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| Earlene and myself departed San Diego at 7:30 AM Sunday morning. Arrived at Wishon Village Campground at 4:30 PM. Found Bob and Machelle, Will and Tim in the campground and set-up for the night. We all got visits from the local raccoon that night. |
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| The view from camp was fantastic! We were ready to see more. | ||
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| Packed up and headed to the trailhead at Courtright Reservoir. Along the way we saw fantastic views. |
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| We aired down and left the trailhead at 10:15 AM. Not bad for a bunch of DICS that planned on leaving at 10:00 AM. The beginning of the trail was mild. Then you come upon Chicken Rock. You look at it and say, where do we go from here???? The answer is straight up. (We got video of the ride up that I will be adding soon.) The ride was fun and didn't take much time. We all made it to the top at 11:00 AM, stopped for a half hour and all stood around with our mouths hanging open in ah! |
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| The next part of the trail was a mix of pastures and hills. Winding through trees and across small streams. | ||
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| We stopped somewhere along the way for a quick lunch then worked our way to Thomspon Hill. We started Thomspon Hill at 4:15 PM and got to camp at 7:30 PM. Three of us had to get the winches out on Thomspon Hill. It's loose and changes with every vehicle that passes through it. So the line that worked for one, might not work of the next. | ||
| We stayed only one night at the campground by
Thompson Lake. The group decided it would be better to head out for Lake Ershim and
stay an extra day there. We left camp at 12:45 Tuesday afternoon. Along the
way we stopped so Blair could take care of his loose trackbar. As that was going on
Steve decided it was time for some mixed drinks. Out comes the blender!!!! As that was going on it was noticed that Steve's spring hanger was busted. It was time for the welder to go to work. Derrick did a great job welding. We all had lunch during this time. This stop took us 1.75 hours. |
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| As we hit the trail again we tended to split up into smaller groups that enjoyed traveling at the same speed. We ended up with Al in front of us some ways and Will behind us. The trail was beautiful and I wish we could have spent more time stopping along the way and enjoying the surroundings. | ||
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| At 5:00 PM we hear from Al that his jeep has
died. Will not start. Period. We radio ahead to the others who are now scattered along the trail. Bob and Steve are close and turn back to help. Al's jeep decided to break down in a very "work friendly" place with a fallen tree to act as bleachers for us spectators. |
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| Ended up being the fuel pump.
Luckily Steve had an inline fuel pump that Bob and Al inserted in the fuel line.
This repair took us another 1.75 hours. We hit the trail at 6:45 PM for the final
leg to Ershim Lake. We got to camp at 10:00 PM that night. Wednesday morning we awoke to find that we had the perfect camping spot with a view of Lake Ershim. |
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| It was time to settle in and enjoy. Everyone was beat and sore from the relentlessness of the trail the night before. Some walked around the lake. Others sat around camp. Steve had left early to try fishing and came back with one lone fish... |
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I scoped out a spot to set-up a shower for all to use. I was just finishing it when the others started talking about finding a place to shower. The guys added some more line to hold their sunshowers. | |
| Blair thought he would take a dip in the lake but quickly changed his mind as he got deeper in the cool mountain water. |  |
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| Campfire time is always the best of times on the trail. |
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| Here we have (from left to right) Earlene, Megan and Al. | Bob, Machelle, Blair, Sharon and Derrick. |
Will, Art (standing with his back to the camera), Tim and Steve. |
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| Thursday around 10:00 AM the word
came out that most wanted to head out and try for another trail. Bob and Machelle
wanted to stay, but Machelle wasn't feeling well and they thought it best to get her down
off the mountain. Will and Tim, Earlene and myself decided to stay and enjoy the Lake one more night as planned. So we we wished them all a safe trip and watched as they headed back to hit the trail...we left our CB's on for a while and within 5 minutes we heard "do you want the strap?" |
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| Now it was really quite at camp. Will and Tim took off to try some fishing, and Earlene and myself decided to sit in the shade of the trees and watch them from across the Lake. |  |
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| That night at the campfire, we sees a doe. We watch as she carefully circles our camp and heads to the lake for water. She circled us again, but we last her in the darkness... |  |
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What a beautiful night it was. |
| As we sat by the fire, I kept hearing this little crunching sound. This is what we found... |
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| Continued on the next page.... | ||
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