Dusy Ershim Trail

The Dusy did not open in time for us to run it. So this was plan B.
John and Nova meet me in Simi. It was myself, daughter Sarah and my Dad. Both rigs were packed to the gills! We left just after 7AM on Tuesday. We had John be a pace setter and we cruised along between 60-65. Much to my surprise I managed over 17MPG even with being overloaded. About 3 weeks earlier going to the same area I only managed 11.5 MPG doing 70 MPH. 500 RPM makes a big improvement in mileage! Anyway we arrived to West Lake with no one else around. We had the place to ourselves. So we too our time to pick out nice camp spots.
The next day Mike W. and his son Chris, Mike B, Bob Boltner (sp) sorry Bob, and Rich and Corkey meet us at camp. Plenty of nice camp spots to be had. Some had a fantastic view of the lake.
Next day we headed to Coyote Lake to have lunch. We made our way to Red Lake where there was only 1 tent set up. The gate keeper on Coyote didn't claim any parts as we passed. I had not driven to Coyote before. The trail was much tougher than the one leading to Red, or Strawberry. Just before Coyote Lake there was a CJ5 with a broken rear axle left for dead. We had the place to ourselves. The lake is very large for that area. Plenty of camp spots and 2 pit toilets. The black flies were out in force with a fair amount of mosquitoes to back them up. We hung out for awhile. A few people tried there luck fishing. We made it back to Red Lake in about an hour. Which seemed like we made good time. We got back to West Lake around 4. We stoked the fire and got to cooking.
The next day we had our group breakfast. Pancakes,bacon,sausage,and eggs were cooked. There seemed to be a mountain of food but all of it was eaten. Then we headed to Strawberry Lake. We arrived just before noon. The place was empty. We fished and hung out for a few hours. Just as we were leaving there was a large group of dirt bikes, quads, side by sides and four wheel drives coming in to have lunch. Johns starter battery ran out of electricity and he needed to be pushed started. We got back to camp around 4 or so. Little by little we saw and heard the large group drive by camp head towards their camp at Sand Flats. Later that evening we couldn't help but wonder what the large exploding sound was coming from their camp. It must of happened 10-15 times. Every 10-15 minutes. Luckily it stopped before 10PM.
Next morning we all broke camp and were packed and on the road by 8:20 We had to stop and put on Bob's spare tire as he popped one just as we hit the easy trail leading to Sand Flats. We saw the large group camped there and I asked someone what the explosions were. He said it was a canon. Didn't say how big it was but it sure was LOUD! Glad we were not staying another night!
It was a real nice trip. The weather was perfect, the bugs were out but not super bad. John's electro zapper gave us some joy around the campfire. For the most part we had the place to ourselves.