OFFICIAL: 6th Annual NCLR Shaver Lake Snow Run, Feb. 8-10 2013

[LandRonB]

Glad Mark (GriffSC) is ok. How's everyone else doing? I got asked last minute to entertain clients @ the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf and not able make it to Shaver Lake snow run; tough job but someone has to do it (smile).

 

Seriously, Shaver Lake this year looks like lots of snow, lots of fun and challenges. Again glad Mark is ok.

[GraemeWare]

Ron,

 

The group just took a vote and our replies are:

 

1. Yeahhh.... pictures or it didn't happen.

2. "Your 110 could have been here and looked like this too (hey, it is character)"

3. .....pending further beverages....

 

Graeme

[LandRonB]

Ok Graeme,

 

Here's my ticket for tomorrow, parking and access to the Skybox on the 17th (smile). Hanging out with the Thurston Howell's crowd type (lol). Sorry no cameras allowed on the green or else spectators get kicked-out.

 

My 110 up there you ask; no one 110 on the side is enough. Two would be too much.

 

Although my 110 has been on Shaver Lake snow run before, it was our very 1st snow run; very fun and also stayed very late w/recoveries and trying to get back to basecamp.

 

I do miss snow camping; not! Hope the Wild Turkey Pedram brough is keeping everyone warm. Nite to everyone!

[TomOwen]

Interested to hear how this happened. No tread marks in the snow on driver's side, fell to passenger side... Up hill? Snow on the windshield.... Sorry

About the boo boo griff, looking forward to the stories from the trip. ;-)

[Guest Pedram]

The funny part was that Colin took Mark out the picture by doing what he does best and broke his truck after a failed attempt to recover him. So our ''scout run'' became a basic recovery training exercise course. About three hours of using three trucks with three different winch lines and a shovel. Mark on the other hand was a simple 45 minute attempt. After practice with Colin the team here at shaver was quick and ready. Great team work guys. Thanks to SCLR and NCLR we made it out in one peice. Mark drove home after this. That is just day one...... more to come.

[Guest Pedram]

Good call Ron on the Wild turkey. Thanks. Another 110 out here might of kept Mark back with us after all that. Really nothing noticeable after all that. That would of been your selling point. Even after you roll it you can drive home to tell the story and show what your truck is able to do!

Ok Graeme,

 

Here's my ticket for tomorrow, parking and access to the Skybox on the 17th (smile). Hanging out with the Thurston Howell's crowd type (lol). Sorry no cameras allowed on the green or else spectators get kicked-out.

 

My 110 up there you ask; no one 110 on the side is enough. Two would be too much.

 

Although my 110 has been on Shaver Lake snow run before, it was our very 1st snow run; very fun and also stayed very late w/recoveries and trying to get back to basecamp.

 

I do miss snow camping; not! Hope the Wild Turkey Pedram brough is keeping everyone warm. Nite to everyone!

[Disco2Guy]

Just went to look at my pics and vids. The memory card seems to have gotten corrupt It was recording fine until the turn around point. Maybe it was the jostling around, but I have nothing from my new GoPro. I have a handful of footage on my phone and will get them, and the trip report, posted soon.

[sasquatch]

,

 

Hanging out with the Thurston Howell's crowd type (lol).

 

 

No lie about the Thurston Howell types. I was standing at the 18th tee box on Friday when Kenny G was teeing up. A stuffy couple came out of the skybox to watch Kenny tee it up. "Lovie" sure didn't appreciate all the Kenny G jokes that we were talking about!! I couldn't tell if her face actually moved after decades of botched face lifts, but I'm pretty sure she was appalled by the conversation - it's was just the beer talking!!!!

[sasquatch]

What up Griff?????

[lutz]

Here's a few photos.

 

http://s18.beta.photobucket.com/user/lutzg/library/Shaver%20lake/Shaver%20Lake%202013

[El Solis]

Brenton, don't do anything to that SD card until you try some recovery software. I had that happen and downloaded some recovery stuff from the internet and it was fine. If you can't make it work let's try to hook up and I will see what I can do.

[Disco2Guy]

Thanks for the heads up Chris. The card itself doesn't mount (PC & Mac), and most recovery software needs a drive letter to do it's thing. I'll hold on to it and see if we can make anything happen.

[El Solis]

yeah mine didn't load either, what I used was able to see the drive in the computer despite it not mounting.

[SLOHybrid]

Fantastic Pics Lutzi.. really is pretty up there in the snow but way too cold for my liking.

[TigerDan]

Dang, sounds like another epic trip. Sorry I couldn't be there. The first Shaver trip I've missed...(sniff)...

 

Griff, glad to hear you're okay. How's the truck? Everybody else make it through okay? I see some pics of people working on a Disco...Graeme's?

[ColinB]

Some small other hiccups. As pedram stated I broke my axle in the snow. It was a stock one so it was not unexpected. And then Graeme did break a low pressure power steering line. A 12mm socket and a few hose clamps and it was back on the trail. On the way home I got a flat tire. On with the spare. Made it home around 5.

[GriffSC]

yeah, who knew we'd spend Friday night in extrication mode. Man, it was slick out there. Way cold and icy. Came around a moderate bend and the ass end began to slide left. I turned the wheels into it and nothing. It continued to come around until I was skating backwards. I drifted into the snow berm on the side of the road, which was hard as rock underneath and when the rear driver's side tire struck, over I went. Relatively minimal damage all things considered - would have been worse if I'd struck a tree or another vehicle. Thankfully, it was just me and that there was as much snow as there was.

 

Damage to me: soress to deconditioned body; contusions to ego.

 

Damage to truck: small right rear quarter dent; both front doors pushed in slightly - still open/close, tough getting the driver window up and down; slight kiss to right front fender; bent mounts for front aux lights; roof around sunroof pushed in a bit; side view mirrors with a little more movement than normal; driver side rear tire flat due to coming off the wheel a little and crap getting stuffed in there; and, worst, blown out driver side alpine window. Truck drives straight and totally fine.

 

Thanks so much to everyone, especially Pedram, Keenan, Colin, Brenton and Lutz for the help, advice and know-how. Wouldn't want to crash in the midst of anyone else.

 

I didn't take any pics - phone was lost under all the crap that came loose and flew around during the roll. Nothing too exciting anyway. Headed home Saturday primarily because I had a very full day Sunday and, if the truck had had problems on the drive, I wanted to be dealing with things Saturday instead of Sunday; of course, everything was fine.

[El Solis]

Glad you are ok Griff, I'm not done giving you a hard time! It is a good reminder for all of us that 1: everything should be strapped down inside and 2: we should all know how to respond to a possible medical/trauma issue.

 

With the new job I have more time. The trauma talk has been ready for awhile so let's try to set up something. Maybe at Mexxi's or we could do my house or if someone else wants to volunteer their house. It's on my laptop so anyone with a projector or an Apple TV and we are set.

[lutz]

Short video bloopers will be next

[GriffSC]

sweet vid, lutz. now i wish i'd stayed. looks like it was awesome.

[Dean K.]

Glad Mark (GriffSC) is ok. How's everyone else doing? I got asked last minute to entertain clients @ the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf and not able make it to Shaver Lake snow run; tough job but someone has to do it (smile).

 

Seriously, Shaver Lake this year looks like lots of snow, lots of fun and challenges. Again glad Mark is ok.

 

Ron, you were in town and didn't call? Sheesh! No love at all!!

[Dean K.]

Here's a few photos.

 

http://s18.beta.photobucket.com/user/lutzg/library/Shaver%20lake/Shaver%20Lake%202013

 

Nice pics. I can't help but wonder at the USCYBERCOM insigna. Do you work for them? I work at FNMOC (FLENUMMETOCCEN) in IAW, so I get lots of traffic from them.

[JFuller]

Great photos and videos. I will have to make this trip one day. But the wife's bday is the 10 th so it has to be a weekend not to close to that.

[Disco2Guy]

The 2013 Shaver Snow Run was great! I was monitoring the marina webcam for a while, and it was looking pretty dry leading up to the trip. Luckily enough, the first system in months came through the night before the trip.

 

On Friday morning I met Griff and Pedram in Gilroy. Once the tanks were topped off we made our way to Madera, to meet Colin and Paul. The designated gas station in Madera is now closed, so we fueled up across the street at the 76 station. After leaving the gas station we ran into some pockets of rain and hail, a good sign that it would be snowing at Camp Edison.

 

The roads heading into Shaver Lake were slick with ice. There is a very large propane tank as you approach a downhill left turn. I braked too much and started to slide into the other lane just as a large pickup was approaching. I slowly stopped against a snow bank hoping I wasn't going to get T- boned. Lucky for me the pickup was able to stop in time and I reversed out, and continued on to camp. As we pulled into Camp Edison there was about 6" of snow on the ground.

 

Lutz, as usual, was the first to arrive:) We setup out tents and shortly thereafter the SCLR guys showed up; Keanan, Jeff, and Garrett. While there was still light we decided to head out to the trail and check on the conditions. The trail had just enough snow to make it fun to drive on and not worry about getting stuck. We stopped before the small bridge to turn around, got a little stuck and made it back onto Dinkey Creek Rd. As we were driving on one of the bigger downhill sections Colin says over the radio, "We've had an accident."

 

I'm thinking someone got rear ended because of the icy roads. As I come around the curve I see Griff's D110 on it's passenger side, facing me, in the embankment. I'm relieved to see Griff out of the truck and saying he was ok. We get trucks up and down the hill, e-lights flashing to warn any oncoming traffic. Colin tried to position his truck to recover the 110 and wound up slipping towards it. Eventually the RRC was resting against the roof of the 110. With my winch, I had to pull the Classic off the roof (from the rear bumper) while Lutz pulled the Classic forward. During the recovery of the RRC the passenger side CV exploded. Colin worked on that while the group focused on Griff's truck.

 

Some holes were dug under the tires to make getting them on the ground easier. After some looking around we decided to wrap a recovery strap around the external roll cage. It just barely fit between the tube and body. The ends of the strap were attached to my winch. That way I could slowly let out some line to control the speed of the 110 getting back on its feet. Meanwhile, Lutz ran his cable to a tree with a snatch block, and connected the hook to a strap. The strap was wrapped around a couple of the body mounts to spread out some of the load.

 

Once on the tires, the engine was looked at, and the spark plugs were removed (from the side on the ground). Griff ran the engine so the excess oil was pushed out, the plugs were re-installed and the engine fired right up. Just as expected. Here’s Griff’s damage report

 

“Damage to truck: small right rear quarter dent; both front doors pushed in slightly - still open/close, tough getting the driver window up and down; slight kiss to right front fender; bent mounts for front aux lights; roof around sunroof pushed in a bit; side view mirrors with a little more movement than normal; driver side rear tire flat due to coming off the wheel a little and crap getting stuffed in there; and, worst, blown out driver side alpine window. Truck drives straight and totally fine.â€

 

With more than enough excitement for the night we headed back to camp. In total, the entire recovery effort took 3 hours. Chuck arrived at camp during our adventure and we filled him in with the details. The next morning Graeme and Mark had made their way to camp.

 

Saturday morning started bright and early. Griff decided to head home and we left Camp Edison a little after 9am. The roads were already better than the day before but you still had to keep a safe distance between vehicles. The group aired down at Rock Creek Rd., had a short driver meeting, and made our way onto the trail.

 

This was the first year chains would have actually helped. The snow wasn’t that deep and there was hard pack under the fresh snow. It only took 20 minutes to arrive at the Bald Mountain trailhead. There were fresh tracks, but we didn’t see any trucks. We came to a section that has a tight right turn and a steady uphill section. After several attempts to make the climb I stopped trying. Chuck attempted it and finally made once Pedram chopped the ice with the shovel. *Reminder for next year, be sure I’m not the only one to bring a long handle shovel.

 

Pedram was the second person to make the hill climb. We ate lunch as different people attempted the hill climb. The trail got a little smoother as more people drove it. Graeme had a busted PS hose after his climb. A deep socket extension and a couple of hose clamp had him back in running order. Once the repair was made it was about time to turn around and head back to town.

 

Graeme, Paul and myself started to make our way back to the trail head. As the group made its way down the hill we kept in communication making sure we didn’t leave any out there alone. By 4pm we were airing up our tires on Dinkey Creek Rd. and Graeme drove to Napa for a replacement hose. Pedram went to investigate the trail across the street, only to run into a stuck Toyota shortly thereafter. He pulled him out without any issues and joined us again. Once we were aired up it was time for pizza dinner at Shaver Lake Pizza. It’s nice to have a warm place to eat after being on the snowy trail all day.

 

Sunday morning everyone broke camp and packed up their gear. The SCLR guys left first. They seemed to enjoy themselves on this run, and hopefully they can make it next year. Once again this trip was full of surprises, fun and snow. Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great time. Happy trails!

[ColinB]

Great trip report!