Courtright Reservoir (July 2-6)

There are not many camping locations in California where you can roll in a day before a big 3-day weekend and be able to get a campsite.  Courtright Reservoir is one of those places.  And it is beautiful high Sierra terrain that is often referred to as "Tuolumne Meadows without the crowds".  The SCMA  has been putting together a 4th of July trip up here for years, and this year i decided to join them.  Glad I did.

Courtright Reservoir

Wednesday

I get an alpine start from Quartz Hill and take my time heading up highway 99 to the western Sierra.  With the latest WTF and Freakonomics podcasts to keep me company, the miles go by quickly.

best time of the day

Before I know it, I am deep in the forest and surrounded by big trees in the McKinley Grove of giant sequoias:

McKinley Grove

A bit more driving and I am at Courtright Reservoir - and even though it is only 2 days before July 4th, the campground (Trapper Springs) is empty.  Nice.  Since this is a group trip, there is quite a bit of (necessary) campsite assignment shuffling going on.  Luckily the campground host (Betty) is the nicest and most accommodating host who makes it all work for us.  Right on Betty!

Trish did an outstanding job of organizing!

With the campsite Jenga effort well under control, I slipped out for some exploring on my trusty mountain bike.  Even though this was a "climbing" outing, I was really looking forward to seeing how much ground I could cover on a mountain bike.  I headed around the lake and up the Dusy-Ershim trail (well, at least the first 3 miles or so) and quickly ran into wide open slab:

no washboard here

even had some gold polish and glacial eratics

which way do I go?

when in doubt, look for one of these

Needless to say, it was surreal and uber cool to be riding on slabs - almost felt like I shouldn't be allowed to be riding here.  But it's all legit, as the Dusy-Ershim trail is a designated 4x4 "road' that has essentially been carved out of the wilderness.  Don't try it in your Suburau though.....

Thursday

Did a full exploration of Dusy-Ershim and was humbled.  My goal was to get about 5 miles north of the inlet to Courtright, but I only made it about 4 or so.  Daunting trail conditions and lots of hike-a-bike (20%) made this a lot more work than fun.  Short sections of silky smooth single track would get me stoked, and then a long section of rally-killing boulders or sand, or hills to steep to ride would drain my mojo.  Ultimately made about 28 miles for the day, but if you were to attempt the whole 33 miles (one way) on a bike, you better bring bike packing gear and an open agenda!  Would be a great adventure.

The scenery was spectacular:

Scared up a ~250 lb bear a few minutes before here

all of the streams had good bridges

tough riding

When I got back, I gave my hammock a good workout and did a bit of reading (Ironweed).

Friday

A kayaking day it was.  Living in the desert as i do,  it probably comes as no surprise that I AM NO KAYAKING EXPERT.  But, I knew enough to get the me and the kayak (and some snacks) out onto the water for the day without embarrassing myself.  Solo kayak launching just requires a little pre-planning, and I am accomplished in that arena.  Paddled and fished all morning and then i found a nice slab to take a(nother) nap on.  I was getting used to all this relaxing :)

nap view

A few more pics from the day:

Saturday and Sunday

More riding!  Saturday I sped down to Wishon Reservoir and explored some (uncrowded) back roads before grinding back up the hill.  Also got a couple nice pics of flowers:

Sierra Lily

blue flax

Once again, the scenery was beautiful:

the kind of road you could ride on for hours.....

looking down into the Kings River drainage

looking back towards Le Conte Divide

As I got back to Courtright, I could some friends climbing over on Power Dome:








But every trip must have an end, so i packed everything up and headed back home.  But i'll be back.