Sierra Challange 2015 Aug 31st - Sept 9th

PA_JERO

Adventurer
Ok, we are 3 Months away from this trip. Everybody mark your calendars. The AZ crew is leaving August 31st, we plan on making the drive halfway this day and will pick up the last half of the drive Sept 1st. The plan is to arrive at the Wentworth Springs part of the Rubicon late Tuesday Sept 1st and set up camp for the night. For those who are planning on attending with less of a drive than us AZ guys or NM guy, you will have your trip cut by a few days.

Wheeling dates in the Sierra's will be Sept 2nd when we start heading into the con. Sept 8th is when we intend on leaving or exiting a trail and starting our trek home part way. Finish our drive home on Sept 9th. The two main trails we want to do are the Rubicon and Fordyce Creek. We would like to work in some other trails as well around the area. Snake Lake, Barrett Lake, Etc.

I am going to consult with Lloyd on routing and structuring the agenda. He's the man when it comes to that.
 

montypower

Adventure Time!
I'm going to plan to come along. May be a slow go. But might as well be the first 3rd Gen Montero NP to conquer the trail. Should be fun meeting you hard core Mitsu guys. I'm be making a 3 week off road expedition trip. Will be touring part of Colorado then running the Trans America Trail from Colorado to the west coast stopping in Moab for some trails and mt biking then meet for the Rubicon and roll home. Should be epic!
 

Toasty

Looking for that thing i just had in my hand...
Hooray Kevin! Thanks for getting this info up! I'm sure Lloyd will chime in soon.
 
1. First thought is why not start out Saturday or Sunday since its a weekend anyways? If nothing else I probably will just because I will be sitting around, especially Sunday. My other thought is 2 days is way too much drive time. Admittedly one day is a tough drive, and I am not a fan of that these days, but you could do 10-12hrs one day, half a day the next and get there early enough to wheel and not be trashed. Otherwise maybe a warm up trail on the way up the Eastern slope? See 3.
2. I would start with Barrett Lake, its before the Con.
3. To break up the trip home I would suggest a Eastern slope trail further south, lots of options, mostly Easy to Moderate but scenic. Always wanted to try that but never have. Start out early home the last day and it will be a cake drive.
 
I'm going to plan to come along. May be a slow go. But might as well be the first 3rd Gen Montero NP to conquer the trail. Should be fun meeting you hard core Mitsu guys. I'm be making a 3 week off road expedition trip. Will be touring part of Colorado then running the Trans America Trail from Colorado to the west coast stopping in Moab for some trails and mt biking then meet for the Rubicon and roll home. Should be epic!

That should be interesting. To be perfectly honest being slow is not much of an issue, having decent equipment and some off-road confidence are more important. If you need some Colorado or Utah suggestions let me know. We can see how our schedules work out since I am in NM...
 

Toasty

Looking for that thing i just had in my hand...
I think the idea was to be on the Rubicon during the week when other dudes are not out there wheeling.
 
I think the idea was to be on the Rubicon during the week when other dudes are not out there wheeling.

That should ALWAYS be the plan. Rubicon is hell on a weekend. However, we could still run Barrett Lake first. Since it is supposed to re-open mid summer its likely there wont be much traffic so Sunday on it lets say should be alright, and start the Rubicon Monday. Never been in the wentworth way, looking forward to trying that. Wouldn't mind hitting the Old Sluice again if we have time as well.
 
Just picked up my truck from the shop getting the valve seals done, seems to be running much better. I have a long list of work yet, but that was the biggy. Also fix the A/C fan and wired the LED back up lights for camp use.
 

montypower

Adventure Time!
Yes, mid week is best for sure! It's no fun having 20 buggies behind you... They can bomb the trail which isn't real feasible for road vehicles.
 
And its really the only trail that matters....Though Fordyce can a be a little crowded..I missed the last big Sierra Carnage but the prior one we ran everything in reverse, leaving the Con Sunday. We waited FOREVER at one obstacle for a Zillion vehicles.....then just as were about ready to take off BLAM! The last vehicle, an old FJ80 flips clean over and blocks the trail, I couldn't believe it. I think we were there Sunday because we fell behind and changed plans or something.
 

Toasty

Looking for that thing i just had in my hand...
Lloyd, all of us here in Az are on a pretty set schedule with our dates. You should set some trails up for that weekend and get some of these Expo dudes to do a few warm up trails before the 'Con. Also do you have Carlos' new Phone number? I can text it to you, he may want to wheel that weekend too since he lives close.
 
Not sure I have Carlos number. So we need to know who is up for Barrett Lake ahead of time. That and Wentworth should be the only meet ups. Otherwise it will get crazy. How about this rough draft:

Saturday 8/29: Drive from Albuquerque to Bishop CA, Camp Laurel Lakes
Sunday 8/30: Drive to Barrett Lake trail head, camp???
Monday 8/31: Meet up with early group and go to Barrett Lake and camp
Tuesday 9/1: Head out of Barrett to Wentworth and meet AZ group
Wednesday 9/2: Rubicon to the Springs
Thursday 9/3: Springs out to Fordyce trail head
Friday 9/4: Fordyce to waterfall
Saturday 9/5: Waterfall to Snake Lake
Sunday 9/6: Snake Lake to Mining Museum to High Lakes Area
Monday 9/7: High Lakes Trails
Tuesday 9/8: Out High Lakes Head Home
Wednesday 9/9: HOME

Relatively light schedule, but as we know some break downs in the Sierras can change all that. Not like some areas where you can bang out a hundred extra miles of trails along the way. :smiley_drive:
 
The club working on it says it will be open by mid summer, but I will need to follow up. Yeh, what nonsense. But the environmental movement is second only in power to law enforcement.
 

PA_JERO

Adventurer
See, this is why Lloyd is the man. The trip with the land cruiser flipping was a very exhausting trip. Problematic trip that seemed to be never ending honestly. But I would do it all over again. That trip was a blast.

That plan seems to be good to go lloyd. If anything changes with us AZ guys departing earlier we will let you know. I really want to check out Barrett lake, but it just depends on how it all works out here with all of us. Meeting at Wentworth should work out really good for the stragglers. So will plan on that for now.
 

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