this is the end of the road. graystokes lake. that road looking thing is not really a road.
an overview of the whole trip
so, where to begin...
kris, my trusty co-pilot and i set out for a green area on a backroad mapbook at about 4:30. none of us had any way of knowing what lay ahead. we got lost at least 3 times before 5:45, and being lost on a maze of mountain forrest roads is fun, but counter-productive to MISSION: ADVENTuRE. i'm suprised kris is still my friend, after all the fun but misguided antics that i've dragged him into. project 7 summits comes to mind.
our 1991 4runner. its got the sr5 v6, 5 speed, a back power hatch that opens only 5% of the time, and closes only 2%? in fact, i had resigned myself to having to take the trip with it permanantly open, until it miraculiously closed, possibly never to be opened again? i can tell you this about it though, the 4x4 part works awesomly well.
maybe the road/trail? definately more of a trail. when we finally decided to camp, and i use the term very loosly, and you will soon see why, it was only because after the stream crossing, the road became a trail, full of boulders that only a rock crawling machine could clear...
speaking of rock crawling machines... about 10k off the highway, on what ends up being the Graystokes forestry road, there is a sweet snowmobile cabin that is also used in the summer. it is also used by rednecks with landcruizers with 454 chevy engines and tires at least 5 feet high. and their girlfriends...the redneck's girlfriends, not the jeeps, that was a misplaced modifier i know. anyway, this choice group of the population was using the cabin when we got there, and it was clear that our non-mullet, not O.V. beer drinking and occasional showering ways were not welcome with them. we left to try for the next cabin when they started eating a squirrel, before it was dead.
so about camping. it was difficult to set up the tent in the 20 cm of snow. yup. snow. and lots of it. everywhere. it began as a little slush about 5km up the road, right after i said, "maybe i don't need the 4wd after all". by 7k, it was 5cm deep, and half way up, at the cabin, it was 10. it wasn't falling, it got there before we did. the snow was compltely unexpected. we had tents and were expecting to use them. but the toyota hotel was nice too. except for that rear door issue, the part about it not opening. and if it did open, probably not closing again. glass is a better insulator than no glass. but getting the pallets out of the back was difficult through the side door. yes, i said pallets. for the fire. that was our only redeeming quality in the eyes of the rednecks. so we got the fire going, got soaked wadding through the 20cm of snow to get more wood, but had a ripping fire going until we closed the doors of the truck and passed out. i mean went to sleep. we ate like kings. potatoes cooked in the fire, corn on the cob, potatoes, marinated chicken, gormet sandwiched rescued from a seminar at work in the morning.
in the morning, we had another sweet fire and headed back across the stream to a different road that might let us up. it did. we were not the first ones through the snow, but definately in the top 5. at the top is Graystokes lake. not as cool as i imagined, but pretty cool none the less. we checked out some bullet holes in a brick. that was the highlight of the lake. the map showed a road continuing north past the lake, but it became impassable for all but a redneck after about 500m. the only thing worse than going down a narrow and almost impassable road, is haveng to do it again in reverse. we did a lot of reversing. a lot. in fact, reverse was a proud sponsor of our trip, along with aluminum. our trip would have been a disaster without them.
So... reaching the most accessible top, we had no choice but to go back down the way we came. good thing we had a GPS and a backroad map book, otherwise we'd still be trying to find our way down. we checked out a few side road (on purpose) and ended up at a lot of dead ends, but cool none the less. more reversing too.
when we finally reached the bottom, we had eaten 6 potatoes each, gone through 2 pairs of socks, 4 pallets and 2 small bottles of propane. also 1/2 a tank of gas and travelled just over 125km. not bad for a 21 hour adventure.
i DID take pictures, but since christy was in new orleans with the digital camera, i took film kinda pictures. remember those?? so i have to get them developed.
now i should go clean the truck out, it smells like corned beef.
