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August
11 –16, 2001 The idea to combine the Sierra Trek (Fordyce Creek Trail) with the Dusy-Ershim Trail started back last winter (like most 4x4 runs do). Mike Eagan and I wanted another opportunity to do the Dusy again after last year’s attempt, which we didn’t finish due to breakage by a guy that went with us. Mike had not run the Sierra Trek, and since the Trek was on the way to the Dusy, it seemed natural to combine the trails because we could save about 600 miles of traveling if we did them both at once. I discussed this idea with our club, trying to get as many people to go as possible. I knew that it takes quite a commitment to take a week off from work, and drive more than a thousand miles. As the time grew closer, we did end up with some who could only do the Sierra Trek, but there were a few who could get enough time off to do both. I will try to get the names in as best I can, although after 40 plus miles of rock crawling, (and not writing anything down) I’ll probably leave some out. Thursday (8/9) - I departed Fortuna around noon, trailering my Jeep CJ5 behind my Dodge, and drove to Jeff’s (my son) in Cameron Park, where I spent the night. Friday (8/10)- - Jeff and I drove up to the Eagle Lake area (near the staging area for the Sierra Trek). Jeff and I decided to run up the road to Cisco Grove to get some lunch. As we were finishing up, we spotted some “Lost Coast 4x4’s” rigs pulling into the gas station. They turned out to be Carl Brandt, with his passengers, Richard Oliver and Ashley Sutherland; John Ayres with his son Chuck, and Ted Schuette with his son Steven. They were headed for Meadow Lake and planned to camp there for the night (which meant they would have to leave Meadow Lake at 2AM to drive back to the staging area the next morning). We went back to the Eagle Lake Road to find a campsite. About that time we got a call from Mike & Kat saying they were about an hour from arriving. Since we had some time to kill, we set up our camp and took the Jeep off the trailer and waited for them to arrive. Once they arrived, I followed Jeff up to Meadow Lake, where he left his Jeep and our gear with the Lost Coast bunch. Of course we had to visit and plan our strategy for the next day so it was very late when we got back to Eagle Lake Road. Mike and Kat had already turned in for the night. Saturday (8/11) We got up at 4 am, packed our camping gear and drove the 2 miles to the staging area. I was surprised to find the rest of our bunch (that camped at Meadow Lake) already there. Somehow they had driven right past our camp without anyone noticing. Also present was John Bennett and his wife, Judy. We now had a total of 6 rigs in our bunch, although Mike and I were running 5 or 6 vehicles behind the rest of our bunch, we were all in group 2.
The first part of the trail was not that challenging, although it seemed much rougher than other times I’ve driven it. We were held up several times for ½ to ¾ of an hour by rigs that were pretty much street stock. I think they were Jeep YJ’s. (Sorry Carl, but those stock YJ’s can really be a pain sometimes!!) By this time, we were hearing reports of breakage, such as axles, steering boxes, etc. Somewhere along this stretch, Mike ripped a sidewall, which was quickly plugged, aired up with his compressor and we were on the way. When we got to winch hill No. 1, we were held up almost an hour, due to a breakdown on the hill. We continued on past winch hill No. 2 (where the trail committee members at the bottom of the hill offered free cups if we would turn on our lights, we didn’t, but got the cups anyway) thanks guys! We’ve been volunteers on winch hills before! Somewhere between Winch Hill 2 and Winch Hill 3, Mike broke the left front half-axle on his Bronco. Lucky for him that he just happen to be carrying a spare. Jeff and I helped him remove his front hub, spindle, pull the axle and then install a new short shaft and U-joint. The whole fix took less than 30 minutes. Just as we were tightening the lug nuts, it dawned on us that we forgot to take pictures of the repair. We started moving again and almost immediately caught up with Ted Schuette, who had bent a tie rod on his CJ5. Ted, who had been making some field repairs of his own, had just gotten it fixed. We got the opportunity to watched Carl Brandt give a great show of his famous “put your foot in it and drop the clutch” routine going through the chute at Winch Hill 3. He stood his Jeep on it’s rear wheels so high that he almost rolled over backwards. The front end of his Jeep YJ was so high in the air; he bent one of his gas cans that were mounted high on the rear! Hope someone got a photo, Carl. (Mike said it was the first time he had ever seen Ashley and Richard speechless at the same time!) The rest of our performances were pale in comparison to Carl’s.
Everybody’s run through Winch Hills 4 & 5 was uneventful to my knowledge. I hit the top of Winch Hill 5 with too much throttle and got some air. It did bring a big cheer from the crowd! Overall, I think this was the toughest Sierra Trek I have
run, as evident by so many breakdowns.
The dust and grit tracked onto the rocks made traction very difficult.
We finally made it into Meadow Lake Camp, washed up and checked the displays, etc. We ran into Dave Wheeler from our club, he had volunteered for duty in camp! Thanks Dave, I hope they appreciated you! Jeff and I had been snacking all day and decided to skip the steak dinner, which looked delicious. We stopped where the rest of the Lost Coast people were, visited awhile (discussed the run) got Jeff’s TJ and headed on back to Eagle Lake Road, where we intended to Camp by our tow rig. Since Cameron Park was only two hours of smooth driving, we decided to go back to Jeff’s house, clean up and get a good night’s sleep. It was 2:00 a.m. when we arrived at Jeff’s! Opps! I forgot to mention that Mike had starter problems when we stopped to air up at the pavement. Otherwise we would have made it to bed much earlier. Sunday (8/12)– We spent the day cleaning rigs and
shopping for the Dusy-Ershim trip. I
changed the air filter on the CJ and picked up some tire plugs.
In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have bought the plugs! More on that
later! Mike and Kat stopped by on
their way to Mike’s sister’s house so we had lunch with them.
Monday - August 13 – Jeff and I left Cameron Park about noon with my PU, trailer and Jeep, headed down Route 99 for Shaver Lake, where we planned to meet up with Mike and Kat, John Ayres, Ted Schuette and Tony Twitty. As we entered Stockton, we got a phone call from Mike and Kat, who were only 5 miles ahead of us and were stopping for fuel on Jack Tone Rd. At the station, I pulled in right behind him, which angered someone who was waiting for the only working Diesel pump. We had a few words, but it was soon settled. Of course this gave Mike a chance to tell everyone that I had only been there less than a minute and got into a fight. We cruised on up to Shaver Lake and found John Ayres, but no Ted Schuette. Apparently the Sierra Trek was enough for him and he headed back to Humboldt County. We were all disappointed that Ted couldn’t make it. I haven’t talked to him yet to get the real story! Also present was Tony Twiddy who is a friend of Kat and Mike’s. Tony is really into 4-wheeling. He’s the co-founder and past present of the Pacific Mountain Cruisers of Healsburg and very involved in TLCA (Toyota Land Cruisers Association). I guess he was saving his cruiser for easier trails because he was driving a Toyota pickup. We unloaded the rigs from the trailers and headed out of town a couple of miles to camp for the night. At this point I should mention that Kat and Mike had tried to get a motel room where John Ayres was staying, but the owner didn’t allow good looking blonde women (with ugly men) so they had to camp out too. Kat was a good sport, but Mike was a little pissy that night because he had to camp out (He is a wimp). His disposition did improve a little once he found (and fixed) the broken spark plug wire that was causing his Bronco to run on only 7 cylinders (It was Kat who told him to check the spark plug wires!)
Tuesday (8/14)– We broke camp early, drove back into Shaver Lake to have breakfast and top off our tanks. After a great breakfast, which was paid for by Tony, we headed for Courtright to hit the Dusy-Ershim trail. While we were airing down at the parking lot, I noticed a white Freightliner parked there with Oregon plates and said, “That has got to be Gil Meacham!” He hauls his CJ and his girlfriend’s TJ in a Freightliner Van (he goes in style). I met Gil in Moab several years ago and have since run the Rubicon and Oregon Creek n’ Trail with him. We hit the trail about 10:30 AM and shortly came to Chicken Rock. Last year, the entrance to Chicken Rock was moderately difficult, due to some big boulders (I heard they were placed there on purpose so if you have trouble there, you had better do a 180 and go back to town). This year, it was like a freeway because someone had winched all the tough stuff out of the way! There were some guys with video camera’s taking pictures of us climbing Chicken Rock.
We stopped for a few minutes at Dusy Creek near the east end of Courtright Lake. This was the spot where we spent 3 days last year repairing a rig that had broken the steering box off the frame not to mention other assorted troubles too. (See “Dusy Trouble” under trips, on this website) After a few minutes of reminiscing, we drove on. We stopped for lunch about three miles from Thompson Hill. Just as we were getting ready to start again, we met a guy walking out for parts. His rig (full size Chevy PU) had broken down near the bottom of Thompson Hill. He told us that the guys he was with wanted to try towing and winching him up Thompson Hill. He decided to walk out, get parts, and have a friend bring him back in. (As we to see shortly, winching him over Thompson Hill would have been quite a chore!) Jeff asked him if he had enough water, which he did, but accepted a bottle of Gatorade. I hope things worked out for him.
We crawled on toward Thompson Hill.
About ½ mile from the hill I ripped a sidewall, so Jeff and I got the
opportunity to plug it, aired up and continued on.
I was very glad that I had decided to buy those plugs on Sunday after
seeing Mike rip a sidewall on the Sierra Trek!
We started up Thompson Hill, which is a challenging climb over extreme
rocks. It is long, rough, and steep.
We didn’t have too much trouble, but my Jeep was having trouble
breathing in the thin air. We
stopped for a while midway through the climb to watch Tony and Mike try to climb
one of the harder lines. When they
were clear, I couldn’t get my Jeep started.
Luckily, Mike had starting fluid, which did the trick, then Tony’s
Toyota PU wouldn’t start and we had to use the starting fluid to get it going.
(That’s on my list of things to take now!)
Mike’s Bronco was running well and he made it through a real nasty spot
with only minor scrapes underneath. Tony
and I took a different, but difficult route due to the way our rigs were
running. I’m not sure how
John’s Suzuki fared in that section as he was already through it when we got
there. We slowly made our way over
Thompson hill, with me adding air occasionally to the ripped tire. We
stopped at Thompson Lake for the night. It
felt good to wash off some of the dust and have a good dinner.
We sat around for a while reliving the days journey, but turned in fairly
early. The chilly night air felt
good; I dreamed of rocks!
Wednesday (8/15)– Left camp about 9 AM and headed on up the rocky trail, occasionally airing up my ripped tire. Since John could weave in and out of the trees so much easier with his Suzuki, he took the lead with Tony behind him, followed by Mike & Kat, with Jeff and I taking up the rear. This placement seemed to work well and everyone was able to go at their own speed. When we got to Ershim Lake, we discovered Gil Meacham and crew camped there. They had been there 3 days enjoying the camping. Mike, Kat, Jeff and I visited with him for a short while, but John and Tony were cruising on down the trail so we didn’t want to get too far behind. No one broke anything but it was a long day of wheeling. By the end of the day, we arrived at Lakecamp Lake at milepost 26.6 from the trailhead. It was a great camping spot, highlighted with tri-tip steaks, fettuccine alfredo, and lots of other good food supplied by everyone. (Thanks Tony, for the use of your grill) It was a cool, crisp night with lots of stars out. I think our camp was about 10,000 feet in elevation. Tony loaned Jeff a wool blanket as Jeff had only a lightweight sleeping bag. There is something to be said for having a pickup because I think Tony had just about everything (including the kitchen sink) in the back of his Toyota! Tony was fun to have along.
Thursday (8/16)– We didn’t get in a big hurry to break camp as we only had about 6 miles to go. We hit the trail expecting smoother going – Wrong! The trail continued to be very rocky and to be honest, I was getting a little weary of bouncing around. At least I had the steering wheel to hang on to. Both Jeff and Kat were getting very beat up as passengers. Tony must have an iron butt, because he was going to the Rubicon after we completed the Dusy! Running the Dusy right behind the Sierra Trek was enough for me. We continued to climb until we reached the pass that was 10,300 feet in elevation. What a great 360o vista! To the east you could see Edison Lake and to the west, Huntington Lake. After taking some group pictures and admiring the view we pushed on and the trail begin to descend.
The
going got to be pretty tricky at this point because it was steep and we had to
negotiate some very large rocks. It
would be very challenging to climb this part of the trail, but at this point we
weren’t about to turn around and try it! We finally made it through the last
obstacle
We aired our tires up, with about a half dozen plugs sticking out of my tire. I mentioned earlier that maybe I shouldn’t have bought the plugs because Jeff and I were discussing my tires on the trip down from Sacramento. He said they didn’t seem to be gripping the rocks too well on the Sierra Trek. I, of course got indignant and said; “I’ve run Moab 4 times, the Rubicon 5 times, Sierra Trek 3 times and the Oregon Creek n’ trail 7 times plus countless other trails in the last 7 years and have never had a flat or ripped a tire with my 33x12.5 Wild Country’s.” The next day I ripped a sidewall! Must be a moral there (keep your mouth shut?). We drove back to Shaver Lake to get our tow rigs and headed for home. I only went as far as Sacramento, where I spent some time at the State Fair and took in the Raider-49er game at 3Com park before heading back to Humboldt County. Mike and Kat drove straight home and arrived in Eureka about 10:00 p.m. I heard that John took a catnap for a couple of hours at his inlaws and got in to Eureka at 2:00 a.m. Tony drove back to Healdsburg and then headed for the Rubicon on Friday Conclusions after running the Sierra Trek and Dusy back
to back: The Sierra Trek (Fordyce Creek) is a rough trail, but the Dusy is ever rougher. They both were extremely dusty. I think we were lucky not to have major breakage on the Dusy. John did break a shock mount on his Suzuki in the first 5 miles, but it didn’t even slow him down, and he led most of the way. Tony’s Toyota PU ran like a Jeep (sorry Tony, I couldn’t resist). Mike’s early Bronco had no troubles, course he just did the Jackhammer, so this was routine for him (NOT!). My CJ5 got a ripped sidewall and had trouble breathing at 10,000 feet but otherwise it ran great. I must say that all the rigs were very capable and well outfitted. I enjoyed the company and the BS around camp and would wheel with these guys anytime. I enjoyed having my son Jeff with me, because he is an extremely good spotter. He spotted for Mike on Jackhammer and now Mike is telling everyone that I’m afraid to take my rig out unless Jeff goes with me. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, I suggest that you put this on your list of places to go. It is long and difficult so make sure your rig is capable of the challenge. Open differentials are not an option if you are serious about running this trail. Jim Boyett Note: More
info, including maps, descriptions, vehicle requirements for these two trails
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