Now that we are a week away....
Departure Plan:
Thursday: I am leaving Escondido at 7AM. Gas at I15/76 park and ride at 7:30, rolling out by 8AM with 4 hours and 30 mins of drive time no traffic so some amount longer given we will hit some traffic. For those along the route that want to do a rolling start raise us on comms and we can pick you up as we pass your on-ramp. We will likely swing through some fast food around noon and gas up. We will hit Bishop by 1:30-2PM. We will gas up one last time, get ice, purchase the things we remembered we forgot along the way, and hit the mountain. From there it's about an hour and a half to our campsite! We should be setting up camp by 4PM cracking a cold one and getting ready for awesome grub.
Comms: CB 22 or HAM 146.490. If anyone only has FRS we can start out on channel 1.
Some pictures to assist anyone who is heading up for the first time and/or by themselves... basically make the first right once you are on the plateau... Note that I had to remove some of last year's pictures to make the mud-limit.
Here is where we are going in reference to Funnel Lake which is the little gold pin at the top....
Menu
Thursday: Burgers / dogs /easy stuff
Friday: BBQ Theme
Saturday: Chili cook off
Sunday: Surprise us
Head count
Elripster with 3 kids and grandpa
Phulcum plus kid and maybe more kid/wife
Outsane?
BMinSD
CruiserBauers
Hamilt0n
Landcruising
The link below has tons boiler plate info so I won't repeat it all here but do check it out as well as the pics towards the end. I will note that this is completely self supporting / remote camping. Temps can range from 20-75 degF in one day - extra blankets/bags are nice at night.
Link from last year.
The wheeling is not that hard but you want to make sure vehicle maintenance is up to date. Bring 5 gallons of gas unless you have a 60... bring 10.
A note on driving difficulty. Last year my wife met us up there in our 4WD Z71 Suburban (has, and def needed its rear locker). Suffice to say, while the truck had no issues actually getting there, it wears a few battle scars... so anyone trying to gauge the trip can use this as a reference. In general, and 4WD with low range, decent tires, and a little lift will do very well.
We will fishing for trout so if you fish bring trout gear.
Comms: CB 22 or HAM 146.490. If anyone only has FRS we can start out on channel 1
There is no cell service at most of the plateau but I found last year that if you drive to east overlook which is only 20 minutes or so you can get excellent service.
This year we are going to plan the trip around Labor Day vs. early last year's early August dates. The pluses are the extra day off helps and places like Baker Lake will see the minimum levels of bugs vs. July and August. The downside is it gets colder at night. We have been up there over Labor Day before and never had any issues with crowds - it's just too remote.
We will use the same camp spot as last year. It can probably accommodate 50 rigs, is easy to find, and is centrally located making it an easy launch to other places. It's location also seems well shielded from wind vs. Funnel Lake which seems to, well, funnel the wind to max velocity at night.
I am planning the trip from Thursday to Monday to have a camping to drive ratio >1 but expect some will travel Friday which is fine.
Loose itinerary:
Friday: Travel day for some, day trip to check out Funnel Lake. The fishing is typically non-existent but there are some fun and more challenging trails to get there and it makes for a fun place to hang out, drop a line, let the kids run around, etc... It would be a lunch trip. We won't be far from our camp and can return within about an hour. We can swing by the east side to get cell service and check the forum for updates/questions.
Saturday: Baker/Hidden lake for fishing. Note that the fish are most active early morning and late evening and both of these lakes have had lots of fish. In the past we have gotten there mid day and our luck has been spotty. This year we will aim to prep breakfast the night before and get an early start to the lakes. That would have us heading back to camp early afternoon to enjoy an epic B&T dinner. This is much better than trying to hike back to our trucks in the dark, etc... Bring good hiking shoes but also water shoes (large shallow shelf), light weight - easy to carry chair if you have one, and ability pack gear, lunch, etc... it's about a 30-40 minute hike to the lake.
Sunday: TBD. We could return to Funnel or Baker or decide to take on a more epic journey to Green Lake which traverses some excellent almost other-worldly terrain, awesome views, and a bit of 4WD challenge. We can chose to hike down to the lake if we wish or hang on the plateau that over looks it. Or, we want some wheeling challenge, we could take the south loop back to 395 and come back up the Big Pine route (something I have never done before).
Monday: Travel day home.
How to get there..
Google will happily take you all the way to Funnel Lake so just put that into your phone to get to the plateau. The only deviation to make is that about a mile after you make the left onto the plateau (the first fork below), you will make a right turn which will take you over a short hill and drop into the camp site noted by "camp spots" below. If you get the right turn to Funnel, make a u-turn and find the road over the hill.
While this patch of snow on the left will most certainly have melted this year, this is what the hill looks like that you drive over when turning right... That bowl/patch of snow is just to the left of the road to camp.
I so very hope we can get a big turnout. The plateau is amazing and has so much fun potential. In addition to the wheeling, fishing, and hiking there are also mountain biking opportunities.
Please post up if you can go and if you have any menu suggestions so we can continue to crush it at camp food!
Frank
Departure Plan:
Thursday: I am leaving Escondido at 7AM. Gas at I15/76 park and ride at 7:30, rolling out by 8AM with 4 hours and 30 mins of drive time no traffic so some amount longer given we will hit some traffic. For those along the route that want to do a rolling start raise us on comms and we can pick you up as we pass your on-ramp. We will likely swing through some fast food around noon and gas up. We will hit Bishop by 1:30-2PM. We will gas up one last time, get ice, purchase the things we remembered we forgot along the way, and hit the mountain. From there it's about an hour and a half to our campsite! We should be setting up camp by 4PM cracking a cold one and getting ready for awesome grub.
Comms: CB 22 or HAM 146.490. If anyone only has FRS we can start out on channel 1.
Some pictures to assist anyone who is heading up for the first time and/or by themselves... basically make the first right once you are on the plateau... Note that I had to remove some of last year's pictures to make the mud-limit.
Here is where we are going in reference to Funnel Lake which is the little gold pin at the top....
Menu
Thursday: Burgers / dogs /easy stuff
Friday: BBQ Theme
Saturday: Chili cook off
Sunday: Surprise us
Head count
Elripster with 3 kids and grandpa
Phulcum plus kid and maybe more kid/wife
Outsane?
BMinSD
CruiserBauers
Hamilt0n
Landcruising
The link below has tons boiler plate info so I won't repeat it all here but do check it out as well as the pics towards the end. I will note that this is completely self supporting / remote camping. Temps can range from 20-75 degF in one day - extra blankets/bags are nice at night.
Link from last year.
The wheeling is not that hard but you want to make sure vehicle maintenance is up to date. Bring 5 gallons of gas unless you have a 60... bring 10.
A note on driving difficulty. Last year my wife met us up there in our 4WD Z71 Suburban (has, and def needed its rear locker). Suffice to say, while the truck had no issues actually getting there, it wears a few battle scars... so anyone trying to gauge the trip can use this as a reference. In general, and 4WD with low range, decent tires, and a little lift will do very well.
We will fishing for trout so if you fish bring trout gear.
Comms: CB 22 or HAM 146.490. If anyone only has FRS we can start out on channel 1
There is no cell service at most of the plateau but I found last year that if you drive to east overlook which is only 20 minutes or so you can get excellent service.
This year we are going to plan the trip around Labor Day vs. early last year's early August dates. The pluses are the extra day off helps and places like Baker Lake will see the minimum levels of bugs vs. July and August. The downside is it gets colder at night. We have been up there over Labor Day before and never had any issues with crowds - it's just too remote.
We will use the same camp spot as last year. It can probably accommodate 50 rigs, is easy to find, and is centrally located making it an easy launch to other places. It's location also seems well shielded from wind vs. Funnel Lake which seems to, well, funnel the wind to max velocity at night.
I am planning the trip from Thursday to Monday to have a camping to drive ratio >1 but expect some will travel Friday which is fine.
Loose itinerary:
Friday: Travel day for some, day trip to check out Funnel Lake. The fishing is typically non-existent but there are some fun and more challenging trails to get there and it makes for a fun place to hang out, drop a line, let the kids run around, etc... It would be a lunch trip. We won't be far from our camp and can return within about an hour. We can swing by the east side to get cell service and check the forum for updates/questions.
Saturday: Baker/Hidden lake for fishing. Note that the fish are most active early morning and late evening and both of these lakes have had lots of fish. In the past we have gotten there mid day and our luck has been spotty. This year we will aim to prep breakfast the night before and get an early start to the lakes. That would have us heading back to camp early afternoon to enjoy an epic B&T dinner. This is much better than trying to hike back to our trucks in the dark, etc... Bring good hiking shoes but also water shoes (large shallow shelf), light weight - easy to carry chair if you have one, and ability pack gear, lunch, etc... it's about a 30-40 minute hike to the lake.
Sunday: TBD. We could return to Funnel or Baker or decide to take on a more epic journey to Green Lake which traverses some excellent almost other-worldly terrain, awesome views, and a bit of 4WD challenge. We can chose to hike down to the lake if we wish or hang on the plateau that over looks it. Or, we want some wheeling challenge, we could take the south loop back to 395 and come back up the Big Pine route (something I have never done before).
Monday: Travel day home.
How to get there..
Google will happily take you all the way to Funnel Lake so just put that into your phone to get to the plateau. The only deviation to make is that about a mile after you make the left onto the plateau (the first fork below), you will make a right turn which will take you over a short hill and drop into the camp site noted by "camp spots" below. If you get the right turn to Funnel, make a u-turn and find the road over the hill.
While this patch of snow on the left will most certainly have melted this year, this is what the hill looks like that you drive over when turning right... That bowl/patch of snow is just to the left of the road to camp.
I so very hope we can get a big turnout. The plateau is amazing and has so much fun potential. In addition to the wheeling, fishing, and hiking there are also mountain biking opportunities.
Please post up if you can go and if you have any menu suggestions so we can continue to crush it at camp food!
Frank
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