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Barrett Lake
Sept 11-15

Trip Report: Dusy Creek Trail

Dusy Trail September 2007

By James Anthony

    So most of the group met for breakfast at the Red Apple in Aptos at 8:00am Friday, August 31^st.  That group was James & Cherie Anthony, Ryan Wenzel, Brian Potter, Rick Frier and Ron & Sandi Kilerease.  We left about 9:00am and headed for Shaver Lake .

    Driving across the Valley the temperature was around 108 degrees.  Rick and Brian were towing their Jeeps so they were able to enjoy their air conditioning along with Ron and I in our AC equipped TJ’s.  Ryan was pretty much roasted medium well in his Toyota by the time we reached Shaver Lake about 1:00pm. (no AC)   After a great lunch in Shaver we spoke with Paul Wubbels who was almost at Shaver after stopping by one of his job sites in Clovis .  He met up with us on Dinky Creek Road and unloaded about 3:00pm and we headed for the trail.

    After airing down we made it to Voyager Rock (aka chicken rock).  This is like a Gate Keeper.  If you can’t make it past this narrow pile of rocks you don’t belong on the trail.  I believe this is where both Brian and Paul modified their front right fenders on a tree unwilling to move.  Ryan’s truck had a little altitude sickness but it made it up the steep rock and gave no problems the rest of the trip. 

    After about a half hour on the trail we came to the lake shore (Courtright) and went near the water to decide where to camp.  We decided to go a little further along the trail but not till Rick decided to dip his tires into the water.  Well, it was a little soft by the edge and Brian got to pull him out.

      We found a great campsite just up the trail and made camp.

    The next morning we headed out by 9:00am to attack Thompson Hill.

    We had heard reports that the Hill was exceptionally torn up and a bunch of people had broke the previous week so the excitement was building as we got closer.

    Well, the Hill was in its usual jumbled array of Rocks with several challenging choices to make.  Brian was first and made a choice that told the rest of us to do it just a little different.  The winch came out again.

The rest of us made it to the top without incident.

    The whole day we only saw 2 other rigs.  There was no one on the Hill and no dust.  It had rained the day before making for a perfect rock climbing day.  Millie crawled onto Cherie’s neck from the back several times, and then she became a 55lb lap dog.  She told us long trips are not her bag.  Sitters in the future are a must.

    We had lunch at Thompson Lake from 1 to 2:00pm where we all had a nice break and Paul got to dip his pole.

 No fish though.

    We decided to make some distance and head for Irshim Lake .  We made it about 7:00pm (12 miles in 10 hours) and found all the camping spots full.  A lot of people come from the other end of the trail and make Irshim their destination.  There is a challenging hill just after the lake turnoff and we headed up it and found a beautiful camp spot at the top.  We had our own area without dealing with everyone else down at the lake.

    Since we came so far the day before we decided to take our time the next morning.  We did that and still got underway by 10:00am.  Our next camping goal was “top of the world” which we made by 3:00pm.  This spot is about an hour from the end of the trail and at 10,500 feet above sea level.  There is a spectacular view of Sierra peaks on one side of this mountain top and the Valley on the other.

   During the day to get there we only had 2 small “incidents”.  At one rocky hill Paul’s jeep decided it was tired and stopped running.  After winching himself to a flat spot it started up again and gave no more complaints.  Another spot was me getting wedged between a log and rock unable to move.  What I didn’t see was a small tree stump about a foot high that was poking up in front of my rear differential keeping me from foreword motion.  After 9,000 pounds of winch pull I popped off it and away we went.

     It was windy on top till dusk fell and we enjoyed another great campfire that Ryan made. 

    Rick and Paul had fun getting Rick’s Jeep high centered on a big rock which resulted in a bent front drive shaft. 

Before heading out Monday morning we all posed for a group shot  and headed on for the last set of boulder obstacles.

    The last hurrah is fun going down and should be a blast going up but we’ve never taken the extra time to do that yet as a shower is also on everyone’s mind.

   
So on this trip we had great weather, no dust, practically no mosquitoes and no fantastic stories of trail breakages or repairs.  Every vehicle was locked both ends, low geared and in top mechanical shape.   

“And fun was had by all”