Postmortem

Early August: I have been slowly improving my mechanics skills and knowledge over the last few years through YouTube University. The primary reason is because knowledge is power. When things go wrong (and they will go wrong) out on the trail, the failure modes for trucks tend to be high consequence. It is not like a mountain or motor bike that you can either push off the trail or hide in a bush to retrieve later. I want to be more self sufficient out on the trail when something breaks. The other main reason is to improve long term reliability. It takes so much time, money, and energy to get a Jeep from the Bay Area out to the sierras, wheel it for a weekend, and get it back home. If the Jeep fails out on the trail and ruins your weekend it just straight up sucks. I have been developing an inspection checklist for pre and post trip to help reduce field issues. Lastly, there is the finance. Bay Area shop costs are...insane. You will be lucky to find high quality mechanics that will work on a lifted Jeep for less than $200/hour these days. Simple work can easily turn into increments of $1000. There is of course the time element though - sometimes I just do not have the time. I am busy in my professional engineering work, my other personal projects, and staying active. But if I can find the time to learn new skills and save significant money I will take it.

I found a handful of issues during my last post-trip inspection that needed resolving before I could set out. A few minor things that are not worth mentioning, but there was a slow rear differential leak and a driver side wheel bearing going out. I could not attempt this trip in good conscience without fixing these. Aside from a small hiccup here and there I got the rear diff fully flushed, cleaned, and resealed, and replaced both front wheel bearings. I cannot work on the Jeep in my garage as it is barely a single car garage and I committed to it being my general workshop long ago. This means I have to work on an ever so slightly slanted driveway with limited hours to not annoy the neighbors. But, I try to make it work the best I can.

One little detailed step I have taken is to apply bright yellow security paint marking on every bolt I touch. This makes inspecting things very quick after a trip when you are scanning through the underside of the vehicle looking for anything that has obviously loosened up. I also try to clean things with a basic degreaser and brush. I know it will get dirty again in a second but it helps to find little cracks, fretting, or other wear and tear that you may not have even noticed when it was caked over with earth crust.

August 17, 9:34AM: You can run Swamp Lake in either direction, but we choose from south to north. The hardest obstacle is at the very end when you run in this direction, and you end up climbing it. We had two Jeeps for this trip - mine and Luke's, with Scott riding shotgun with Luke. We all drove up the night before, filled up on gas at Shaver Lake, and camped out on a forest road close by the trailhead for an early start. There are plenty of spots for dispersed camping. We were aired down and ready to roll by 9:30AM.

August 17, 11:51AM: Over the course of the next hour the terrain gradually started to pickup in difficulty. More continuous rock gardens with two main features along the way - one drop and one climb. The short wheel base of my two door was at a bit more of an advantage as I found it easier to navigate some of the tight turns, but Luke did not have much of a problem overall. Someone in front of us was leaking differential fluid as there was a trail of blood left behind and the gnarly smell of gear oil is so distinct it can not be mistaken for something else. I was particularly aware after the recent work I did on my own differential.

There are a fair number of maps, videos, and other resources available online for Swamp Lake trail as it is fairly well known. We were expecting it to be busy this time of year but there were surprisingly few people out there. On the first day there was only one other group that passed by us, and the second day I think we saw one or two other rigs. It can definitely be completed in a single day if you want, but we were not in a rush and wanted to enjoy some overnight camping. It could also be combined with another trail in the Shaver Lake area - lots of opportunities exist. I think if I were to do this again I would complete Swamp Lake day one and head to another trail for day two.

August 17, 10:41AM: The first few miles were very tame. I think I remember one or two rocky sections but that was about it. Mostly forest road with some great lookout points along the way. There was some serious logging going down right at the beginning of the trail. This piece of equipment is a wheel loader with some kind of log fork attachment. CAT makes some crazy big dedicated log loaders as well like the 988K.

August 17, 12:58PM: We made steady, drama free progress until about 1PM where we arrived to the smaller Grouse Lake to have lunch. This was about 9 miles in, a little over halfway through the trail. There was a fire ring and a little open space for some camping. I could see this being a good spot to camp if you were starting much later in the afternoon or early evening but we were interested in making more progress today.

August 17, 1:28PM: As we dropped down the trail towards Swamp Lake we came across an abandoned mine! I spent over an hour trying to find any information at all on this mine, including going through historic topographical maps, some government databases and Jeep trail blogs. I drew a complete blank. The next day I came back with a fresh set of eyes. I kind of got obsessed with trying to get more information, I do not really know why. Eventually I came across the USGS database to find a "Rainbow Mine" at the northern trail head, pretty far away from this one. There is also the "Garnet Dike Mine" further south by Mud Lakes. Still a dead dead end. I emailed USGS for help and they recommended I reach out to BLM which got me to find the Mineral and Land Records System (MLRS). Their map puts me the closest so far. I was able to locate the land that has been officially labeled as closed lode claim and the corresponding serials numbers and case names:

CA102820728 (YOUNG GROUP #1)
CA102612049 (YOUNG GROUP #2)
CA102874761 (YOUNG GROUP #3)
CA102474966 (YOUNG GROUP #4)
CA102615331 (EAGLE FEATHER)
CA102790310 (NIGHT HAWK)

The oldest date goes back to 1947! I have no idea how accurate that really is. Besides some dates there is unfortunately not much other information - another dead end. No mine name, no mineral type, no nothing! I will keep looking.

August 17, 1:44PM: After exploring the mine we continued down the trail with the goal of reaching Swamp Lake. A little ways down there was an intersection with a small clearing and outhouse that would allow for some camping by the side of the trail. We found some bat houses tucked away high in the trees which I had never seen before. Not sure why they were specific to these trees. We proceeded down to the lake but this is totally optional. You could park your vehicle and walk down. The trail down and back out is kind of the wild west. Super rowdy. There is a trail but it is littered with chunky rock, dust, and some tree squeeze lines. I got about 90% of the way down and pulled over. Luke went as far as you can go. Turning around required a 20 point turn. There was a group of four or five rigs already there. These were the only people we saw all day.

August 17, 2:16PM: Swamp Lake was your classic high sierra postcard. An almost perfectly circular lake surrounded by jagged steep walls and fresh pine trees. Water was clean and there was not a cloud in the sky. We hung around for 20 minutes or so, snapped some pictures and carried on.

August 17, 2:42PM: Driving back out of Swamp Lake area was interesting. My relatively short lift made for some tricky navigation through the chunk. I was sure I would need to pull out the winch. But with help from Luke and Scott's spotting and a little extra kick on the gas pedal I was able to crawl and punch my way out. Pictures do not do this area justice.

August 17, 3:24PM: Not too much further up the trail we made it to Swamp Meadow. This had a dedicated campsite complete with fire ring, picnic bench, plenty of space for our tents, and a great view. We set up camp and explored around the area a bit before making dinner. Later in the night a particularly curious deer kept circling us like a vulture. It was not very scared of us and came back during the night a few times while I was trying to sleep. The rustling of nearby trees kept me on edge.

August 18, 9:23AM: We all woke up fairly early in the morning to pack up camp and have a basic breakfast. I enjoyed some hot tea and sausage in the meadow. There was one particularly difficult obstacle remaining and only a few miles left on the trail so were feeling pretty relaxed. We were hoping to be off trail by noon to give us plenty of daylight on the drive back home. The engines were revving before 9:30AM.

August 18, 10:16AM: This is where, unfortunately our journey takes a bit of a tumble. We had gotten to the tough obstacle - a rutted out steep boulder garden that really requires at a minimum 37in tires on a 4in lift for shorter wheel base vehicles to clean. I am running 35in on a 2.5in lift and was bottoming out pretty hard. I was locked front and rear but just digging myself a bigger hole. After some careful rock and log placement we were able to get me through without the winch. I figured Luke on the larger setup would do better but his long wheel base was killing him here. He tried a few times but there was no way to make it without giving it a little bump. He gave it a solid go but his front end was wedged while his rear end was on slippery moon dust and loose rock. This resulted in the rear end getting bounced up and when the full weight of the vehicle came down on itself, the rear driveshaft U-joint to yoke connection instantly snapped. This was a really bad spot to break as there was no great way to move up or down.

August 18, 10:53AM: There was no one else out on the trail to help, so we were on our own (case and point of why I am working on my mechanics skills...it is like I foreshadowed this or something...) We really wanted to try and avoid working on the Jeep in this position for both safety and comfort. We tried for 20 minutes or so to winch Luke's Jeep up and over this feature by securing to my Jeep up front but it was not working. His rig is a lot heavier than mine, and the steep loose rock was not making anything easy. The tension on the winch rope was literally driving my Jeep's rear wheels down into the earth. We tried to build some ramps with rock and log but it was not solving. We knew we would need to either fix the U-joint or remove the shaft entirely to at least get 2WD working.

So next thing we tried was to remove the damaged U-joint and slip yoke to assess the damage. The joint had shattered in one place and the yoke had bent outward. Luke did carry a spare U-joint but getting it inside the yoke was proving difficult due to the warping. I was carrying a blowtorch and mini sledge hammer which we used to try and undo the warping. That worked pretty well but then we noticed the second problem - the holes themselves had warped into an oblong shape. We tried different methods with heat, hammer, angle grinder to make it fit just enough to get us moving again but it was not working. I'm not sure how you could trail fix this without carrying a spare slip yoke.

August 18, 11:55AM: Without a spare yoke we were left with removing the drive shaft entirely. With front locker engaged we could run proper 2WD up front. Removing the shaft was not too difficult but with very little room to work on the rock it was not Luke's favorite task. We fed him some Trader Joe's grapefruit juice to keep him happy and before you know it the shaft was out!

During this whole ordeal, Scott decided it would be great timing to continually hurt himself. He was very proud of the slick new sneakers he had purchased (perfect for a dusty, slippery, rocky Jeep trail). Constantly sliding around as he was hoping from rock to rock made for an additional stressor that compounded the positive feelings in the air. At one point he slid and gashed his shin open. Thank you both Luke and Scott - I really did not need to try hard to come up with writing material for this one.

August 18, 1:53PM: Even with the front wheel drive operational, getting him over the boulder was not easy. But eventually we made it, gathered up all of our tools, and started crawling through the remainder of the trail with me pulling from the front. With 4WD it probably would have taken us another hour at most. But this was slow going and we were moving at half speed. By around 2PM we got through most of the hard stuff but we were not actually off trail until 3PM or so. We would be lucky to get back home by 10PM. But this is the game we play...

I had a big feeling of relief when we made it to pavement. It was a long afternoon but both Jeeps had made it, and we would be able to drive back to the Bay Area. That is always a win! We headed towards Shaver Lake gas station to fill up our tires and gas tanks. Sadly this is when our story takes a plot twist. As I was coming down a hill I heard and felt a clunk underneath me and my engine revved up like crazy. I looked down and saw the RPM needle rising up. Uh oh...what the hell was that?? I slowed down and began climbing the next hill. I was moving but not accelerating well. I put my gas pedal to the floor but felt powerless. Engine revs continued to climb but the expected gear shift never happened. The check engine light flashed on and a wave of panic hit me. It is not over until it is over...

I limped into the gas station and checked the code. Looks like transmission related problems - P0750 and P0882. That would explain why it would not shift out of a low gear. There was really not much I could do here - I bit the bullet and started driving home. I avoided highways as much as possible since I could not really go above 50mph. It was a long drive home. What should have been about 4 hours turned into 6 hours, and my mileage was total crap. But I monitored the sound, checked the code every hour or so to see if anything else popped up, and inspected for fluid leaks. Nothing got worse, so I just kept driving. I made it home, unpacked, took a shower, and fell asleep hard.

Fast forward a few months later, a bunch of my own research, input from Luke and Scott, and two shops...I am happy to say I do NOT need a new transmission. First thing I did was bring it to my go to mechanics shop in South San Francisco. They usually do very good work for a fair price but this time I was disappointed. They came back to me and said I needed a new transmission, $6K out the door. When I picked up the Jeep they clearly had not even removed the skid plates so how would they know for sure that the transmission was shot? They probably decided it was not worth their time to properly diagnose and just told me the worst case scenario. I brought the Jeep home and checked all the basic electrical things I could. Fuse box, solenoids, wire harnessing, the transmission control module (TCM) and did not find any obvious issue. I even opened up the TCM to inspect the circuit boards (this required breaking the seal, so it is a bit of work to put back together). So then I brought it to a local Jeep dealership for a more encompassing diagnosis. The challenge I faced was that I just did not know for sure if it was a mechanical or electrical problem and different shops tend to have different skill sets and desire to work on one or the other. A dealership will generally be willing to work on both. They came back to me and reported it is the transmission control solenoid and the actuator body would need to be replaced. Still not super cheap but a fraction of the cost to replace the whole transmission so that is a win in my book. It is too messy of a job for me to do in my driveway so I will have them take care of this one. I am happy to report that the Jeep is home and shifting again! Always get a second opinion!

Beware of The Swamp! If you do not respect The Swamp, then The Swamp will not respect you!