Dusy Ersham Trail Camping Trip

Thanks Scott. Excellent trip report. I expected a lot more carnage with so many rigs. Glad you brought King Juju along. Who knows what would have happened without him. Mike W. On Saturday, September 3, 2016, kssjevans@roadrunner.com [on-the-rocks] wrote: Sorry for the delay in getting a write up for the Dusy. To add insult to injury my name list went through the washing machine, so I hope I don't forget anyone. If I do please let me know This was the largest group our club has had for the Dusy. We had 12 rigs total. I think there was 20 people in all. Myself and my daughter Sarah, John Cary, John L. (English John), Chad and his son Scott, Dwayne, Rich W., Jerome, Keith, Will Smyth with is dad and brother, one rode with Keith. (Sorry I didn't get their names, but they were visiting from Ohio) Bob Marshall with his brother ( sorry didn't get his name either) Mike W. with his son Chris, and Mike L. We met up in Shaver Lake. Some towed and some drove. Some went the night before, some drove up that day from the valley. We left Shaver just after 1PM. It took about an hour to get to the trailhead. We started to air our tires down. Chad noticed his driver rear wheel was so hot it was hard to touch. So he took the wheel off and pried the brake drum off. It was a very nice blue color. Turns out the new brakes he installed were a tad tight. So it was a simple fix. After a short driver meeting we meet up with John Cary at the Voyager campground. There was a doe deer walking across the trail as we entered the campground. John said it was wandering around camp all night. We climbed up Chicken rock and hung out for a few minutes enjoying the great view. The lake was way up. Highest I have seen in a few years. We made our way to our first nights camp. We set up camp in our normal campsite, where the Dusy creek enters Courtright Res. It was a full moon that night. It was incredibly bright. So much it was hard to see any stars. The next morning we arose to a warmer temperature that I thought we would have. We had a massive breakfast with plenty of pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and pastries. We were packed up and out of camp by about 9AM. We made our way to Thompson Hill. For the size of group we had we did pretty good. We made it to our camp at the top of the hill by about 2:30. Some of us had a pretty tough go climbing the hill. The winch line came out a few times for some. With a group as large as ours we took up the whole camp area by Thompson Lake. Next morning we were packed up and started towards our next camp. Not sure the name of that camp, but we call it Bob's Beach. A couple miles in we stopped and had our "No bad Ju-Ju" ceremony in the heart of Ju-Ju canyon. We made a statue as a peace offering to ward off any bad Ju-Ju. We slowly bounced our way to East Lake for lunch. There was a group of Jeeps there having lunch. So we made quick work of our lunch to get ahead of the other group. A couple miles later Chad had a tire that chunked real bad, to the point it was loosing air. So we stopped and added air a few times to get him to camp. But first we stopped and took a short walk to Quail Camp. There is a couple of old log cabins that was used by the cattle folks during the summer when the grazed their cows in the nearby meadows. Just a short time later we arrived to our 3rd nights camp. Bob's beach. It's one of my favorite camps. But then again I really love them all. Next morning Keith, Will, and Bob Marshall needed to head out and get back to town due to flights their families needed to catch. So they left about an hour or so before our group. So we were packed up and heading out when Jerome noticed he was leaking a bit of radiator fluid. So after a quick look it turned out to be loose hose clamps on his upper hose. Nice to have a quick easy fix. As we made our way to Ershim Lake for lunch there were a few winch points need for some. I stopped to take a few pictures of a rough section of trail as the members were coming through. I noticed that Mike L. had a front tire that was not getting power. So we stopped to see that the situation was. We thought it was his electric locker. But after a quick look we noticed his passenger front hub had pretty much exploded. The bolts backed out and were snapped off and the hub proceeded to eat itself. Turns out he did not have a spare hub. So...after about an hour of head scratching Chad thought we could weld a wrench or two onto a few lug nuts and the inner hub gear to hold it in place. Which would allow the tire to get power as if the hub was locked in. So we started getting our tools and equipment out. As I was bringing out my welding set up and other gear needed for the job. Rich W. said if we had a piece of plate about (he held up his hands) this big we could cut a hole in it and weld the inner hub gear to it, then to the lug nuts. It just so happened I had a piece of 8x8 3/16 plate. So after an hour of grinding, cutting and welding. We had the most perfect trail fix I have been a part of. It worked perfectly! It was well worth the 2 hours or so to get it fixed. With such a long way to go before we hit pavement it would have taken forever to get him there. So we had some time to make up so we didn't stop to much to smell the roses. We did stop and Ershim Lake for a few minutes. I'm glad we did. We saw a Bald Eagle fly across the lake and land in a dead tree across the lake. So we hit the trail again and got passed Divorce Rock. There was a busted JK just past the rock. He broke his steering box. So 2 Jeeps stayed and 2 went for parts. We made our way to our last nights camp at Lakecamp Lake. There were many cows in the meadow. It sprinkled a tiny bit on us. So some busted out tarps and covered our rides, just in case. Luckily we didn't need them. Next morning we headed out. We stopped along the way a number of times to enjoy the fantastic views. We topped out at 10,200 feet. We made our way to the end of the trail. The last section is a bit rough. We had a great time making our way through. Once we completed the trail we stopped and took a few photo's by the sign. Looking back on the trip we all had a great time. Lots of great stories along the way. The wealth of knowledge in the group is really amazing! The things you learn along the way will be remembered for a long time. Thank you to those who could make it. I sure had a great time and am looking forward to the next time. Scott