Fool-size Overland Trip: Tamarack Lake in Shasta-Trinity National Forest

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tjZ06

tjZ06

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This last Sunday a friend and I headed out to explore Tamarack Lake in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and camp for one quick night. We hadn't been up there, and actually just took or tow-pigs. I was in my '11 Chevy Silverado 2500 (Duramax/Allison) and he was in his '06 RAM 2500 Megacab. Both are 4x4, and both are lifted with 35x12.5-18" tires. Most of the drive was freeway, to a winding paved forest road, then a few miles of basic dirt/gravel, and finally the last ~2 miles are very rocky and tight (at least, tight for the fool-sizes). I wouldn't call the trail serious rock crawling or anything, but it was more than I had planned to do with my tow-pig (we have a 5th wheel Toy Hauler for our "other" camping trips).

We certainly got some funny looks Sunday by the Jeep groups heading out as we were heading in to Tamarack. That said, up until those last ~2 miles there was a Chevy Cruze following us up... seriously. He definitely got further with it than I'd want to try if I owned it. The section he did wasn't "tough" but had random decent sized rocks here and there which easily could have taken out an engine oil or trans pan. At least he had the good sense to park it when it really got interesting and walk into the Lake with his Son (I assume), then walk back out and turn around.

There was only one section where we spotted for each other, just to be safe, and the big trucks did great. As usual I failed to get any pics at the "interesting parts" since we were paying more attention to the trail, but here are a few...

As usual, I way over-packed for 1 person for 1 night:
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Windshield shot on our way out once we were back on pavement:
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I think this was on the way in, before we hit dirt:
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And a few pics I tried to grab on the rockier parts, but they don't really do it justice:
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-TJ
 
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tjZ06

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tjZ06

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Some pics at camp, I am a horrible photog...

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All-in-all it was a great trip, but there was one disappointing aspect. Like I mentioned the trail is hard enough that it keeps your average camper with an AWD crossover or something out. The 2 groups we saw leaving as we came in (we came in on Sunday) were both more "wheelers" than Overlanders. One group was 2 very built XJs with Exos and such with younger folks, and the 2nd was 2 rigs with 1 very built LJ and one slightly more mild LJ that looked more like 2 families.

When I was young I would have been the young-looking group in 2 beat, but over-built XJs, so I don't want to ASSume anything. Either way, ONE of the groups was shameful. When we got to our camp spot I was instantly dismayed to see that one of the fire-rings (these are just camper-built rock rings, not "official" rings placed by the forest service) was full of toilet paper and tampon wrappers, and some of the TP was clearly bloody so you can imagine what was wrapped up in it. The group had obviously used a different fire ring, which at least had been properly doused but there were little bits of trash all over. Nothing big, but lots of beer bottle caps (Bud Light... I mean, c'mon), the little plastic things from a loaf of bread, smaller bits of bags (like the corner of a chip bag you rip off when you open it) etc. It was really sad. On top of that, they had cut down part of a still-living tree (the tree "Y'ed" at it's base, they took down the smaller half of the Y... probably 10-12" around with many branches and pretty tall) and rounded it out for their firewood. You'll notice in my pics above I brought firewood in because the descriptions I found of the camp site said wood was scarce. Truth-be-told, there were plenty of dead/downed trees a person could have collected wood from, it just would have taken more work (most of it was a bit around the lake where the tail doesn't go, so you'd have to round out the downed trees then carry rounds back to camp).

We did our best to clean up all their stuff, which wasn't the most fun... but obviously it was the right thing to do. I just don't understand how any "enthusiast" could think leaving a site like that or taking down a big part of a live tree is okay. I wish we would have seen the condition of the site BEFORE we came across the campers...

-TJ
 
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persquank

persquank

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The pictures you did get are very nice. Looks like it was a fun trip.
 
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samsara

samsara

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gotta admit, the silverado is the better looking of the two
 
Big G

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Looks like a great trip and place to camp. Too bad people have to act like that though.
 
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