Meet at Wendy’s (Brunswick Basin) for departure at 08:00 on Saturday June 7.  

Fuel is scarce up that way and I think only Basset’s has active pumps.

Single day option: Ron DeB. is planning to just run on Saturday. If you only want a day run that is certainly an option.

Overnight option: Plan for primitive camping in the valley (Camp 1), or at Opie's Cabin.

Let Martin know if you areplanning to go either overnight or day run.

From Martin:

The weather has been warming up and snow is melting.  The cam on Saddleback shows patches of snow (ALERTCalifornia).  Therefore, my plan is to approach from Union Flat on FR19.  There may be a snow patch at the second Butcher Ranch intersection.  Once past that, the valley will be clear (except for trees?), but there are likely to be patches at the top of Snake Lake and Little Dear – so I won’t be planning to go through those.

I do want to get to Hawley Meadow and check on Opie’s Cabin and do a general survey of the trail conditions.  Removing trees as needed to keep people on the trail

More From Martin:

I spoke with Jim Nejedly (Hawley Lake Camp) over the weekend.  He has not yet gone to the camp.  He plans to go in June 14.  I will be letting him know what we find.

Gold Valley/Snake Lake trails are GV4W adopt-a-trails.  The club historically tries to go in early in the season to log out the roads (clear downed trees) so that people will stay on the trails and not create go-arounds.  That means we may be doing some work as we assess trail conditions.

Meet at:

Golden Empire Grange
11383 Grange Ct
Grass Valley, CA 95945

Martin is organizing.  Please contact him for additional information or to let him know you are interested.  We will post more info as it becomes available.

Meet at:

Golden Empire Grange
11383 Grange Ct
Grass Valley, CA 95945

Signal Peak, Prerun for Sierra Trek, Brandy lead

Sierra Trek, Signal Peak - Brandy lead

If interested, sign-up sheets at the meetings, or talk to Jim L.

Run will proceed rain or shine.

Meet at the Bambi Inn, Butte Meadows, CA @ 2:00pm 8/15. Leaving for Campbell Lake no later than 2:45pm.  Fuel/ some provisions available at the "Tank House" down the road from the Bambi Inn.

We will camp at  Butte Meadows, CA area (exact location of camp site: 39.996624, -121.361060)

Trail Details:

Friday

We will leave the Bambi Inn up toward Humbug Summit Road. This is a paved section that will eventually turn to wide, dirt logging roads heading to Philbrook Rd. The road turns back to pavement for a few miles just before Philbrook Reservoir where it will become dirt for the remainder of the journey into camp. After turning up the mountain at the Philbrook Reservoir “Y” the trail becomes more rough, but still easy, logging road until reaching the T-intersection at Lotts Lake. We will air down (if not done so already) at the “T”; this is your last opportunity to make a call out on your cell phone as there is little to no reception from here on. After leaving the “T” the trail becomes a little more difficult with smaller rocks and off camber trail sections until we meet the Spring Valley “Gate-Keeper” (a fairly simple obstacle that keeps the lower slung AWD vehicles out). We will likely make a brief stop after the small creek crossing at Spring Valley Lake then proceed onward. From Spring Valley the trail becomes more rough as we make our way through rock gardens to the top of the ridge and the “Knievel” obstacle. This obstacle should be taken one at a time which will give people an opportunity to act as spotters and to be spotted as they make their way up the hill. After the Knievel overlook we head back down the hill and the trail will ease up as we make our way into the Campbell Lake valley. Hopefully we will make it into camp with plenty of sunlight to gather some firewood and cook dinner.

Saturday 

Saturday will likely involve a day trip/ Trail Run to one of the near by features.

-Morris Lake Trail- Short but extremely difficult and technical rock crawling (similar to the winch hills on Fordyce) trail leading down to Morris Lake. Prepare for carnage.

-Mud Lake Trail- Medium difficulty trail to a small lake. Some technical features on the way.

-Ben Lomond Lookout- All day trip (3-5 hours) to the Ben Lomond lookout over looking the towns of Belden and Tobin. A few tricky and tight spots but a pretty easy trail.

-Chips Lake Trail- similar to Mud Lake Trail with one extra obstacle for good measure.

There are lakes near by that can be explored, fished, hiked, or kayaked in and many people bring firearms to shoot for fun. As this is a club run I will leave the decision to bring firearms up to the discretion of individuals choosing to participate, but there will be some firearms present for use as wildlife protection. There is also the option of relaxing in camp all day, which is very fun as well.

Sunday

Sunday will be packing up camp and heading back to the Bambi Inn. Expecting to leave camp by 9:00am with some stops along the way, and a planned potluck lunch (light snacks, sandwiches, etc.) stop at Spring Valley Lake. We should arrive back to the Bambi Inn around 1:00pm.

If anyone owns the book Guide to California Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trails this trail route can be found on page 26-27, trail #4

Meet at:

Golden Empire Grange
11383 Grange Ct
Grass Valley, CA 95945

Meet at:

Golden Empire Grange
11383 Grange Ct
Grass Valley, CA 95945