Damaged by the Dusy

jeremyk

Adventurer
%22gatekee[er @ bottom of Thompson -2.jpg

We decided to do the Dusy-Ershim trail before we had even finished running the Rubicon. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115835-Rookies-on-the-Rubicon . If we could be successful here, why then, we'd run the Dusy. We were weary of the nearly constant challenge the Rubicon Trail dished out. It was relentless. We were physically tired from all of the trail scouting, rock stacking and camp making. We were mentally taxed by the mind stretching that was happening as we were confronted with trail challenges beyond our experience. And my rig was outmatched by the trails demands.

Rubicon.jpg
Josh is much skinnier now

According to my brother Erik, who does our trail research, the Dusy is supposed to be "easier, longer (much longer), but easier, a lot more easy driving, less crawling, more camping”. We had decided that we would have a year or two with leisurely trails before we returned to the Rubicon in 2015 and tried to use fewer escape routes, like the bypass around the Little Sluice Box. Sure, the Dusy had some tight stuff, mainly because of trees, but that was no big deal, if Erik could squeeze through, I could squeeze through - our vehicles have pretty much the same track. Erik just has bigger tires and a solid front axle (and a front locker); width didn't come into play with those differences. No, no big deal. Fun in place of stress. Perfect. And maybe some fishing at the lakes we would camp at. I agreed. It would be great to drive a longer trail up in the gorgeous High Sierra with less challenge and more time to fiddle-fart around.

A bit of background on the trail.

The Dusy-Ershim Trail follows a 600 foot wide by 31 mile corridor between the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness area and the John Muir Wilderness area, starting about 3 hours east of Fresno California. The trail elevation starts at 8,400 feet at Courtright Reservoir and goes over 10,000 feet after Thompson Hill and stays between 9,000 and 10,000 feet for the rest of the trail. It was built by the Four Wheel Drive Club of Fresno starting in 1956 and finished in 1968, this trail is part of their legacy. The Thompson Hill section was the last to be built. Understandably. The Dusy is the longest OHV trail in the Sierra National Forest. I must give major credit to the 4WDC of Fresno for the work they do to keep this trail maintained and open. Swapping out a porta-pottie on the Dusy must be a major undertaking - It is remote and it is long. The trail is rated a 9 from north to south and 10 going the other direction.

Here are a couple of trail descriptions that I failed to read before the trip:

From funtreks.com “Difficult. Over ninety percent of this 30-mile trail is slow-speed rock crawling. The most difficult part of the trail is Thompson Hill (when driven uphill). It starts gradually and gets worse as you climb higher. Also very difficult are the last two miles of the trail, going south to north, as described here. Many other challenges await. The forest service recommends the trail be driven in a short-wheel-base vehicle with at least 32-inch tires and one locker. The fact is, even better equipped vehicles are seriously tested. Be prepared for breakdowns because help is a long way off. Never drive this trail by yourself. The trail can also be driven from the north starting at White Bark Vista.”

From dirtopia.com “This is one of the toughest expedition trails in the United States. This statement is made NOT based on the difficulty of any one obstacle, but because you are not likely to traverse this 33 miles of trail in any less than three days! It can be done, but you must be lucky and willing to quickly by-pass some of the most beautiful vistas in the Sierra Nevada mountains! Four or Five days makes this trail far more leisurely and enjoyable. The Forest Service says that you should not attempt this trail with out 32" tires and at least one locker, but I recommend that the best way to enjoy this trail is fully locked with the minimum of a 4" lift and 33" tires.”

Dusy sign.jpg

We planned to run the Dusy during the first week of August. We did this partly so that we could establish an early August off-road family tradition, but mostly because the Dusy-Ershim trail does not open until August 1- no matter what. Learning from my experience on the Rubicon, I began to prepare my rig for the adventure. Since I wasn't able to spend any more money on it this year, I looked at areas of reliability and reducing weight, so that the truck ran higher and everything was under less stress when I bottomed out. My 285 km2's still had a few adventures left in them so bigger tires are still in the future. So all that was left, was to remove weight, tighten things up and grease where required.

I removed my drawer system, relocated my air compressor and removed the back seats. I was planning on having only one passenger. My oldest son, Josh was joining me like he had last August on the Rubicon. Jake, my youngest, was also a possibility, but he was spending time with his grandparents in So-Cal so I would only have one rock-stacker along. Not that that was going to be an issue. My front bumper was also a bit cockeyed and something was rattling up front, so I decided to take care of that. I removed the front hitch receiver that was used for a boat we used to own, and cut off the downward facing shipping-loops that catch on rocks over 20" tall. This trip was going to be a piece of cake, I thought. I would be riding lighter and higher than I was last year - earlier, I had purchased the heavier rate long-travel springs from Metal Tech to hold the rear end up better. That would help when I had several days worth of provisions and everything else that goes along with off-road adventuring and also keep me up off those granite “exercise balls” I heard the Dusy is so famous for. I also dropped the idea of my Maggiolina RTT coming along on tight trails or where there was higher potential for rollover. I left behind the camp kitchen box and most of its contents and coordinated cooking and tools with Erik. I kept the ARB fridge - it has become a necessity, but I stripped out the drop-slide and about 65 pounds along with it.

On a mountain biking/camping trip to Sun Valley and Park City with my wife in July, I had the check engine light come on and my Scan Gauge told me it was running lean (P0171/174). Throughout the trip I cleaned the MAF sensor and cleaned and my oiled air filter, but with no success. I kept clearing the codes, nothing was making a difference, the idle was terrible and sometimes it would die. Now, with a bit of time on my hands, I would try to solve the problem. My idle was hunting badly, so I cleaned my crusty throttle body and when I went to check my PCV, I found that the hose leading from the PCV to the manifold was disconnected on the manifold end. I reconnected the pipe and tightened the clamp. I fired it up, the codes were cleared, it idled perfectly. Problem solved. I was ready for the trip.

After our experience running tube doors on the trip from Washington to California on our way to the Rubicon last year, in the rain, I decided to keep the stock doors on the rig for the highway portion of the trip. I now have a much clearer understanding of how much water an 18 wheeler displaces in heavy rain and how much of that will make it into your rig with tube doors. I put the tube doors on the roof rack and would swap them out at my parent’s house in Berkeley, that way we could travel in quiet comfort with protection from the elements and still enjoy the advantages of tube doors once we hit the trail. The trailhead is only 5 hours from the East Bay. We were going to do the trail from south to north, starting at Courtright Reservoir. That was the harder direction, we were experienced, “this would be nothing like the Rubicon”.

tube door pic.jpg

Visibility is the chief benefit of swapping out the stock doors for tube doors, some people run no doors at all on technical trails. FJ's have high door tops and offer no view of the front tire from the drivers seat. Tube doors fix that and also allow for great ventilation in the heat (and great access for dust by the way) and a fair amount of protection from falling out. Not that this was going to be technical at all. It wasn't. "Just a few spots - nothing like the Rubicon".

Erik was going to bring His son Caleb who came with us on last summer's adventure and did an excellent job taking pictures and calling trail.

Erik pic.jpg
Erik my brother

Caleb.jpg
Caleb his son our main photographer

Like trails, plans always change. Josh was unexpectedly tied up at work, so he couldn't come this time and Jake was headed up to Nor Cal to my sister's house to stay with his cousin Nick, so we invited both Jake and Nick along. New crew this year. And I would be traveling down from Bellingham alone. Road trip!


Nick adding some humor to the journey -2.jpg
Nick our nephew adding some humor to a tough section on Thompson Hill

jake.jpg
Jake my son

me.jpg
ME (driving)

I left Bellingham at 4:30am and arrived in Berkeley at 8:30pm on Saturday. The plan was to spend Sunday with my mom and shop for food. We would leave early Monday and try to hit the trail by 2:00 or so and make our first camp on the north end of Courtright Res.



When I arrived in the East Bay I found Erik in a bit of a state. Much like last year, when we were headed to do the Rubicon, right before the trip Erik decided to really dig into YouTube and got a bit worried about what he was seeing. This time, one of his JK (4-door Jeep) heroes had posted a video (on Jeep Wayalife) in which he had done some rather serious damage to his hardtop and A-pillar when he dropped off a rock and solidly smacked a tree. I guess the trees are close together and getting closer each year as they grow. Inconveniently, there are often rocks to go over as you pass in between the too-close-together-trees. Perfect. To top it off the guy blew out his rear diff and had to make it out being intermittently towed by his friends through the tough spots. Great, we’re in over our heads again!

All went as planned in the East Bay and by Monday morning we were ready to head out. Erik had already gotten together all of the food and we just needed to stop in Merced to pick up some trail snacks and drinks. We did a final fueling at Shaver Lake, the last town before Courtright. We didn't make it to the trailhead until about 3:30.

Courtright res sign.jpg
 

Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
Looks like this report will be as good or better than your Rubicon report which was outstanding. I did this trail a few times back in the early 70s and don't remember it being anywhere near as difficult as current descriptions. But I nodded at your comment about the trees being closer. They were pretty close 40 years ago. Subscribed and ready for the next chapter.
 

1 Bored Clerk

Explorer
Excited to see this one develop! We're planning a rubicon trip at the end of next summer. The Dusy Ershim is high on my list too. I enjoyed reading about your rubicon adventure.


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v_man

Explorer
some friends and I did the Dusy back in October , I'm curious to see how you got that FJ up Thompson Hill !
 

4x4junkie

Explorer
My last run through Dusy was in 2012, It's a bit tougher than Rubicon for sure, not just it's difficulty, but more for it's sheer length and the level of preparedness required. It's definitely not to be taken lightly.

Looking forward to reading the rest as well.


I'm curious to see how you got that FJ up Thompson Hill !

I'm betting the winch that I see on it got some pretty good use...
 

Fyreman

Observer
I attempted it a few years ago. I broke my rear track bar bracket headed up chicken rock. I parked my jeep. Hopped in another and continued on for the next few days. We started Thompson Hill at dusk. Not a good idea. One of the best trails I've ever done.
 

jeremyk

Adventurer
Hey thanks for all of the interest, totally appreciated. I will post up Part-2 tomorrow with more to follow about every three days until it's finished. I'm trying to work out cloud storage for the photos so that I can post larger ones; there are some really nice ones I'd like to post in "full glory". And maybe some GoPro video.

I'm a slow writer with lots of words stuck in my head so thanks for your patience; this will take a couple of weeks but I will get it out ASAP
 

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