How would you rate difficulty of the trails? I'll need to review some of my materials as well to see if I can answer my own question.
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"huck271" wrote: Last year when I did the Dusy Ershim I noticed in one of my books that there are 5 trails within a stone's throw. I am looking at running those 5 trails in the same 3-4 day span since they are all close to each other.

The details of the trails are below..

Bald Mountain – 9.2 miles total – Loop
Swamp Lake – 13.4 miles total - Across
Coyote Lake – 3.8 miles 7.6 total – In & Out
Mirror/ Strawberry Lake – 1.4 / 1.7 miles 6 total - In & Out
Spanish Lake – 5.3 miles 10.6 total - In & Out

Day 1 – Spanish Lake In & Out/ Swamp Lake Camp half way 17 Miles Off-road/20 Miles On Road
Day 2 – Swamp Lake Out / Bald Mountain 16.5 Miles Off-road/ 10 Miles On Road
Day 3 – Mirror Lake/ Strawberry Lake/ Coyote Lake - Home 13.6 Miles Off-road/ 10 Miles On Road
Day 4 - Home (extra time if needed)

We would camp on the trail and depending upon who comes we could strategically plan meals/food.
I'm thinking July. If the pace is too much we can take the fourth day.

Huck

That time span might be a tad ambitious. I've run all the Shaver area trails mutiple times except Blue Canyon and Spanish.
Spanish trailhead is about the same drive time as the S. Dusy trailhead...6hrs for me.
Swamp can be run in a day but is more enjoyable with 2...best camping at the top of the first ridge (south entrance)...turn left @ the bench for lots of great camp sites. Pick up firewood on the way up as there is very little at the top. good fishing at 2 lakes w/in walking distance of the ridge.
If you run it from S. to N. and have a couple hrs to kill head to Brewer Lk...the last 100yds to the Lk is extremely challenging 😉

Bald Mt is a fun place to kill a day as there is a whole lot more than the loop what shows on the maps...side trails, granite slabs, hill climbs, crazy off-camber side-hills, etc.

Blue Canyon/Bretz campground is to the southwest of Bald and offers fun stuff for stock rigs
http://forum.ih8mud.com/trails-events-e ... 012-a.html

The Sand Flat trailhead (Red Lk trails) can make a good base camp for running Red/Coyote, Mirror; West, Strawberry Lks
Mirror is a great in/out trail with lunch at the lake. Fishing is the best of all the lakes in the area. Nice camp sites but only 3-4 of them. I would NOT take a stock rig on this trail!! The warning sign at the top of the hill is not a joke.
West Lk trail is NOT recommended for full-size rigs...very tight turns!
Strawberry is a great stock trail.
Red lk is a fun, challenging trail for stock rigs...with sliders!
Coyote (from Sand Flats) is about 4hrs one way and not recommended for stock rigs. Camping there is awesome and the fishing is decent. last obstacle before the lake can be very interesting for long WB rigs 😉

Rock Creek Road makes a good place to base camp for large groups...dozens of turn-offs for camping and is close to all trailheads.
There are miles of other trails and old logging roads in this area...some show up on maps, some don't...that can be fun to explore. Be careful following your GPS...can get you very lost, very quickly :p

I recommend rock sliders and undercarriage armor for most all of these trails. W/O sliders you will get some rocker damage, even on Strawberry
Mirror---33s and at least one locker and winch...2 lockers is better (Think Fordyce for the one main obstacle)
Swamp---33s and at least one locker
Coyote---33s and a locker
West---stock
Brewer---stock until the last 1/2 mile...35s, lockers, armor for the last 100yds
Strawberry---stock + sliders
Bald Mt---stock to full cage buggies depending on which obstacles you want to try. any 4x4 SUV can get to the observation point from the north entrance (Tamarack Ridge)

Shaver Lk has all the needed resupply as well as a Napa that caters to wheelers.

I keep in contact with Big Ed from the Fresno group http://www.4wdcfresno.net/ on when trails open but you can keep checking their site for info.

I'll be in the area this Sat-Wed so will have a good idea where things should be opening up. My guess at this time based on info from friends who are up there now is that by mid July all trails will be open this year...possibly sooner.

I plan on running something up there this July

"huck271" wrote: This is some great information. I definitely want to do Swamp Lake and at least 2 or 3 of the other trails. Several of the "lake" trails are only a mile or two long so a few of them could be done in the same day or two.

Depending on who is coming we will have a "pre-run" meeting to discuss which trails and in which order.

Huck

Coyote Lk trail has a 'gatekeeper' at the end of Red Lk; if you can get up that you can make the rest of the trail.
Mirror Lk...unless your rig is very well set up it is best to walk down the 100yds from the warning sign and check out the rock/tree obstacle at the bottom of the hill. This spot got easier sometime after '02...a huge rock was moved...but is still tricky. Trucks with toppers not recommended...unless you don't care about the topper :p
pics from '02 (if you can access them :p)
http://www.norcalttora.com/~chris/wheel ... Lk%209-02/
Hollywood hill (Bald Mt side trail)
http://www.ttora.com/~ccorley/wheelin%2 ... lBaldMt09/

"BKGM Jeepers" wrote: Thanks Chris for posting those pictures. Both spots look like fun.

The whole area is a blast. heck, each time I've been to Bald I've found something else to play on :p

just do some youtube searches for each of the lake trails...lots of pics and vids out there.

All shaver trails are open except Dusy, Swamp and Spanish

yes but not easily so expect a work out 😀 I watched a Chebby about the same size as your rig blow a driveline near Swamp Lk the last time we were there...his buddy had to drive out and get him a new one...made for a long day :p
Dusy has more tight spots then swamp but is also "doable"

"Wh1t3Nukle" wrote: I was under the impression that Swamp does not have as tight a trees compared to Dusy. I guess that is my main question. 😀

correct. If you are over 83" rubber to rubber you'll have issues in a few tree and/or tree/rock spots on Dusy. Full size rigs can make Dusy but it is a real workout for both rig and driver. and...you have to expect some damage.
contact BigEd on Pirate for best info on larger rigs running Dusy. He's with the Fresno club and runs an old International monster truck through the trails :p
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/members/ ... yed67.html

So, all trails except Dusy are now open
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/sierra/ho ... rdb5315989

anybody heading up there this month?