Tow rig parking?

[John90XJ]

A small group of rigs is coming down from Washington the 10th of July for 5 days. A couple guys will be flat towing, possibly one with a trailer.

Where can someone leave their rig and feel relatively secure that it will still be there when done running the trail?

Any help would be appreciated.

John

[Tom Boyd]

A lot of us leave tow rigs with trailers at Loon Lake, to the left down the access road. Get there early on a big weekend and take some safety precautions, locks ect. Good luck, have fun.

[Danger Ranger]

I assume you guys want to run the whole trail? If you do, you probably wouldn’t want to park a tow rig and trailer at the Loon Lake entrance. When you get to the other end of the trail in Homewood you will be 2 1/2 hours or so (by pavement) from where the trail started and you’d be back tracking up an down a steep n crooked road.

Might try asking around for a place to leave and get your tow rigs parted out, in Placerville or Pollock Pines LOL.

[Jeepndel]

Parking tow rigs is always fun. No matter how you do it, you have to allow some driving to get back to them.

Loon lake is a popular place to leave them. The suggestion to find a place in Pville is not bad; but then you have to get the rig up to the trail head.

So best bet: figure on the extra pavement time.

Del

[Danger Ranger]

Originally posted by Jeepndel
So best bet: figure on the extra pavement time.

Del

True... my next question for john is: do you want to drive more pavement at the beginning in tip top shape? or at the end in _____ shape?

[John90XJ]

Good point. But what's the point in living if you can't have a little bit of danger thrown in?

Regardless, I HAVE to drive my junk home.

How many 6 packs of good Pacific Northwest microbrew would it take to convince one of you local guys to let us park in your driveway?

Originally posted by Danger Ranger


True... my next question for john is: do you want to drive more pavement at the beginning in tip top shape? or at the end in _____ shape?

[TDW]

Originally posted by John90XJ
A small group of rigs is coming down from Washington the 10th of July for 5 days. A couple guys will be flat towing, possibly one with a trailer.

Where can someone leave their rig and feel relatively secure that it will still be there when done running the trail?

Any help would be appreciated.

John

My vote is Icehouse Store. It is up Icehouse Road from Highway 50 on the right side, you can't miss it. They have tons of room for parking in the grass behind the store and it is very safe. I think they charge around $8 - $10 per day but IMO it is well worth it not to have your rig broke into/vandalized. It is about 20 miles from the Loon entrance of the trail.

It looks like you will be down there about the same time myself and a group of friends will be there.

[wsuxjer]

John, I would prefer to do as little pavement driving as possible. remember, my rig doesn't go very fast or like hills at highway speed.

What about parking the trail rigs at the entrance, leaving a couple of people there and driving the tow rigs to the end of the trail and parking them there? What kind of facilities are there for parking at the end of the trail?

[TDW]

Originally posted by wsuxjer
John, I would prefer to do as little pavement driving as possible. remember, my rig doesn't go very fast or like hills at highway speed.

What about parking the trail rigs at the entrance, leaving a couple of people there and driving the tow rigs to the end of the trail and parking them there? What kind of facilities are there for parking at the end of the trail?

There is actually a very large parking lot on the Homewood side. (if I remember correctly) I don't have any info on overnight parking there though. Also it is at least an hour drive around the lake (depending on traffic, myabe longer) to get from Loon to Homewood.

[wsuxjer]

OK then, how far is it from Loon to Homewood via pavement?

I've heard both ~1hr to 2.5hrs. An hour isn't too bad, that's only a little over two hours round to trip to park the tow rigs at Homewood and drive back to Loon. But if it's 2.5hrs, that's a half day to park the tow rigs and drive back.

[slvregl]

Your looking at 45 min from loon to HWY 50. then at least on hour from there to homewood. Unfortunately there really is not a good answer for those going all the way through. Hope you enjoy the trail in any case. My suggestion is to park at the Homewood side, Drive the rigs around to loon and start the pavement drive with a rig in one piece. The other suggestion of course, time permitting is to drive through one way, turn around and drive back through!

Good Luck!!

[ROK RNR]

If you are there for five days then run it from Loon Lake to the lookout and then backwards back to Loon Lake and the tow vehicle issue is solved.

[66CJdean]

I second what Rok RnR said. Since you toed them to the trail there is no reason you won't have enough fuel to run from Loon to the lookout and back. This will give you a chance to run the old sluice one way and then the slabs the other and such.

[Jeepndel]

going in and back out to Loon does make more sense to me; but then again,

once I taste trail, the idea of eating pavement just to get to my trailer, really doesn't wrap my winch.

Del

[wsuxjer]

We're not actually going to be there for five days. One day to get down there, 3 days to wheel/repair our broken junk, one day to get back. Some of us will be towing, but other won't. I have mine setup to be flat towed anyways, so I think our solution will be to park the tow rigs at Loon, and have one of the more streetable rigs tow back my rig, or I can just see how well it does on the pavement. Thanks for the advice/info!