Saturday
This was our travel day.  I arrived about 1230 and did some leg work to try to make campground check in smoother for everyone else.

The Huntington Lake campgrounds have a very frustrating check in system.  First you go to the campground office and talk to the folks that I came to call the "Reservation Nazis" because they were so unbending in their rules and procedures.

After you sign in with the "Reservation Nazis" you go to the campground and drive around trying to find an open spot that you like, and then you occupy it.  This is all complicated by the fact that some people change spots without telling anyone and move from 20' to 30' or 40' spots using up precious reserved larger campsites.

I tried to explain that we had 10 families that would be arriving in a couple of hours and that if they would let me pick out and reserve the spots now it would save everyone, including them, a lot of trouble.  No way...  they needed a vehicle license number and a signature to give out the precious "yellow slip" that gave you the right to hold a campsite!

To make a long and frustrating story a little shorter, I spent the next 4 hours doing what I could to get us nice campsites that were somewhat close together.  Luckily the Campground Hosts at Rancheria campground were sympathetic and helpful!

By 6PM we all were in good sites and settled in.  This was after a lot of frustration, including a woman that insisted that we had harassed her to leave her spot early, peeked into her trailer, and cussed out her father-in-law (yeah right, that sounds like us ).

Lloyd, Phyllis, and Ti were horrified as they approached Huntington Lake and saw someone throw a little dog out of a moving car!  They rescued the little guy, a mixed breed the size and shape of a Chihuahua. Luckily the dog was OK with only bruises and he became our mascot.  He got a little better every day.  Ti is going to try to keep him (if her Mom approves) but Phyllis will make sure he goes to a good home no matter what.

Fred discovered that he had no brakes after unhooking his rig...  a call to Roger and he offered to come up Sunday morning with a replacement master cylinder!

Sunday
We learned that Scott was not going to be able to make it, so our group was Fred and Venetta, Brian and Carol, Lloyd and Phyllis with Phyllis' grand daughter Ti, Jorge and Eric, Steve P. and his fiancee Sarah (congratulations Steve and Sarah!), Kevron, Fred's friends Allen and Karen (with no 4x4 vehicle) and myself.

While Fred waited for his parts, Kevron, Steve and Sarah, Lloyd and Phyllis, and myself with Ti went to Kaiser Pass and Whitebark Vista at the north end of the Dusy-Ershim to see if it was true that the trail was still closed.  It was true!  The trail would not open until the weekend of August 5 due to trees that had fallen during a severe thunderstorm the previous weekend.  No Dusy-Ershim for us this trip!

We did enjoy the views to the east of the Sierra Crest and the Mono Hot Springs/Edison Lake area.  We also were caught several hundred yards away from the trucks in a thundershower that had us running for shelter.

On the way back we explored a route to Deer Lake and found a woman in a new Tacoma high centered on a rock.  She was very grateful as we got her unstuck.

On the way out Steve decided to try a line up an eroded section of a hill.  It turned out that the soil was like sand and just crumbled away, causing him to high center on his differentials.  As we strapped him backwards one of his mud flaps was torn away and buried in the dirt!  It took several minutes of digging to find it!

We returned to camp to find Roger had not only driven all the way to Huntington Lake to deliver the part, but had installed it as well!

Roger had just returned from 6 weeks of Desert Survival training in New Mexico with the Army Reserve, and jumped at the chance to help Fred out!  Fred, you owe him big time...

Roger, you are one of the most kind, unselfish people I have ever met!  :clap:

Together now as a group we did Mirror Lake trail in the afternoon.  This is a nice half day trip in the Red Mountain area that has some nice rock crawling and a nasty rocky decent past a tree that likes to eat sheet metal (and 4Runner rear windows).  To make it even more fun it is a dead end trail, so you have to go back past that tree and up the hill!

Monday
We did the Coyote Lake trail, another dead end trail.  This excellent rocky trail starts at the same place as the Mirror Lake trail and climbs past beautiful Red Lake to awesome Coyote Lake, through a corridor in the wilderness area.  There were several groups camped at Coyote Lake, disappointed, as we were, that Dusy-Ershim was not open.

After a nice lunch at Coyote Lake we headed back.  Just before Red Lake, as we dropped down what is the most difficult section, Kevron's tie rod end at his steering box broke!   #-o

Steve and Brian, using Fred's welder and grinder did an excellent repair that held up for the rest of the week!  Nice welding Steve!

Tuesday
This was a "do what you want day", but everyone ended up at Mono Hot Springs at one point or another.  The road there from Huntington Lake is paved but rough and only 1 lane.  There are excellent views and awesome forest and meadows along the way.

At Mono Hot Springs I spoke to a local and learned of some excellent natural hot spring pools.  The best was called "Little Eden".  There is also a resort with a store, restaurant, mineral baths, and showers.

Steve and Sarah spent most of the day at Mono Hot Springs and really enjoyed the natural pools (and the showers at the resort)!

I went the farthest that day and explored the Onion Creek trail that runs 5 miles from Edison Lake to dead end in a wilderness coridor.  This trail was easy 4x4 but had awesome views west across the valley of Mono Creek toward Whitebark Vista and Kaiser Pass.

Wednesday
Since we could not do Dusy-Ershim, the next best thing was to do an overnight on the Swamp Lake trail.

We had a great day of wheeling, including the scary slab climb near Mud Lakes.

A group of with Jeeps, a Willys Wagon, and a Power Wagon, caught up to us as we worked up the very difficult notch above the slabs.

They made fun of the Sammys, calling them "Go Carts" but Off Road Karma caught up to them as one of them broke a rear axle on the slabs!  They also had planned to camp at Grouse Lake, but we got there first and took the only good camping area...

We camped at Grouse Lake, a beautiful high lake between the slabs and Swamp Lake.  The mosquitoes were a nuisance, but not as bad as at Thompson Lake last year.

Many tried their luck at fishing but only Phyllis caught one!

Thursday
We were packed up and on the trail by 0930.  At Swamp Lake we looked for a mine that Lloyd remembered as being there...  No mine (Lloyd thinks it is farther down the trail at Miningtown Meadow) but we did find an awesome campsite!  Last year we bypassed Swamp Lake and didn't realize how beautiful it is, actually more scenic than Grouse Lake.  Well worth spending a night or two there.

The last difficult section after Swamp Lake was another tough notch that gave everyone problems.  Ron will remember this section from last year when he had to make several full power attacks to get up it.

Just above this notch we heard a bang from under Jorge's Jeep!  He broke a u-joint strap and cap at his rear differential.  Once again Steve jumped in to assist and he and Jorge made short work of using a strap from the front differential so that Jorge could limp out in rear wheel drive.  This was made much easier by the fact that Jorge had recently upgraded to an Atlas transfer case that allowed rear wheel drive low range!

We had a late lunch at the end of the trail where it crosses Dinkey Creek at a lovely spot with rocky pools and rapids.

Friday
Travel day home.