansive views of Death Valley (Badwater to Stovepipe Wells and further north).
Dick is the only one who went up the last steep grade to Chloride Cliff.
He was happy to be able to finally use 4 Low. We also explored some mines that were in the area.
Then we kicked up a bunch of dust going down dirt roads across the desert and ended up in Beatty, where we had excellent BBQ for lunch. After lunch, we took an old railroad grade from Beatty to Rhyolite. There’s a ton of trails on the BLM land that’s in this area, and it would fun to explore it on the next trip.
3. On Saturday, the four of us did the Hunter Mountain Racetrack loop (FT39). Again, this was a not too difficult run, with the butt-puckering part being the narrow (no room to pass) shelf road descent of Lippincott Grade. More about that later. On the Hunter Mountain Road, we witnessed changes in climate zones as we ascended, starting with Joshua Trees, then Junipers, then Pinyon Pines (we think), then no trees at all. We walked on the Racetrack Playa, and saw the evidence of the rocks moving across the Playa.
Interesting fact; the Racetrack Playa is one of the flattest places on earth with a 2 inch elevation difference over probably 2-3 miles of length. Then lunch in a primitive campground a few miles to the south of the Racetrack, then the Lippincott Grade.
The road was rocky and slow going, but not too steep and totally doable. We were always worried about people coming up, as there is absolutely no room to pass, and a lot of backing up would have been required.
At one point, we saw a group of 9 vehicles coming up, and we were in the perfect and about only spot to pull over and wait for them to pass. It would have sucked had we met them further down the trail. Yay for good luck!
We ended the day blasting back down the smooth dirt road to the highway, and saw the most amazing cloud formation, lit up by the sunset.
Members: Check out the Club Members Page for pix and video. It’s worth a look!
This was a long day. We left just before the crack of 9am, and got back to camp at 6pm. Total trip length was about 160 miles. Well worth it!
If you’re going to Death Valley, and want any more info on these trails or the camping situation, please contact me.
Seven members of the Santa Barbara 4 wheel drive club hit the road last weekend for an early morning run for our November “Sunday Fun-day” run. After a short rally meet up we traveled up to the local Santa Barbara mountains where we met a couple more members and proceeded to traverse the West Camino Cielo Ridge Trail.
It was an absolutely beautiful Fall day with crystal clear skies. On the way across the ridge we were able to enjoy several challenging “off-shoots” that were new trails for some club members.
At the end of one of these “off-shoots” was a very steep, quite sketchy descent with deep, deep crevasse’s, large boulders and significant holes which could easily throw you into an off-camber pucker moment to remember.
After standing around pondering and scratching our heads for a while, a couple members after a few deep breaths decided to try it. After choosing their preferred lines, Bryan and Mike ended up making it down just fine.
With their experience, longer wheelbases and some skilled carefully planned driving they both navigated the steep rough descent.
After a couple more trails and some hill climbing,we all headed back to Santa Barbara by noon and enjoyed the rest of the gorgeous Fall day.
Club Members: Remember to check out the full image / video library from this trip within the Members Only section of our website. There you can see Mike and Bryan in action!
Mid -October on our scheduled Sunday-Fun-Day run, 8 members from the Santa Barbara 4 wheel drive club explored the Zaca Ridge trail near Figueroa Mountain in the Los Padres National Forest.
In July of this year the Lake Fire destroyed over 38,000 acres immediately in that area. The trail traverses along the top of Zaca Ridge with spectacular views of the San Rafael wilderness, Zaca Lake and the Santa Ynez valley.
The forestry trail leads out to a turn-around point approximately 60 minutes after leaving the pavement and travels directly through the burn scar and is a popular destination for trail runners, mountain bike enthusiasts and OHV lovers. It was stunning to see the devastation of one of our area’s most beautiful and scenic trails. It was also reassuring to notice that the burn area is already beginning to restore itself as well.
We were unable to take the side-shoot trail that leads down to the Davy Brown campground from the Zaca Ridge trail as it is closed because the Sunset Valley Rd leading back out to Happy Canyon is being completely refurbished so we proceeded back out to the Figueroa Mountain road and headed back to Los Olivos.
All in all it was an absolutely beautiful Fall day with amazing views and lots of peace and quiet in the backcountry.
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.
Our friends who organize Pour Overlander events in support of Valor on The Green once again encouraged club members to participate in their social event.
Several members brought their adventure mobiles and set ups
Talking adventures and encouraging others to get out and explore.
The event ( Valor on the Greens) seemed to be a success with merch for sale, breakfast burritos cookies and coffee. To learn more about this group, search
In addition to the club members demonstrating their Riggs, other members lent their support and social experience
Two complete sets of golf clubs were also donated to the valor on the green organizers on behalf of our club as well
Thank you everyone who got up early and came out and displayed their riggs on behalf of our club to raise money for our vets and first responders . As well as those additional club members who also showed for support
Our crew was lined up to begin pulling the 8 floats in the 2024 Fiesta Parade at 6:30 am. We were out and onto the streets at our assigned time, weaving through the street closure obstacles to fine tune our ability to judge where the float might contact the curb.
Tim knows this parade routine!
Kirk took the lead float which had an early horseless carriage and two sister with ties back to Fiesta in the sixties.
Next Brent and Noel pulled a float with many Former Spirits of Fiesta while others in the group walked.
Next in float line was the Carvers pulling the Chumash float
Followed by Liz
Next was the Allen group
Followed by Richard and Christina
Then Art
And commanding the 8th float was Mike and his group of dancers rocking the parade route
The 100 year celebration of the Fiesta Parade was a complete success. No mechanical, human, or logistical surprises foiled our contribution to the event.
After long consideration of the conditions in the Los Padres National Forest given the mop up of the Lake Fire, it was concluded that a Sunday morning run on Camino Cello from west to east was plausible and of low risk to those fire fighting efforts.
Part of the group met up at the 5 points spot with the rest joining in at Refugio Rd exit from the 101. This brought us to 15 rigs and 20 participants.
While we understood that David and Otis couldn’t join in today, we appreciated their encouragement at the rally point .
In the climb up Refugio we only encountered limited downhill traffic
This route elevated us 4,200+ ft to reach the communication towers.
It was amazing clear sky view from there, just a few lingering marine layer influences in some of the valleys below.
There was no smoke rising from the Lake Fire that we observed
However I did notice this in the capture after the fact – drone or aliens?
Or maybe just a little dust on my lense
We used this location to be a combination air down site and conversation point in the shade from the towers.
It was nice to see Lake Cachuma still stretching so far and wide.
We continued on Eastward and experienced a little dust, heat and a fair amount of 2 wheeler traffic. Oh, and one trail runner out for a challenge!
Reminder to viewers of this post, this trail is not an OHV restricted trail so you will need more than OHV tags on your motorcycle. We observed three USF rangers, one who was working through education with a group of 8 enthusiasts without a license plate .
As Mike Willam’s noted, this trail does provide the opportunity to some offshutes where you can test out your low gears, flex and lockers
It also provides the comfort that if they aren’t working, the main road is easy enough to still get home.
Back at the pavement we found more groups of explorers, nice to see our public lands being appreciated by the public.
With the mechanical repairs made, 15 club members set off on another day of the volunteering for the Old Spanish Days Fiesta Parade. Today’s activities included unstacking the floats, making sure the tires and carriages were in good shape, cleaning and staging them for usage.
A quick top off on the tires will ensure they roll easily. A task much easier to accomplish before they are placed on the ground
Next comes the debris removal as a years worth of items have happened
And finally they are lined up for one last maintenance of the chicken wire and to be ready for the decoration teams
They are large platforms with custom designed carriages developed and fabricated by the club. Everyone had a great day and we were complete within 3 hours of clock time!
Thankfully we were complete before the marine layer broke up
