Jump to content
NCLR - Northern California Land Rover Club

gauging interest - Gold Lakes weekend trip

DHappel

Preferred date for Gold Lakes weekend  

11 members have voted

  1. 1. Which weekend works best?

    • July 14-15-16
      7
    • July 21-22-23
      4

Recommended Posts

DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Tepui posted this morning on their instagram (also fb) of their trip to Gold Lake this wkend. Pix of the trail looks good (water from snow melt and spots with snow still) and view is amazing. 

*whew* - I read that to say they had a group coming into the camp the same time as us; looks like they just came back from their.  

 

I feel a little dirty for posting a facebook link, but here's their photos:

https://www.facebook.com/tepuitents/

 

I knew all along it was likely the campground would be full as it's very popular.  Let's hope I can secure at least 2 spots (park in one, set up in the other) before others get there.  

 

I plan to leave Walnut Grove at 10:00 AM and head for camp.  That should put me there before 2:00.  Anybody who would like to caravan up with me is welcome to join.  I may have to stop in Sacramento along the way for groceries as we won't pack until that morning and likely don't have enough stuff on-hand.

 

I'll head up I5 to Sac, then 99-70-49.  Depending on traffic I might go 80-49 instead.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/13995+Hannum+Ct,+Walnut+Grove,+CA+95690/Gold+Lake+4x4+Campground,+Gold+Lake+Rd,+Graeagle,+CA+96103/@38.9609634,-121.4419486,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x809ab16cc4543b85:0x5960ed2a11fa7ec1!2m2!1d-121.5150725!2d38.2491592!1m5!1m1!1s0x809c6e2dcfd397b9:0x9b724012b95ca8e1!2m2!1d-120.661!2d39.668

 

I'll have my radio on 146.460, but I haven't set up my intercom yet so likely won't be able to hear if I'm on the highway.  I'll also have my cell available if anybody wants to text/call but again, likely won't hear it until I stop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 78
  • Created
  • Last Reply
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

BTW, can we get a current head-count?  I can think of 6 or 7 at the moment but things have a way of changing last-minute. 

 

Don and Michele

Matt (DiscoBear) and kids

Antonio

Drew

Anudeep

Justin (Flyboy)

Mystery Guest #1 (D2)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

As feared, today we lost 2.  My current count:

 

Don and Michele

Antonio

Drew

Anudeep

Mystery Guest

 

Of that group, most can run Snake with me though I'm not sure if they will.  Anudeep wouldn't want to take it on in his mostly stock LR3 as I don't think he has sliders or skids.  I believe Antonio will be in an LR4 but I'm not sure how much kit it's packing as yet, so it may be those two on their own Saturday run and myself, Drew, and Mystery Guest on the Snake Lake trail.  

 

Again, if you're thinking of coming please chime in - everybody is welcome and there are trails suitable for anybody.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AA Journey Newbie

AA Journey

Posted
Posted

I been to the snake trail but not run it up the hard part.  I know getting to the hard part of the trailer, if i remember correctly there are some really tight spots where rockslides are almost a must have.

 

My LR4 still  stock, i was hoping to get the rock sliders before the trip but it seems that they may get here till next week.  I am also still running 20s but with a much beefier tires than stock.  I will stick with easy trails for now.  I might  just make a trip to Sierra Buttes on Saturday.  

 

AA

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I been to the snake trail but not run it up the hard part.  I know getting to the hard part of the trailer, if i remember correctly there are some really tight spots where rockslides are almost a must have.

 

My LR4 still  stock, i was hoping to get the rock sliders before the trip but it seems that they may get here till next week.  I am also still running 20s but with a much beefier tires than stock.  I will stick with easy trails for now.  I might  just make a trip to Sierra Buttes on Saturday.  

 

AA

Perfect.  You and Anudeep (mostly stock LR3) can explore some of the moderate trails in the area on Saturday and the other guys can run Snake with me!

 

BTW - I'll bring a little, but it would be good if everybody could bring a bit of firewood.  I won't have much room in the D1 so some help would be good on this front!

 

And don't forget to get your campfire permits - free, just takes a couple minutes on-line:

http://www.preventwildfireca.org/Permits/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Desertcrawler Newbie

Desertcrawler

Posted
Posted

We've taken stock rigs on Snake Lake trail before - with a bypass if you decide to actually climb the Hill itself. We would start out,drop down and drive past the two lakes and the squeeze rock -- then you hit an intersection. To the right is the climb up Snake Lake Hill, which I don't think can be done without lockers. To the left is a bypass route, but you have to wind a long way around to get back to camp. And with that route there really isn't a way to turn around and go back up the hills you came down in a stock rig.

 

But I do think anyone who does it without rock sliders would be inviting some damage to their sills. We got someone through without any - but it took very careful spotting. And that was 10 years ago..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I'd agree Chuck - that hill has some decent ledges and squeezes and with all the loose rock it's impossible to climb without lockers.  Even with lockers the LR3 couldn't climb it without the winch as it just dug and spun all four tires in the loose stuff.  Too heavy.  Although the majority of the trail isn't that tough, and it's not a long trail, I wouldn't send somebody through without at least sliders at a minimum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi,

 

I will bring some fire wood as well.  There are some thunder storms in the forecast, so we might get some showers.  Be prepare just in case. 

 

AA

Of course it would rain.  I'm driving a rig with no roof!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I'm jealous. This sounds like a great trip! A trail report after you're done would be much appreciated -- I'm thinking about doing this trip solo or with friends (or NCRC that missed out) in the next few weeks. 

I've done it as a solo rig twice, but I'd really recommend having another rig along almost any time just for safety-sake.  I'll be sure to put a report together when we get back for try my best to remember to take pictures.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jethro Rising Star

Jethro

Posted
Posted

All,

 

Gone on to Summit Lake. Gold Lakes full

 

Graeme

Wow! That sucks... hopefully they still have fun.

 

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Wow! That sucks... hopefully they still have fun.

 

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

We did  :)

 

Nobody broke anything, but somebody did re-arrange some bodywork.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHappel Mentor

DHappel

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The Gold Lakes OHV area has been on our list of places ‘to do’ for a while now.  We’ve been through the area on our Sierra Trek several times but haven’t made a dedicated trip there in years so for 2017 we remedied that.

 

The plan was to camp at the Gold Lakes 4x4 campground and run a few of the trails in the area.  I would be leading the more adventurous of the group on the Snake Lake trail, and others could run Deer Valley or any number of more moderate trails in the area.

 

As the Gold Lakes camp is very popular I planned to arrive a bit earlier on Friday in an attempt to secure a site.  Leaving home at 10:00, I had to stop in Sacramento for provisions and again in Downieville for lunch, so I arrived at the campground at approximately 3:00 only to find every spot was already taken.  And it wasn’t as if they had just beaten me by an hour or two – most of them looked like they’d already been there days if not weeks.

 

Not to worry; although the OHV area is restricted to camping in designated spots only, just a mile down the trail you cross into standard national forest lands where dispersed camping is an option.  Michele and I moved on to Summit Lake and set up camp, however I wasn’t sure how I’d get the message out to the others about where to find us.  There’s very little or no cell service anywhere in the region but shockingly I found I could send/receive texts about 75% of the time from Summit Lake so I reached out to Graeme and asked him to in turn pass the word to the others if he could.

 

I had heard from Drew that he was expecting to arrive around 4-5 PM, so as I was preparing to head down to the entrance to meet him I heard him come over the radio.  He was approaching Sierra City at that point so I still had some time before he’d arrive.  I lost contact with him for a while but picked him up again on Gold Lakes Highway and we closed in on each other as he came toward the campground from the east while I came back to it from the west.  I kept expecting to cross his path but didn’t…then I arrived at the staging area and knew we’d somehow missed each other.  Turns out he’d accidentally gotten off on the side trail to Squaw Lake.  We shortly corrected this and headed back to our camp at Summit Lake.

 

With two of us now here I decided to make a sign and leave it in the campground to help direct others.  I was expecting 3 more rigs yet that night and I knew at least one of them wouldn’t have a radio.  Somewhere after 9:00 we heard a truck approaching so I started shining a flashlight down the trail in expectation it was one of our people.  Turned out it was Graeme arriving in his D2.  About an hour later we heard Antonio come over the radio and shortly thereafter he too rolled into camp in his stock LR4.

We had been expecting one more but he was a tentative and in the end didn’t make it, so our final turnout was all Disco:

Don and Michele, D1 - moded

Drew and Laura, LR3 – moded

Graeme, D2 – stock (bumpers and tires)

Antonio, LR4 – stock (tires)

 

Saturday morning we agreed we’d head for Snake Lake with Antonio riding shotgun in Graeme’s D2.  I’ve been through this trail a couple times with my LR3 and each was a work-out; this time I was looking forward to getting my revenge on the trail as my D1 is a more dedicated crawler.  We ran the trail counter clockwise, generally considered the ‘easier’ direction as you don’t have to climb the long loose hill on the north east side of Snake Lake, but easy is relative.  It’s still a pretty tough trail for moderately built rigs. 

 

But before we even got to the start of the hill leading down to the lake we encountered our first obstacle – a 6’+ snow pile topped by a downed tree blocking the route.  We saw others had already found a way around and followed in their tracks and continued on to ‘the good stuff’.  The tough part of the trail begins in earnest with a long decent to the north side of the lake.  Making this tougher is the lack of traction from all the loose, smooth stones that make up the hill, plus a few large boulders added in to act as diff catchers, plus a few ledges, plus a couple of tight squeezes past trees/rocks.  I was thrilled to be in the D1 instead of my LR3 – it was almost too easy; I could more or less drive wherever I wanted.  Behind me came Graeme in his near stock D2.  I wouldn’t normally recommend this trail for any stock vehicle but Graeme has more than a little experience in a Rover and a higher tolerance for damage than some.  Still, a set of sliders wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.  J  Drew brought up the rear with his LR3 and certainly he DID use his sliders a fair bit, as I knew from past experience he would.

 

We worked down the first set of obstacles with relatively little problem.  Some spotting and stacking was in order but no major road building or damage.  Further down there’s a tricky off-camber left.  I drove through it and felt the truck get tippy as the driver’s front dropped down but rode it out and then came back up to spot Graeme through.  He took more or less the same line I had but without as much tire and suspension got VERY tippy in the same spot.  Had he rode it out as I had he’d likely have been fine but given the consequences of getting it wrong he stopped and balanced while we stacked some rocks then he tip-toed out of the spot.  Drew took a slightly different line with the LR3, having a much tighter turning radius and of course a very different set of vehicle dynamics overall and came though fine with the use of a slider.

 

Once down the hill we worked our way across the north side of the lake to the sharp left that takes you south again.  We found a half downed tree that we spent a little time trimming for vertical clearance and then we started working our way up out of the lake basin.  The trail comes up through a series of shorter climbs, most of which we each made with minimal trouble.  Two particular obstacles stand out; first a tight squeeze with a tree on the left and a rock wall on the right.  A fallen tree was actually covering the preferred line, which is to put your left front tire over a small boulder.  Though it looks wide enough to go beside this rock, only a very narrow rig will make that line work.  As the first one through I didn’t quite climb up the rock and just kissed the tube around my passenger taillight on the rock.  No harm – that’s why the cage runs out there!  I was just hiking back down to help spot Graeme through when he attacked the obstacle with vigor – not having lockers (just a CDL) meant he needed more momentum, and Graeme has never been afraid of the skinny peddle.  I got there just in time to see him hammer the gas and get through, but at the cost of smacking the passenger rear against the rock costing him a dent and tail light.  Well, he’s hardly the first to put a dent in a D2 in that location…I bet a dozen others in the club have matching dents!

 

I then drug the downed tree off the preferred line and spotted Drew through in the wider LR3.  Thanks to his front locker he was able to crawl it carefully and get through cleanly.  He was helped by the fact the LR3 has a much tighter turning radius that allows different line options and the way LR3s on air seem to have better body control than the coils sprung trucks – something I’ve noticed when wheeling my own in tight spots with other rigs. 

 

We pushed on and stopped for lunch above Little Deer Lake – though shade was hard to come by and the mid-day sun was hot there was a breeze and the scenery is supremely picturesque.  We spent a lazy hour or so here in no particular rush to move on since we had the rest of the afternoon and hadn’t seen another rig all day.

 

Eventually we started rolling again and found our next challenge to be a ledge at a 90* turn in the middle of a long climb.  Graeme’s D2 made it, but not without a couple tries and a fair bit of tire spinning.  The LR3 also made it with a bit of stacking and again we moved on up the trail, approaching the last real climb of the day.  Here we found the way completely blocked by snow and a by-pass had been worked out by prior rigs.  It wasn’t the easiest line, with soft dirt and a blind crest up a steep hill.  I went first and knew it was going to be difficult for the others.  Graeme gave it a couple of attempts but without lockers just wasn’t going to make it so I came back down and took up position to winch him up the short difficult section.  The problem was there wasn’t much room for me to set up and I was also on a steep hill.  I was able to get him up, but not without pulling myself down nearly as much as he came up.  With him out of the way we weren’t sure if Drew would be able to make it or not.  Despite the stock rear locker and front ARB, the sheer weight of the LR3 was going to pose a challenge on the soft surface.  It did take a couple of tries, but in the end he cleared it under his own power and again we headed on.

 

Now we found ourselves done with the big climbs and nearly back to our starting point on the east side of the lake, having circled all the way around, only to encounter more snow drifts.  I was able to work my way over and through in the D1 and had hoped I might plow a bit of a path but the snow was hard enough I didn’t leave much of a trail for the other guys.  A shovel was deployed as well a saw to improve the approach by moving some downed trees and with some work the D2 got through.  By now the trail had been improved enough to make it relatively easy for the LR3.  Surprisingly however the next snow bank proved quite the challenge for Graeme.  It wasn’t particularly large but it was uphill.  I had cleared it fairly easily and assumed he would as well but instead it took him quite a few tries.  Again, the lack of lockers meant as soon as one tire lost grip he was done, and combined with a short, uphill approach he couldn’t generate enough momentum to get over it.  Finally after several tries he put it on redline and powered his way across to solid dirt.  Drew too needed a couple of tries but had an easier go than the stock D2.

 

Nearly out, we encountered one last obstacle – a huge downed tree blocking the trail.  Again previous rigs had picked out a by-pass but though it was short it was a tight weave between trees.  Everyone made it through cleanly and with that we were able headed back to camp arriving around 3:00.

 

After dinner that night Drew and Laura decided to head out as they had family commitments the next day.  The rest of us spent a quiet night around the campfire and made an early departure on Sunday, braking camp and heading out to the south via Packard Lake trail past beautiful Deer Lake and on to Packer Lake Saddle where we crossed and headed up to one of my favorite trails, the run up to the Sierra Buttes fire lookout at nearly 8600’.  Though a moderate trail suitable for any Rover, there is still about a mile of cardio-testing hiking plus a few hundred steps to make it to the top of the actual lookout.  Well worth the effort though as the views are stunning, all the way to Mt. Lassen and the Yosemite wilderness.

 

From the lookout we backtracked down then made our way over the ridge and down the shelf road into Sierra City where we went our separate ways and back into the heat of the Sacramento Valley.  Another great trip in the books, but as always I’m already looking forward to our next run!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BuckinghamBill Newbie

BuckinghamBill

Posted
Posted

 

 

As the Gold Lakes camp is very popular I planned to arrive a bit earlier on Friday in an attempt to secure a site.  Leaving home at 10:00, I had to stop in Sacramento for provisions and again in Downieville for lunch, so I arrived at the campground at approximately 3:00 only to find every spot was already taken.  And it wasn’t as if they had just beaten me by an hour or two – most of them looked like they’d already been there days if not weeks.

 

 

Wow! I'll make a note to head up early on a Thursday if I do make the trek. Thanks for the write-up Don!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...