February 1999

Its 6:00 am, February 27th ? A small contingency of Diablo Fours Wheelers plans to assemble for a day of family fun & snow. The location, Bassey Falls, high in the Northern Sierra's and close to the home of the famous Rubicon.

All families are assemble and moving by 6:30 am on route to our first stop, Sly Park, to gas up and last minute checks before heading into Bassey Falls for a day of excitement. Road time to Sly Park progresses fairly quickly, even with a Cruiser that can only maintain 45 mph on the steep hills (remember this fact for later).

We're not the only ones heading north today, Steve is contacted by a fellow 4x4'er on the way up to meet with the Tahoe Hi-Low's that are assembling for a run at Iron Mountain.

We arrive at Sly Park at about 8:30 am to top off the tanks, last minute checks, and a talk with some of those that are assembling for the Tahoe Hi-Low run. ? A last minute change of plans, we are thinking the more the merrier and head off to Iron Mountain.

It's about 9:00 am and we discover that the road heading into Iron Mountain is close for servicing. No problem here, we go back to the original plans of heading to Bassey Falls.

We arrive at the Bassey Falls trail entrance short time later and the weather looks to be great for wheeling in the snow today: warm and sunny. Another 4x4'er is parked at the Bassey Falls trail head, waiting to possibility joining a group heading in. Guess we meet those requirements, and invited him to join us ? beside he seemed to have the best knowledge of the trails into Bassey Falls.

The excitement is overflowing, fresh Powder, the kids are having a good time going crazy in the snow and we're ready to head in. Mark is the first to break trail, the kids are to excited still and require more time in the snow so they are walking, running, jumping, all those things that kids do in the snow as we begin our descent into Bassey Falls.

It's not long before we arrive at a choice, take the high road, or take the low road?

We briefly travel the high road before deciding to turn around and head for the lower, and supposedly the easier of trails into Bassey Falls.

Our first break was provided by our new leader, Steve, whom unexpectedly found a rather deep pot hole, or was this the beginning of a well (we're not sure).

With the technical expertise at hand Steve is out and trail breaking within a short time.

We're progressing well and conquering minor trail challenges before young Ben decides to out do Dad with the Walker Hill wheel lift.

Not sure if Brian thought is was such a great position from the passenger point of view, as when I approached

Brian was heading for the driver side of the rig. Thanks to Ben's marking of pot hole #2, Mark and all others that are following are able to avoid the Walker Hill wheel lift excitement.

Time for lunch, the kids are hungry and need some play time in the snow and the adults are a bit weary from the challenges of the trail. The kids are having a good time playing in the snow, Steve has fired up his camp stove for hot soup, coco, coffee and discussions of the recent events.

Bad news, the batteries in the camera are dead, the last picture shows the depth of the trail we have been breaking, but other photo events will not be capture for today.

Everyone's rested, feed and Steve thinks it might be a good time to turn back? But Mark and Troyce are having to much fun and convince Steve to let them lead for about another hour before heading back. We haven't made Bassey falls yet and hope that after two more difficult areas of breaking trail we will reach Bassey Falls. Troyce is now doing the trail breaking, which provides a bit of entertainment for everyone as the path chosen provides several 30 degree or better off-camber sections. But not to worry, even for a first timer like Troyce, the off-camber situation provided a snow bank to ride along (would have been a great photo).

We have made it to a small creek and start heading up a rocky path when it's decided to head back. Don't want to be on the trail at dusk if possible. Being that the trail has been brazed, one would think that the return trip back should be fairly uneventful (with the exception of a now steep hill that winching may be needed). As it turned out, the trip back was just as exciting, as the one heading into Bassey Falls was. We begin with Mark's ignition problem that after several attempts to correct the problem resulted in the decision to start towing Mark's rig and resolved the problem once we were off the trail. All were progressing well until the ? hill. Steve made several bold attempts to scale its steep and slick hillside when the winch was put into service. After we got Steve to the top he provided the assistance to the others trailing in scaling the hillside. But waiting, good news, while we were busy getting some of the rigs up the hillside, Brian and Mark resolved his ignition problems and Mark is running on his own power again.

Once beyond the steep hillside the remainder of the return trip from the Bassey Falls was uneventful and all returned to the trail head to air up and return back to Sly Park for the return home. Well, also uneventful, on the way back to highway Troyce's cruiser developed a slight acceleration problem, one that required the replacement of the throttle cable (at least it was dry, a bit cold, and only slightly dark). But again with the great technical resources of Brian, Steve and Mark a new throttle cable was manufactured. Remember how I stated the Cruiser was able to only maintain 45mph on the steep grades, well after the road side repair of the throttle cable new power was discovered and the Cruiser was no longer lagging, but leading the pack up the steep grades.

It's about 8:00pm, and we're back at Sly Park to top off the tanks and some of us are gathering for pizza nearby. All in all, everyone had a great time, the challenges Bassey Falls trail provided were fun and non-destructive to all attending rigs. The kids had a good time playing in the snow, just another great family outing?