SierraFlop 2006 run report

[Bryan C.]

SierraFest was officially cancelled, but I still went wheeling for the week. The run was officially unofficial at this point and was renamed SierraFlop 2006, I guess it was better then The Doug and Bryan go wheeling for a week run.

The trip started off at The Barrett Lake Jeep Trail. We were joined by 2 NAXJA members at the trailhead. Slonopotom and itsHud met us at the trailhead. We quickly hit the trail and had some fun.
http://www.fototime.com/6D360B44EBD9BF4/standard.jpg

Doug at the gate
http://www.fototime.com/0670BC1004A4A4B/standard.jpg

Ken
http://www.fototime.com/64B494D4E7EFE61/standard.jpg

Andrey, ready for action. Actually, he was bored with all the stops we made along the trail. :( I'm glad to hear he made it off the trail OK.
http://www.fototime.com/99FA2B27D56EF1B/standard.jpg

Barrett Lake
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Ken and his Dad, Bill, made sandwiches for lunch.
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That was my first time running all the way to Barrett Lake. Great trail, and great scenery. I want to thank Letterman, Kernel, and the rest of the Friday group for snagging a great campsite and saving room for the late group. That really was a great weekend run.

[Bryan C.]

Next it was on to The Rubicon Trail. Doug, Ken + Bill, and I camped along Icehouse road at a great campsite with hot showers. Doug and I were a little burned out from the con this year, so we decided to run what we could of the trail in one day and leave all our gear at the campsite. That turned out to be a good decision. With 3 rigs, and no traffic on the trail, we decided to run the entire trail in one day. Doug turned around at Buck Island Lake due to his tow rig was at Loon Lake and his rig isn't street legal. We had met up with CanyonMan at soup bowl and we stopped just long enough to show him a great campsite for the evening. Ken and I headed on and finished the trail in just over 9 hours, that was including stops along the way.

A helicopter was shuttling supplies and people from Loon Lake to Rubicon Springs. We later saw that there was several new JKs at the springs on display and ready for the official launch later that week.
http://www.fototime.com/23AA4E2B704252B/standard.jpg

Trail markers, that was the first time I had ever seen these along the rocks...
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Ken on Walker Hill
http://www.fototime.com/1288EDE43A6325C/standard.jpg

My junk at the top of Soup Bowl
http://www.fototime.com/126B2204DDA0DCF/standard.jpg

Doug, on Soup Kitchen
http://www.fototime.com/094F097907AA6CC/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/0C1EA2950D79EB7/standard.jpg

Ken, gettin jacked up...
http://www.fototime.com/8694AA13F0BE46C/standard.jpg

canyonman
http://www.fototime.com/D4B25360740D9CD/standard.jpg

Ken showing the official Sierra Flop hand signal.
http://www.fototime.com/6BC08A5A6FCEB46/standard.jpg

At the bridge
http://www.fototime.com/EC499FD0305B37B/standard.jpg

JKs at the springs.
http://www.fototime.com/10C0AE73505A0F3/standard.jpg

[Bryan C.]

Ken running an optional line at the base of Cadillac Hill
http://www.fototime.com/A42508064F9445D/standard.jpg

Don Julio was my co-pilot for the week.
http://www.fototime.com/A45D0B092EA14F3/standard.jpg

Just in time for sunset at the obsevation point.
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A fine day on the trail. It was nice to head back to an already set-up camp for a hot shower at the end of the day. Thanks again to Ken and Bill for a special dinner that night, Denny's never tasted so good.

[Bryan C.]

We said goodbye to Ken and Bill on Wednesday morning heading to South Lake tahoe for some jet ski fun on the lake. Too bad my Jeep almost caught on fire along the way. I jumped out with my fire extinguisher in hand. Once I had partially unloaded Jeep I realized there were no flames and I grabbed my camera for a few pics of the damage.

http://www.fototime.com/CF679F2C4617407/standard.jpg

Bad pic, but you can see the burn marks on the carpet. Notice the burnt bic lighter on the carpet?
http://www.fototime.com/09EEED235B7779F/standard.jpg

I think the cat conv is a little close to the floor. This might not have been the first time this had happend.:sad1:
http://www.fototime.com/0B60E0F1935F19F/standard.jpg

I pulled up the carpet and the pad was still smoldering.
http://www.fototime.com/5D3164D2AFE8E53/standard.jpg

Got a light?
http://www.fototime.com/011C96A1502EAC0/standard.jpg

For some reason I thought this was a good idea at the time. :confused1
http://www.fototime.com/EF0D6970357AAFE/standard.jpg

Burrito time!
http://www.fototime.com/70A787C860FEF6C/standard.jpg

[Bryan C.]

$60 later at the local Midas Muffler my junk got a little louder, and a little lighter.
http://www.fototime.com/694D8EA13ABA63F/standard.jpg

A split muffler blowing exhaust on the floor I'm sure wasn't helping either.
http://www.fototime.com/F2207FF1EADB4A0/standard.jpg

Doug fixing his rear axle seal.
http://www.fototime.com/A6A6EBE2DA6348F/standard.jpg



Well, the jet ski's will have to wait until next time.

[Bryan C.]

Doug and I met our friend Scott and his girlfriend Lindsey for a run through Fordyce Creek Trail. This was by far the best trail of the week, and some really great people to wheel with.

Scott
http://www.fototime.com/5F1F20D775E68B6/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/33E87068CC280C5/standard.jpg

The water was still at Sierra Trek low. Even still, those are 42" Iroks on Doug's rig.
http://www.fototime.com/521EE3278B48BDD/standard.jpg

Scott on 33's
http://www.fototime.com/87B9BA92985C3E7/standard.jpg

[Bryan C.]

Beautiful sights along this trail.
http://www.fototime.com/2408E84AFF73D01/standard.jpg

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We slowed the pace down for Fordyce. It was the last trail and we wanted to relax along the way. Every once in a while I wish I had an open top Jeep. :)
http://www.fototime.com/E4DB162271ADF61/standard.jpg

Winch Hill #1
http://www.fototime.com/0C12F7E75F32F89/standard.jpg

Looks like it got paved for Sierra Trek. :(
http://www.fototime.com/3E6F737271E3EA5/standard.jpg

Doug trying an impossible line.
http://www.fototime.com/C46B20379B283E4/standard.jpg

Scott, trying to make the hill interesting.
http://www.fototime.com/68E7520ECDED3BE/standard.jpg

[Bryan C.]

Scott in water crossing #2
http://www.fototime.com/76FE8AA668451F5/standard.jpg

Weird things happened at camp
http://www.fototime.com/28205F8ED51A172/standard.jpg

The ghost of Scotty Pumpkin Seed stopped by.
http://www.fototime.com/2191B9BBF15DD0F/standard.jpg

The view from our campsite :loveu:
http://www.fototime.com/1D6E801345C5303/standard.jpg

Fordyce Creek
http://www.fototime.com/3A7ACCCFB1AF31C/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/26E40C8016822D9/standard.jpg

[Bryan C.]

Doug on Winch Hill #3
http://www.fototime.com/A19803CD5EF3D52/standard.jpg

Scott
http://www.fototime.com/BE0BFE149037E53/standard.jpg

Winch Hill #4 ??
http://www.fototime.com/E28647879D31C2B/standard.jpg

Meadow lake area.
http://www.fototime.com/37D326A71957F89/standard.jpg

All in all a great trip. I got to make a few new friends, and see some great scenery along the way. 3 trail, in 6 days, wow, what a week. I want to thank my buddy Doug for sticking with me all week. I want to thank Ken and his dad Bill for coming all the way up from San Diego for the run.


Hopefully next year Sierra fest will be back, but with a totally different line-up of trails.

Thanks for looking,

Bryan C.

[FarmerMatt]

Pretty pics. Your rig will never smell the right again... Mine hasn't...

[BrettM]

that shot of WH1 is depressing.


and with a title like that I expected to see pics of a few rigs on their side.

[Bryan C.]

and with a title like that I expected to see pics of a few rigs on their side.

I know, its like nascar and the car crashes, it hooks the people in.....

[Letterman]

Nice Photos Bryan, Sorry I could only make Barrett Lake with ya

A few of my junk on the trail, some dude on a hike stopped to snap a photo
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/88093553-L.jpg

The only other hard part of Barrett:
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/88092467-L.jpg

[muck]

Good times, and it was nice meeting Ken, Bill, the angry russian, and that other naxja dude who showed up on the rubicon.

Thanks Bryan. I'll definitely be there for Sierra Flop '07 :D

P.S. Where are the pictures of me doing soup bowl backwards? :D

[muck]

$Doug fixing his rear axle seal.
http://www.fototime.com/A6A6EBE2DA6348F/standard.jpg




I think that was my "Dammit, I thought we were going jet skiing today" Face.

It was fun Drinking ice cold budweiser in the parking lot of the AA Meeting though :angel:

[Jes]

Wish I coulda made it but it's probably better that I didn't.
I woulda been a trail tampon as my junk broke twice last weekend on the Rubicon. :rolleyes:
I broke another hub early in the day and then my tranny mount broke causing my front driveshaft to rub on my upper link mount. I had to drive from a ways past Soup Bowl back to the base of Walker Hill in 2WD.

[BrettM]

yikes, what happened to the tranny mount? I really liked your design... are you going to change it?

[Jes]

40,000 miles with a lot of hard trails must have cause some metal fatigue...
http://www.fototime.com/{D6B55EB7-F076-4487-8700-72388DC86B5E}/picture.JPG
...a couple gussets on the sides should do the trick.
RockTractor welding it up...
http://www.fototime.com/{CB012D6E-4F71-482E-89BC-8FE34113635C}/picture.JPG

[BrettM]

that's not too bad, I certainly wouldn't call it a design flaw. seeing that, if I were to build my own I would just use 1/4" tabs coming down with gussets on the outside.

[Goatman]

Too bad my Jeep almost caught on fire along the way. I jumped out with my fire extinguisher in hand. Once I had partially unloaded Jeep I realized there were no flames and I grabbed my camera for a few pics of the damage.

For some reason I thought this was a good idea at the time. :confused1
http://www.fototime.com/EF0D6970357AAFE/standard.jpg


Been there...done that, Bryan. I call that a permanent fix, it worked for me :D

Glad you guys had a great time.

[TRNDRVR]

Been there...done that, Bryan. I call that a permanent fix, it worked for me :DUnless it happened more than once, I think I remember that.

JV, Nov. 2003. :dunno:

[Goatman]

Unless it happened more than once, I think I remember that.

JV, Nov. 2003. :dunno:

Actually, it happened a number of times before I got it all figured out. The floor had rusted through above the muffler, and the muffler got shoved through the rusted out floor from banging on rocks.......which all wasn't good for the carpet and padding. :)

I ended up replating the floor, and still used some tin foil to insulate the carpet.