Monday, August 18

Because of its pristine beauty, the Dusy Wilderness attracts hikers in addition to four wheelers.  Monday morning, three German hikers wandered by around 9:00, headed up the trail.  They admired our rigs, made some comments about leg power, mumbled something in German, and continued on up the trail.  Mike R. and Doug, on the advice of Mike and Danny, who have driven the trail several times, elected to hike “just over that rise” to a nearby lake to test rumors of the areas great trout fishing.   After their departure, Tyler and Scott entertained themselves shooting pellets from Rich’s single shot pellet pistol at a soda can, after Rich educated them as to proper procedures for handling a weapon.  Subsequent conversation was marked with the occasional “plink” as the boys practiced.

Mike and Danny had started up the trail about 9:30, Mike R. and Doug had headed out hiking shortly after that.  Dan and his son Don went off on a hike about 11:00.  “Just over that rise” ended up being a considerable hike.  At about Noon, Dean, Gary and I were impatient enough that we decided to begin the 3-1/2 hour trip up to our next stop, which was Thompson Lake, without the hikers.  Doug and Rich waited behind for Mike, Doug, Dan and Don to return.

Dean took the lead with his cherry (literally & figuratively!) Bronco, riding on 35’s, Detroit in the rear, posi up front.  It’s a sweet vehicle, with lots of articulation.  Gary followed in his CJ, lovingly hand crafted from the frame up, 33’s, ARB in the rear, while I brought up the rear in my XJ (33’s, posis front and rear).  The trail from Dusy Meadows to Thompson Lake encompasses some of the most difficult terrain on the trail, but starts out easily enough.  Similar to the previous day’s trek along Courtright Reservoir, the trail winds through some very pretty forest.  It got a bit tight for the XJ in some places.  At one point Gary inquired whether I felt like the world was closing in on me.

There are several well maintained log bridges crossing some small streams, and a couple of streams to cross without the benefit of bridges.  One of these un-bridged stream crossings is followed by about a block long “road” of logs, placed there to prevent erosion from vehicles climbing the small hill leading up from the streambed.  With wet tires, these “street” actually proved a bit of a challenge.  I found this out after watching Dean spin his tires a bit before clearing the logs.  I did the same thing.  At one point, Gary was actually turned sideways across the trail, wondering what the right thing to do would be!  He got pointed uphill and continued on his way.

The trail climbs gradually for a couple miles, then the real fun begins – Thompson Hill.  This is the difficult part of the trail, a long, constant climb through glacial moraine.  On a topo map the lines are really close together.  The trail probably gains about 800 to 900 feet in the last mile or so up to Thompson Lake through a variety of switchbacks and climbs.  Luckily, the trail was not as dry as some years, so traction was pretty good.  Even so, this part of the trail was an adventure.

It was interesting watching how each of our rigs performed over the obstacles on Thompson Hill.  We had two extremes; Gary in his short wheel base CJ, me in my “long” wheel base XJ; and one in between; Dean in his Bronco.  There were several tough spots that we had to get through.  At each obstacle Dean had to work a bit to get through.  In a couple of them, Gary walked right through whereas I struggled.  But in others, it was the other way around; I walked right through while Gary struggled. Gary commented about the benefits of a front locker, and I contemplated the benefits of full lockers versus my LSDs.  The three German’s who had passed us at Dusy Meadows wandered by on their way back down the trail as we were attacking one of these obstacles.  They made some more comments about two leg drive, and mumbled more stuff in German while proceeding past.

As I mentioned earlier, the drive from Dusy Meadows to Thompson Lake was reported as a “three hour tour.”  5-1/2 hours after leaving Dusy Meadows, three satisfied four wheelers (and two happy 10 year olds) pulled into camp, set up shop, and began discussing plans for the rest of the trip.  We finally decided that Gary and I would set out around 9:00 on Tuesday and head for Camplake, then exit the trail Wednesday afternoon.  Danny & Mike indicated this was possible, although with a fair bit of driving both days.  On Thursday morning I would head back to San Jose and Gary would head back up and meet up with the Varmints, who would take a more leisurely pace in order to do more fishing and hiking before heading out on Friday.  By about 7:30 we had the plans ironed out.  Gary, Dean, Scott, and Tyler ambled down Thompson Hill a bit to watch Mike, Doug, Dan, and Rich tackle the final obstacles.

Not more than 10 minutes after they left a call came on the CB.  “We’re going to be a while,” warned Doug, “Rich just broke his rear pinion.”  Tyler later commented that they were pretty close to the rigs, although they couldn’t see them when they heard a loud BANG, which prompted Dean to remark “that doesn’t sound too good!”  About an hour later Gary, Dean and the boys reappeared at camp. The mishap occurred roughly ½ mile down from camp.  Mike R. just happened to have a spare rear pinion. They intended to get Rich somewhat mobile and drag him up to camp where it was flat, then effect repairs on Tuesday.  ETA for the crew was about 10:00pm.

Around 10:00 they called up on the CB to tell us the ETA moved back to midnight.  We promised to leave a light on in the window.  Gary and I chatted around the campfire till 11:30, pumped up a Coleman lantern and headed off to bed.  I awoke to the sound of engines in the distance.  I laid in the tent, figuring that they’d see the lantern and find us, since we weren’t far off the trail.  But my bladder got the best of me, I pulled on my jeans and headed outside.  Good thing I did; the lantern was quite dim.  Checked my watch – 4:30!!!!  Grabbed my flashlight and headed down to the junction with the main trail to help guide them into camp.  Got about 25 feet, became thoroughly disoriented (jeez, it gets dark out there!), reset my bearings and stood looking for Mike’s ultrabright driving lights.  Several minutes later Mike and Dan were parked and unpacking tents and sleeping bags.  They had tried to pull Rich up the last bit of the hill, but got to where Mike was strapped to Dan strapped to Rich with all nine tires spinning, going nowhere.  They dropped Rich and Doug at a reasonably level spot in the trail and headed up.  The plan was to grab some sleep and go back to work on the rear end.  Fine with me, I crawled back into bed.