2:30am Friday morning Ted and I leave Santa Clara, CA for Bishop, CA. That was a stupid idea...I don't plan on leaving for anywhere at 2:30am again! They don't make enough caffeine in a year to keep me awake that late!
This
is a shot in Yosemite. We were here for the sun rise. One advantage to
passing through before the rest of the park is up, is that you avoid the
$5 pass through fee, traffic, tourists, rangers with attitudes, speed traps,
and tourist that drive 10 mph in 45 zones!! DID I MENTION TOURISTS!!! Our
trip back took an hour longer than it should have because of tourists driving
10mph in 45's and not using the turn outs no matter how loud you honk and
scream at them! :-) But I'm obviously over it.
This was supposed to be mainly a camping/fishing trip, but it quickly turned into a 4wd trip! As we got to Bishop and headed off to the fishin' hole Ted saw a nasty piece of switch back heading up into the mountains and said, "Can we go there?" My response was "That looks more like horse trail!"
Well, we went to invistigate, and it was 4WD trail afterall...some knarley trail! Most of the "cool" trail pics were taken with Teds camera, so we'll have to wait for him to develop is film before I can get those up. But here's a page of the pics I took, to quell you appetite until I can get ahold of the other pics.
This
area is BEAUTIFUL! Just check out the scenery you get to enjoy while traveling
down the trail...incredible!
Well, I'm sure someone out there is already wondering where this trail is...well I'll tell you. If you take 395 S out of Bishop, you'll come to Baker Creek Rd. about a 1/4 mile before you hit the town of Big Pine. Head down Baker Creek (to the right). When it ends you'll be at the campground where we stayed. Turn right at the campground, and less then a 1/4 mile you hit a stop sign. Turn left...they should be County Rd, and it is a dirt road. Head down County 3 or 4 miles and keep your eyes peeled to the left watching for the trail head. You won't miss it.
This trail is not for novices though. I'd recommend a rear locker and 31" tires minimum just to do the first leg of the trail. I'd also not recommend going up there without a map. Not that you'll get lost...just so that you don't follow dead end trails! Maps are availible for cheep at the Ranger Station. You'll pass the station in Bishop as you drive down 395.
I was impressed (!!) with my 4Runner on this trail! This was the first time I've wheeled it fully loaded. I didn't even lower the tire pressure and it climbed everything in it's sight w/o batting an eye!
Here
I am getting to know my roll over angle a little better. Its taken a long
time for me to feel comfortable in the off-camber stuff, and I guess I
still have my moments where I kinda wonder.
Oral
hygiene is of utmost importance arount camp. ;-0
Ahhh,
how cute. My first stream crossing. :-) I don't think it was more than
10" deep. Didn't even get to use those diff breathers I did! Those
bushes weren't very forgiving, my paint will never be the same after this
trip. It's got some pretty deep scratches from all the desert plants.
Here
I am between a rock and...well...a rock.
Nice
shot of the valley below, it's a little weird to think that we were crusin'
down the highway in the bottom of that valley only 2 hours before!
Ted
is a little clumsy with his knives. :-) He pierced the side of this soda
while trying to break the block of ice. I had him poke another hole in
it to let the the air in while I drink it from the larger hole. Why waste
a good Pepsi?
.
Scenery
shots. The one on the right is my favorite from this trip. Look at all
the variety of terrain in the one on the left. Desert, Pine trees, a meadow,
and rockey snow covered mountains...all with in 30 miles! BTW, it was near
100° is the valley floor, and the mountains were cold enough to still
have snow at the end of summer!
More
scenery. I think the elevation change in our trip to the top was about
8000' or so.
My
Scott, your truck sure is sitting tall! How'd you get that right wheel
to levitate off the ground like that?
Well, that easy says Scott. You just need to drive along while paying too much attention to what your saying, and no attention to the large rock hiding behind the bush in front of you.
In this shot we're STUCK in a BIG way! Like I said, I wasn't paying attention, and we hit. Two destinctive thuds as I hit the front IFS truss, and then my Downey (rear) IFS truss. (Put one heck of a dent in the downey truss, but it held up well) Then one more thud as I hit and stop on my Xfer case skid guard. We were high centered. Only three wheels on the ground, 8000' miles above town, 40 miles from town over some nasty trails. Ut Oh. If things got too scary we were equiped with a good CB, and a cell phone.
We tried driving it off. We tried rocks, we tried digging. No luck. What to do? Pull out Big Bertha, my Hi-Lift jack!
Here
I get to use my Hi-Lift for the first time. (first time in action anyway).
It was a plesant surprise to find that the Hi-Lift clears the front bumper
by 1/2" (w/o the front valence) enabling you to lift from the frame,
w/o even touching the bumper
(sorry
the pic is so bad!) I had dug in with this rear wheel trying to get the
truck off. We had to get something under it if I was to get un-high centered.
W/O a rear bumper my only choice was a Smitty nerf bar. Thank goodness
my friend (Bruce Landry) had welded them up for me a couple weeks prior.
The nerf held up well, so did Bruce's welding. With the weight of the loaded
4Runner on it the nerf was only 1/8" closer to the body than normal,
and once we lowered it, it returned to normal. No damage to the Smitty
other than a small dent right where the Hi-Lift was lifting from.
BTW, I'm having the rear bumper made as I write. It should be on the truck by 8/26.
Here's
a nice shot to leave you with. This was taken from the campground at the
end of Baker Creek Rd. & for you photo nuts...35mm, 200 speed, 8 shutter
speed, 22 aperature.
