eurosonic
Expedition Leader
Its almost a tradition that when the holidays come and most have time off, me and they guys get together and escape the commotion by doing some wheeling and camping. So the window between Christmas and New Year is when we usually head out.
This time we decided to take a trip to Barney Riley trail, located about 30 min south of Lake Tahoe, CA near Markleeville. I was there couple of times during the summer when the trail was nice and smooth. Well now that its winter and trail is snowed in, I figure it would be more challenging. We typically enter the trail through Monitor Pass. After doing some digging online I couldn't quite find a clear answer weather it would be closed or not. If it was closed Plan B was to enter the trail through a tight mountain road that I found earlier using my TOPO maps.
I encouraged my friend who works for a heavy equipment dealer to take the 1995 Hummer Fire Rescuer which they recently added to their inventory. There was also me in my 98 Montero, 1998 Tacoma and a 2000 Jeep.
This is how our trip started. So time for Plan B.
We deflated and headed up.
Had to chop a downed tree on the way.
The Hummer was a huge PITA. It was big, bulky and would barely fit on the trail. I can see it work well in a desert or maybe where there is open space, but not on tight trails in the sierras. At least it hauled most of our stuff. Was still nice having first had experience with it. The ride was pretty comfortable off road. Although it did slow us down on the highway with having cruising speed of no more than 55 mph. With some effort we all made up this hill. Hummer needed some quick winchin.
Higher elevation had much more snow. During this part we were going uphill at an incline. This was extremely difficult, any forward movement kept turning my truck and sliding it down the hill. After getting stuck couple of times going up, we decided to turn around and enter the trail from Nevada side.
Morning after
The hot springs were absolute perfection. Especially at night when its below 0.
Cold morning
Going up!
had some nice neighbors who we all got along with real well.
Their yota
Gnarly Sami!
Could not get enough of this stuff
This time we decided to take a trip to Barney Riley trail, located about 30 min south of Lake Tahoe, CA near Markleeville. I was there couple of times during the summer when the trail was nice and smooth. Well now that its winter and trail is snowed in, I figure it would be more challenging. We typically enter the trail through Monitor Pass. After doing some digging online I couldn't quite find a clear answer weather it would be closed or not. If it was closed Plan B was to enter the trail through a tight mountain road that I found earlier using my TOPO maps.
I encouraged my friend who works for a heavy equipment dealer to take the 1995 Hummer Fire Rescuer which they recently added to their inventory. There was also me in my 98 Montero, 1998 Tacoma and a 2000 Jeep.
This is how our trip started. So time for Plan B.
We deflated and headed up.
Had to chop a downed tree on the way.
The Hummer was a huge PITA. It was big, bulky and would barely fit on the trail. I can see it work well in a desert or maybe where there is open space, but not on tight trails in the sierras. At least it hauled most of our stuff. Was still nice having first had experience with it. The ride was pretty comfortable off road. Although it did slow us down on the highway with having cruising speed of no more than 55 mph. With some effort we all made up this hill. Hummer needed some quick winchin.
Higher elevation had much more snow. During this part we were going uphill at an incline. This was extremely difficult, any forward movement kept turning my truck and sliding it down the hill. After getting stuck couple of times going up, we decided to turn around and enter the trail from Nevada side.
Morning after
The hot springs were absolute perfection. Especially at night when its below 0.
Cold morning
Going up!
had some nice neighbors who we all got along with real well.
Their yota
Gnarly Sami!
Could not get enough of this stuff
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