Part 4 - To Ershim Lake
Part 4 - To Ershim Lake
Camp at Thompson Lake
Thompson Lake
The next morning we found ourselves camped next to an Outward Bound group that had hiked in from Courtright. They were very respectful and organized and had the discipline to hit the trail well before we were up and going. Exhausted from the previous day’s efforts, we were off to a slow start. Even though we were already two days into the trail, we were only a third of the way done. There was a long way to go and we had to find the energy and enthusiasm to get it done. Our plan was to make it to Ershim Lake and make camp for the night, hoping for an early finish to the day with lots of time to play. And maybe do some fishing. The “less driving more camping” goal was not being met.
Leaving Thompson Lake, tough right out of the gate...
Once again, the going was tough right from the start. At the beginning we needed rock stackers and spotters just to leave camp. We looked at each other and agreed “this is a very tough trail” at least with our experience; always demanding, no easy progress. It all had to be fought for. Since we plan to do this kind of adventure with our boys until we are physically no longer able to, it was all good experience. The more miles of challenge we could successfully achieve now, the better we could face any future challenges we would encounter. kind of like athletic training.
Those "granite exercise balls"
Always tough, always slow
Our goal is to be able to handle trail-stress with calm, grace and confidence. We were on a crash course. Last year the Rubicon for our first class, this year the Dusy for graduate work. In some ways it takes both faith and knowledge combined. The knowledge that you've done this before and the faith that you will be successful in doing it again. This will, hopefully, lead to the confidence necessary to reduce the stress that we were feeling and the physical and mental toll that that extracts. We all were discovering this together, there was no one with more experience on this kind of trail on the adventure with us; it was trial and error. Hopefully not too much error. Error out here can be costly.
Erik crawling
Always tight. Look closely, trees on both sides of Erik's rig
It was rough going to Summit Lake where we met up with a crew from the Four Wheel Drive Club of Fresno who were out on their annual six day trip through the Dusy. Probably a really good pace for this trail; experience has insight. They all had 35”+ tires, short wheel base rigs and were going at a leisurely pace. We were only half way through our day, and they were already camped. They told us that we still had four hours to Ershim Lake and we were hoping for two. At this pace we were in for another seven-hour day. They told us about Little Thompson Hill, at the very beginning of the trail from Courtright, and how most people skipped that part in order to get on with the main trail. We felt happy that we had not missed that part, because by now, we were convinced that this was going to be our only trip to the Dusy Ershim.
Four wheels up on the rocks
Relief at achieving the day's goal - Ershim Lake
By 6 o’clock in the evening we finally made it through the continuous challenges, all the way to the beautiful camp at Ershim Lake, where we saw the only other group of wheelers we had seen so far on the trail. This was nothing like the Rubicon. There we saw a nearly constant stream of vehicles of all types, probably 50 or 60 by the time we made it to our camp at Buck Island Lake, our half-way point. So far we had seen a total of nine other vehicles in the same distance as the total length of the Rubicon. There we had enjoyed a real party atmosphere, here people were far more subdued and business-like. The group we saw at Ershim Lake seemed to be avoiding us, not wanting to make contact at all. So we let them be. The boys set up camp while I broke out the barbecue and cooked up some tri-tip for dinner. We had a fire and went to bed not too long after dark, still tired from our efforts.
Beautiful camp at Ershim Lake. Thanks 4WDC of Fresno!
We decided to hang out until mid-day the next day and enjoy the beautiful camp, take a shower and do some fishing. Stop and “smell the roses” Dusy style.
