Stanislaus National Fo...

Pieraldi Family Outing

Trip date(s): May 29st to: May 31thTrip Name: (if there is a name): Family Weekend Trip Trip Location: Stanislaus National Forest (Summit) GPS Number for those who got them: not this trip - but off of Hwy 108 and the summit station has maps Weather Conditions: Sunny and Hot most of the day. Slight wind in the afternoon. Snow in the higher elevations! Trail (ROAD) Conditions: Wet. Snow and ice about 7,200 feet Who was there with you? Just family and some 4×4 people I tied up with on the trail head

The details: My wife Claudia and I went took the kids on for a ride, or two or three or 4.

We did Herring creek on Saturday. We had a great time. Got to 8076 ft and ran into a deep snow covered road sections. There was clear pass to the left of one coverage and we took that line. But the ice and gravel road were not easy after we started. We go over the section, but with black ice, it was not great. On the way back down the hill we hit some more ice and went a little off trail. Opppps. That got us stuck. We stuck in the M-U-D. Up to the body. Thank god for calm thinking and a Hi-Lift jack. We did a classic recovery with jacking at all 4 points, doing a build up with rocks and dead limbs. Lost the highlift in the mud when it sunk too. Pulled it out, put down more rocks and kept jackin!

The story ended well. We got out, hit the ice section with allot more respect, and passed the area. It is a good rule to keep that radio handy, keep the gear ready, and never ever think it is going to be easy!

Trails hit. 4n53y,4n12,4n27,5n59y,5n31 and some others that are legitimate but getting closed by the day. THAT SUCKED> ran into Hal the Fire Marshal and he said they are closing trails every day and he does not even get notified. Bad Bad Bad. Fill out the forms and let them know we go places!

On the next day we thought better of such risks and went for the lower trails behind Strawberry. These trails are more of the same gavel access roads that wind all around that area. Not much of a challenge, but what views! What access! What dirt ;-) But this leads you to some real cool smaller trails that go over small creeks, up some nice switch back climbs and into a section of the hills that afford some real good picture taking. More than that, it is great to go down trails that need upkeep and move some logs and such with the old winch! Did that twice.

These trails included. 5n95,5n09x,5n65y,4n18y,4n33y,4n18y

It was great to hit calm and easy trails, but as the first part of this trip report shows, stay on the roads unless it is Mission Critical. We had to leave the road, and we got suck. Bad for tread lightly, bad as we were alone at that moment, bad because it was out of our plan to do this, and bad that we did not stop 100 feet down the hill to avoid the problem to start with. But it is still good to go out and see these places, make these notes, and more important, save people who also got suck, and there were 3 of those. It sent our good name around and it keeps up the effort. BTW - IT is all snow relegated stuff, so it is not true 4×4 stuck, just nature stuck that comes at that time!

Happy to report and look forward to making a trip there for the club soon!

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