Friday morning, Matt and I left San Jose at 7am and met up with Huey in Santa Nella at 8:30. We had a couple of stops to get some last-minute snacks and a campfire permit, so we didn't reach the trailhead until about 1:00pm.
We briefly stopped at
McKinley Grove to snap a few photos of giant sequoia trees along the way. The narrow road from Shaver Lake to Courtright Reservoir winds its way for over 35 miles at an average pace of 30mph, so it's rather tiring. By the time we reached the trailhead we were exhausted.
After a brief stop for a photo-op at a
pullout by the trailhead we locked into low range and drove the relatively easy trail (1.8 mi) to the
Voyager Rock campground where we aired down and ate lunch and checked out the
shoreline of Courtright Reservoir, which by this time of year, was low enough to expose nearly 1/4-mile of shoreline.
With full bellies and flattened tires, we promptly encountered
Chicken Rock , a solid granite face with a nearly
30-degree grade. The hard part about this climb isn't the granite face, it's the pile of loose boulders at the bottom, which are positioned strategically so as to prevent less-capable vehicles from attempting the climb. I'm not sure whether this is intentional (i.e. man-made) or coincidental (i.e. natural).
After about 2 hours of bouncing around loose boulders, we reached Dusy Creek, where it empties into Courtright Reservoir. Tired from the long highway drive and the 2+ hours on the trail, we opted to stop here and set up camp.
The next day, we awoke to cold cloudy skies that threatened of rain, so rather than putter around camp and try to stay warm, we decided to explore further up the trail (in heated comfort), and ran about 2-1/2 hours up, with only a couple of
really difficult spots that required some rock-stacking.
We stopped for lunch along the trail somewhere just south of Thompson Hill (which we never reached) and headed back to camp, for a total of 5 hours of 'wheeling that day (enough for me!)
By dusk, the weather had really cooled off, which made the campfire all the more comforting! While we dined on barbequed chicken and sauteed veggies, it started to lightly rain, then hail, on-and-off, prompting us to stow dry items in the trucks, finish gulping down our food, and retreat into our tents for the night.
After a less-than-comfortable night in my underinsulated sleeping bag, I awoke to find the ground dusted with
snow! At 9am, it was a balmy 32 degrees! Stoke that
campfire Huey!
The previous day we had learned that the low lake level had allowed for use of the shoreline as an
easy way back to Voyager Rock. Although tree stumps and boulders didn't allow for freeway speeds on the shore, we made it back to Voyager Rock in about 20 minutes (instead of 2 hours!)
We finally got off the trail and aired up as the weather worsened. It was snowing steadily by this time, and we were grateful to be coming down from the mountain after a weekend of cold camping, but great 4-wheeling.
All photos here 
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