Latest ReportBarrett Lake
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Trip Report: Dusy Creek TrailDusy 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 31st. That group was James & Cherie Anthony,
Ryan Wenzel, Brian Potter, Rick Frier and Ron & Sandi Kilerease. We left about 9:00am and headed for
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
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
We decided to make some distance and head
for
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.
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.
“And fun was had by all”
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