Coyote Flats visit...again....

Explorer 1

Explorer 1
Time to catch up on some of my past trips. Hope that in sharing some of my adventures it will encourage you to get out and have some yourself, even if it's just a short day trip.

Lead a small group up to Coyote Flats high on the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains this past July.

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As is my usual custom we divided the group in two with the stock vehicles coming up through the traditional route out of Bishop, and a few of us with modified vehicles taking the more challenging route out of Big Pine.

I'm still dealing with heat issues since I replaced my stock engine with a Golen 4.6 Stroker, so a trip through the desert and up the steep side of the mountains reaffirmed my need for a better cooling system. Half way up the mountains I was dealing with vapor lock from the fuel getting too hot!

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The Forest Service for their own reasons has decided to close off our usual camping spot so this year we camped at the road end near the upper Baker Creek part of the trail.

We took hikes to Baker lake,

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read and rested for the three days we were there.

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We also took a drive out to Coyote Lake which has been dry for the last several years, this year it still had enough water to support a large frog population.

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The day trip up to the top of Coyote Ridge is always an inspiring site!

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I had heard about a steer that had been killed by a bear earlier that year. I could hear coyotes howling it up each night east of our camp site and decided to explore and see if I could find the carcass. Sure enough eventually the smell lead us to it. Unfortunately it's rather close to Baker Creek so those down creek get some of the decaying juices in their water!

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For years there has been a rather dilapidated outhouse at Baker Creek. I decided this year to make it a project, if nothing else to re-install the doors and latches so it could be used again. Here we are working away.

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I was delighted with my new roof tent as it provided a nice soft resting place for my wife and I.

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We met some "local" up for a day of fishing, looks like they did well!

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The Coyote Flats trip is one I can always take my dear wife on with the knowledge she also will have a great time.

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On the way home old "Explorer 1" clocked over 150,000 miles. This vehicle over the past 22 years has "taken a real licking but is still ticking".

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Great scenery, great people, good weather..........

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Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1
 

BorregoWrangler

Rendezvous Conspiracy
Thanks for the sharing your trip with us. One of these days I need to get up there. I also didn't know there were bears in that area.
 

EMrider

Explorer
Great report and pics, thanks.

I'm embarrassed to say that my group was stopped by over-heating problems on the "easy" route in from the Bishop side last summer. My friend replaced his radiator 2 days before our trip to be extra prepared and the tech did not flush the entire cooling system and he was boiling over 5min into the climb.

So, I have yet to make it up into Coyote Flats................

Will try again next summer.

R
 

Explorer 1

Explorer 1
Great report and pics, thanks.

I'm embarrassed to say that my group was stopped by over-heating problems on the "easy" route in from the Bishop side last summer. My friend replaced his radiator 2 days before our trip to be extra prepared and the tech did not flush the entire cooling system and he was boiling over 5min into the climb.

So, I have yet to make it up into Coyote Flats................

Will try again next summer.

R

It's easy to think that driving in the Sierra's starting at 4000 ft elevation and ending up around 10,000 ft should afford some cool air, and it does once your up around the 8000 ft ,


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but that dry, steep eastern climb from Bishop can be a real test on cooling systems. Best to get a real early start from Bishop before the sun pops up over trhe Inyo Mountains in the east.

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1
 

JFarris

Wanderer
I was stuck on that same rock in my stock JKUR for a while last July....I cannot wait to get back up there this summer.
 

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