jpowers
08-18-2009, 05:55 PM
Figured I'd share some more west coast wheeling (well more like fire road driving)
http://picasaweb.google.com/jpower2/Barney_Riley#
http://picasaweb.google.com/linustheloon/Photos81509BarneyRiley#
This is one of those trails where you begin to want to kick the DCX guy that decided a 19 gallon fuel tank was enough for a TJ.
We Fueled up in Angels Camp (old mining town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains). From there its 82 miles uphill to the trailhead (about 4000ft from Angels Camp, the road tops out at just under 9000ft.)
The east coast cooling system was also having some fun towing the M101 up to that height. It will be addressed shortly.
We got to the trailhead about 2pm and started the drive in. Its mostly fire roads covered in baseball to softball sized rocks. There are a few decent climbs and descents with fairly loose dirt and rocks that make it a little challenging here and there towing the M101 trailer.
On a good day, without thinking you're lost, it would probably take 2.5-3 hours to get down to the end of the trail and camp. It took us just about 4 with a few stops to ensure we weren't wandering off course since both GPS's had different ideas of where the trail was. Thank goodness for a few paper maps of the area and the My Tracks app on the google phone (makes it work like a really old school handheld GPS).
We got in about 6pm with just enough daylight to setup camp on the other side of the river (really easy crossing).
Really nice area to camp. You're about at least 10 miles in any direction to anything that resembles a paved road, and about 20 miles from anything that resembles civilization (or gas for that matter).
The awesome part here is the hot springs. There are 2 rock and mortared man made 'hot tubs' along the spring that are fed by some PVC. The water in the spring is HOT and the tubs vary from warm bath water to a little too hot to get into, but man do they rock after spending all day getting beat up in a Jeep.
The dog (Kira) loves swimming and had a blast down in the river. The current there isn't all that bad and there's a few sections deep enough for the pup to get swimming. There's a nice spot under the ledge where the hot springs falls into the river that you can get a nice hot shower while standing in a freezing cold mountain river.
The elevation at camp is about 5000ft. You don't notice it until you start 'working' chopping wood, or like my dumb a$$ did and decide to go for a run in the middle of the day in the desert @ altitude.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jpower2/Barney_Riley#
http://picasaweb.google.com/linustheloon/Photos81509BarneyRiley#
This is one of those trails where you begin to want to kick the DCX guy that decided a 19 gallon fuel tank was enough for a TJ.
We Fueled up in Angels Camp (old mining town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains). From there its 82 miles uphill to the trailhead (about 4000ft from Angels Camp, the road tops out at just under 9000ft.)
The east coast cooling system was also having some fun towing the M101 up to that height. It will be addressed shortly.
We got to the trailhead about 2pm and started the drive in. Its mostly fire roads covered in baseball to softball sized rocks. There are a few decent climbs and descents with fairly loose dirt and rocks that make it a little challenging here and there towing the M101 trailer.
On a good day, without thinking you're lost, it would probably take 2.5-3 hours to get down to the end of the trail and camp. It took us just about 4 with a few stops to ensure we weren't wandering off course since both GPS's had different ideas of where the trail was. Thank goodness for a few paper maps of the area and the My Tracks app on the google phone (makes it work like a really old school handheld GPS).
We got in about 6pm with just enough daylight to setup camp on the other side of the river (really easy crossing).
Really nice area to camp. You're about at least 10 miles in any direction to anything that resembles a paved road, and about 20 miles from anything that resembles civilization (or gas for that matter).
The awesome part here is the hot springs. There are 2 rock and mortared man made 'hot tubs' along the spring that are fed by some PVC. The water in the spring is HOT and the tubs vary from warm bath water to a little too hot to get into, but man do they rock after spending all day getting beat up in a Jeep.
The dog (Kira) loves swimming and had a blast down in the river. The current there isn't all that bad and there's a few sections deep enough for the pup to get swimming. There's a nice spot under the ledge where the hot springs falls into the river that you can get a nice hot shower while standing in a freezing cold mountain river.
The elevation at camp is about 5000ft. You don't notice it until you start 'working' chopping wood, or like my dumb a$$ did and decide to go for a run in the middle of the day in the desert @ altitude.