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John Kent (COHUHOL) and I ran the Dusy Ershim Trail just before the Labor Day weekend. The trail is located in the Sierras northeast of Fresno. The trail is over 30 miles in length and is noted for plenty of slow rock crawling. The Charles Wells Guide ranks it just below the Fordyce and Rubicon trails in terms of difficulty, but it is also among the top Sierra trails in terms of scenery, good camping and fishing. Our plan was to start from Courtright Reservoir and spend three days and two nights on the trail, camping at Thompson Lake and Ershim Lake then attend the CA4WDC High Sierra Poker Run near Bald Mountain over the Labor Day weekend.
We arrived at Courtright Reservoir from Southern California on Tuesday afternoon, August 31, 2010 and we set up camp at Voyager Campground. We were the only people at the campground.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The next morning, we broke camp and started on the trail. Our goal was to reach Thompson Lake, a distance of about 9 miles. The Fresno 4-Wheel Drive Club has adopted the trail and there is plenty of evidence of the work they have done to maintain the trail:
We stopped for lunch below a granite dome that displays the face of an old bearded man:
It was early afternoon when we reached the bottom of Thompson Hill. It was only about 1.5 miles to Thompson Lake and at the rate that we had been traveling I expected that we would reach our campsite in less than an hour. I was wrong. Thompson Hill is steep and has lots of loose rocks, ruts and holes. I had to stack lots of rocks, got stuck twice and John had to rescue me with his winch. It took us nearly two hours to go the last 1.5 miles. After easily running the Fordyce Trail a couple of week earlier, I was overconfident; but I now had a lot more respect for the Dusy.
We were the only ones camped at Thompson Lake. That night, we relaxed by a campfire:
Continued...
We arrived at Courtright Reservoir from Southern California on Tuesday afternoon, August 31, 2010 and we set up camp at Voyager Campground. We were the only people at the campground.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The next morning, we broke camp and started on the trail. Our goal was to reach Thompson Lake, a distance of about 9 miles. The Fresno 4-Wheel Drive Club has adopted the trail and there is plenty of evidence of the work they have done to maintain the trail:
We stopped for lunch below a granite dome that displays the face of an old bearded man:
It was early afternoon when we reached the bottom of Thompson Hill. It was only about 1.5 miles to Thompson Lake and at the rate that we had been traveling I expected that we would reach our campsite in less than an hour. I was wrong. Thompson Hill is steep and has lots of loose rocks, ruts and holes. I had to stack lots of rocks, got stuck twice and John had to rescue me with his winch. It took us nearly two hours to go the last 1.5 miles. After easily running the Fordyce Trail a couple of week earlier, I was overconfident; but I now had a lot more respect for the Dusy.
We were the only ones camped at Thompson Lake. That night, we relaxed by a campfire:
Continued...
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