SWbySWesty
Fauxverland Extraodinaire
EDIT: PICTURES ARE ON PAGE 3 OF THE THREAD!
Hi Everyone! Coyote Flat expedition was a 100% success! It was the first time that I've gone extended camping since I was a little kid doing it on horseback!
My girlfriend and I left late Monday morning and drove out to Bishop, CA. We stopped at Vons for dry ice and food (we already had drinks in one cooler with 3 frozen bottles of water (2-Liter size). We then stopped at the sporting goods store (Wilson's) for a bear vault since all the LA area stores were SOLD OUT! :Wow1:
Then we hit the trail for Coyote Flat off of Schober Lane. We used Charles Wells "Guide to Northern California backroads and 4x4 trails". We camped at the first primitive sites about 8 miles in because it was dark by then. This is when we discovered that I had forgotten the poles to my nice canvas tent over 300 miles away! :costumed-smiley-007 My girlfriend seeing my bad mood brewing came through with 3rd grade engineering and fabricated a fort with 2 chairs inside the tent. Needless to say we were warm and she's a keeper for being a good sport! We then ate like royalty with a fresh batch of frozen Bertolli shrimp fettucini cooked on the propane stove.
After that, we opened up the tequila...we didn't use cups and it went downhill from there and the next morning was a wee rough on me
. We trucked back down the route into town for a mexican lunch at Amigos in Bishop and then went to Kmart for an el cheapo $30 tent which proved fantastic. Back up the hill we went and we followed the directions in the book all the way to the Baker Creek campground. There was not a soul in site as we "bounced" over the rocky ground picking lines so that we wouldn't break the underside of the Jeep Cherokee. We set up camp in the afternoon and broke out the sun shower on the roof to heat up. We were the only ones in campground for THREE DAYS!
So let's see - day 3 - we would wake up late on our camping pad from Cabela's which is a phenomenal piece of car camping equipment. It's very bulky and not for everyone, but we figured that if we're taking the Jeep, we're taking the luxuries...we'll save the hardcore for the backpacking! So between our camping pad (which was more comfy than a futon mattress while much thinner), solar heated camp shower (104 degree showers kept us clean for tent fun :ylsmoke: and the little $15 aluminum table from Big 5 allowed a pleasant dining table near the Cabela's suitcase camp kitchen which was also ESSENTIAL to car camping! We had it all!
We'd wake up late, make breakfast of potatoes o'brien, tortillas and cholula hot sauce and a side of pancakes and bacon! We'd clean it all up and repump a full aquatainer of fresh filtered water direct from Baker Creek. The filter and corresponding chlorine drops yielded better tasting water than any bottled water! We then filled up the camelbak and hiked all around and up to Baker Lake and Hidden Lake with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We didn't go far enough to hit Thunder and Lightning Lakes. We came back when the sun was in a good spot and showered off which felt :drool:!!!! We cooked up a nice dinner of bratwurst and beans and later had s'mores over the fire!
Day 4 we drove over to Funnel Lake. While the lake was specified in the book, the road was not. I would definitely take your time as we did as the trail was definitely a moderate trail (for a stock height Jeep Cherokee). After banging around on the rocks and having a grand old time, we found a false lake right before Funnel Lake. Being slightly disappointed in its size, we pushed onward looking for the REAL Funnel Lake only to find it a stone's throw over a slight hill about 1/10 of a mile away! We hung out and had lunch and then made the hike over the rocks to Rocky Bottom Lake which is right behind Funnel Lake over a swarm of boulders/rocks. The drive back to camp was a fun one and we bonded. We showered off quickly and made a great dinner of Hebrew National Hot Dogs and Velveeta Mac n Cheese with a nice bottle of wine to boot!
So now, it's Thursday night and a few other people have arrived at the campsite. We're kinda bummed because we liked our solitude! We decided to see how we felt on Friday to decide on whether to stay or not. We woke up Friday to a relatively windy morning and decided to break down camp. We packed everything up better than before (nothing rattled an inch on the way down) and we went exploring! We went up a huge vista road to the top of the meadow's mountains and overlooked down to Big or Lone Pine. We decided that if we had extra fuel, we'd have tried the route down into the town, but we also wanted to backtrack to see teh Schober Mine! So back down into Coyote Flat we went and tracked all the way to the Schober Mine. A cool little site and a fun adventure awaited us for the ride back.
On the way back, we went up another unmarked road to the top of a mountain. Upon seeing that it could potentially go in the right direction, we put the book aside and busted out our regional Bishop map which listed trails including OHV trails. We were on a random ATV route that would connect back to the main road right near the fork at Coyote Flat! Let's dooo it! The road wasn't well maintained and you could tell it was traveled by light ATV's but the Jeep ran it like a champ!
After that, we just headed down to Bishop for a quick late lunch and trucked it back to Los Angeles where we rallied to go out and went ice blocking in Malibu!
Let's see: I know some people said they were going up for the weekend to Coyote Flat...did anyone happen to see us? We were in a white Jeep Cherokee and saw a bunch of other 4wheelers as we left the flat on Friday!
PICTURES ARE ON PAGE 3 OF THIS THREAD!!!
Hi Everyone! Coyote Flat expedition was a 100% success! It was the first time that I've gone extended camping since I was a little kid doing it on horseback!
My girlfriend and I left late Monday morning and drove out to Bishop, CA. We stopped at Vons for dry ice and food (we already had drinks in one cooler with 3 frozen bottles of water (2-Liter size). We then stopped at the sporting goods store (Wilson's) for a bear vault since all the LA area stores were SOLD OUT! :Wow1:
Then we hit the trail for Coyote Flat off of Schober Lane. We used Charles Wells "Guide to Northern California backroads and 4x4 trails". We camped at the first primitive sites about 8 miles in because it was dark by then. This is when we discovered that I had forgotten the poles to my nice canvas tent over 300 miles away! :costumed-smiley-007 My girlfriend seeing my bad mood brewing came through with 3rd grade engineering and fabricated a fort with 2 chairs inside the tent. Needless to say we were warm and she's a keeper for being a good sport! We then ate like royalty with a fresh batch of frozen Bertolli shrimp fettucini cooked on the propane stove.
After that, we opened up the tequila...we didn't use cups and it went downhill from there and the next morning was a wee rough on me
. We trucked back down the route into town for a mexican lunch at Amigos in Bishop and then went to Kmart for an el cheapo $30 tent which proved fantastic. Back up the hill we went and we followed the directions in the book all the way to the Baker Creek campground. There was not a soul in site as we "bounced" over the rocky ground picking lines so that we wouldn't break the underside of the Jeep Cherokee. We set up camp in the afternoon and broke out the sun shower on the roof to heat up. We were the only ones in campground for THREE DAYS!So let's see - day 3 - we would wake up late on our camping pad from Cabela's which is a phenomenal piece of car camping equipment. It's very bulky and not for everyone, but we figured that if we're taking the Jeep, we're taking the luxuries...we'll save the hardcore for the backpacking! So between our camping pad (which was more comfy than a futon mattress while much thinner), solar heated camp shower (104 degree showers kept us clean for tent fun :ylsmoke: and the little $15 aluminum table from Big 5 allowed a pleasant dining table near the Cabela's suitcase camp kitchen which was also ESSENTIAL to car camping! We had it all!
We'd wake up late, make breakfast of potatoes o'brien, tortillas and cholula hot sauce and a side of pancakes and bacon! We'd clean it all up and repump a full aquatainer of fresh filtered water direct from Baker Creek. The filter and corresponding chlorine drops yielded better tasting water than any bottled water! We then filled up the camelbak and hiked all around and up to Baker Lake and Hidden Lake with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We didn't go far enough to hit Thunder and Lightning Lakes. We came back when the sun was in a good spot and showered off which felt :drool:!!!! We cooked up a nice dinner of bratwurst and beans and later had s'mores over the fire!
Day 4 we drove over to Funnel Lake. While the lake was specified in the book, the road was not. I would definitely take your time as we did as the trail was definitely a moderate trail (for a stock height Jeep Cherokee). After banging around on the rocks and having a grand old time, we found a false lake right before Funnel Lake. Being slightly disappointed in its size, we pushed onward looking for the REAL Funnel Lake only to find it a stone's throw over a slight hill about 1/10 of a mile away! We hung out and had lunch and then made the hike over the rocks to Rocky Bottom Lake which is right behind Funnel Lake over a swarm of boulders/rocks. The drive back to camp was a fun one and we bonded. We showered off quickly and made a great dinner of Hebrew National Hot Dogs and Velveeta Mac n Cheese with a nice bottle of wine to boot!
So now, it's Thursday night and a few other people have arrived at the campsite. We're kinda bummed because we liked our solitude! We decided to see how we felt on Friday to decide on whether to stay or not. We woke up Friday to a relatively windy morning and decided to break down camp. We packed everything up better than before (nothing rattled an inch on the way down) and we went exploring! We went up a huge vista road to the top of the meadow's mountains and overlooked down to Big or Lone Pine. We decided that if we had extra fuel, we'd have tried the route down into the town, but we also wanted to backtrack to see teh Schober Mine! So back down into Coyote Flat we went and tracked all the way to the Schober Mine. A cool little site and a fun adventure awaited us for the ride back.
On the way back, we went up another unmarked road to the top of a mountain. Upon seeing that it could potentially go in the right direction, we put the book aside and busted out our regional Bishop map which listed trails including OHV trails. We were on a random ATV route that would connect back to the main road right near the fork at Coyote Flat! Let's dooo it! The road wasn't well maintained and you could tell it was traveled by light ATV's but the Jeep ran it like a champ!
After that, we just headed down to Bishop for a quick late lunch and trucked it back to Los Angeles where we rallied to go out and went ice blocking in Malibu!
Let's see: I know some people said they were going up for the weekend to Coyote Flat...did anyone happen to see us? We were in a white Jeep Cherokee and saw a bunch of other 4wheelers as we left the flat on Friday!
PICTURES ARE ON PAGE 3 OF THIS THREAD!!!
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