Another successful test run in the books. Larry and Ian got up to the lake early and set up camp off the shore of the lake. Pretty for sure, but it proved to be brutal without shelter from any trees in the wind as we found out last night. I plodded my way up the trail and again was able to make clear contact with the radios with a good distance between us. I was 500ft lower in elevation too. Before I lost cell coverage I checked Larry's spot one last time to get the location of camp also. Larry said he and Ian would get busy finding some rocks to stack to level me up since the site was anything but flat.
But I was able to mostly level it out and get the top popped up and set up in camp mode.
It was spitting rain intermittently so we broke out a tarp I keep stashed for such occasions and tied it between the trucks to make a dry spot to sit and cook in.
Ian's sleeping situation leveled up for this season. He scored on a Air Top hard shell roof top tent on Facebook marketplace a couple of months back. He built a rack to keep the load off of the fiberglass top. He said he was warm and dry up there in the weather last night.
Larry went down to the lake in attempt to drown some worms. All he caught was a buzz with a couple of frosty ones he took with him. Ian and I snacked on some venison summer sausage a customer gave me for loaning him a tool. Tasty stuff.
Due to the wind we relocated to the other side of Larrys truck. We had a litte bit of sun that felt really good out of the wind.
Clouds started moving over the ridgeline and we figured we better get after cooking dinner before the weather really turned on us.
Ian broke out his hand built skottle and started cooking some burgers while warmed up some ranch beans on the stove.
My dog Storm was getting wet so I threw her coat on her, which also saved me from wet dog smell when we finally turned in for the night.
Weather still rolling in.
Somebody really wanted a burger too.
To give an idea of how the weather went, these shots so the progression. When I got there you could see the peak in the center of the image. It was cloudy, but all the mountains were visable.
By the time we finished dinner, sat and talked for a while, the rain set in heavy. We all agreed sitting in the rain sucked and called it a night. You can see the peak barely in the pic and the rain and wind were blowing across the lake.
By morning the sun was breaking up the clouds but the wind was still being a pain in the ass. We bailed on the idea of making breakfast for some quick snacks and move to a lower elevation.
My trusty co-pilot Storm was ready for the rough ride down the mountain.
We plodded our way across the rip-rap rocks to rejoin the trail at the tree line. Keep this in mind last July when I went up here the water level was the fullest I had ever seen it and it would have been all the way to the trees. Meaning where we camped would have been well under water last year.
Near the end of the trail we stopped to check some new noises that had developed on mine and Larry's trucks. Looks like the spring shackle bolt on the left front of mine is kissing the exhaust pipe on that side. I'll address it before we leave.
Due to some excessive washboard sections on the dirt road leading in we saved the air up chore for as close to the highway as we could get.
Ian's CUCV is on it's 2nd year since completion of the 8.1/nv4500 swap. All the major kinks have been worked out and he's really getting it dialed in. Other than a leaky rear hub he doesn't have much to do before we shove off.
Larry discovered that he's got an air leak somewhere to the rear ARB as it didn't seem to be working like it should. Besides that he's a tire swap away from being ready. I'm going to change the oil, grease it and rotate the tires next Saturday at work. I'll do a nut and bolt check on the suspension and steering while I'm there.
Despite the crappy weather we still had a good time.
Looks good Rob.
