Swamp Lake

Kris and 2 of his boy's Alex, and William and my daughter Sarah and myself left the P&R about 7:45 on Thursday. We started the trail about 3PM. We did not know if we were going to make it to Grouse Lake that night or not. So we kept going until we started to run out of daylight. We ended up in the same spot as last year. At the bottom of Rooster rock. We set up camp just off the trail. There were a couple of fire rings already there. Plenty of firewood close by. This was Sarah's first time sleeping in a tent. She was a bit nervous. She woke up a few times during the night.

The next day we packed up camp and headed out. We climbed up Rooster rock with no problems. About an hour later we reached Grouse lake. There was a group already camping there. So I walked down to see if they were going to be staying. Turns out they were headed out. So after they packed up we moved in.

After setting up camp. Kris and the boy's did a bit of fishing. Sarah and I hung out at camp. The weather was real nice sunny and no clouds. It was cool in the shade but warm in the sun shine. That night it was a bit cooler then the night before.

Saturday morning. Phil and his son Jed drove into camp. They came in from the other direction. They made it to Swamp Lake about 10 PM the night before and camped there. They had not been on the trail before. So they settled in. Later that day we drove to the ridge that divides Grouse and Swamp lake. The view there is amazing. You can see both lakes and the surrounding mountains. There was a bit of snow on the Swamp side. Then we stopped at the mine to look around for a bit. It was real cold inside we could see our breath. After looking around a bit we drove on to Swamp Lake. There was a few camps set up there. We talked to a couple of the people. Turns out we meet them the year before when they were coming in with some parts to fix a broken XJ. Then we headed to the lake to look around and take PICS. After that we went back to camp. There was a group of about 11 rigs hoping to camp at Grouse. But there was not any room for them so they headed to Swamp. A couple of the Jeeps had some Point Mugu stickers. Then there was a lone XJ packed to the gills with gear. That set up camp just off the trail. The set up right under the "NO CAMPING" sign. :shrug:

Sunday we packed up camp and headed out. We got a bit of a late start. We ended up behind the big group and in between another group. At "pinch rock" there was a bit of a delay getting everyone thru. Kris and Jed did a great job driving thru. They are both open in the front. On the next set of rocks known as "V rock" Kris beached his Waggy pretty good on one of the rocks. We tried to strap him from the front with Jed's TJ but it wouldn't budge. There was a Rubicon behind him that ended up pulling him back. So we stacked a few rocks and he made it thru just fine. Then we went back and kicked out the rocks we piled up. We stopped for lunch a while later. The rest of the way out was uneventfull. We made it back to Shaver Lake around 4 and finished airing up. Jed and his Dad were going to leave there Jeep there with a friend and head back up to Shaver in a few days. So Kris and I headed out. We made it back to Simi round 10PM.

It was a great trip. Sarah had a blast and so did Kris's kids. This was the most traffic on the trail I have seen in this area ever. Not that it was that much traffic but way more then I have seen in the past. There was a ton of used toilet paper behind just about every tree,bush, and big rock at Grouse lake. It was pretty sad. The ground there is so easy to dig. I don't remember there being so much last year.

Anyway it was a great trip. Thanks for reading along.