Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

[crawlin68]

Roadtoad, Cheesenip73 and I ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week with a group from San Jose. We all met at the trail head at Courtright Reservoir at 9:00am Tues morning and headed in. We had 3 Heeps, 3 EB's and Toyota. The Dusy is a 30 mile long trail that takes 3 days and 2 nights to run. I have to say that is one fantastic trail!! Beautiful scenery! Mountains, lakes, streams, meadows. It has everything, including a tuff trail. I wouldn't say that it was an extreme trail, but it had some pretty parts each day. I'll try to post some pics in order.

The first obstacle that you come to is Chicken Rock. As you can see, it a huge steep granite rock with a little off camber at the top. This would be a very, VERY bad place to roll. You wouldn't stop until you all the back down to the bottom.

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

Up on top of Chicken Rock looking down on Courtright Reservoir.

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

I the first casualty of day (very minor) was Cheesenip73 lost a bolt on his D20 shifter. Found a replacement and we were on our way.

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

The second casualty was a Scrambler that broke a rear U-bolt. One of the fellow Heepers carries spares, so about a hour and we were on our way again. (more on this Heep later)

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

Some random pics along the trail.

[welndmn]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

My god, I want to go on that trail....

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

About 5 miles into the trail, the Scrambler (had been having carb, fuel issues all day) finally came to a rock garden that he just couldn't get through. His was having to restart it so many times, the starter finally got so hot that it would not turn the engine over any more. So the decision was made to turn him around and get him out because trail only got worse from that point on. The Toyota and I volunteered to take him back out to the trail head and then wheel back in to catch up with the rest of the group. This was around 1:00 pm when we turned around and headed out.

On the way out, he broke the leaf spring centering pin on the other side of the rear axle. After about 2 hours, this is what we came up with to get moving again. You have to look at this pic for while to truly appreciate the redneck engineering here. It consisted of a 2x4 piece of wood, 3 ratchet straps, a smaller block of wood, a random bolt and lots of duct tape! Believe it or not it worked! It kept the axle in place just enough so he could drive at trail speed.

We got him back to the trail head at dusk. The main camp site was still 1.5 hours away and because of the axle issue, there was no way he could drive it on the paved road back to his truck and trailer. So he jumped in Toyota and they drove back to his truck and trailer while I waited at the trail head with the broken Heep. By the time they got his truck and trailer, refueled with gas and made the drive back to me, it was now 2am. We loaded the broken Heep on the trailer and then headed back in on the trail to try and catch up with the rest of the group. Night wheeling a tuff trail that neither of us had been on before was a blast! (Although we were very tired)

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

We got to Thompson Hill just as the sun was coming up. This is a long, loose rock hill that is one of the toughest spots on the trail. I had to stop and walk back down to the Toyota many times to stack rocks for him. (he was on 33's)

We finally pulled into the camp at Thompson Lake where the rest of the group was camping at about 8am. What a first 24 hours of wheeling! Once we ate a quick breakfast the group saddled up and hit the trail again for another day of wheeling!

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

Here are a few of Thompson Lake.

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

There are so many beautiful scenic spots on this trail. You could stop every hundred yards and take pictures. This is one of the many, many meadows.

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

There ALOT of "tree squeezes" on this trail too. I'd say at least 30 of these along the trail. It is a very tight trail between the rocks and trees, I would NOT take a full size rig on this trail unless you want to beat up every fender and quarter panel!

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

About 15 miles in on the trail another Heep broke a tranny/t-case mount. We used a part of a spare leaf spring shackle and broke out the Ready Welder and I welded the pieces together and got him back on the trail. This was a 3 hour repair. Sorry, I forgot to take pics of this event.

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

At about 6pm, we rolled into our camp at Ershim Lake.

[69crawler]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

Jeeps.............. what are you gonna do. Looks like a great place Pat.

[crawlin68]

Re: Ran the Dusy Ershim trail this week.

The next day, we got up, ate some yummy breakfast burritos and hash bowns, then hit trail again.