April 26, 2007: Turning 93,017 miles at over 70 MPH, heading for Northern California and the annual Mendo Recce weekend. 
In 1994 a few Northern California Land Rover nuts took a reconnoitering trip to the Mendocino National Forest in preparation for a group trailing weekend. To keep everyone informed, Ben Smith created a list server and called it "Mendo Recce". Thirteen years later, the Mendo Recce list is still going strong, and so is the annual Mendo Weekend Rallye. What follows are some pics of the weekend. Some of the pictures are crap, because my camera is crap. Enjoy.
One approach to the National Forest takes you through an amazing hidden valley, past ranches and across cattle guards, then past a reservoir and finally to a number of trailheads.
Below: taking a quick break at a cross roads.
Above: Travis charges up the first trail in his '71 Series IIA. Travis was a little nervous about his rear parabolics, which are two-leafers, and got tippy last year. This year he ran a soft top and the truck didn't get tippy at all.
First mechanical glitch, four hundred yards in: Greg's 88 lost power on this steep hillclimb attempt. After three tries we decided to take another trail. The next morning we found goop in his fuel sediment bowl, which may have been sloshing back and clogging the line. It was cleaned out and the symptoms disappeared. (By the way, the lack of depth of field in this shot is misleading- Travis was safely back on a rise, out of danger in case Greg's truck had rolled back.)Here I am crossing the North Fork of Cache Creek. The water was way down this year, so no wet floorboards.
Next three shots: Settling in at Cedar Camp.
In the past, Cedar Camp has been under lots of snow. In fact, in 2003 we made camp at dusk in a blizzard. This year the conditions were perfect.
That's Eric Wilcox's super clean 109 wagon with the rooftop tent.
The creek bisecting the campground was bone dry. No fun!
Teri Ann Wakeman showed up with her "Green Rover", maybe the most well-known series rig on the West Coast. Three door with Dormobile conversion by Teri Ann, Ford 302 EFI V8 and T-18 gearbox mated to a Rover transfer case (Timm Cooper conversion), Rocky Mountain front discs, and numerous expedition minded mods. You would never know it used to be a hack for smelly goats.
On Saturday we hit a trail above camp. It was pretty steep with some tight switchbacks and ruts. Here's my 109 at the first step on the run.
Here's Travis powering up the first section (next three pics).
No problem with those two leafers here.
The first run of the day was a short one, leading back to the main road up the mountain, where we stopped to enjoy the view.A California King snake on the side of the road.
Here's Joe in his sharp 109 wagon crossing a log.
Joe got high-centered by the next log when it fouled his gearbox cross member.
The ground under the right side of the truck was much softer than the right and he dug in a little.
Travis pulled him over the log without any trouble.
Greg's 88 in the lead. He volunteered to soften things up for us since his Land Rover is a little rough. The next day it got a little rougher, but more about that later.
Once back in camp we worked on our merit badges. First, the campfire...
...then some banjo, courtesy of Linus...
...and then a little harmonica, thanks to Gran.
About Linus' 109: It is likely the only Park Ranger camper conversion in North America. There may have only been 15 of these campers ever built. As you can see, it has a vertical pop-top. Linus imported it from Blighty and has plans to correct the dreaded bulkhead rot common to home market Land Rovers.
Saturday night at Mendo is all about the potluck. I counted at least five varieties of sausage on the buffet table. Everyone traded trail stories and caught up with old friends, and the buffet was pretty much demolished by hungry, dusty campers.
...Then a few cigars and some single malt around the campfire, and it was off to bed.
Sunday morning saw everyone pulling up tent stakes and saying good-byes. A few of us had all day to get down the mountain so we had a quick driver's meeting and decided on the trails we'd take. Greg, Travis and I were joined by Greg's dad Ted in his '65 88 soft top, and by Paul in his Series III soft top.
Greg takes the steepest climb he'd made since the sediment bowl was cleaned. No trouble this time.
Ted and Greg scout ahead on a twisty sidehill climb. A few narrow spots between trees called for caution.
Second low, lumbering forward. My rebuilt gearbox and transfer case pulled flawlessly.
Ted's spartan 88 looking like a Land Rover should.
Paul's tough looking Series III underway. It is a civilian model but looks very military. Some mild body damage, olive green paint, a custom tire carrier, soft top- actually kind of menacing for a Land Rover. Paul drives it with gusto.
Another shot of Ted's 88.
It was about here that Greg stopped the group to tell us his gearbox cross member was coming off!
On inspection we found the non-factory welds had cracked. We lifted it with a bottle jack, strapped the gearbox around the frame rails, then strapped the cross member on both sides. Cletus engineering at its finest.
Paul takes the last section of canopied trail up to the saddle. The next section proved slower going when we encountered heavy manzanita growth and fallen timber. We figured this trail had not seen a full size vehicle in a good ten years.
My 109 takes a break while waiting for its turn up to the saddle.
Paul takes a bypass. By this time we were on the saddle and I was up front, but a huge fallen tree at a hairpin turn made it impossible to move ahead. The manzanita was so thick we had to climb over our rigs to scout the bypass.
Here's the last section. With frequent hazards and overgrowth, and Greg's cross member failure, It had taken several hours to go two miles or so. Good times.
At last, a clearing. Now we had to find the fire road down the mountain.
We soon realized we were not where we thought we were. In others words, lost. Paul's GPS was down, and it took some time to interpret the map since the trail markers were spotty. After scouting a few routes we found the way down.
The view was great.
About two hours later, I stopped on a grade on Bartlett Springs Road to wait for stragglers. You can just see Paul kicking up the dust far down in the valley.
Almost fifteen miles later, we got a nice view of Clear Lake from the descent of Bartlett Springs Road.
Travis and me, dusty and tired but having a ball.
Back on pavement, motoring around Clear Lake. We gassed up, aired up, and said our good-byes. Travis and I drove into the night through Napa and Sonoma, then over the Golden Gate Bridge at 10:30 and finally pulled into Travis' driveway an hour later. I drove another 300 home miles the next day.
Turning 94,001 miles at 60 MPH, somewhere near home.
Another great trip in the best 4x4xfar.
