200829 – Kavanaugh | Eastern Sierra 4x4 Club

Trip Report

Kavanaugh Ridge

August 29, 2020

Here is a bit of what we did on this months Club Run. 3 of us camped from Wednesday on, another arrived on Thursday and Greg W arrived for Friday night. The campground was actually fairly full, but we were able to still get some great sites. It’s really a great campground.

For the Run itself, we had 10 rigs. A huge thanks to Tom T, who brought the group up from Bishop where we all met @ Whoa Nellie Deli & quickly took off for our meeting place along Virginia Lakes Road. Adjusting to the times, we had a group meeting inside our vehicles and on CB channel 14. All did great and we appreciate adjusting to this way of communicating.

We started up Kavanaugh Ridge a few minutes after 9 am & reached the top a bit before 10 am. And as always the views down onto Hoover Wilderness from our vantage point of 10,935k was wonderful…even thru the smoke of on going Ca. fires.

The trip up to the Ridge was somewhat eventful, due to another group that was ahead of us. To be kind, we will say they were City Dwellers in mostly new & mostly unprepared vehicles…for even this mild trail. A brand new Jeep (NOT a Rubicon) took 3-4 try’s at a modest obstacle and the vehicle behind him was totally unable to skirt the obstacle, even tho he made 10 or so attempts. He was driving a brand new Mercedes Benz of some sort (yes, you read that correctly). I went & asked him (extremely nice fellow btw) if his friends ahead of him were going to come back & give him a hand. He said he hoped so. Our group guided him back down to a safe pull out and we went on up…his ‘group’ had not started down to help yet, but said they would do so soon. We saw the Mercedes still parked at the bottom as we drove down.

Here are some Kudos to our Member Rick D who successfully scooted his Subaru not only past that obstacle, but all the way to the top with absolutely no issues. Good job.

We started back down about 10:30 am and drove over to the Dunderberg Mine area for lunch and some social distance conversations. Again, thank you all for adapting. Most also went down to view the Stamp Mill.

As a group we then went down to 395 via Greencreek Road. Some turned right to head back & some of us went to the Jolly Cone in Bridgeport for a bite to eat.

No problems & no wrench awards. We encourage others to step up & lead our Club on some runs. No experience necessary. Pick an area you would like to visit, do a Pre Run so you are comfortable with directions etc. and give your Club a hand. 😎. We can accommodate more than on Run in a month. Again, no experience is necessary and we could use your help.