TW Mammoth Lakes Off Road trip July 27th - 29th

Great! Thanks a lot Louie. Come on over to camp tonight if you can.

 

A few tugs for some of the 2wd guys. No major fiascos other than some down time to let people pass.

 

Yeah that happens. Never stop on a incline if you have traction, cause once you stop the auto lsd will only go so far. Locker FTW! That's one reason they suggested smaller groups to go up at a time plus trail traffic. Glad you had a good time and made back to camp safe with only a few minor hiccups.

 

So the pictures on tab 38..... that hairpin turn looks really nice compared to what was there today......

 

stoked on this weekend! it was awesome to meet everyone and to have some beers and hang out around camp!saturday was an epic charge up to laurel lakes as well! nice to see all the tacoma's, the few jeeps we saw were overwhelmed by our 12+ truck crew and even better to see everyone lined up at the lake. Thanks @sdsurfer for letting me borrow the radio! Good meeting everyone! @TacoSauceHB , thanks for setting this up! And everyone who I chatted with , looking forward to cruising with everyone again soon!
Few photos my brother took I’ll try and get more from him later

 

Nice! Getting to finally roll out the awning and make use of it!

PS: Glad the extra radio went to good use!

 

I'm not one to take lots of pictures so I only got a few from the Laurel Lakes trip. Here are the ones I got...

 

Looks like the smoke wasn’t that bad.

I’m headed up weds and planning on camping in Lee Vining @ Big Bend. Did any of y’all notice more tourists in the campgrounds and lakes due to Yosemite still being closed?


Glad that y’all had a fun time, and glad it seemed like a nice safe time w/ no incident.

 

Didn’t check out any of the paid camp grounds so can’t comment on the crowds there. Mammoth Lakes (town) was very crowded with tourists so that could have been from Yosemite fires. Have fun on your trip to Lee Vining.

 

The town of Mammoth was packed with tourists. Ice was hard to come by too. Stores sold out quick. I’m sure @butters_ can speak to whether or not there are more tourists there right now than usual this time of year, but it was busy in town.

The air quality wasn’t bad to me, but it def took away from the scenery of the beautiful mountains. Visibility was poor.

 

A lot more people in and around mammoth area because Yosemite is closed but if don’t find a site there’s lots of blm land you can camp for free on although it is primitive camping

 

Lundy lake resort campground was pretty empty. It's just past Lee Vining up the 395. Plus they have showers. Pretty quiet campground but they do have a problem bear that's roams around every night around 9pm looking for snacks. Lock your stuff in the bear boxes!
There are also lots of open campsites below the lake. They have either vault toilets or porta potties.

Fishing is pretty good in the lake. Saw a couple of old guys pull two 6lb trout out. My boys and I caught 10 stockers.

This was earlier in the day trolling some rapalas. Got one on the troll.

This was later in the afternoon when the smoke started rolling in.

 

It was nice to meet you all, thanks Brian TacoSauceHB for organizing this trip, i had a great time! I couldn’t take more pics my phone was acting up once we got to the sharp hairping lol

 

Luckily another TW member let me borrow his Dometic 95 for the next few weeks

Yeah, I usually do primitive camping, but having some other guys who aren't big campers meet me there. I figured I'd try to find a spot with running water so that they can at least wash the dishes that I know they will make....don't need no bears rolling up in there! lol

 

What a trip! Had a great time meeting everyone and running Laurel Lakes yesterday. Big thanks to @TacoSauceHB Brian for putting it all together.

My write up of the trip...

The Squad and I rolled out Thursday night around 730 or so. Met up with @Sdtrueblue and his brother in law on the road just outside of Mojave. We made our way out to Lone Pine to the Alabama Hills. Set up camp had a few sport soda around the fire and hit the rack.

The next morning everyone was up pretty early.



Mark and Bret packed up camp and head to store and then on up to Mammoth to meet up with the rest of the group.




Kayla, Connor and I hung out for a little bit made coffee and enjoyed the views





My little guys and I played with the crawler for a little bit.


We packed up headed into town for breakfast. Ended up at the Totem Cafe... Food was pretty good and we had the whole patio to ourselves.


Fed and watered we hit the pike to Bishop. Gassed up and stopped a Kmart for a few forgotten items. Made a pit stop at mohangany meats and picked up a some sausages and it hit the trail to Mammoth....





Was a little bit toasty out but with AC on full kill was pretty much no big deal..





Saw a huge jackrabbit...









Hit the benton crossing rd and had about a 20 min drive to camp.... 2pm we pulled into camp... said hello to a few guys.
Set up shop and got to work on some bacon wrapped items...




Trucks kept rolling in throughout the afternoon, as nightfall hit we hung out around a Coleman lantern as we opted for the no fire.... Had some sport sodas and some laughs. I hit the rack shortly after midnight.

To be continued....

 

Great trip everyone. I hope we can plan something similar when it gets a little wetter.

 

Looks like an awesome time. I'm definitely gonna get in on the next one! I was there two weeks ago and it went from nice and sunny to holy shit levels of rain lol

 

just a heads up today the smoke got really bad and looks to be bad for another day or two atleast. they issued a hazardous weather warning based on the bad air quality.
''
...WIDESPREAD LOWER AIR QUALITY DUE TO SMOKE AND OZONE...

Fires in California and western Nevada continue to produce heavy
amounts of smoke region wide. While air quality is worse closer
to fires...especially for Fallon...Fernley...Susanville...and
Mono County...all western Nevada and Sierra valley locations are
experiencing diminished air quality to some degree. Urban
locations can expect additional reductions to air quality each
afternoon through at least Wednesday as low level ozone increases.

It is best to avoid prolonged exposure if possible and reconsider
outdoor activities at this time.''

 

Wow... even though there was some smoke this past weekend, looks like it could have been a lot worse. All in all it was a great trip! Hang loose!