Damaged by the Dusy

luk4mud

Explorer
Great trip report, thanks!

Having run most (Rubicon excepted) of the harder trails in the West, I would put the Dusy and Fordyce up there at the top. I ran it in a TJ, 33's and ARB lockers a few years ago. Would not want to have had anything longer or any smaller tires. I'd love to go back but the 4 door JK is too big and too new.

What made Dusy so hard were the moving rocks. Your description of clearing one with the front axle and it shifting for the rear axle brought back memories.

OTOH, I spent close to a week on that trail with my then 7 YO son, memories that I cherish.
 

v_man

Explorer
Hi , great trip report and it's already bringing back fond memories of our Dusy trip from a few months ago . I hope I'm not sidetracking anything here , but I'm wondering if anyone can comment on the Dusy vs. Fordyce ... It looks like the OP will probably get on Fordyce soon anyway ...

Having not done Fordyce , I generally gather that Fordyce is 'harder' , meaning bigger badder more tippy obstacles , but that the DuSy wears you out more , and is less visited and better for solitude ... thoughts ?
 

4x4junkie

Explorer
Ace- Erik is stressed, no doubt about that, but the JK he has, with SAS, a front locker and 35's is way more capable than the FJ. My BFG's measure 32" (with a real-time ruler) and there is no way IFS has the articulation that SAS in the front has. Plus my sheet metal sticks out past my tires while his is 6" inside his rubber. But the road trip is much easier in the FJ as is most of the travel I do. It's all a compromise, you just gotta figure out what you want. I'll take Toyota reliability for all of the solo travel I do and take my time and chances for the 5% of crawling I go for...

I suspect as time goes on and you gain more experience you'll start to look forward to doing this trail again where you can enjoy it more (perhaps with a more capable rig, or maybe after SAS'ing your FJ). A JK locked on 35s should do fine on Dusy, so for sure as his and your driving experience builds you'll find it to be a lot easier and more enjoyable in the future.

I've traveled thru Dusy 3 times myself (starting to learn it like the back of my hand, recognizing where many of the photos you posted are lol). You start to recognize which rocks are most likely to stay put under your tires, and which ones are gonna play like beachball-sized marbles under your rig (I lost a muffler to one of those on my first trip lol). The other thing is, (counterintuitively) you usually want to place your tires closer to the trunks of the trees when you go through (sometimes riding right over their roots even) rather than try to keep your distance from them. This actually helps put your rig in a more upright position and is less likely to brush up against the tree (perhaps you figured this out already, but it's certainly worth mentioning for someone who's yet to run the trail).

Dusy is probably tops on my list of most rewarding & enjoyable trails, but no doubt you do have to be prepared for it (not just your rig, but mentally too).
Sometimes I suggest those trying it for the first time head in from the north end (going south). This makes it a slight bit easier as you'd then be going down Thompson Hill rather than up it.
 

elripster

Adventurer
This write up got me thinking that my 33/10.5's were probably not the best choice for loose rocks. A wider 33 or even 35 would probably be better. At the very least, a wider tire aired down well might help to keep the rock planted a bit better.

I would be interested to hear thoughts on this.

Frank
 

jeremyk

Adventurer
I wish there was a "Like" button for all of your kind and generous comments. I really appreciate it, it means a lot! I will try to go back once the story is finished and respond to questions and comments - I am not ignoring them. Thank you. But I am a slow writer and want to finish out the adventure as soon as I can so that readers aren't left hanging for too long.

I have two more posts and then the story will be finished. I will try to get the next one up tomorrow and then the conclusion and notes on Friday. Thanks for your interest and encouragement!
 

concretejungle

Adventurer
Wow, i was considering the Dusy this year. I didn't realize it was that much longer than the rubicon. Did that trail a few years ago and it was a beast. Enjoying your trip report, thanks for sharing.
 

jeremyk

Adventurer
Part 5 - Day at Ershim Lake, drive to Lakecamp

Part 5 Day at Ershim - drive to Lakecamp Lake

5 Hanging out at Ershim.jpg
Hanging out at beautiful Ershim Lake

After three days with lots of driving, lots of exercise and plenty of stress, we decided to sleep in a bit and enjoy a half-day hanging out at beautiful Ershim Lake. This lake is a true High Sierra beauty, the camp here is beautiful. We wanted to go over the rigs; make sure that everything was tight and that nothing was going to fall off. We also wanted to enjoy the scenery, do some fishing and get cleaned up. A little personal hygiene is a great morale booster. Although we had nothing to be demoralized about, everyone had done a wonderful job; this is a very tough trail. We had some nicks and bruises but nothing that wouldn’t heal or couldn't be repaired. We hadn’t done any winching. No one had gotten stuck. Nothing had broken. We had plenty of food and enough beer to make it to the end of the trail. Our focus had been on the challenges of the trail - we had all met that challenge. There had been no squabbling, everybody had a job and got it done. It was easy to be proud of our crew and our efforts.

This is a beautiful place, well worth pausing for a while. We wished that we had an extra day to spend. The camp at Ershim Lake is very well done, you can tell that large groups meet here and it’s well laid out for that kind of thing. But we were alone. The group we saw last night on the way in, cleared out early and we had the place to ourselves, on a lovely sunny day.

Erik cooked french toast, I made coffee. Erik was doing most of the cooking and we were all enjoying it. He was working a lot. I was a bit preoccupied with my truck and felt that I was pushing it well beyond it’s intended purpose; given it’s current configuration. In retrospect, I should have bitten the bullet and put larger tires on it before the trip, there really isn’t much else that I could have done to prepare it for this trail. Maybe a cage to protect the sheet metal, but rock crawling is not really it’s intended purpose. It’s an adventure rig, made for the wide-open spaces.

5 FJ Crawler.jpg
The FJ does pretty good

My FJ has two fuel tanks for long-range driving; so that I can get way back, into places most people don't really think about going. I have dual batteries with a solar panel hook up, so that I don’t get stuck if I stay in one place for as long as I want to. I love to travel solo, making up my itinerary as I go, taking the adventure as it comes, so I’m pretty well self contained. And I like it that way. But I’m aspirational and optimistic and like many, I want to be able to do it all; so that’s why I’m here. I love adventuring with my brother and our boys and testing our limits. It’s our dream to have the whole clan along some day and to adventure off-road together on a yearly basis. Maybe some day our boys will have their own rigs, and we’ll go on long adventures. We can only hope. I should probably invest in a trail welder before that day…

Earlier, before breakfast, I hiked a bit of the upcoming trail on the way out of the camp, lurking behind the crew that left in the morning and I watched their struggles, just 200 yards from camp, the challenges began immediately. Nothing that we couldn’t handle, it was just going to take some time. We were getting used to that. This wasn’t the right time to be preoccupied with what’s next - focus on what’s now.

5 fishing.jpg

We had a gorgeous August day to savor and play for a while before we picked the trail back up. looked over the FJ while, Jake took off to take a shower and the others went to look for fish. We were enjoying our solitude. The rest of the crew headed out to fish while I puttered around camp and reorganized and repacked. After a while I headed out to join them and saw that they were all having success with the fishing and just having a great time in general. We had made the right decision to delay the trail for a while.


5 Fish.jpg

We hung out until 1:00 or so and then quickly packed up the rest of the camp and headed back out on to the trail. It was tough as usual, with all of the expected challenges. It wasn’t long before we made it to “Divorce Rock” which wasn’t too tough just a little sketchy. We made it without much problem.


5 Divorce Rock.jpg
Divorce Rock. Not a great perspective it drops quite a bit from here

5 Road to Lake Camp.jpg
Nasty road dropping down to Lakecamp Lake

According to the 4WDC of Fresno the driving times on the trail are as follows:

CAMPSITES: DRIVING TIME: 

Voyager Rock 3 miles 1/2 hour

Thompson Lake 11 miles 6 hours 

Summit Lake 14 miles 7 hours 

East Lake 17 miles 10 hours 

Ershim Lake 22 miles 13 hours
Lakecamp Lake 26 miles 16 hours 

Kaiser Pass 31 miles 2 to 3 days

Since we had taken about 15 hours total to make it to Thompson Lake, we needed to use about a 2.25x factor to adjust for our experience and our rigs. Even so, from my research, I think these times are far shorter than what most people will experience driving this trail. I figure that our driving time on the trail was closer to 32 hours.

But we were getting faster, Ershim Lake to Lakecamp Lake is supposed to take three hours, we took five. On our way, we passed a couple of very well-built rigs that were heading into Ershim lake to hang out for the day, they were locals who knew the trail well and could pretty much roll over most anything without any problem. One of the rigs, a highly modified Rubicon was rolling on 37’s and the other was on 40’s - wow! If my memory doesn’t fail me too badly these were vehicles number ten and eleven for the trip. Not much traffic on this trail.

The final downhill stretch into Lakecamp is particularly tough with lots of large loose rocks and tough tree-squeezes.

5 On the Balls.jpg
On the loose rocks

5 Erik donates a fender.jpg
Erik donates a fender to the cause

Along the way Erik took a tree too close and paid the price with a fender. It was so easy, given the sheer amount of obstacles we faced, to grow slightly complacent and pay the price. It isn’t really due to lack of experience or skill; it was just a lapse of focus or judgement. Sometimes the simplest obstacles were the ones that exacted their due.

5 tough squeeze FJ.jpg

5 Lakecamp Lake.jpg
Another beauty. Lake camp Lake.

We got into Lakecamp Lake as evening approached, set up camp and gathered firewood. Storm clouds were gathering and we experienced some heavy cloud-bursts, but they didn’t really dampen our spirits. We enjoyed time around the fire and made an honest attempt to eat most of our remaining food; this was to be our last night on the trail.

Next: Part 6 Kaiser Pass and those nasty final S-turns
 

Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
I think I like this report better than your Rubicon story. Sitting hear thinking I might start looking for a Rubicon LJ. Put 37s on it and reduce my gear down to the bare essentials and run this trail before I get too old.
 

jeremyk

Adventurer
I think I like this report better than your Rubicon story. Sitting hear thinking I might start looking for a Rubicon LJ. Put 37s on it and reduce my gear down to the bare essentials and run this trail before I get too old.

You can use cruise-control with that setup Ace!
 

stioc

Expedition Leader
Followed the Rubicon report and have been following this one too. Really just living these tough but awesome trails vicariously through your detailed experiences- and this is why:

Maybe a cage to protect the sheet metal, but rock crawling is not really it's intended purpose. It's an adventure rig, made for the wide-open spaces.

This is exactly what I built my truck for and while it does a fantastic job running moderate trails including some we did in Moab but everytime I think about doing the tougher trails like Rubicon I realize I have no business taking my truck there. Your FJ is quite a bit better prepared than mine.
 

rickashay

Explorer
Very cool story indeed. I really enjoy your perspective, especially here in this expo-demographic. I'm no hard-core, crawling-is-easy, build your own 3-link setup over the weekend type of guy, and these reports truly speak to me and my own admiration's of running these (Dusy/Rubicon) trails. As you said, most of us have adventure rigs but the mentality and drive to want to experience more is inherent and something we all do. The family aspect though, is priceless. Just seeing your stories unfold with the companionship of your brother and children make it that much sweeter. I too hope to someday make a yearly round with my father and my brother as he begins to look for a 4Runner. Excellent morning material, thanks again Jeremy, for sharing.
 

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