Shaver Lake Vacation

Participants

Rob & Linda Adams, Paul Beckman & Payton, Bob Bills & Marilyn ??, John & Peg Brzezicki, Steve Gardiner & Dayna ??, Steve & Barbara & Gina & Jill & Micky Locantore, Ray & Marilyn Pfeifer & Diane ??, Frank & Beverly Rubolino, Chris & Arlene Storm, Dave Swanson.

Note: I am sorry, I did not get the last names of Diane who is Ray and Marilyn's sister-in-law and Marilyn who came with Bob Bills.

Friday 8-9-02

Some of us chose to get a head start on the driving on this day. Of course this meant that the list of problems started a day early also. Frank & Beverly left early to stop in at their daughters house in Bakersfield and spend the night there and leave to drive up Sat. morning. Ray & Marilyn met Dave along the 57 Frwy. between 12 - 12:30 to start the drive up to the Riverland Campground off the 99 Frwy. just outside Kingsburg. Linda and I were about an hour behind them with plans on meeting at the campground. Turns out that somewhere along the way Dave lost his air conditioning. I am not sure if was before or after the Grapevine, but needless to say he was not having a fun time driving through the 100 degree temps. of that Bakersfield area. They had made several stops to restock Dave's supply of water and by the time that Linda & I had gotten to the Bakersfield area we were only about a half-hour behind them.

Meanwhile back at the Corona area Chris and Arlene had left sometime in the early afternoon but were taking a slightly different route. Because of their location, they were heading up to Mojave then across to Bakersfield to catch the 99 Frwy. and to my knowledge were going to meet us at the Riverland Campground. I am not sure where this happened but Chris lost a valve stem on one of his trailer tires. There is some question as to how this valve stem failed. This was not to be the only problem that they were to face though. At some point the inverter on the coach decided to stick in the "ON" position. I think at this point Chris & Arlene decided to stop off and visit with the Rubilino clan.

One last note on the Riverland Campground. After we had sat around for a few in the shade of the trees we decided it was time to eat. We had all, at one time or another, looked over at a banner on the side of this one building. It read "AIR CONDITIONED RESTAURANT". That sounded good to all of us. Well, the air conditioning consisted of ceiling fans and if you were not under one of them it was still very warm. We finally managed to get under one of them but were hard pressed to get any food. I think from the time we entered the restaurant to when we left it had been almost two hours. There were only three items on the menu to choose from and our waitress had trouble figuring them out.

Saturday 8-10-02

We left the campground at 9:00 but Dave and Ray still needed to gas up. So I took them over to the gas station that I had used the day before. All was going well till Dave got high centered leaving the station. With a little help from Ray he managed to get out of it but not before he dug a 2" deep slice in the asphalt and bent his trailer jack slightly. Back on the road again we ended up in the end of a major traffic jamb. They had the freeway down to one lane due to bush trimming in the center median. I guess those coming from Bakersfield and those who had started from home that day ended up extending their travel time by as much as an hour. I was busy talking on the C.B. with Ray and missed the off ramp that we were supposed to take. So with some detouring around Kingsburg we were back on track. Chris wanted to get his tire repaired before leaving Bakersfield so him and Frank were a little bit behind us. The rest of the group filtered in sporadically throughout the day and as far as I can remember no one else had any problems.

It only took us about 2 hours to make it to Shaver Lake so we were in camp plenty early in the day to get all set up and relax. Because of the size of our campsites we had to unload our rigs off our trailers, disconnect the trailers from our M/H's, put the M/H's in the site, then tow the trailers with Ray's Jeep to a different location. Due to the time of the day (check-in time) there were many rigs coming in to get to their sites. By this time we had 2 or 3 rigs behind Ray and I. (Dave was in a different area) Because of this Ray and I were in a rush to get our rigs unloaded. Unfortunately Ray got a little ahead of himself and unlatched the trailer tongue from the hitch of the M/H before he drove the Jeep off the trailer. When he drove the Jeep off the trailer the tongue of the trailer raised up and gave the back of his M/H a big long kiss. This ended up jamming the storage door on the back and leaving a pretty good scratch also.

That evening we had the hors d'oeuvres and a campfire to sit around and discuss the traveling carnage and the plans for the next day ahead.

Sunday 8-11-02

This day we had decided to do the Kaiser Pass end of the Dusy since it was the shortest of the proposed trails. We left camp at 9:00 with plans to meet up with Steve G. along the way because he and Dayna were camping north of the Shaver Lake area. Paul was leading the way with the whole group listed above following except for Bob Bills & Marilyn ??, who did not arrive in Shaver Lake till later this day, and Linda who had to stay in camp and work on a paper for school.

All was going well inching our way up the tough part of the trail when Steve G. had a problem with his front tires wanting to go different directions. He had broken the steering tie rod end. I am not sure whether this is the correct name for this part but you get the picture. He happened to have two spares for this part so it made it a pretty easy fix. I think it took longer to secure his vehicle in its position, jack it up and take off the tire than it did for him to change the part out. With Steve's vehicle rolling we continued without incident to the area of the pass that gave us the best view for lunch.

After lunch Paul asked if we wanted to continue on to Lakecamp Lake before turning around but we all felt it would put us too far out for the time of day it was. So we headed on down the trail and got to the trailhead without any other problems. Since we got down the mountain much faster than we expected some of the group decided to drive up to Edison Lake to take a look around and some drove into Huntington Lake. During this trip Loco had experienced some P/S pump problems, so he went back to camp with me following.

Later in the evening we all got together at the designated fire ring to talk about where each had gone after the trail and to make plans for the next day.

Monday 8-12-02

This day was slated for the Thompson Hill run. With Paul in the lead we had lost a few vehicles to other planned activities. Others on this trip were Dave, Ray & Marilyn & Diane, Bob & Marilyn, Linda & I. We left Shaver Lake at about 8:20 because Linda needed to go into town to fax off a paper for school. This just broke the hearts of all those who were going to have to start so late. NOT!!!

When we got to the trailhead to air down we ran into John Lemiuox (spelling?) from "All 4 Wheel Drive" who had a group of 4 or 5 that were going over the trail with trailers and spending 5 days on the trail. They headed out ahead of us by about 15-20 minutes. This lead was short lived though due to the trailers and the experience of some of his group. He was gracious enough to pull over and let us pass. As we came close to the north end of Courtright Reservoir we ran across another group of 18 trailmasters. Fortunately for us, one of them was down with a pinion problem so we were able to get past that group also. So now we are moving, past all of the big groups we made a group decision to move on and put off the lunch for a little while so we could gain some distance between us and those groups.

It's a good thing we had some distance ahead of these groups because Bob Bills started having problems with his rig staying running. For some reason his computer was flooding out his fuel injection. He could only travel for a few hundred yards and it would shut down. We would sit there for about ten minutes and it would start right up. This went on for a few times then Bob said enough is enough. He did not want to try and go up Thompson Hill with these problems. At this time we made a decision that I would turn around with Bob and the rest of the group would continue on. This proved to be the right decision because it took Bob and I over 5 hours to get back to the trailhead and by the time we were back in Shaver Lake it was 7:30-8:00. At one point we thought that the computer was getting baked in the engine compartment sitting on the firewall, but I guess it was only a fuel filter. Once back in town I stopped at the gas station while Bob went on to camp. After gassing up I went to start the engine and got nothing. We ran lights back to camp from the trailhead and my (new / rebuilt) alternator was not charging. Luckily there was a down hill slope out of the gas station so Linda and I pushed it enough to get it rolling down hill and popped the clutch and got her started. Back in camp Loco & Frank jumped in to help with parts and hands. Frank had an alternator but it did not fit my bracketry. I had my old one that still charges so we put that in. During this ordeal I found that my front diff. drain plug was 2/3 out with some thread damage in the housing and oil dripping. Frank came to the rescue with a spare part but it was real late so I put that off till the next morning with a drip pan underneath to catch the oil.

Since I was not a part of the group that continued on to Thompson Hill I can only report on what I heard from them when they got back. I guess the hill had changed a lot but in many ways was the same. "It was very intense" was the words I think I heard to describe it. Paul, Dave and Ray managed to stay ahead of the other groups even though Dave was having problems with vapor lock a few times. This turned out to be a good thing because I guess there were a few breaks on the hill with one or two serious ones spending the night on the hill. Ray had stated that the hill was torn up considerably worse when they were headed down than when they had gone up the day before.

Tuesday 8-13-02

With some of the group up above Thompson Hill, the balance of the group was going to do a leisure trip up to Bald Mountain. Bob Bills stayed in camp to work on his rig a little then go swimming. I was going to stay in camp and work on my rig but with the help of others was able to join the rest of the group. Steve & Dayna were going to meet us along the way at a pre-determined location. Since we were late, they decided to pass the time putting out a fire. Some careless person had built a fire and did not extinguish it completely. Steve & Dayna were checking out a potential campground for later when they saw the smoke. Some good things do come out of being late. With all aired down and Steve putting the final touches on his fire fighting activities we were off with Loco leading the way. We made our way up to the top of Bald Mountain without any problems and decided to have lunch under the shade of a long since deserted fire tower once used by the forest service. The view, once again, was great. After finishing up with our lunch we proceeded towards Brewer Lake. This was an in and out trail without much challenge, but the lake was a very nice destination to experience. It did not look like it was an area that was used very much.

The group that was up on the hill headed down on this day after staying over night above Thompson Hill. They were back in camp by early afternoon and were ready to do some relaxing. Besides Dave's vapor lock problems, they did not encounter any other mechanical problems. Though I bet they did have a few more scrapes and scratches on the under side.

Wednesday 8-14-02

This day became one of much change. Paul had to leave so he could spend the rest of the week up in the Mammoth area. Yes, he drove all the way home then turned around and came back up on the other side of the Sierra Mountain Range. Dave also left for home stating he had done enough wheeling for a while. Chris & Arlene also had to leave for home due to the superintendent on their job just walking away. It was a shame that any of these people had to leave but it was good they could join us for some of the trip.

With the Storm's site being vacated, the Locantore clan moved over to the full hookup site. The Pfeifer's, Rubolino's, Bob & Marilyn, Steve & Dayna all had other plans for the day.

This left only Linda & I and John & Peg to hit the Swamp Lake trail. So we headed out at about 9:00 to do a trail which neither of us have been able to do before for one reason or another. All was going well for a couple hours on the trail when I came around the corner of the trail to come upon a large area with large amounts of smoke coming up through the ground. After about an hour of raking the coals and dumping on well over 100 gallons of water we had a good feeling about putting out this potential problem. With it now being lunch time we decided to stay at this location for lunch and keep an eye on the area we had just been working on to make sure we did not miss something. It was very obvious that there had been a fire here before and it had been put out. There were many areas that were black but not involved at this time. Later as we proceeded up the trail we ran into a gentleman who said he owned property at Mudd Lake and that this fire area had been worked on by the forest service twice before and this was now the third time. Somewhere along the way John ran over a short leaf of a leaf spring pack so decided to pick it up so it was not left on the trail. I could not believe I did not see it. Well, a little further down the trail I stopped after going down a hill and not seeing John for a couple minutes. What do we see but Peg running down the trail. John had a problem and his C.B. was not working very well either. That leaf spring he had run over was his. He had lost/broke the center pin of his spring pack on the driver side front and his axle had shifted back a few inches. Don't ask me why but I happened to have a spring center pin for a Jeep. After a while we were rolling again trying to make up a little time because it is getting late to be where we are at on the trail. We made it through the rest of the trail without any other problems. After running down miles of a back road we got to the main road so it was time to air up. During the process I found that I was running with a broken shackle. It had snapped clear through into 2 parts but just on one side. No problem, just tighten down the remaining nut on top and drive slow back to camp where I have a spare set.

This was a fun trail with a good amount of challenge as well as the beauty the area is known for. Both couples agreed that this was overall the best trail of the week. We also agreed that it would be a trail to spend a couple days on to enjoy the lakes and mines that you come across.

Thursday 8-15-02

This will be the last day that we will be wheeling. We were going to do the Red Mountain/Coyote Lake trail. With plans to Meet Steve & Dayna at about 9:30 we were leaving at 9:00. Linda has to fax off more schoolwork so we go to town and then come back but no one is out in front of the campground. We go back in to find Loco taking out his starter. Turns out his starter is not only working but it does not want to shut off. After all is said and done, it turns out it was a relay switch. One of several that were involved. Loco would have to explain it to you. By now it is 10:00 and we are just leaving the campground. Once we got to the point we were supposed to meet Steve G., they had left and a note was in its place stating that he had left for Red Lake. So we proceeded down the road to the trailhead. We made pretty good time and did not have any problems all the way to Red Lake where we came up on Steve & Dayna relaxing in their easy chairs next to a meadow in front of the lake. It was time for lunch so we broke them out and enjoyed the view during lunch. During lunch I discovered that my electric auxiliary fan was not working. I checked it out and found power to the fan motor but no movement. I went back to the group to see if they were ready to go on to Coyote Lake but there were no takers. So we turned around and headed out. Steve & Dayna had friends coming up for the rest of the weekend so they went back to their camp and the rest of us went back to the main road and aired up. Once again I found that I had broke a pin that holds the spring pack to the spring mount. I had put in the greasable pins and when we got out the remaining part we found the drilled portion was not straight and ended up at the edge of the center section which weakened it. Back on the road again. For a few seconds anyway. Got a call on the radio from Frank saying he had a terrible wobble up front. He had broken the bracket that mounts the steering stabilizer to the axle housing. A little dismantling and some welding and re-installation and good as new.

Friday 8-16-02

This day was set aside for all to do whatever they wanted to do. John & Peg were headed home and Frank & Beverly were headed back to Bakersfield to visit with their daughter. The rest of us enjoyed the beauty and serenity of the day in our own ways. We had our last campfire that night and said our good-byes because we were all leaving at different times in the morning with different agendas for the day.

Saturday 8-17-02

The remaining group headed for home. With a week of fun, great wheeling and campfire laughter it is hard to come back to the real world. But without the real world, I guess we could not do the wheeling.

I would like to thank all those who gave me a helping hand when in need and hope that all who were able to come to Shaver Lake had as much fun as I did.

Rob