As usual for a camping trip I got a late start.  I left my house at 10:00pm but had to make a quick stop at work so I was actually on the road around 10:30pm.  At nearly 1:00am I found the 3N97 road marker but couldn't remember for sure if that was the correct road so I continued on to Big Pine Flats campground.  The first site was unoccupied and long enough for my truck and trailer so I pulled in just a little too far and broke the air dam off my pickup.  By 1:00 Zander and I were asleep in the camper.  My alarm was set for 7:00am but I woke at 5:00 and it was light out.  We got back in the truck and went over to Ironwood group camp.  Chris and Sharon were asleep in their trailer and Cairo just gave me a look that either meant "welcome" or "do you have any treats".  The turn into the camp was pretty tight for the trailer and I ended up getting a sidewall gash in a trailer tire.  After unloading the Cruiser and disconnecting the trailer I found a nice fairly level spot and setup the camper.

Adelaide, Clint, Frank, Eric's brother and sister-in-law, Mike, Patricia, and Miles showed up around 9:00.  Eric had taken a wrong turn and was a bit behind.  He came barreling into camp and quickly got ready for the trail.  We left camp just about 10:00 and I only made one wrong turn getting to the trail head.  As usual, we found very little trash on White Mountain.  About 5 minutes before we got to the bottom of ½ Mile Hill for lunch, my battery died again.  This time I was a bit more prepared and I strapped my portable jump starter battery to my winch and drove the rest of the way to the lunch stop.  Eric, Chris, and I started looking for the problem which turned out to be the charge wire from the alternator to the battery being pinched between the battery and the winch control box.  The insulation had been rubbed off and the wires were corroded.  Fortunately, Eric had a spare cable.  After replacing the cable and cleaning the connections, everything worked fine.  After lunch, we headed on to Frustration.  We looked at the damage to the bypass and decided to fill in the big holes with rock and dirt.  It won't last through a rain, but with a bit of luck it will last till we get back with a rock breaker to do more permanent repair.

We got back to camp about 5:30 and started up the BBQ Grill.  Zander and Miles took turns riding Zander's big wheel down the steep hill in camp and plowing into the gravel pit.  After dinner I put Eric's spare tire on my trailer (thanks again Eric) so I wouldn't have to deal with it in the morning.  I got the fire lit and we sat around talking until Joe and Addie finally arrived.

Sunday morning we ran Holcomb Creek and everyone had a blast.  Joe managed to get stuck twice and had to drive off a High-Lift jack.  Pretty nerve wracking the first time you do it but no big deal after that.  He also did a structural test of his rock rails.  In any case there was no damage to anyone's vehicle so we'll call it a great day.  One thing we noticed is that White Mountain is far cleaner than Holcomb Creek even though the latter has two adopt-a-trail clubs.

All in all, a great weekend.

PS, I now have a spare tire for my trailer.

Warren "Crash" Sternin