Hi all…

It’s been a while since I’ve done a trail report but our little trip to Barrett Lake was so good, I thought I would share some thoughts on it.


Eric & Will, James, Wes & his son Dave and Myself were the only takers. Eric, James and I met up at Safeway in Pollock Pines just before 8am on Saturday. We gassed up at the service station across the street, grabbed some grub at Safeway (Starbucks coffee was awful). Headed up 50 to the Wrights Lake turnoff where we met up with Wes & Dave. Rolling Thunder sounds awesome. Looks pretty too… J The road up to the top is narrow, winding and rough in places but usually not much traffic on it so we moved slowly and met nobody.

The road goes to Wright’s Lake but if you just stay on the pavement, it gets really narrow (one lane, really) and winds through the trees to Dark Lake. Just past Dark Lake is a loop where you can turn around and that’s where you find the gate to the trail. It’s well marked with signage. We aired down and bravely headed up the hill. There’s a rather tough spot just around the first corner. That stops a lot of people with lesser rigs. If you can’t get through that, you wouldn’t want to go any further anyway…
It’s a very tight, technical trail with lots of rock, trees and roots to squeeze between and around. Pretty much exactly 6 miles from gate to Barrett Lake. At approx 4 miles, you will encounter the ‘Rock Garden’, which can present a very difficult challenge to some. With a good rig and a little skill, you can get through it without much difficulty. A good spotter is also a great help. (Thanks to Wes for spottin me) J We saw several rigs break axles and stuff there and have to be winched or yanked out. Unpossible to make any time on this trail as it’s pretty much a never ending series of obstacles. You can see where people have hit the trees and rocks in the past and in some cases, left paint as a reminder. If you’re not very careful, you’ll be one of them. I had a moment of inattention and got a big ole scratch in my passenger door and again on the rear quarter panel. I’m sure someone will post pictures. Wes also got a big ole raspberry in his pretty red paint on the drivers side…

So we make our way (slowly) all the way to the lake without too much trouble. I was tailgunner (cause I gots roll up windows and A/C. Ha!) Yes, it was pretty dusty there too. At one point, I see this rig coming up behind me. It was a couple of beer guzzeling jerks in a really beat up old Blazer. I don’t know how they got through the gate with those big Boggers (tires). Anyway, I knew there were jerks cause he drove right up to within 6 inches of my rear end and stayed there as we made our way along. I radioed the others for us to pull over and let the idiots by since they were obviously in a bigger hurry than we were. So we pull over in a wide spot and they thanked us by blasting on by at full throttle, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. No wave, no thanks, just dust. Marvelous… Great representatives of our sport… We met several people along the trail and most were friendly and talkative. I did speak to a few however that wouldn’t give you the time of day. “Hey, how’s it going?” , I say… Just a dirty look is all I got. I just smile and wave and move along.

So we make it to the lake. There were a lot of people already camping. The area isn’t very big so a dozen or so and it’s pretty full. There were more than a dozen already there and we met a good 15 more rigs coming in as we were leaving. We didn’t stay long at the lake. I heard they were catching some nice brookies there and I did bring my pole but I knew it was gonna take longer to get back out if we encountered a bunch of rigs coming in at the rock garden. (been there before) And James wanted to get back home early. I think he had a date but didn’t wanna say. J So after some lunch and a little visiting, we pack up and head back out… Things were going nicely till we hit the rock garden. Sure enough, there was a Sammy with a broken rear end, stuck in the middle of the worst spot. Right behind him was a Toyota 4runner with a broken front axle. We waited while the Sammy hammered his rig to death trying to get up in front wheel drive. It wasn’t happening. I’m surprised he didn’t just break everything the way he was beating on it. Finally someone winched him on up and he was immediately replaced by the 4runner, who also couldn’t get up. He beat and banged and after a while, he was also yanked on up. By this time, there were around 10 other rigs waiting to come up. I knew it. We’d be stuck there for hours. The next one up was a red 4runner. His battery died so here he sits, dead in the middle of the trail. There is no bypass or way around this spot so we’re not happy at this point. Someone tried giving him a jump and we sprang on the opportunity to move our rigs down in front of them.

Lucky for us, they decide to let us pass so we make our way out of that spot quickly… There were two others behind us but at this point, I didn’t know if they got through or not. So off we go, having a great time picking our way through all the tight spots. Pretty soon I see the other two rigs coming up behind us. They had seemed a bit frustrated back at the rock garden so we pulled over the let em go by and they hauled it on outta sight. Ok, now we’re left to just enjoy the ride. We did meet a few others coming in but got by with no problem. So we’re just tooling along when Dave runs over an innocent looking little log on the trail. The thing jumps up and tears the rear brake line off Rolling Thunder. Dang…

So we remove all the logs from the trail and move down to a flat spot where we can see what needs to be done to fix it. Turns out it was the right rear brake line and it was broken off right at the ‘T’ on the rear diff. With a little muscle, Wes was able to extract the fitting. We thought maybe we could just pinch off that one line and be ok but there was no line sticking out to pinch. After a bit of brainstorming, Dave had the best idea of removing the fitting from the right caliper, pinching that line off and screwing it into the ‘T’. So there would be no brakes on the right rear but the other three should work. So he got that off, we cut the line short, flattened it out, bent it over and flattened it again with the hammer so no way it would leak. He installed that puppy and we’re back in business. Good job Dave… Give that man another Red Bull… LoL!!!

The rest of the day was uneventful. We made it back out the gate just before dark. Aired up and headed home. Wes turned off at Silverfork. James was long gone so Eric and I made our way down the hill, looking like little dustballs in the wind. I dropped off at Sly Park and picked up a pizza on the way home. For some reason, that was about the most tired I have ever been after a day of wheeling. Maybe I’m just getting old but I think It’s cause that dang trail always kicks my butt. The only time I have ever broken anyghing wheeling (or gotten body damage) has been on Barrett Lake Jeep Trail… But, I gotta say, it’s still one of my favorite trails. And it’s always fun wheeling with great people. After a shower, some pizza and a couple bottles of Bud Lite Lime, I slept like a log… Next time we do Barrett, ya’ll just gotta come along…

Cheers,
Glenn…