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Dusy-Ershim '99  The plan was simple enough - everyone would meet at Courtright Reservoir on Thursday night (August 12, 1999). Someone should have clued us in to the Friday the 13th start date... Thursday I made good time down the Valley and through Fresno. About 5:00 I entered the foothills on Hwy 168 and started up the climb. I remember paying attention to the sign that said, "To avoid over-heating, turn of air conditioning." Apparently, Steve didn’t see it, because when I came around the next bend I discovered 6 rigs on the side of the road. Steve’s hood was open and he was a mess. And grumpy. Seems that his engine spiked to 240 degrees and shut down. He had just installed a new super cool radiator, and it didn’t like the heat. Our best guess is that the pretty silver cap couldn’t handle the pressure and let too much fluid drain out to the overflow. That left the engine dry and hot. We think that’s what blew the seals on the water pump. Maybe. Ray went down into Prather and ordered a new pump while Steve worked to cool it down. None of the shops in town carry a water pump for an AMC 360 motor. Amazing, given 4WD clubs sponsor every mile of that climb. I showed up about the time it was cool enough to add water. Shortly after my arrival, a guy pulled over to see what was up. He was a true Jeeper (’45 MB in his garage) and offered use of a garage stall until we got it fixed. He lives just down the hill. In spite of the generous offer, we opted to drive the Jeep up the hill and pay attention to the temperature. It was leaking a little fluid, but held it’s own. We debated whether or not to head to Courtright, or camp at Shaver Lake. Shaver would keep us close to the parts store, but we had no way of getting in touch with those waiting for us at Courtright. We decided to head to Courtright. Wrong idea. 5 miles up the road it puked all it’s fluid again. So off we went to Shaver where we had to finagle the last of the campsites at Edison - we put 7 trucks in two camps. It was getting dark, so we waited for morning to start work on Steve’s Jeep. We drank beer and swapped stories until late... Friday Friday started out early. The part was due in to the parts store at 8:30, and we wanted to make sure we were ready for it. So we got up, ate breakfast, packed up camp and I took off for Foothill to get the parts. By the time I got back at 9:15 they had the motor apart and ready for the new pump.
The install was pretty easy. The only snag was the fan shroud - broke it. Mea Culpa. The fan was pulling well, and Steve opted to try running without it. We were ready to hit the road about 1:00. Meanwhile, Chad and Phil went on to find the rest of the crew at Courtright. They arrived after they started the trail, but were able to get them on CB. Phil and Chad opted to wait for us, and the rest continued on to make camp just before Thompson Hill. We had an adventure finding gas. Because of the new codes for underground storage tanks in CA, most small gas stations have shut their doors - including the one at Wishon Reservoir. We ended up back tracking to Dinky Creek and filling up at the resort there. Not the cheapest, but we needed it. We drove back up the road - again - and met Phil and Chad at the trailhead. It was now about 4:30. We aired down and headed on in. Sort of. Just before Chicken Rock, Ray discovered a hole melted in his airline. He didn’t want to lose the front ARB, so he fixed it there. A quick fix, but one of many. I was pretty nervous about Chicken Rock. I have had a tendency to lift the driver’s front wheel on steep climbs. I knew I’d have no problems if I could just get up this rock. Steve went first, and I followed. No problem. It’s steep (45-50 degrees), but not so much that I had any problems.
On a technical note, I just installed a rear sway bar to work with the front Currie AntiRock. It seems to have helped the Jeep stay more level and planted, but I still lift a tire. The lifting feels a lot more controlled, but that could be because of the 4:1 kit - less bouncing on the throttle/clutch. At any rate, we all made it up the Rock and went as fast as we could to catch up to the rest at camp. Amazing views up there, but momentary. No roses to smell anyway. Nothing really happened of note on the way in. The trail is tight and narrow, and there are small rocks to crawl over. There is one twisty section that provided for a couple of cool pictures of Phil’s trailer twisted up behind him, but not much else. Somewhere along the way we had another breakdown of sorts. Apparently Chad knocked his muffler off the mounts. Bailing wire to the rescue! We hit camp close to dusk and quickly settled in. The fire was going, food and drinks were being served, and chairs were gathering. It was an even later night of drinking and telling stories. I didn’t hit the sack until 1:00am.
Saturday Man! Was it cold!! 28 degrees when we got up around 6:00am. (We were 5 miles behind schedule and wanted to get an early start.) Amazingly, we were all ready to go at 8:00. There were now 12 trucks. Except as noted, all trucks are locked front and rear. Here’s the cast:
We started the day with the idea that we would make it to Ershim Lake and be back on schedule. That was the plan anyway. The first obstacle of the morning was a hard, uphill, rocky turn. Some trucks walked up, and some had trouble. It was here that Chad came down on something and broke a motor mount. It was still holding, but the fan kept hitting the shroud. We let it go for now, as it wasn’t really a problem. From there we wound through the woods until we started the climb up Thompson Hill. This is a very steep, loose and rocky climb. Someone told me that it used to be a wide open free-for-all, but the Fresno 4 Wheelers have done a good job of marking the trail and blocking unnecessary bypasses. It’s now one distinct trail through all the good stuff. There are only a couple of short bypasses past the really hard stuff. The trucks without front lockers started to have a hard time here. There are a couple of sections with big steps and tight turns. In other words, this climb is cool!!! Paul, Steve, Marty and I made it about half way up before we realized the rest of the group wasn’t making much progress. They were down at an steep shelf with a hard left turn in it. A few of the trucks in the group had a little fun here lifting the front driver’s tire waaaayy in the air trying to make the corner. Almost everyone got through it, but Davey needed the winch. Hehe While they were there, I played on a line further up. All of the rocks had been kicked out by the 3 truck ahead of me. Marty didn’t make it and ended up taking the bypass. I figure just because an XJ can’t do it don’t mean I can’t. Well...I couldn’t. The holes were deep, the rocks were tall and the line was hard to find - I tried all of them. I managed to strike a good pose here when the wheel went up. I gave it about 20 minutes of trying before taking the bypass - the only one I took the whole trip.
The group started to catch up after that, so we went up to the top. As it turned out, it was 2.5 hours before we were all up and ready to continue. Somewhere along the way Chad’s motor mount got worse. So when he made it to the top, he worked to anchor the motor and cut the fan shroud out of the way. We took the opportunity to eat lunch and enjoy the view. We looked for roses, but couldn’t find any to smell. It was becoming obvious we weren’t going to make Ershim Lake, so after consulting the map we decided on a camp at East Lake. We got there about 5:00. East Lake is a very beautiful (and small) lake at 9500’. It was warm enough for swimming, so a bunch of us cleaned up. After the dip, I was so energized I went for a run. That didn’t last long!!! Only 30 minutes and I was nearly dead. Gotta love altitude! Sunday was going to be a long day, as we were only half way through the trail and some of needed to be at work on Monday. So most of us turned in early - like by 11:00. Sunday It was a lot warmer on Sunday morning - almost 40. The extra heat helped us to get an earlier start; we were on the trail by 7:45. Not bad for 12 rigs and their tired occupants. So we started out well. A couple miles into the day we had an unexpected stop. One of our group was on the side of the trail emptying his stomach. Don’t know if it was something he ate, altitude sickness or too many MGD’s the night before. He felt better as the day went on. As soon as we got moving, we just kept it going. There wasn’t much to challenge us until we hit Ershim Lake. I think it was about 11:00 am when we got there. That made us about 2 hours behind our original schedule. There’s a fun rock as you’re leaving the lake that required spotting of all the rigs for the first time. You drop down onto a small ridge and drive on it for about 20 feet before turning right and crawling down off it (about 12 feet). The problem is, you’re off camber to the driver’s side while on top and you can’t see the edge you’re supposed to drive down. Good spotting brought everyone safely through it. Then we wound through the trees (did I mention how close together they are?) for a while until we hit Ershim Meadow and had lunch. I went looking for more roses to smell, but all I found was a few Brook Trout swimming in the pools. Somewhere in here, Davey came down off a rock and landed on the exhaust pipe right off the headers. Broke the connection, flattened the pipe and ripped if off it’s hangers. Out came the bailing wire again. For the rest of afternoon, we worked our way to the top of Kaiser Pass(10,500’), where we took a bunch of pictures. This is an incredible spot with a 360 degree view of the high Sierra. We took a lot of pictures and looked for roses. None up here either, although there are a lot of cow pies.
Everyone was running out of gas at this point (expect me and Marty), so we filled up with the cans that were still full. Then we were off again. There are two nice obstacles on the way down to the road. The first is a tight drop to the right that took careful maneuvering to avoid crushing body parts. Everyone made it through with little or no damage. Phil even brought the trailer through cleanly. The second is a series of rocks that lift tires, or require a really twisty line. The last rock in the pile can be turned past, but can also be driven over. Driving over it brings the Jeep WAY high in the air. I had two wheels on 3’ rocks, and one 5 feet off the ground. COOL!!!!
Just after that, there is a clearing where we regrouped for the ride down the road to Huntington Lake. At least we thought we were regrouping. Turns out Frank broke a birfield on the last rocks. Half the group stayed with him to fix it. Steve, Davey, Ray, Bob and I went down to the lake to make sure there was gas - it was getting late and we wanted to make sure no one would be stranded. Good thing we did- they had just closed! Steve talked them into letting us fill up, but we had to pay cash. As it turns out, I had almost half a tank so I waited until I got off the mountain to buy gas. I said my good byes and headed home. It was 7:30pm. Around 1:00am I pulled into my driveway and unloaded the Jeep. A shower was mandatory! Long day, lots of driving. Amazing trail. GREAT group. Can’t wait to do it again. BTW - the total damage list we can attribute to this Friday the 13th run:
Since Bud couldn't make the trip, he felt the need to give his own version of a trip report. |
