400+ mile trip to the Eastern Sierra in a Wagon

[kurtuleas]

Back to camp in the Aspens.

[kurtuleas]

The plan for the next day was to hit up the ghost town of Bodie, and visit another old site called Fletcher in NV. I camped in Fletcher back in 1994 or 95 when i had my YJ with my 4x4 club the kyburz Krawlerz. I don't really be;ieve in ghosts...but lets just say that night was "eventful" If there is a haunted spot.....it's Fletcher. I tell many of my students my "Fletcher ghost story" It's an awesome tale that is kind of long...if you want to hear it one day, you will need to find me with a beer over a campfire.

My sons know the story, and were a little wigged out about going there, but we packed up an took off. The hill going up to Bodie was a PITA with my powerloss from the altitude, but the rig chunked along in 2nd gear...we passed thru Bodie and headed down the old Bodie canyon towards Flecther on a mild 4x4 trail.

an old building on the road past Bodie:



Following Kris







I let Peyton do some driving...

[kurtuleas]

and we made it to Fletcher!







Kris at the Spring there..



Made lunch for the boys.

[kurtuleas]

The pond was more open when I was there in the early 90's. Now its covered with tule weeds. Theres some gorgeous Cottonwoods there too that have to be 200+ years old. the rancher that owns the property tried to raise frogs in the pond for frog legs, and there are still some massive frogs hidden in the pond.



The one structure left



Inside the hut







Birds nest..

[kurtuleas]

behind the wagon is where we camped in the 90's....its way more overgrown now. There's still several old firepits...but it down not look like anyone has camped here for a while. maybe becuase its haunted.





an old stone wall on the western side of the site



The spring goes over the road into the pond

[kurtuleas]

Brady at the spring



We had lunch, walked around and hung out for an hour....then headed back up the canyon.

I have a pic of my buddy rick shooting over this sign from back in the 90's...



I let Logan wheel up the canyon. It's a little unnerving when your 6th grader is driving your rig...



Carvings in some aspens in the canyon.

[kurtuleas]

one of the small bridges was out. (several of them were kind of hairy) So we had to do a bypass...



following Kris up the canyon...

[kurtuleas]

We were about halfway thru the canyon on a fairly steep climb....and my junk just died like it was out of gas.

I could not get it started for the life of me. Kris is a waggy EXPERT....so in the hot sun, covered in dust...we worked and worked and worked on it.

Had spark, had fuel....but could not get it started even on starter fluid.

So here I was, in the middle of NO WHERE, with no backup...way beyond the amount of miles AAA would tow me...and broken down.

Kris pulled out his less than perfect tow strap, and towed me the rest of the way out up to Bodie.

We walked around Bodie for a while, but I really could not enjoy it becuase I was so stressed out. Still....here are some Bodie pics.



Brady was a little wigged out by the carriage hurse...

[kurtuleas]

[kurtuleas]

Part 3 coming soon!

Did Kurt make it home? Was his waggy down for the count? Did they die in Bodie? What was the issue with the rig?

Check back soon and find out!

[Lumpskie]

Great pictures. It looks like it was a really fun trip!

[kris]

Well Kurt, where's the rest of it ?

k.

[kurtuleas]

Ok...I am back.

So here I was all stressed out in the ghost town of Bodie because my junk would not start and we couldnt figure it out..

Even worse, we had to go down a HUGE steep grade into the mono lake basin to get back to camp. I could see myself just burning out my brakes....not being able to stop at the bottom and slamming into Kris's Ford. So I told Kris....let's try to start it ONE MORE TIME. So with starter fluid....take 75....it started.

Left the strap on just in case....and headed back to camp. I REALLY wanted to see the Bodie graveyard on the way out....but still kinda stressed out, I didnt want to turn off my junk.

On the way out of Bodie:



Top of the grade above Mono Lake

[kurtuleas]

At camp, we figured that we would let the wagon cool off before we looked t it.

Took a little hike into the Aspens with the boys and found this:



That my friends is a bear den with fresh bear poop. Maybe 75 yards from our campsite.

The boys in the woods

[kurtuleas]

All the boys on a log:

[kurtuleas]

back in camp.

[kurtuleas]

[kurtuleas]

We finally dug into wagon.

Bottomline: I was vapor locking. The hard fuel line from the pump to the fuel filter was resting on my valve cover and boiling the fuel.

Re-routed it...and I was good.

[Stuka]

Glad you got it figured out. Would love to see a map of the roads you took. Tentatively planning a similar trip later this summer, and that canyon looked awesome.

[Renodemona]

Bodie/Aurora is always worth the trek. I'm only a couple hours north of there