I literally registered for the event the first day that we were able. Originally, it was going to be Emily and me. I was somehow able to convince her to camp out for 3 nights, since they actually have showers. So I signed up for two of the easier runs, leaving the Fordyce Trail on my hit list for next year. But as the trip grew nearer, she elected to stay home with the dog and let my good friend, Dave, take her place instead. It actually worked out better this way, since Dave is very handy and has excellent knowledge of all things mechanical. That also gave me the chance to change up my trail run selection to the Fordyce Creek Trail. There's no way that Emily would've been game to do such a technical trail, but Dave is always game for whatever. But with this change of plans, suddenly I was in a hurry to find some more underside skid plate armor! (That was part of next year's budget plan!)
One of the big bonuses of this trip were that unlike "overlanding" trips which pack up and go every morning, we just had to set up camp once and there we stayed for the next three nights :) Additionally, Sierra Trek provided all the breakfasts and dinners while we were there. That was awesome, because that meant that I had less planning to do and NO cooking!! On the trail runs, there were experienced wheelers in the vehicles, as well as Sierra Trek volunteer staff. Along the runs in the more difficult areas, able volunteers were there to help to guide us through the treacherous terrain.
We left really early on Thursday morning. We shoved off from Brentwood just after 8a and were driving into Truckee around 11:00. After a quick bite to eat at a local taqueria, we hit the road for the campgrounds. I had downloaded the google maps for the route the night before, since I figured there probably wouldn't be a good cell signal, but the route that it gave me took us through a seriously thick and undriven trail. We had doubts as we were making our way, but we could see that it was [barely] a trail. But we were following the blue line on the map, so we knew that we were absolutely following the directions correctly!! There was no room to turn around, so we forged on being scratched by thistles and the manzanita trees. At points, the trail was so narrow at some points, we had to squeeze between two trees, knocking my mirrors back. In another instance, I actually had to run over a small tree just to go forward. Eventually we popped out onto a main highway and just circled back to the nearest town, where we could get a signal and come up with a new plan. We were able to get a new and better route, which got us there safely, albeit 45 minutes later that I had forecasted. Not too bad.
We had just enough time to register, set up camp and enjoy a nice meal before heading to bed. Our run on Friday morning, staging at the trail head at 5:30a!! And from the campgrounds, it was going to take two hours to get there, which meant getting up at 2:45a! Yikes! Thank God we were able to find some nice flat areas to set up our tents! I got everything packed in the Jeep that night before hitting the sack.
Friday morning came too soon. I made some coffee with the Whisperlite stove that I brought. We headed out of camp and made it to the muster just before 5:30, after fueling up one last time. There, they fed us packaged pastries and freeze-dried coffee, while we listened to the drivers meeting. There were about 50 rigs all lined up. Most people brought Jeeps- 4-door Wranglers. I think I might have seen 3 vehicles there that weren't Jeeps. There were five lines. We were in the third line, just about right in the middle, suggesting that we were starting right about in the middle of this run group. I was a little nervous (of course) being that this was the FORDYCE CREEK TRAIL. There were some seriously over-built rigs, but most were moderately equipped. I always seem to show up with the smallest least (minimally) equipped rig to these things. My King is a true daily driver, not some trail-dedicated trailer queen. Its main job is to drive me to work and around town with maybe 3% duty to crawl. So people are often surprised when they see how capable this little beast really is. It's not going to have the suspension or clearance like some of the other rigs, but it can certainly get the job done.
Wheels up at 6:30. The trail was dry and dusty. It seemed like the first 4 miles were pretty easy- nothing really to write home about. Then stuff got harder. I hit this one steep incline step and it was so sandy and gritty, but I just couldn't get enough bite to get up it. Someone came to my rescue and threw a couple of rocks in my problem hole, which took care of the trick.
Later there were a few bypasses that were pretty scary. Even though they avoided the serious crawling portion of the trail, they were still no joke. I made it through all the "winch hill" sections without winching. Some took multiple tries, but eventually I found lines that worked. Only once did I need to get winched and it was a self-winch, as I got my rear pumpkin hung up on a big rock, exactly the same as the rig right in front of me. Other than that, King muscled and bounced his way through the whole trail! We did get backed up on the trail a couple of times, as this one rig kept having problems starting (the same fucking truck twice!). Why this guy didn't just let everyone pass by, we'll never know. Total time wasted was definitely over an hour! But still, we topped out of the trail at 5:30p (the trail ends up at the Meadow Lake campground), so we were easily there in time for dinner! (The night before, that group didn't get back to camp until 8:30p. We've heard that sometimes the groups don't make it back until 10p or later!) That dinner was very satisfying, as we definitely felt blessed!
My Jeep did take on a few bumps and bruises. I tagged the driver rear fender pretty good, the rock rails got ridden on fairly hard and the rear bumper got dumped on some rocks really hard. The sides of the Jeep were all scratched from bushwhacking to camp the first day. And the tie rod got bent upwards quite a bit, which also rotated the steering stabilizer mount. That caused a problem on the trail, because the stabilizer mount would impede the tie rod from making full right turns! (I was able to correct the steering issue the next morning, but it will still need to be replaced.)
Saturday morning came and we decided to skip the River Run. When I signed up for it, I didn't realize that it was just doing the Fordyce Trail in reverse starting from the top, going about halfway down. Why did I need to do that again? I was feeling lucky enough that we escaped with as little damage as we did already! No need to tempt death a second time. Instead, we stayed in camp and got a real hot breakfast. (Hey, we paid for that, right? I couldn't take any more freeze-dried coffee and pre-packaged pastries, calling that breakfast.) We drove up to the town's cemetery and walked around there for a bit. We were going to take a quick trip into Truckee to do some window shopping, but the bumpy road out of camp revealed that the rear bumper was making sporadic contact with the drivers side rear tub. So we opted to try and fix that instead.
Soon enough it was time for dinner. Afterwards we hung around for the awards ceremony and bonfire. Dave decided to grab a shower and I thought I was tired (plus I forgot my jacket, so I was cold), so I headed back to our campsite to go to bed. After I got there, I could hear the band playing and everyone sounded like they were all having a good time. I got my jacket and headed back to the bonfire. I ran into one of the guys from the Fordyce run and he offered to buy me a couple of beers- his partner headed to bed and fortunately for me, he was stuck with some money tickets to burn. The fire was great, the band was fantastic, and we had good conversation. What more could I want. Oh, yeah- another beer, please!
We slept in on Sunday morning. We grabbed some breakfast then broke camp at a leisurely pace. After we packed the Jeep, we headed to Truckee to visit some friends of mine on our way out of town. The perfect ending to a fabulous trip!
In summary, as nervous as I was, everything went according to the plan. I installed the right armor in just the right places- the front and rear lower control arms were protected, both pumpkins had cast iron covers, and the new oil pan and transfer case skids did their jobs. I installed rock rings on the AEV Borahs and they got some really nice scrapes, but they protected the wheels just like they were supposed to do! And the lockers performed awesomely and were always at the ready!
When we first got to the Sierra Trek, I was a little apprehensive, as there were probably about 500 participants there and I was the ONLY Asian person there! After a couple of days of looking around, we finally identified ONE African-American male in the crowd. Yes, this seemed like a Trump rally setting. And I'm not really very squeamish about prejudice that comes my way, as I'm an American-born Chinese, born and raised in California. So I don't really come across being very non-Caucasian. Just like I had figured, as long as you can drive, you're just one of the boys. Everyone treated me with the highest respect, not looking at my race, but connecting with me based on our common interests.
There was a group of older guys out of Truckee that were razzing me just a little bit on the trail, asking me if I had skid plates on that thing, and pointing out sections that I will probably want to be ready to get winched. But when we got back to camp, they had the nicest things to say about me, my Jeep and my abilities. That warmed my heart.
I had been considering doing the Sierra Trek for a couple of years now. I had a wonderful time and I am so glad that I did it! I was able to conquer the notorious Fordyce Creek Trail and met some really nice people along the way! Would I do it again? Heck yeah, I would!
