Postmortem

August 19, 9:47AM: Driving out to the Sierras takes long enough in a "normal" vehicle. Once you get above 60mph 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. Tires were 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 is 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. My Jeep's short wheel base is perfectly set up for this one so it is tricky but if you are on the right line you can glide right on through. I helped spot Scott and then poor ole' Luke needed a tug. 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, 12:05PM: The team reached 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. Barrett Lake is the only in and out trail, everything else is a pass through. After exiting Barrett Lake we would proceed south to Strawberry Pass and camp 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. Since Strawberry and Blue Lakes were scenic connection trails I was not worried about those. That just left Deer Valley and Slick Rock, but I do not think either of those trails are as tough as Barrett so it seemed like the right approach. That totals about 42 miles of trail to take down over 2 day with about 24 miles being technical.

August 19, 11:15AM: A big portion of this trail is windy "single track" through the forest. The views of Desolation Wilderness that poke through make for some nice views. The amount of dust we were swallowing was below average due to the incredible winter California had this year. In fact, this trail opened only a few weeks prior. It was going to be a short summer.

August 19, 1:38PM: Barrett Lake, in time for a late lunch! We made it through relatively unharmed. Luke investigated some clunking noises from his front end and determined there was some rubbing on the tie rod 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, 2:49PM: As we made our way back the weather shifted and clouds of doom appeared. The forecast had predicted a 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 would not leak fluid. We topped it off and were back on our way without too much time wasted.

August 19, 5:25PM: We kept chugging away like a well oiled Jeep (ok, maybe that is not a great thing) and by late afternoon had made it out alive! Unfortunately, Scott's Jeep was hurting. Besides the brake failure it appeared to be 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 while Luke and Scott would get to a nearby cabin for the night and then meet us 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 did not mind the rain from last night as it settled all the dry dust nicely. The pass was filled with wildflowers and scenic overlooks making the detour well worth it. 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 to have teammates I can rely on. It makes everything so much more enjoyable.

August 20, 9:10AM: Blue Lakes Road was a bit more interesting than I had originally anticipated. It is not technical but it was a scenic mix of forest road and exposed mountain pass. It reminded me of Engineer Pass in Colorado at times. You could complete this trail in a slightly lifted SUV, making it accessible but still fun to explore. It was a more enjoyable route to Deer Valley Trail then taking the pavement. This would end the scenic portion of the trip for good. It was all business for the remainder of the day.

August 20, 10:02AM: This is my third time driving Deer Valley so I am fairly familiar with it. I have completed it once in either direction. Moving from north to south, as we were this time, is slightly easier as the average grade is down. Deer Valley is a healthy mix of scramble fields and a few technical boulder obstacles. It is nothing compared to Barrett though. As I was putting together this post I realized that none of us took many pictures during this trail! We powered right on through without much issue. There was this super interesting tree feature near the beginning however. Looks like a bear! 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 stabilizer mounting bracket 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 was not too big a deal to leave as is 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, and were feeling good on time. Slick Rock is only 10 or 15 minutes down the road. One more trail to finish...

August 20, 1:57PM: Alright, it was time to give up the driver seat for the entirety of slick rock and let my 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 here. Something about breaking front axles...we can leave it at that for now. Someday it would be cool to have two off-roading vehicles that we can each drive on longer trips like this.

August 20, 2:34PM: Slick Rock is a short trail that is mainly characterized by the more difficult obstacles at either end of the trail. You will always be going up one and down the other. Since we were 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 is a differential muncher for sure. Luke gave it a go multiple times but it just was not working. We tried a few variants but he kept getting sucked into some gnarly holes of death and it was not worth attempting further. We took the easier line down to live on to fight another day. Pictures do not do this feature justice.

Regardless of the line choice at top, you get spit out into the same exit trail which is this tight, rocky step down. With a few adjustments here and there you should be able to squeeze on through.

August 20, 3:58PM: We reached the final obstacle in record time. My short wheel base was built for this one. I think the stormy forecast scared off most people. We only saw a few other 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 and efficient.

August 20, 4:32PM: While we entered with three Jeeps but exited with only two, 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 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.