Swamp Lake trip July27-29

[Wiser]

What a weekend! My carnage is a bent tie rod and sheared/fubar steering box/bolts. Ended up leaving the jeep on the trail and hiking the rest of the trail. Ran out of water. Wasn't really a relaxing Sunday...

 

[Wiser]

hey if anthony needs any help let me know. I should be able to head up there and give a hand

PM sent

 

[GSequoia]

Did it initially pop on that waterfall?

 

[Wiser]

Did it initially pop on that waterfall?

Yeah the very last waterfall before my xj did it in.

 

[GSequoia]

You got it pretty far. We found part of your spacer up there.


BTW - You owe Avery some dent pulling because he doesn't know the dimensions of his truck.

 

[Wiser]

You got it pretty far. We found part of your spacer up there.


BTW - You owe Avery some dent pulling because he doesn't know the dimensions of his truck.

Yeah I got it as far as I could move it, once it broke I couldn't get it to move no more I'll be going up this weekend to get it

 

[Bryan C.]

Sounds like I left before the party started. :anon:

Great trip, I made it home early, I was off the trail by 11, and home by 4:30. Made it home time to drop off the family at the airport.

Sorry I couldn't help more, but it sounds like you got it most of the way out.

 

[David_Bricker]

Made it the rest of the way home last night. Got to my house at 12:30am. So, let's see, wake up at 6:30am on Sunday in camp, finally go to bed at 12:30am on Tuesday at home. Yep, I guess that's why I'm feeling a little sleep deprived today!

It was a great trip, despite the carnage. Beautiful country. good folks, great food for the potluck.

Thanks Cracker, for your dogged determination in getting the tow rig started. That saved me having to cancel plane reservations, towing bills, and all manner of difficulty.

David Bricker / SYR

 

[Wiser]

UPDATE: Looks like I'll be taking a rhino up with some parts and AJTorres maybe tagging along if he can get off work saturday.

 

[cracker]

Made it the rest of the way home last night. Got to my house at 12:30am. So, let's see, wake up at 6:30am on Sunday in camp, finally go to bed at 12:30am on Tuesday at home. Yep, I guess that's why I'm feeling a little sleep deprived today!

It was a great trip, despite the carnage. Beautiful country. good folks, great food for the potluck.

Thanks Cracker, for your dogged determination in getting the tow rig started. That saved me having to cancel plane reservations, towing bills, and all manner of difficulty.

David Bricker / SYR

LOL

For all the Yuengling you've brought me it was the least I could do.

I only wen't 36 hours without sleep....it was rough at work yesterday.

 

[AJTorris]

UPDATE: Looks like I'll be taking a rhino up with some parts and AJTorres maybe tagging along if he can get off work saturday.

I most likely will get off work. No one answers their phones on sat for debt collectors anyways lol. :rof:Im gonna see if the wife wants to go too. If she does we will probably just take the our jeep and help ya out. My bro is gonna be up there so we will help ya and then go see him for a bit before we head home. I gotta run it by her tonight though. I will also see what all i have. I am hoping i didnt get rid of that spacer or bolts, hopefully i still have a gear box as well.
I gotta go through my garage and get parts out for my bro aeracer anyways so he has spare crap incase he breaks his jeep too. So ill already be going through everything to load him up. :eyes:

 

[cracker]

The story....

:/

Well......Friday, Death Valley Paul and I ate a nice lunch at Qdoba and headed up the hill at about 1:00. Once we got to the campground to drop off the truck and trailer, we were surprised to see Sequoia and his dad waiting so we all headed out from there. We got out there in good time but Death Valley Paul had the FJ80 so he got hung up a few times and got some body damage.

Saturday....we did nothing. Just socialized the whole day. We didn't even head out to explore Swamp or the higher lake. It was very nice

Sunday we wished Bryan and Anthony (wiser) off at 8:00 am. About an hour later Jay, Will and some others took off. We took off at 11:00 am and as we got up the hill out of camp Mike Armstrong (Geoff's dad) tore a transmission cooler line (about 11:03). Got that fixed and to the top of the hill we went for a nice look of the overview. Headed to the cabin for lunch and then we were off again. That one tough section we spent about an hour and a half getting the group through. (I am waiting to go through some pictures of all that) 1500 feet from, there Richard had his steering drama so we spent about an hour fiddling and making fun of him. He welded it all up and git it running. 500 feet down from there Anthony's (wiser) XJ was in the *middle* of the trail with a note that he walked out at 1:30 (it was about 3:00 when we got there). As we tried to get by, I believe Richard scraped his mirror on the rig (or the tree) trying to get by and as I was squeezing through, the rear pass tire climbed something and tipped the overhang of my truck bed into Anthony's tire carrier....I have to fix that now :/.

We kept plugging away and got out about 6:00. We took the fire roads out and re-grouped at the pavement. We regrouped and Richard and I took off and waited at the next turn in the road....and they never showed. I got on the radio and Death Valley Paul's rig was without a fuel pump. I wished Richard off and spun back up the hill. I ended up towing him (with the braking help of David Bricker) for what I thought was 12 miles back to the tow rigs.

I got Paul's rig on the trailer and he was filling up my MJ tires so he can drive my junk back when we got word from David that Cal's rig didn't want to start. I fiddled with Cal's truck for two hours and kept charging the batteries (after I killed them over and over) with the MJ and eventually got the thing started with my foot pegged into the fuel pedal. It ran horrid and I held it for about 5 minutes until it would idle on it's own and then slammed the door shut to try to drive it to at least the road (should we need AAA to come and get it). I got it on the road....without ease as it had ZERO power. Let it run and we all loaded up. I started up my truck with the FJ80 on it and idled down the road until it warmed up and headed to the town of Shaver.

We got to Shaver and by then, Cal's tow rig was operating better, Death Valley Paul was getting the hang of the MJ, Sequoia found death wobble at 45mph. I turned my cell on to get 14 text messages and found out I won the Ruff Stuff Diff Cover give-a-way, called the wife and we headed to Prather. We all got the Prather and filled up and that was about 11:30 or so. We took off from there and met up off of Jensen in Fresno....what a spectacular area....remind me never to go back.

We ate at In&Out at 12:40 then headed down to LA. Sequoia and his dad stayed at 45 and eventually pulled out at Visalia for a quick nap. David Bricker, Death Valley Paul and I headed down the 99 stopping once for caffeine, fuel and a bathroom. I got a text from Anthony about 2:00 am letting me know he was ok so I felt good about that.

Right before we started to come out of the hills on the Grapevine and descend into Valencia, Death Valley Paul had a blowout on my front passenger 37 and the brand new OSH Grade 84 beadlock bolts gave way. He recovered real well and got to the side. He kept telling me how amazing my steering was and how it was somewhat easy to handle when it happened. I was worried about Paul but he was fine and the MJ faired well. I stopped at the brake check area and waited for him and David to find all my tools and swap the tire....this was 4:45 in the morning. They got it going and caught up to me and I checked out the carnage....the beadlock ring was bent but I think I can straighten it up and get it to work so I was happy.....dunno about the tire yet though.

We got home to my house at 6:30am. I brought the FJ80 to my place and left it on the trailer in my back yard while Paul backed the MJ in. I told Paul to wait for 15 minutes and I rushed in to use the restroom, take a shower, shave and get dressed for work. I then grabbed the Honda and Paul, dropped him off at his place and ended up being 15 minutes late for work.

I eventually made it to bed about 7:30pm after being up for 36 hours but I had a great time. I can't think of a greater group of us...Mike Armstrong, Sequoia, Death Valley Paul, David Bricker, Jeremy and myself...to deal with all the crap that was kicked up at us. Everyone was positive the whole time...no one was having a fit kicking and punching things. Overall, a great trip with lots to remember for years to come.

Pics to come later....after I start unpacking.

 

[GSequoia]

I first saw Richard post up about Swamp Lake somewhere around 2002. Since then I've wanted to go; finally 2012 was my year. Since Richard let us know this was a nice easy moderate trail I made sure to bring my double-locked Jeep on 35s. I've known Richard long enough to know that his perspective is a bit different than most...

I started out by driving to Bakersfield on Thursday and meeting with Richard and David Bricker, we then caravaned up to Prather where we got fuel and food.

The Internet has arrived in Prather!

We got to camp and I set up my hammock, Sebastian and I crawled in (well rather I tossed the passed out boy in) and we slept there. My dad ended up running late (shocking!) and drove all night and got to camp just when folks were getting ready to leave. Boy Richard sure was glad my dad showed up when he did but we'll let him talk about that one... :firedevil

Since he drove all night he sacked out in my hammock for awhile, we'd come in on the next wave of vehicles.

Avery and Death Valley Paul showed up around 2:15 or so and we hit the trail. Here are a few shots of Friday's action.

That spot got a litlte tippy.

 

[GSequoia]

The USFS discriminating against XJs.

Don't put an ARB in your 35 C Clip, especailly if it has 35s.

Some douche trying to get the stub to move enough in the spider to get the C Clip out. This did not work. David Bricker finally got the ticket to fixing it the next day in camp, that TJ made it home on its own power.

Rooster Hill

When accessing the Jeep after Friday's run I saw that the only real damage I took on was my Trasharoo, the bag sagged a little and on the more extreme climbs it rubbed a bit.

 

[GSequoia]

Saturday was a lazy camp day. I kept saying I was going to wash dishes, clean up, and go take some photos with the big camera and kept not doing a damn thing. I think I finally got some motivation near 2:00.

My dad and Sebastian playing on the shore.

Home for the weekend, Sebastian slept in my dad's tent. It sure was nice not having to deal with setting my tent up.

Pot Luck

 

[GSequoia]

Mind you, this was after eight or ten times of washing Sebastian's face throughout the day. Avery was a bit concerned that Sebastian was going all Apocolypse Now on us.

Goofball

The fish were just begging to be caught.

What, did I fart?

Bryan's colorful camera.

Talking poopie.

I'm going to go grab some food then do the part for Sunday's pics...

 

[GSequoia]

Sunday was a tough day. We left at 11:00 and as Avery said my dad blew the transmission cooler line within sight of our camp. Luckily it was just blown off with no hose damage so we continued on.

Grouse Lake (where we stayed).

Swamp Lake

Sunday was a lot of tight squeezes between trees and rock gardens punctuated by a few obstacles and tippy sections.

By lunch my front shocks had lost enough oil to be completely worthless.

Richard strikes a pose in his striking shirt.

Jeremy's gear loadout made for some very uncomfortable moments.

There's Richard's pose again.

This spot was a bit tough, Richard, Paul, and myself winched. My dad had to take a strap.

This wouldn't be the last time today that Avery handled Paul's cable...

Warn FTW

 

[GSequoia]

Same spot from the bottom.

Getting ready to fail at driving up it. Since I was tail gunner I just made a couple of tries before getting on the cable.

Paul would have had an easier time of it if he had taken the inside line of this turn.

Richard's soon to be patented quick-release drag link.

The old man still knows how to weld. Boy was hauling that battery to and from my rig a lot of work north of 8,000 feet high.

Peekaboo

After Paul's FJ80 decided to no longer deliver fuel we stopped. The end result was Avery on Paul's winch cable pulling him up hills and David in Big Bird strapped to the rear to slow him down on the descents, we still had about 1,000 feet of elevation to lose once we hit smooth roads; we didn't want the FJ to get away from us.

We finally got off the trail around 8:00 PM and decided to quickly air up and load the trailers. I was actually quite surprised to find that my not even half full CO2 bottle filled all of four of my tires from 8-12 psi to 28 then kept going to top off my dad, I didn't think I'd get one tire filled out of that thing. The FJ winched onto Avery's trailer while Paul drove Avery's MJ, looks like we'll be out in some daylight!

Oh wait, no; Cal's truck decided to take this chance to get cranky. By that I mean we cranked that thing off and on until the batteries started to die, then connected Avery's running MJ to it and kept cranking. It would turn over and catch, run a couple revolutions, and die. It kept flirting with us just enough that we didn't give it. We fought it for a little over two hours and finally go that diesel running and off we went.

Once aired up and on the road I was feeling good, then at about 47mph I feet a wobble. I hate wobbles. When we stopped in Prather I told the group not to worry about my speed and leave me behind, I knew my way home. I kept it at 45 down the entire mountain to be safe. Once I hit the flat land I increased speed to see that it smoothed out at about 54; it would only threaten to wobble when I hit bumps. I kept that up until Visalia where we pulled over and slept about an hour or so.

Back on the road with some rest I felt a little more ballsy and cruised at about 65. When I hit larger bumps it would start to wobble but a quick stab to the brakes would kill it (generally bleeding off five to ten miles per hour as well). The more annoying part was my front shocks no longer doing a damn thing; driving a lifted Jeep with no swap bars and no spring damping is annoying, especially when you have a little bit of bumpsteer.

We hit Bakersfield around 4:15 for fuel and coffee. Avery texted me while we were there to inform me of the MJs tire, I let him know I was a ways back but heading up if they had additional issues. At around 5:00 we left, my dad taking 58 out to his place in Yucca Valley and me back on 99 Southbound. The rest of the drive was okay until I hit typical morning traffic on the 405; that last hour was rough. I pulled in front of my house at about 7:40 am, tossed the boy on the couch to sleep, took a shower, and passed out. Boy was I glad I had scheduled to take Monday off as well as Friday.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. Sunday was a bit more tough on the rigs but that's how it goes. All told I took on was one minor dent from not paying attention, several scratches on the armor, and lost my already flailing front shocks; I'm comfortable with that amount of damage.

 

[Wiser]

I most likely will get off work. No one answers their phones on sat for debt collectors anyways lol. :rof:Im gonna see if the wife wants to go too. If she does we will probably just take the our jeep and help ya out. My bro is gonna be up there so we will help ya and then go see him for a bit before we head home. I gotta run it by her tonight though. I will also see what all i have. I am hoping i didnt get rid of that spacer or bolts, hopefully i still have a gear box as well.
I gotta go through my garage and get parts out for my bro aeracer anyways so he has spare crap incase he breaks his jeep too. So ill already be going through everything to load him up. :eyes:

Cool man I really appreciate it! :cheers:

 

[GSequoia]

On further examination it seems my hatch is starting to come apart. I've got two known cracks so far; I guess that explains why the spare tire started to interfere with the hatch.

Oh well, guess I'll passively look for a colorado red hatch now.