SPIDER LAKE
08/31 - 09/01 1999  Skip to the Pics

Here are some picts of our Spider Lake campin' - wheelin' trip from last summer.  My brother Tony, my cousin Rodger, my dog Chelsea, and I were traveling in my Jeep.  Jason, Tanya, and their canine companion Althea tore up the trail in Jay's recently acquired white Toyota.  And  as a special treat,  Eric Booth, with his red Toyota longbed, made a rare appearance.  Riding shotgun with Eric was copilot and spotter, Shawn.

Everybody had a lot of fun on the trip and relatively few problems were encountered.  Unfortunately, Eric's truck suffered some minor rocker panel damage on the first obstacle.  In all fairness, though, I have to admit that Jason and I have put in a lot more trail time than Eric in the past couple of years.  Practice makes perfect, Eric!  Less waxin' and more wheelin'!

Jason could have made it through clean but he ran into  a little trouble at the top of Walker Hill when he decided to lean out his truck to see the action behind him.  In his haste not to miss anything behind him he overlooked the embankment closing in ahead of him.  The sound of  crunching sheetmetal regained his forward attention but, tragically, it was too late.  Fortunately for the vehicle, I think, the damage to Jason's ego was more severe.  After everyone (including Jason) got a laugh at the truck's expense we moved on.

Tony did an excellent job of piloting my Jeep up most of the trail until we reached Little Sluice where the bald tires began to work their evil magic.  With the heavy load of gear for three we were unable to air the baldies down as much as we would have liked and as a result a little extra momentum and wheel bouncing were required to scale the side of the Sluice.

Jason got to drive up the Sluice twice because only after we all reached the top did we realize that we had forgotten to collect firewood.  Jay unselfishly volunteered himself and his vehicle for firewood duty and promptly scooted back down the sluice.  We all pitched in to fill the bed of his truck with wood, he drove back up the sluice, and we started hunting for our campsite.  After a fun filled night of eating, drinking, laughing, and B.S.ing, we passed out.

As we headed out the next day, we hit some pretty rough trail just outside of camp.  My seriously abused optima (battery) began showing some signs of extreme wear when it failed to turn the engine over after a stall.  It turns out that torturing the nearby campers by playing "Friend Chiki" over and over again at high volume on the stereo  wasn't such a good idea after all!  We charged the battery a couple of times through the rough stuff and it was smooth sailing from there.

After a final barbecue session at Loon Lake we "road prepped" our rigs and headed home.  Good food, good company, and good wheelin'.  You can't go wrong with a combination like that! 
 

Here are the picts. in chronological order. (mostly)

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