By Robert LaMont

You can never predict traffic. As emphatic as I was about everyone being on time, I myself was 10 minutes late to Tiffany's. Jorge and his daughter, along with Bill and Sue Baker, were on time and waiting. We grabbed a quick bite and waited for anyone else who might be late. The drive from there was uneventful, until we got to the top of 9-mile canyon. Only 13 miles to camp, when Bill and Sue's transmission started telling them "If you go any further, you are going to be sorry." This was to be Bill and Sue's first Dirt Devil outing and they ended up turning around and nursing their CJ7 all the way home, arriving about 5:00 a.m. 

Jorge and I got to camp about Midnight, to find we were the last ones to get here. Lee and Sheila, John Bender and his son, Dean and Beth, Tom Benight and Walt had all arrived earlier and had camp all set up. Sleeping that night proved difficult for some, as the temperature went down into the high 20's. When the sun came up the next morning though, it warmed up fast and promised to be beautiful day. After a leisurely breakfast, we loaded up the rigs and headed for Monache Meadows. 

A quick stop at the General Store to stock our coolers and a little longer stop at the Ranger's Welcome Station to ask questions and get some maps, and we hit the dirt. The drive into the meadows was beautiful and serene. We stopped for lunch where the trail crosses the south fork of the Kern River. A few people threw in a line and I believe a couple fish were caught; nothing big enough to keep though. After lunch we explored some of the other trails that lead into the meadow, but all of them were closed at the wilderness boundary. We did find a nice place to camp though if we ever want to plan a trip there. The next day we hit Sherman Pass. It started out with a very steep and loose up-hill climb that proved difficult for some of us with carbureted vehicles. There were a few small rock gardens and we almost even made some first tracks in a little snow. It turned out the trail had just been opened the day before.