Dusy Trail -Trip Report part 2 by Ed Lorenzen.
Timeline: 12am – 8am Wednesday
After leaving David and his Jeep Scrambler in the parking lot of Courtright Reservoir just after midnight I headed to the Dusy trail head. Basically the main group has a 14-hour head start on me now. Patrick and my son David were waiting for me at Voyager Camp about 3 miles in. Things were going very smoothly until I came upon a huge granite slab. At this point you loose all sight of where the trail goes! I drove across the slab to the tree line on the other side and could not find the trail opening. As I was looking around I saw some rock stacks so I started following them and found an opening I the trees. I drove another 20 minutes or so and all of a sudden I was on pavement. My thoughts were what the heck??? We never crossed any pavement earlier in the day while on trail. I turned around and headed back to the dirt where I saw a sign that read Dusy Trail, Voyager Camp 3 Miles, Thompson Lake 11 miles and Kaiser Pass 31 miles. I’m now scratching my head thinking to myself “Cow Bell” you dumb ass. We teach our students not to wheel alone and now I’m doing it! Since I figured out that I did a complete circle and was back at the trailhead, now the big decision is do. Bed down for the night or try it again?? I decided I would go again because I new the mistake was made on the granite slab. This time when I got to the granite I dove into the middle and stopped! I got out of the rig with my trusty flashlight in hand and started panning the tree line. All of a sudden I saw a red flash up in the trees. The flash I saw was a red reflector about 12 feet up in the trees. I new that must be the trail opening so I got into the rig and off I went into the darkness. It was not much further down the trail that I found Patrick’s Bronco and two tents set up.
It is now shortly after 2am. Patrick and David broke camp and we were on trail again about 2:30am. This means we need to travel another 8 miles to catch up to the group. As we were winding through the trees and small rock gardens all of a sudden I stalled my truck. When I went to restart it all it did was click, click, click. I turn my lights on and off to catch Patrick’s attention. With my lights now off Patrick made his way back. The problem was my lights were drawing to much power and the alternator could not keep up with the demand. After I got a jump-start I just used my normal headlights the rest of the night. Things were all going very smooth until we came to Thompson Hill. Thompson Hill is a long steep hill with both large and larger rocks that you must climb up. Patrick in his Bronco just cruised up it like it was a paved highway. By the way it was now about 5:15am and was getting light so I could see what the hell I was getting into. I made it up about ¾ the way and then got stuck. With Patrick up at the top I got out of to see what I needed to do. Well I got stuck another 3 times and was VERY tired! On my lust stuck job I was finding it hard to get in and out of the truck. So instead of getting all the way out I thought I would just open my tube door and hang my head out and see what was hitting under the truck. The next thing I new I was laying in the rocks on my back. Being totally exhausted I called up to Patrick and asked for help. He walked down the hill and stacked some big rocks for me and I made it up the hill without any other problem.
At about 7:30am we came across Daniel, Jason and Tad on the trail. They said they new were coming because about 6:00am they were able to here the roar of Patrick’s V-8 coming through the valley. Jason and Daniel ran back to camp and Tad climbed in with Patrick.
We arrived into camp about 8am to the others cooking breakfast. We ate and talked about our nights adventure. As other were cleaning the kitchen and reloading their rigs I retired to my drivers seat for a nap.
To be continued by others
ED
PS: Special thanks to all. Everyone than came on this trip made this trip! Good and bad the memories will be lasting and will be talked about for years to come.