Warner Mountains Rally - August 2010

DirtyDog

Captain Leisure
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Eugene, Oregon
The Warner Mountains are a little-known set of mountains in the extreme NE corner of California. I have driven through the mountains a few times on my way to other destinations but never really stopped to explore them much. And there is a lot to explore. This range is over 80 miles long and covers a lot of territory. There are numerous lakes, campgrounds, four by four trails, and historical points of interest in the Warner Mountains. Clearly, we need to have a rally here and check this place out! We had 5 trucks show up and spent a long weekend eating great food, indulging in a beer or two and perhaps an occasional shot of whiskey, and did some good backcountry driving. I will now present the evidence to the jury:

On Wednesday I showed up at Lassen Creek campground and met Cort. Lassen Creek is listed on the Forest Service website as having 4 campsites but reality is its a pretty wide open campground that could accomodate up to 5 trucks per "site" and would be a good place for a rally.

The next day on our way to the meeting point at Likely, Cort and I scoped out Plum Valley campground as a possible fallback point in case we found the southern campgrounds full. Long story short, we met XPMarc and Simimike and then discovered that the southern campgrounds were full so we made the hour long trip back north and setup at Plum Valley. So for wanderers planning a Warner Mountain trip - we found that the Lassen Creek and Plum Valley campgrounds were far less crowded than the campgrounds on the north and south end of the mountains.

We got setup at Plum Valley and stayed there for two days of lazy time and good food. Ted joined us Friday. We also had a couple celebrities show up:

John Mcenroe:
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Gandalf conjures up some chicken:
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XPcamper lights up the campground:
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I have to give props to XPMarc for bringing a lot of amazing food to the rally. He has taken camp cooking to the extreme!
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Beef sliders:
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Chicken sliders:
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After two great days of excellent beer and food, we got rolling and did some exploration. First stop was the Obsidian Needles Mine:
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Then it was off for a good bit of backcountry driving on the Lake City Canyon road:
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The road was more challenging than I expected and although we all made it we did have a damaged tire and some acute puckeritis at the bottom. It was a very beuatiful drive though. At the mouth of the canyon in Lake City there is an old grain mill:
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From Lake City we drove north on the highway to Fort Bidwell and then took county road 2 back into the mountains. This is another beautiful drive and for the most part is an easy gravel road with the exception of a narrow section with some ruts near the top. We had planned on camping at Cave Lake Campground but found it to be both tiny and full so we decided to head out the Dismal Swamp Road and find a primitive spot out there. Dismal Swamp isn't very dismal:

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What is dismal is the amount of beetle kill in the area - almost more dead trees than live ones.
 
We found a flat, open spot in the sage and setup camp:
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A shot from atop the XPcamper:
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This turned out to be a great spot with excellent views of the high rolling hills in the Dismal Swamp area. That night we were treated to both a lightning show from a far-off thunder storm, and shooting stars overhead.

Ted living the good life:
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The next day Ted, Marc, and Simimike headed home and Cort and I spent a few hours exploring the Highgrade Trail:
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The Highgrade was probably the most challenging 4x4 road we did on the trip but still well within the capabilities of a truck with a lightweight popup camper.
 
I had a stupendous time and it was great meeting everyone including the quest celebrities. I think that XPMarc, aka Gandalf, should be required to show up at all the rallies so that we can always eat as good and laugh as hard as we did.

Thanks for a great weekend guys and gals.....I look forward to many more beer drinking trips....ahhh I mean camping trips.

Still just Cort
 
It was good to travel with the gang again. Got to meet a some more members and check out the XP Camper. It was a kick to roll into camp Friday and find everyone decked out in the "Ted" edition of the WTW T-shirts. Unfortunately I wasn't wearing mine as I couldn't find which drawer it was in.

DD is a good friend. He went out of his way to make sure I didn't feel like the only person with navigational issues. He took a couple of wrong turns in Fort Bidwell and then led us down a dead end road at Cave Lake just to make me feel better about myself. What a great guy!

Some of my pics:

Fortunately, SuperMike was on this trip to protect the wife and I from any evil - like midnight TP vandels.
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Some of the Obsidian Needles.
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Marc, Toni, and Mike enjoying camp.
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Donna and Cort, sporting their "Ted" WTW shirts, also enjoying camp life.
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Diego living up to the Dirty Dog title.
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DD becoming one with the XP Camper.
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TP Elves struck one night while everyone was sleeping.
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Some areas were a bit overgrown...
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...leading to some new battle wounds to the vehicles.
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It sure was fun to meet a new crowd and had a great time meeting you all.
Thanks Cort for the excellent beer from 6 Rivers and Ted for the fresh herbs used in Gandalf’s Chicken.

The Gang minus Donna and Toni
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Wow, what a great compilation trip report.

Killer locales, gourmet grindage washed down with some tasty beverages and all topped off with some quality hi-jinx. Bravo.

Oh, and were those salmon kababs? Crikey!
 
quality hi-jinx


I woke up one morn to find my door had been duct-taped shut. Everyone is a comedian :LOL:
 
who would possibly think of these things.....TP'ing the XP......I swear it was really windy and I had to go....As far as the Duck Tape goes, I ran for my door as soon as I heard it being pulled off the role.
 

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