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30th Annual Sierra Trek!!!
This run was held August 8-11, 1996 and several of our members attended who will be named as the story unfolds. First on the list is Dave Wheeler who drove down to Meadow Lake on Thursday and set up a mini golf course by himself as the Lost Coast 4x4’s contribution to the Sierra Trek. We also donated a 60" Hi-Lift jack to be raffled off on Sunday with the other prizes. I heard there were $30,000 worth of merchandise and I can believe it. I hauled my Jeep to Sacramento Thursday night and spent the night at Jeff’s house. Josh Hampton and Gene arrived at Jeff’s Friday afternoon in 108 degree heat, riding in Josh’s Jeep with nothing on but a bikini (the Jeep that is) needless to say they were burned out. We were going to visit a few 4x4 stores before we went up to the Lake, but it was too hot. After Josh and Gene cooled down some, we decided to hit the road to Meadow Lake where Dave was busy running the mini golf course, taking in money for CA4WDC. Meadow Lake is located about 35 miles north west of Truckee, with the last 8 miles extremely dusty and some of it extremely rough! We got to the lake, just as it was getting dark and met Dave, who had saved a nice spot for the Lost Coast members,
this was very important we discovered when we got a look a Meadow Lake base camp, there were tents, trailers, motor homes and 4x4 rigs all over the place, it looked like a small city, with distributor and manufacture exhibits set up in the middle with booths for just about everything in the 4x4 line, plus the stage for live music. We put on our colored bracelets, which was our ticket to the big show and wandered around the camp for awhile before calling it a day. Since we had to drive back around to Eagles Lakes the next morning for vehicle inspection and staging at 6 AM, we knew we would have to get up early, naturally, no one thought to bring an alarm clock A couple of guys camped next to us, said they were getting up a 2 AM and that they would wake us. I woke up to someone pounding on my camper shell at 1:45, when I managed to get my eyes open, I discovered it was Carl Brandt and Bryan, who had driven up from Eureka in his RX7 to see what all the excitement was for "Sierra Trek". We all got up and headed for Truckee, ( Carl’s son Bryan went along as Dave’s passenger and Carl went to bed) where we intended to fuel up and get something to eat, it was rather cool this time of morning, riding in Jeeps with bikini tops but the coffee in Truckee sure tasted good. We went on down to the Inspection and Staging area, arriving at 5 AM, an hour before our scheduled staging time, nothing to do after airing down (Max. tire pressure allowed was 16 lbs) but wait and try to nap, sitting in a Jeep! There were already rigs all over the place, we thought we were in the first group at 6 AM - Wrong! There were 4 groups ahead of us. This was for the short wheelbase section only. Steve Tatman showed up at 5:30 with Mike Stapleton as passenger, that made 4 rigs from the Lost Coast 4x4’s. At approximately 6 AM, they staged our group of about 25 vehicles, inspected them for tires, battery hold downs, tow straps, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, etc. After inspection, a drivers meeting was held in which they informed us of the rules, gave us all a packed lunch and sent us off into the unknown. Channel 20 on the CB was used by the trail crew to inform base camp at Meadow Lake of problems, such as breakdowns, it was not to be used by the participants, except to listen to the various problems along the trail, and there were plenty of breakdowns. Broken driveshafts, starters, transfer cases, fuel problems, we spent a good part of the day, sitting in line, waiting to get a rig going or out of the way. If you break down on the trail, you fix it on the trail, the trail crew will get you the necessary parts. At this time, we hadn’t even got to the first winch hill and it was afternoon. When we did get to Winch Hill #1, traffic was backed up, due to a Jeep with a dead battery, the trail crew packed a battery up the hill to the rig and they got it going again. Winch Hill #1 was fairly easy due to the great spotters at the V-notch. We started moving pretty good after the Winch Hill (3 MPH is pretty good) and soon we were at Winch Hill #2, Josh was in front of me, doing real good until they stopped him near the top, due to a huge boulder in the trail they wanted to move, Josh said he could go over it, but three guys picked it up and threw it on the hood of Josh’s Jeep, turns out it was a phony rock the winch crew used for their entertainment, they also pulled it on Tatman when he came through. It is funny, especially when you’re next in line and can see what’s going on! About this time we heard on the radio that a Jeep had rolled on Winch Hill #5, no one was hurt, but it made us sit up and take notice since we would be there shortly. After going over Winch Hill #3 and #4 and the narrow slot, which prevents wider rigs from taking this route,
we found ourselves at the base of Winch Hill #5. I don’t think this is the toughest Winch Hill, but it has several sharp turns in it, including one at the top, which is where the Jeep had flopped over on it’s side. After you make it to the top, it’s just a short way to Meadow Lake on a gravel road, so Josh, Gene, Jeff and I waited at the top for Dave, Bryan, Steve and Mike, who were about a half hour behind us, along with a bunch of people who come down from the Lake to watch the action. Dave and Steve made it up the hill with no incidents, so we drove into camp about 6 PM. 12 hours to go 10 miles! When you don’t even average 1 MPH, that’s a trail! After cleaning off some of the trail dust and having something to drink, noticing the chow line was backed up to Reno, it seemed, Jeff and I decided to drive into Truckee and have dinner. I don’t think we could taste the food, we were so tired and sleepy. We got back into camp about 11 PM. We had been up 21 hours. The band was playing at full volume but I fell into bed and was out like a light. We all slept in until about 7 AM, (except for Steve and Mike, who had left after the run) when they started honking the horn, indicating that breakfast was ready and what a breakfast it was! Ham and eggs, french toast, fruit, milk, juice, rolls, etc, etc. After breakfast, we went to the vehicle show, bought a few Sierra Trek souvenirs and went to the raffle drawing to seek our fortune, which we never found. I loaded my Jeep on the trailer and left for Sacramento before the drawing was over in order to miss the mass exodus from Meadow Lake (1600 rigs can raise a lot of dust) although a lot of people had already departed. It rained a few drops as I got to Highway 89, but it was 107 degrees when I got to Jeff’s house in Sacramento. Jeff stayed for the entire raffle drawing and got home about 2 hours later. Contributed by
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