Tundra Trek Trail
By: Vance Anderson
2/2000
Tundra Trek - A day of fun and 4-wheeling in the Sierra...
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| The staging area comes alive for Tundra Trek 2000. |
The day began with the alarm clock sounding off at 6:00am. I didn't even reach for the snooze button as I usually do -- today was CA4WDC Winter Fun Fest. After a quick shower and a cup of coffee, I threw the rest of my gear into the Jeep and headed off to the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley for the pre-run breakfast. Lucky for me, I live less than a half hour from the fairgrounds and I had already packed my tools, recovery gear, foul weather gear, and such into the Jeep the night before. I arrived at the fairgrounds to find a virtual city of 4WD enthusiasts in the parking lot. There must have been a hundred motor homes and countless 4x4 rigs scattered about. Everyone was heading to or from one place: the registration and breakfast building. I met up with my co-pilot for the day, Troy, and we feasted on the killer CA4WDC breakfast and confirmed our registration for the Tundra Trek run. The weather was cool with a light drizzle but no one seemed to care.
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| Trail boss Wally Frislia briefs the participants at the
drivers meeting. |
We departed for the staging area at the Nyack exit off of I-80 at and arrived at about 9:00am to find the parking lot already crawling with 4x4 vehicles of all types. There must have been 50 rigs lined up already in two different areas of the parking lot (this was also the staging area for Siberian Express). I found a place in the pack and met up with the Tundra Trek trail leader, Walt (Wally) Frislia. I chatted awhile with some of the other drivers and admired a few of the rigs. Troy helped me air my tires down while we waited for the drivers meeting. Even the
intermittent rain from the Sierra skies could not dampen the spirits of this group. Everybody was fired up and eager to hit the trail. Wally held the obligatory drivers safety meeting and explained the rules of the trail and introduced the trail crew.
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| Wayne Goodrich's '47 3A flattie waits in line while
everyone airs down. |
As we headed up the road to the trailhead, the CB was alive with chatter -- mostly the typical Ford vs. Jeep vs. Toyota vs. Sami banter. I did hear one new one though: Ford backwards stands for Driver Returns On Foot! ;-) It was all in good fun and no feelings were hurt. The caravan stopped one last time next to a campground for a final restroom break and to allow those that hadn't done so already to air down their tires. I had
already dropped my tires to 11psi at the parking lot so I used this time to check out some more rigs and talk to the drivers. The line of vehicles was impressive as we stretched out single-file for what seemed like a mile! One gem was Wayne Goodrich's blue 1947 CJ-3A flatfender running a Chevy 350/TH350. Wayne built it for the sand dunes and found out later that it was equally happy playing in the snow. There were 34 registered vehicles plus another 5 for the trail crew. The trail crew was spaced out among the pack to assist anyone who needed help and to keep the group moving.
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| Wally leads the pack into a winter wonderland. |
As we climbed higher into the Sierra Nevada mountains near Emigrant Gap, the muddy ground disappeared into a blanket of snow. The skies were still dropping a mixture of rain and snow so the roadbed was the typical 'Sierra cement' -- wet and slippery!! Many quickly found that if you
drifted towards the side of the road, you found yourself mired in the slick stuff. Even our trail leader Wally found himself on the business end of a strap after his dual lockers took the downhill line on an off-camber slope.
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| The author's TJ making it's way towards Big Valley Bluff |
I dropped my tire pressure further to 9psi to get a nice wide footprint from my BFG 35s.
The low tire pressure coupled with my open front and limited slip rear seemed to
be the right combination in these slippery snow conditions.
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| Scott Chauvie's XJ makes it's way past an off-camber
stretch. |
The group seemed to split into two groups at this point with some taking a left fork while the group I was with headed up towards Big Valley Bluff on the right fork. Scott Chauvie in his nicely set-up Jeep XJ 'LIMO 4X' cruised past the slippery off-camber portion and up the hill. The rain turned to snow as I joined Scott and several other rigs as we pushed on. As trail congestion snarled some of the pack, our breakaway group consisted of an XJ, YJ, Early Bronco, and my TJ. At this point, we were breaking trail in up to a foot of fresh snow.
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| Most stopped at the mountaintop meadow for lunch and
conversation. |
We came to a mountaintop meadow where many broke out the trail lunch that was provided while others conversed or played around on nearby trails. The rest of the group trickled in and you could find just about any type of rig you could imagine was in attendance. The Jeeps in the meadow included everything from classic highly-modified flatties to bone stock 2000 TJs. There were also Broncos, Blazers, Toyotas and Suzukis. One rig that stood out was Kevin Palmer's beater '76 K5 Blazer running 36" Swampers. It had a body by Rubicon and was even missing a side window or two -- brrrr. I came to find out that this was going to be the last run for this Blazer before Kevin parted it out.
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| The Onion Valley trail required a little wading... |
After we made it down off the mountain and out of the snow, the group decided to take a side trail on the way out. The Onion Valley trail took us through a very scenic stretch of the valley, across a rain-swollen
creek bed and back to towards civilization. The water in the creek bed was a
little over a foot deep but it was murky and made you wonder what obstacles were concealed beneath the water. Everyone made it through without any problems as the rain continued to fall.
For more pictures, CLICK HERE.
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