Postmortem

August 19, 9:47AM: Driving out to the Sierras takes long enough in a "normal" vehicle. Once you get above 60mpg in my Jeep the mileage starts to tank and the road noise is enough to give you a headache. Not to mention the handling suffers. So I usually take my time which makes for a long trek out. Some of us met up the night before and camped close to the trail. Scott drove up the morning of and met us at the trailhead. We were ready to rock with tires deflated and sway bars disconnected before 10AM. It was going to be a long first day. Barrett Lake trail is the hardest out of the bunch. It's narrow, rocky, and unforgiving. The entrance gate at the beginning forces oversize buggies to go find another trail. It borders Desolation Wilderness which makes for some grand views. I was excited to get moving. Within 50 feet of the entrance you hit the gate keeper. It's the second hardest obstacle on the trail. My Jeep's short wheel base is perfectly set up for this one so it's tricky but if you get on the right line you can glide right on through. I helped spot Scott and then poor ole Luke needed a tug. Whoops! We were through and rolling.

August 19, 10:38AM: After about an hour we had made it to the bridge crossing and slab climb. The "Brave Little Yellow Jeep" guided the team onwards.

August 19, TIME TBD: The team made it to the crux - a lengthy rock garden riddled with boulders and tight corners. Today it was a grave yard. The white pickup you see in the back behind Luke's Jeep was parked over on the side with a broken axle. The buggies and Luke's Jeep made it look easy. I got stuck pretty bad and needed a tug.

It is worth a quick map check before proceeding. The plan was to start from the north at Barrett Lake and proceed south. This is the only in and out trail, everything else was a pass through. After exiting Barrett Lake we would proceed south to Strawberry Pass where we would camp out for the night. On the second day we would finish Strawberry and then hit Blue Lakes, Deer Valley, and Slick Rock. Highway 4 would be our exit out of the Sierras. I decided on this direction because Barrett Lake was the most risky. Always start with the hardest first in case there are any breakdowns or other issues. Since Strawberry and Blue Lakes were scenic connection trails I was not worried about those. That just left Deer Valley and Slick Rock, but neither of those trails are (in my opinion) as tough as Barrett so it seemed like the right approach. That totals about 42 miles of trail to take down over 2 days. Of that, about 24 miles are technical. Lets go!

August 19, TIME TBD: A big portion of this trail is windy "single track" through the forest. The views of Desolation Wilderness that poke through make for some good views. I can't say this is the most scenic trail, but it ain't bad either. The amount of dust we were swallowing was below average due to the incredible winter California had this year. In fact, this trail only opened up a few weeks prior to this trip. It was going to be a short summer.

August 19, TIME TBD: Barrett Lake! In time for lunch. We made it through relatively unharmed. Luke investigated some clunking noises from his front end and determined it was a clearance issue. There was some rubbing on the track bar from a nearby bolt head. Nothing some extra washers would not solve. Here you can see me and Scott laughing at Luke for his misfortune. We also found some giant dandelions. Scott's hand for scale. Rad.

August 19, TIME TBD: As we made our way back to the beginning of the trail the weather started shifting and clouds of doom appeared. The forecast had low chance of late thunderstorms and it looked like they were rolling in. Time to pick up the pace! This is of course when Scott's front driver side brake line decided to leave the chat room. I had a pair of small vice grips right in the front glove box so I pulled them out and we squished the line closed so it wouldn't leak fluid. We topped it off and were back on our way without too much time wasted.

August 19, TIME TBD: We kept chugging away like a well oiled Jeep (ok, maybe that's not a great thing) and by late afternoon had made it out alive! Scott's Jeep was unfortunately hurting though. Besides the brake failure it looked like he was leaking transfer case fluid. It would be unwise for him to continue the Journey so the team decided to temporarily split apart for the evening. Team Yellow Jeep would continue onto Strawberry solo for the night while Luke and Scott would get to a nearby cabin for the night and then meet me on Blue Lakes the following day in Luke's Jeep. By the time we made it to the peak of Strawberry close to 9000ft it was after dark and lightning was surrounding us. It was kinda crazy to be honest. We setup the tent in record time before the great downpour and I made chicken fajitas for dinner. We slept well that night.

August 20, 8:02AM: We were up and out first thing in the morning to make it down the rest of Strawberry Pass in time to meet the others at the beginning of Blue Lakes Road. It was cool, wet, and cloudy but there was no rain in the forecast. To be honest I didn't mind the rain from last night as it settled all the dry dust nicely. The pass was filled with wildflowers and scenic overlooks. Definitely worth the detour. As we exited the dirt road and transitioned briefly to pavement I noticed Luke's Jeep catching up to me from behind. Perfect timing! I am glad I have teammates I can rely on. It makes everything so much more enjoyable.

August 20, TIME TBD: Blue Lakes Road was a bit more interesting than I had originally thought it would be. It's most certainly not technical but it was a a scenic mix of forest road and an exposed mountain pass. It reminded me of Engineer Pass in Colorado for a few sections. You could complete this trail in a slightly lifted SUV. But it was fun to explore and a more enjoyable way to get to Deer Valley trail then over pavement. This would end the scenic portion of the trip for good. It was all business for the remainder of the day.

August 20, TIME TBD: This is my third time driving Deer Valley so I am fairly familiar with it. I have done it once in either direction in the past. Moving from north to south as we were this trip is slightly easier as the average grade is down. Deer Valley is a healthy mix of scramble fields a few technical boulder obstacles. It's nothing compared to Barrett though. As I was putting together my pictures of this post I realized that none of us on this trip took many pictures during this trail! It occurred to me that we soured right on through without much issue. There was this super interesting tree feature near the beginning however. Is it a bear?? A dog?? Whatever it was, it granted us free passage into the valley of deer.

August 20, 1:38PM: I did hit one issue along the way with my steering stabilizer. Coming up from a climb I heard a loud clunk and upon inspection noticed that the tie rod mounting bracket for the stabilizer had smashed into a rock and moved. This twisted the stabilizer into an awkward position. The rocks had chewed up the bolt heads pretty good making it tricky to get a torx driver on there. It wasn't too big a deal to leave and just repair at home so we moved on in the interest of time. By early afternoon we had reached the end of the trail. There was much celebration. We checked the clock and were feeling good. Slick Rock is only 10 or 15 minutes down the road. Only one more trail to finish...

August 20, 1:57PM: Ok, time to give up the driver seat for the entirety of slick rock and let the wife drive. Sitting in the passenger seat for an entire weekend can be boring, I get it. Sometimes I worry though. There is some backstory with this one driving. Something about breaking front axles...we can leave it at that for now. It would be cool someday to have two off-roading vehicles that we can each drive on longer trips like this.

August 20, 2:34PM: Slick Rock is a very short trail that is mainly characterized by the most difficult obstacles at either end of the trail. You will always be going up one and down the other. Since we are starting at the northern end we go down the first obstacle. There are two lines to choose from, one of which is the buggy line. It's a differential muncher for sure. Luke gave it a go multiple times but it just wasn't working. We tried a few variants but he was getting sucked into some gnarly holes of doom and it wasn't worth attempting further. We took the easier line down to live on to fight another day. Pictures do not do this feature justice.

No matter which line you take at the very top you still get spit out into the same exit trail which is this tight and narrow rocky step down. With a few adjustments here and there you should be able to squeeze on through. No problem!

August 20, 3:58PM: We had made it to the final obstacle of the trail in record time. I think the stormy forecast scared off alot of people because at this point it occurred to me we literally only saw a few others vehicles since the very beginning of the day. Deer Valley and Slick Rock are incredibly popular trails so I was expecting crowds. This made the weekend particularly pleasant. My short wheel base was built for this one.

August 20, 4:32PM: That's a wrap! While we entered with 3 Jeeps but exited with only 2, it was awesome that Scott joined us for the second day as passenger. Jeeping is a team activity, and it is always great to have the crew stay tight for the entire trip. With only minor damage to the other rigs I would call this all business weekend a complete success. This trip marks the completion of Barrett Lake for the second time and both Deer Valley/Slick Rock for the third time. I usually only get to go out Jeeping a few times per summer with everything else going on so I really try to optimize the little time I have. More big trips are in the works including Rubicon and Swamp Lake...stay tuned.