Sarah and I met up with John in his YJ and Kris with his 3 boy's William, Alex,and Nick in the Waggy. We headed out about 6:15am. John had a leaking valve cover gasket so we tightened it a bit before leaving. We stopped at a parts store before hitting the trail head.
After airing down we started the trail. I saw a couple of young buck mule deer along the trail. We slowly made our way to camp at Grouse Lake. Along the way we saw patches of snow in the shady area's. We made it up Rooster Rock with no problems and got to camp around 4 or 5. There was a pit toilet added since our last visit 3 years ago. We set up camp.
Next day we just fished and ate, then fished some more. Upon sun down the skeeters where out in force! Lots of bug spray was used during the trip. We kept the fire as smokey as we could. They went away when the temps dropped.
The next day John hiked to the ridge that is between Grouse Lake and Swamp Lake. The rest of us fished and ate, fished and ate. John joined in on both fishing and eating upon his arrival from his hike. Then we all went to battle with the skeeters again. Some of us stayed up to watch the moon come over the ridge. It was very bright, not quite a full moon but plenty bright. A doe deer was spotted walking around our camp with a flashlight. She didn't seem to concerned with our being there.
Our last day we got up early and packed up. We stopped on the ridge to get some PICS of Grouse Lake and Swamp Lake. Some fairly large patches of snow could be seen on the Swamp Lake side. Then we stopped at a mine shaft and looked around a bit. Then we headed to Swamp Lake. We stopped to use the pit toilet there. No one was camping here either. We had the whole woods to ourselves the whole week!
Then we stopped at a cabin for a few PICS. We made our way to Pinch Rock and V rock. Made it through with no issues. A short time later we came on some Jeeps heading in. We stopped for a bit of food. Then we made our way to the trail head.
We aired up and headed down the road. Doing it again we would have waited to air up until we reached the real pavement. The road was super rough at street tire pressures. John said he needed to stop and check something out. Turns out a centering pin and leaf spring had broke. Looks like the spring has been broke for sometime. After a couple hours we made repairs and headed into Shaver Lake. Then we headed down the hill. The temps quickly rose to 102* After enjoying the daytime temps at maybe 70* it was real hot. Sarah was hot and thirsty so we pulled to the side of the road to get her some ice water from my cooler. Upon starting my Jeep the CEL (check engine light) came on and it was running real rough. So we checked the code and Kris called Tina to go online to see what the code meant. Turns out one of my fuel injectors was not working. So John found a parts store about 3 miles away. We drove over and after some time we found a set of injectors that would work. John had to drive to a couple of other stores to get them for me. So we swapped the injectors and had some In and Out. I finally made it home around 1am.
This trip will be remembered for a very long time! We all enjoyed ourselves very much. It was very relaxing to sit in camp for a few days and enjoyed each others company. Having the whole trail to ourselves for 3 nights a 4 days just does not happen very often. The weather was wonderful too. Looking forward to the next trip!