Topic: Southeast Hemet (Sage/Cactus Valley area)

[JFanaselle]

I LOVE to explore. My dream is to know every square inch of the world before I die. Since that is a bit out of reach, I will settle for exploring every dirt road and trail around Southwest Riverside County, and maybe even extend into San Diego and San Bernardino Counties. Being a photo journalist and specializing in wildfire and extreme weather photography, it's important to have a thorough knowledge of roads and trails wherever I may find myself shooting an incident. It can literally be the difference between life and death.

While shooting some extreme weather yesterday, I found some great roads and trails just southeast of Hemet in the Sage/Cactus Valley area. Because of the extreme fire danger, I stuck to the wider roads and didn't take any trails that had no place to turn around without going into the brush. Afterward, I looked the area up on Google Earth and while there is alot of private property, plenty of these trails are actually mapped roads that wind and twist around through the hills in the area. I spent about an hour driving around the areas of Hemet Ranch Road, Newby Road and Lawghlin Road before taking Crown Valley Road to Rawson Road and headed back into civilization.

Rawson Road is a fairly-well maintained dirt road that runs east/west through the hills that divide Lake Skinner and Diamond Valley Lake. Almost all of the land in that area is a nature presure and you are not allowed to leave the roadway (there are actually barbed-wire fences on both sides and signs every 300 feet or so). There are, however, a few VERY beautiful massive ranches with rolling hillsides, large private lakes and countless antique oak trees. Rawson Road then dumps you out at the intersection of Scott Road and Winchester Road (Hwy 79), right back in town. It's a beautiful little valley that most people don't even know exists. A great little drive if you're looking to kill an hour or so.

I didn't snap many photos, but I did take a few at one overlook spot I found along Lawghlin Road in the Sage area with a beautiful view of the east side of Diamond Valley Lake and the the entire Hemet Valley. I will absolutely be back to do some more exploring in this area once the fire danger subsides.

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[Ghost65]

Cool shots...make sure you check out Bee Canyon Trail, on the east side of Hemet/Hwy 74.

[JFanaselle]

I'll be attending Motorpig77's run in October, which I believe will include Bee Canyon. Looking forward to it!

[2013nick]

Very nice, the area you are describing sounds just like what an old coworker described as his ranch so you much have been near his proporty

[Ghost65]

I'll be attending Motorpig77's run in October, which I believe will include Bee Canyon. Looking forward to it!

There are some cool geocaches on that route...

[RBduffer]

Yeah, Bee Canyon is a nice trail with an open shooting area early on, and a very little creek crossing and great views.

[LBSlide]

Hey JFAN how did you mount that winch....looks all stock....trying to do the same thing


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[JFanaselle]

I actually purchased the setup from another member on here (Lava) who spent a great amount of time and labor fabricating the bracket himself. I believe he got his hands on a set of shrockworks bumper brackets and welded a winch mounting plate and some other supporting steel directly to them. Had to do quite a bit of cutting and trimming to get it just right, but there is plenty of room for the setup.

The whole setup replaced the OEM bumper and is probably twice as solid in terms of holding up to an impact/accident. It does, unfortunately, lack the "wings" that would protect the sides of the front end in an off-center collision, and I've been thinking about having someone weld some tubing or something off to the sides to address this.

The plastic along the lower part of the "bumper mouth" had to be trimmed a little to accomodate the setup, but it's a very factory-style look. If you've got the fabrication skills, it can be done with some time and patience. I, unfortunately, don't have the skills or knowhow and am fortunate that he sold it to me. There is always the RockyMtnX bracket to keep the OEM look, but it's a little pricey after shipping and powdercoating.

Here is what the setup looks like without the plastic bumper cover (I have since swapped out the winch line for synthetic and changed the fairlead to a Hawse style):

Southeast Hemet (Sage/Cactus Valley area)