2019 NorCal Camping, Wheeling, Shenanigans and Don Conquered The Rubicon

Four Seasons Camping Trip
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To start, a little bit of background on our group. Me, @bot102 (Alec) and @SteveDoesntHaveATacoYet have been playing video games over the internet together for nearly a decade (nerd alert). Alec lives in Colorado and Steve in Missouri, although we had never have met in person, we knew each other pretty well from years of daily contact. @essjay (Chris) is a good friend of mine from an earlier pre-tacoma, BMX-hooligan life who also plays with us. Alec and Steve have heard of our camping adventures and wanted to get in on the fun. Alec happened to also be a Tacoma enthusiast and fellow TW member so, he was not new to camping/wheeling shenanigans. So, after a few years of talking about it, we finally said fuck it, this is the year. After Christmas; plane tickets were bought, time off was requested and plans were set in stone for a spring trip. Little did we know, mother nature had other plans...


Months went by, then a few days before the trip, news stations started reporting a winter storm warning (at the end of May...). Not to be discouraged (3 of the 4 were prior service Infantrymen after all), we have all embraced the suck before, we were committed at this point. So we met up at the usual Sierra Market to get food, alcohol and gas. At this point the storm started to arrive, several hours before schedule.







Loaded up, we set out on our adventure. Rain started to pour down on our way up the mountain.



We made it quite a ways before we started to see snow, we thought this was a good sign. Spirits were high as we charged through the storm... we turned a corner after what felt like an hour of muddy forest roads and hit a wall of snow.





We tried bashing our way through, different lines, ever decreasing tire pressures, but the drifts were just too deep for our little tacos and we kept burying up to our diffs/skids and losing all momentum.

We decided to regroup and attempt a different route into the forest, one we knew would offer backup camp locations should we be denied access to our intended lakeside destination. So back down we went, around and back up the mountain, where we eventually met another wall of snow.

With a storm coming in, we knew that whatever we plowed into, we'd have to plow our way back out. We continued to bash our way in for a few hours...






With snow starting to fall, the sun setting, we decided it would be unwise to get much deeper and started to explore the adjacent trails looking for a suitable campsite. Eventually we settled in at a nice little clearing, uncertain how much snow this storm would bring... turns out, alot.



After a couple of days of living in endless snow (it just kept coming down, nonstop snow all day/night) morale declined and we started to worry that the weather service underestimated the storm. So we agreed to pack up, head down the hill and check the weather reports. Getting out, there was significantly more snow than getting in (as expected). One long stretch in particular was troublesome, the freezing rain mixed with fresh snow made this quarter mile snow bash interesting to say the least. This would be the first time my truck left the ground on this trip.












We got down off the mountain and into cell service to check the weather. I will admit i was bummed to give in but in retrospect, it was the smart decision. Turns out, we had over a week of storms that were going to keep slamming us, so we decided to head for dryer pastures knowing that our mountain-lakeside-destination was going to be out of reach. Jokes were made from the out-of-state two that we should camp on the beach (this will be funny later).



Knowing that the entire western slope of the Sierras was going to be hammered with winter storms (in May) we set our sights on the high desert. We decided to head towards Pyramid Lake to see what it had to offer. Looking at the map, i noticed it was near a location @Twizted mentioned he and @OneGiraffe visited called "School Bus Canyon". So we set out for Nevada towards Pyramid lake with some rough GPS coords for the school buses.



Pyramid Lake was a cool sight to see, we drove around the river and the lake for miles. After talking with the locals, surveying the lake and river, buying some obligatory fireworks, we decided that the lake was pretty barren and the fishing season was nearly over. (or the locals wanted more fish for themselves?). We set out to find the school buses




Hours of driving through the desert at 50+mph made me think how nice King coilovers would be. This was my first trip with my new OME suspension and it was a coumfy ride, but it just made me wonder what Kings would be like out here. At about this time, i came up on a washout and was traveling too fast to slow down. This would be the 2nd time my truck left the ground this trip.


After a few hours of exploring canyons, enjoying the dry weather. We stumped upon our destination, the famed Schoolbus Canyon. This location offered level ground, some (un)natural wind blocks and a nice area to shoot.




Finally in some decent weather, with wide open spaces. It was time to break out some rifles and participate in what some around here consider "Olympic" level shooting. We had a nice 350+yd range with opportunities to reach out to 500+yds (and some indian reservation fireworks). Shenanigans ensued




After a few days of living in the high desert (and personally, after some much needed trigger time my morale had skyrocketed), Mother Nature had again caught up with us. A storm was moving in and our dry desert lifestyle was going to get soggy. In the most odd of situations, up the canyon we heard vehicles. Around the corner came a couple of land cruisers driven by none other than the BLM permit holder for the land we were on. Even more odd... he owns the oldest land cruiser overhaul shop back in Livermore, CA... across the street from MY work office. Small world, right? With the storm incoming, our rifles warm and our desire to get further, we conversed with our unexpected guests (or were we his?). We expressed how our trip has gone, it was quite the cluster fuck and how we have been making it up as we go. We got to experience Spring, Winter and Fall all in a week, but we havnt gotten to fish... at all. So they told us about a seasonal lake a few hours south. They told us how we could camp right on the beach and FISH! We were sold, so we packed up our gear and headed south for Lahontan Reservoir.



After a short visit to WalMart to load up on Nevada state fishing licenses, we arrived at our next destination. Only to be greeted by a Bald Eagle, we knew we had come to the right place.



... and indeed, this place was awesome. We drove around the lake (which had over 60 miles of shoreline, plenty of time to play in the sand) looking for a place to setup camp and finish out the remainder of our trip.




After a couple of days of fishing (sorry, no fish pictures, they were only small wipers anyways, but at least everyone caught a couple fish) and enjoying the sun, our trip was coming to an end. We had gone from cool fall weather, to winter storms in the mountains, to cool spring in the desert, to sunburns and summer sunshine on the beach over the course of a week. The initial goals of shooting, fishing and exploring were accomplished, in a cluster fuck - roundabout way. Everyone was stressed at one point or another, due to constantly trying to out run the weather. In the end, it was a great trip. From being buried in snow, to sunburned on the beach (comical, right? guys were joking about heading to the beach when we were in the snow and we wound up on a beach after all), it was an awesome experience and Im glad I had these three guys with me.



From left to right: Me, Chris, Steve, Alec






We had over 600 photos and videos to go through, these pics were taken from all of our phones and cameras and i picked some out for this writeup. Its been over a week since the trip, I was slacking with putting all of this on the forums so forgive me for slapping this together. Ill probably edit the post with grammer and spelling corrections.

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That's a proper road trip.

 

Made sure to take a step back this time for you @TOP TACO. Hali still wide open in the bay.

 

Ok, where did you charter out of?

 

I should note that in another bit of coincidental weirdness with the guys we ran into in the canyon, one of the guys being guiding around happened to be the brother-in-law of a professor at UC Davis from whom I'd taken a seminar from for work.

 

Tried today, no luck. At least I had a fishin buddy with

 

A selection from this weekend's trip with @Twizted, @OneGiraffe, @CalTacoma09, @Sharkfrog, @TOP TACO, @Don5352, @MyWyfsRnnr, @HAVING FUN, and @tacomgee.

 

Awesome

 

Then spotted this clean 55 Pete. Just got back from a truck show.

 

A marmot on a roof? You don't see that every day. lol

 

Did a dbl take on that one, decided to get a picture.

 

Talked with a FS employee yesterday who works out of Mohawk, said the Gold Lake Road is open as of a few days ago. I'd think the OHV area should melt out by the 4th holiday like six years ago or more.
Duane

 

Not camping or wheeling but had a nice day at the lake

 

Donde

 

Lake Breyessa. We were at Spanish flat. You can camp there but we just went for the day.

 

Nice

 

Anyone going anywhere this weekend? May go hit up Sawmill or Bowman.

 

There's still snow on the high peaks and north sides.
Probably guarantee there will be covered roads in there since there are a lot of shade areas.
My observation from a Reno run yesterday from the freeway.

But you can still go and give us a trip report/findings.

 

Show us pics of your self retrieval please.
Duane