A few friends shared this story with me,as they took a jeep voyage across one of the Sierra's roughest jeep trails some time ago.

The trip started out at Courtright lake and traversed 20 arduos miles to exit at Kaiser Pass.We wallowed our jeeps through mud bogs,sometimes haveing to pull or winch to the other side,then climbed over a boulder the size of a mountain,most likely 1000 ft. high.they were praying alot going up that Granite rock that the tires would not break traction and cause a roll over.

After conquering the Boulder they made their way through more bogs and down fall.They camped about 8 miles into the trip for the night,at a Littte lake by the name of Mallard.TheyI assembled their fishing rigs and tied on a fly,then cast out there in the lake and at the same time the fly hit the water a brook trout hit.

After casting out a few more times and had the same results.These fish were cooked up with onions and potatoes for dinner.

The next morning as they proceeded along they noticed a dry stream bed and it was full of smokie quartz crystal.They loaded about ten pounds of the rock into a jeep and then proceeded the last stretch of the journey.

More boulders and down falls,but no bogs.After reaching the last leg of the journey they had to walk the jeep's across a 300 ft.pile of car sized boulders to get to the end of the trail head.If you know where this area is,it would be a fun experience for you and or your family to hike or take a jeep ride.I would recommend 13 and older for children.

Another great trip into Woodchuck Country as my brother and I pulled into one of my favorite camping spots off the main road.

I was driving my pickup with a cabover camper and he had a tent.

We set up camp and he ptched his tent in a draw,"mistake".

Our wives stayed in camp and we headed out fishing in the San Jouquin River.

Well every thing was going great,until a thunderstorm blew in.We headed for a big conifer too keep dry.That storm must have dumped 2 inches of rain on us with a lot of lightning strikes also.

Anyway we headed back to camp after the storm subsided and when we arrived we had a big surprise waiting.

His tent was half full of water as the creek overflowed it's banks.

I lost my watermellon also and a jug of wine,as they floated off down the creek and probably ended up in the river.

Well we moved his tent to higher ground after we dried it out and had a wonderful weekend without the wine and watermellon anyway.

Don't pitch your tent in a depression is the morrel of this story..