headin to fordyce for the weekend there will be 5 truck and trailer combos leavin the shell gas station off of penryn exist on 80 at 5 in the morning saturday anyone is welcome to tag along

bunch of people will be at eagle lakes rd not to far

does any one know if you can get to the river crossing at committee

does any one know if you can get to the river crossing at committee
there is very little snow up there it should be fine!

I ran the trail yesterday from Eagle Lake and exited the committee trail. If you are going up this weekend, take a chain saw with you. There are 5 trees down. You can drive over them, but you stand a chance of cutting your sidewall like I did (7 plugs later and a very slow leak I drove it the rest of the way. Coming up to the lake from the trail has about 3 feet of snow on it. Slow and go I was able to crawl out to the lake. The next 3 miles of road from the lake was mostly snow. As long as you stay off the gas, you can stay on top. On my way out, I snapped my tracbar bracket off my axle coming off a steep snow bank sideways :eek: Using my winch rope, I wrapped the tracbar and the bracket to my axle and synched it down until the front suspension was fully compressed and it gave me enough steering to make it out to Cisco and on to a tow truck.


The trail is in great condition. The typical areas that have water on them are still very wet and there are a couple of puddles that swallowed my 37's hole and brought water up over the hood.

The trail had almost no snow on it and the river was extremely low for this time of year.

There are two trees down in the same place as you get to the lake. You will not get by them coming from Cisco without cutting them out of the way. Coming from the trail side, you can get around them on the high side and drop down off the bank, but from Cisco you would have to climb the steep bank to get up and around them (Not going to happen) Take a chain saw.

how were the water crossings?

how were the water crossings?

You could have walked accross the river crossings. The was was very low.

the weather was awesome saturday afternoon, night, and sunday mourning, then some rain moved in.

The first river we went across around 1 am sat night. we went though the middle, its was over the 40s on the green jeep and came over the hood on my red jeep.

sunday on the way out we saw that you could cut to the down river side and was just over my 35's. the green jeep went though the middle again.

Please don't tell me you are driving off the trail? !!

Delete your pics and kick yourself in the ass if you are!! :mad:

You are driving off the trail? !!

Delete your pics and kick yourself in the ass!! :mad:

Fixed it for you :shaking:

we stayed on trail the whole time, 10 feet to the left of the drop is where i drove around.

this was our first time up there, we followed other tire tracks, and the frew tree stumps that had trail carved into them.

we stayed on trail the whole time, 10 feet to the left of the drop is where i drove around.

this was our first time up there, we followed other tire tracks, and the frew tree stumps that had trail carved into them.

Well for your information that are above is off trail. You see all those logs laying there. Those blocked that area at one time. Countless people have worked their ass off to block that area. Please stay out of it. Would you please delete your above pics and stay on the trail.

Thanks in advance,
Bernie

we stayed on trail the whole time,





this was our first time up there,.





If this was your first time up there how can you be so confident you were on the trail and not just following the tracks of smoe othere asshole?:shaking:

The second pic looks off the trail!

I went to the right side of the rock then it curves left, its almost like the rock is in the center of the trail

the only reason that rock looks like it is in the center of the trail is because of people like you and your buddy drving over the bushes around the left side. Delete the pics.

Well some people just don't get it. Even though things may seem to be within a safe distance of the trail does not mean its legal. There are more that enough tough obsicles on the trail. Please let's keep it on the trail.

whatever, i will delete the damn pictures, also we did not drive over any bushes

Look at the logs in the 4th and 5th pics does it look like they just happend to fall there? No they were originally put there to block that area. I know because I led the group blocking off all sorts of stuff in that area.

whatever, i will delete the damn pictures, also we did not drive over any bushes

Thanks :beer:

I went to the right side of the rock then it curves left, its almost like the rock is in the center of the trail

Your just not getting it are you. There is a request that you remove the pictures because they are off of the trail so I would guess that if you don't remove them the Moderator will.

Don't get us wrong because we are glad that you had a great trip anfd are hopeful that you learned where the trail doesn't go for your next trip.

Thanks,

Let's please calm down and watch the language too. Accidents happen and when they do we offer advice so it doesn't happen again. Thanks for the concerned guys that point out off trail driving and thanks for the guys that take the advice when they weren't sure where the trail was. I was up there this weekend and because of the snow and conditions it was hard to see exactly where the trail was all the time especially if you're not super familiar with it. I saw that the users appeared to be sticking to the trail for the most part and treading lightly. I didn't see evidence of anybody really gettin' it in the wet stuff.

THANK YOU!!

thanks for understanding ^^^, also i think it would help in some of the open areas a few more logs or stumps marking the trail there were a few out there, but there was a few times we had to stop and figure out with direction the trail went.

I will be posting some pictures of the work we did tomorrow but here is a short report of what we did and the conditions.

The trail is still wet but appears pretty stable and not torn up at all. The log ramp at mile 5.5 is pretty much all kicked out. THis is not a problem traveling up the trail but coming back to Indian Springs will be a hard climb. We'll need to get back in to fix it but in the meantime please be prepared to winch or get a tug to clear this spot.

DON'T JUST TEAR IT UP TO TRY AND CLEAR THIS SPOT PLEASE!!

The mud hole at 6.25 is full but firm on the bottom. Heading up trail stay to the extreme left and keep your speed up to drive through. We had a Jeep on 33's make it through no problem. The trail right past the mud hole is full of water as well. Again the Jeep on 33's had no problem getting through. He just kept his speed up. I'd estimate the water at about 3 feet deep.

DO NOT BYPASS THIS AREA. BE PREPARED AND DRIVE THE MAIN TRAIL. IF YOU BYPASS THE MUD HOLE YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO DRIVE THROUGH THE DEEP WATER AFTER IT AS THERE IS NO WAY TO BYPASS THIS PART!!!

We are going to be working very soon to try and drain this spot.

The rest of the trail is fine. Friends of Fordyce with members of the Four Dice 4WDC removed 5 or 6 trees that had fallen across the trail. We cleared the trail up to Winch Hill 3. I can't say what the trial looks like after that. We ran out of time to do any more work.

The hill out of the committee crossing had a couple of real slushy spots that require some throttle but these may be gone after the warm weather due next week. There is still plenty of snow all the way out the committee road and in spots the fire road is still completely covered with about 2 feet of snow.

Pictures tomorrow and remember to tread lightly!

Thanks.

Tinman,

When are your work days planned for the trail. I work up in Tahoe and have been talking to some Forest Service folks and they are pushing to shut the Forest down again very soon and it is looking like it will happen due to the fire season starting with a bang. If they have their way, the forest will be shut down by Mid June. Do you have any plans to try and get some work done before that.

No big workdays planned before the end of July. We were going to issue our e-mail newsletter and post it here but ran into a small technical difficulty. I'll post it here tomorrow.

I am going to talk with the FS tomorrow about the fire restriction issue. Mid June seems a little soon since there is still snow and water everywhere. If I learn anything I'll post it.

I wanted to get back up there for a sort of unofficial workday to clear some more trees and try to drain the mudhole.

I'll do some checking and get back to you.

Pics?

Working on it. Having computer problems.:mad3:

Working on it. Having computer problems.:mad3:


The computer is fine....operator error. :flipoff2:

Snow on the slabs inbetween Sunrise and Hamburger Hill.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5230003.jpg
Log ramp you need to be careful on at mile 5.5.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240010.jpg
Water hole right after the mud hole at mile 6.25. 3 feet deep but firm right now.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240014.jpg

WH #1.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240025.jpg
Some before and after.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240028.jpg
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240029.jpg
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240032.jpg
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240033.jpg

http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240038.jpg
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240045.jpg
Lots of runoff water.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240048.jpg
Not much being released though (committee crossing.)
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240055.jpg

Heading out on the committee road.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240081.jpg
That is all.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240065.jpg

http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5230003.jpg


Looks like it was warm out. :eek:

It actually wasn't bad. I was wet but never got cold. Working too much cutting timber I guess!:grinpimp:

:beer: s to you guys for getting some work done. I'd like to get up that way this year.

looks like the log ramp needs some work:eek: Well it made it several years and that's a plus. Work project? for this year?

I think the big re-route will by pass that log ramp...i could be wrong.

Nope. Ties in further down the trail. Too bad. Would be cool if we could get rid of that section too. The re-route is so cool that it wouldn't even be missed.

Can you make it in to Meadow Lake yet?

We made it to winch hill 3 before turning around so I can not say if it is doable or not. We cut and removed several medium sized trees that blocked the trail in the short distance between the committee crossing and WH3 so I would suspect more downed trees. The snow could be more of an issue and may prove to be the main obstacle. I am not sure if anyone has gone past WH3 this season or not. If you go take a chainsaw.

[QUOTE=Tinman;8293526]
Log ramp you need to be careful on at mile 5.5.
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240010.jpg


i went out to fordyce for the first time i ever yesterday and i have no idea where any of these places (hamburger hill, sunrise, any of the winch hills etc) on the trail are is there any good maps on the internet or do i need to order one? we made it to about mile 6.5 and i was just wondering which obstacles (if any) we made it to, we went about a mile past the above picture with the log ramp thingy. we were on atv's met some nice people who were also on thier first trip and picked up a little trash

we barely made it through the two deep water holes (no snorkels on the quads) one which is pictured here
http://fourdice4x4.com/photos/albums/Fordyce-5-25-08/P5240014.jpg

i would tell you guys where these pictures are but i dont know any of the names to anything, sorry only had a crappy cell phone to take pictures with.

http://pixelshack.com/img/506094non.jpg

next water hole directly after the water hole pictures above at about mile 6.25
http://pixelshack.com/img/553384g.JPG

we turned around about .25 to .5 miles past that water hole

edit: how many miles in is whinch hill #1 ? we were trying to make it there but had no idea where it is and my buddys 6 month old husky was getting tired so we decided to call it a day(we were pretty darn tired too lol)

the only place we used the winch, might have been able to make it up but we didnt want to erode the log ramp thing any more then it already was so we just put our front tires up and got the winch out. theres only slight tension on the winch in this picture so the dog is good to go http://pixelshack.com/img/535915logramp.jpg

goin down
http://pixelshack.com/img/920368logrampb.jpg

Great pics, thanks for sharing.