Trip report to Kennedy Meadows

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I apologize upfront, I wanted to take a lot of pics but was too busy hanging on.

Went up to Kennedy Meadows on Thursday late afternoon, in the Moho it is a 5 hour drive with a fuel stop (left from Canyon Lake). In a truck 4 hours easy. If you haven't been two wheeling up there, you need to at some point. Riding is not easy, rocks and whoops will beat your arss. The trails are all single track and challenging. I have been riding up there since 1974, so it always feels like home.

My crew arrives Friday morning, my son and his friend show up at 8am (they drove from Phoenix), they left at midnight, good to be young again. 3 more guys showed up around 9am from Corona. We decide to do a 40 mile loop on Friday, needless to say 40 miles up there takes 4 hours with breaks. 6 riders total, perfect. Great day, good riding, daytime temps were around 75 degrees with some overcast.

Saturday, the loop was just a tad over 50 miles. Pretty sure every rider went down at some point, including myself. We are all beat and couldn't ride a third day for sure. I haven't gone to get X-rays yet, but I could have a broken finger and my thumb doesn't feel well as well. Simple fall, just tired and lost the front wheel. All good, but I could be getting a bit old to do this riding anymore, I used to be the best rider in the group and now I am the worst and really struggle at times.

With it being African Hot on the flatlands over the weekend, we saw a high of 75 degrees and yesterday morning when I left it was 41 degrees. A nice change to cool the body temp down. Another great thing about up there, zero cell service, forces you to shut down.
 

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Looks awesome, never been.

 
I freaking love it up there.

I'm guessing you were in 1st gear, all the way up the hill?
 
I freaking love it up there.

I'm guessing you were in 1st gear, all the way up the hill?
Both directions in 1st gear, pretty much an hour up and down. Slow and steady for the drive, Ha
 
Both directions in 1st gear, pretty much an hour up and down. Slow and steady for the drive, Ha

In my gas truck, towing my toy hauler, I had to drop it into low range.

It's a Bitch of a drive, but So worth it.

Where did you guys camp at?
 
very cool. looks like a good number of folks out there living off of the radar. nothing but dirt driveways & simple living.
 
very cool. looks like a good number of folks out there living off of the radar. nothing but dirt driveways & simple living.

It's called the land that time forgot.

No one lives there full time, cause the shut the road down every winter. It's dangerous in the best of conditions! 😱

There is a small air strip I found way back in Monache Meadows, and it's mainly for getting supplies to the forest service peeps. And the occasional emergency.

It's one of the few places you can off road, up in the pine trees though.

They also have a campground designed Exclusively for horse back riders.

👍🏼
 
It's called the land that time forgot.

No one lives there full time, cause the shut the road down every winter. It's dangerous in the best of conditions! 😱

There is a small air strip I found way back in Monache Meadows, and it's mainly for getting supplies to the forest service peeps. And the occasional emergency.

It's one of the few places you can off road, up in the pine trees though.

They also have a campground designed Exclusively for horse back riders.

👍🏼
The Landing strip goes way back into the 1930's I think. They used to fly people from Lone Pine to fish back there. Before they closed the Golden Trout area, very good fly fishing back in the day.

We always used to camp at Troy Meadows Overflow, but it has been closed for years now. So now we camp off Mohagany RD, just past Fish Creek.

Like I said, been going there for 50 years, probably been up there nearly 50 times in my life. The drive isn't hard, just have to take it slow to protect your vehicle and not get in a race. I have driven Pushers (with Enclosed), Gas Moho's, 40' 5th wheels to pick ups up the hill.
 
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